Spring!

After months of taking pictures of the forest in dull shades of brown - lifeless empty trees (this year with most of them actually having fallen over and really dead) it feels like summer is just around the corner. The bluebells have gone mad and the trees are jumping into the spaces left from the storms.

Bang!

So playing with my new camera (a lovely 5Dmk3) lots, and while it's full frame, great at low light and has some great functionality when used with the eye-fi card it's frame rate/buffer is terrible compared to the 7D.

This made me even more chuffed about this shot of a civil war re-enactment at Arundel Castle (05/04/2014):

150mm, F2.8, 1/320s

Thankfully at re-enactment things then tend to shout "SHOOT" just before firing, which is handy.

	7D	5D	Difference
Megapixels	18	22.1	+23%
Frame Rate	8	6	-25%
Buffer	25	7*	-72%

Basically when it comes to sports photography the 7D trumps the 5D, plus the cropped sensor will give you a greater zoom on lenses.

The 5D is still clearly the better camera, but for lots of my day to day photography I'm preferring the7D. If the lights still good it's almost better in every aspect.

*UPDATE: After helpful links being sent my way I've tested out the 5D set to only record to a single card, and that gets the 7 buffer up to 12! For the convenience of using the Eye-Fi Card I won't be doing that though, for anything speedy I'll still reach for my trusty old 7D.

BlackRapid

So I've just splashed out on some new camera straps - I'd had enough trying to swing two cameras around at once using a belt clip (which works really well) and a normal shoulder strap. It's tricky trying to keep a camera from swinging off shoulder when using another... and when you're hands are full it's near impossible to catch.

Anyway, enough with the excuses.

Not me.

So yes, you might notice thats not me in the photo. Theres good reason: The thing you noticed before noticing it wasn't me was that he looks like a twat. So I haven't taken a photo of myself to upload. I'm not planning to wear it to social events and I think you're allowed to look like a massive nerd when the photographer at a wedding.

And you will look like a massive nerd regardless how much manly stubble and styled hair you have.

I'll be back with a review at some point.

Just one note to BR - given the straps cost so much (don't tell the wife), can you not afford better camera for the promo shots? The guy on the box is holding an old EOS1 film camera (weirdly coupled with a 50mm F1.2).

Do you miss blue skies?

So the weather has been pretty bad recently, for yonks infact. The constant drizzle was starting to get me down, but then I realised there's a place you can go for your blue sky fix!

Estate agents! Adding (badly in most cases) in blue skies in seems to be contagious! Buy any of these houses and it's sure not to rain.

Now what I really like is that in several picture you can still see puddles, presumably they cloned out each rain drop from the still.

If you've found any terrible Photoshop work that upsets you please share! 

For a slightly more realistic view, here's a picture from a dog walk a few weeks back.

Spot the Difference

OK, this shouldn't be too hard for you.

So you really don't want to be the guy who takes a crap picture and fixes it afterwards, it's always better to try and frame your picture without clutter in the background. Sometimes it just happens, or it's unavoidable... then you can see about removing things.

It's honestly not that hard, as long as you have a small patch of the area you want you can clone it all better. Just try to keep in mind don't copy whole sections, do little bits and try to mix up the pattern.

For bits like the red tractor, cut that shape out and place it on top of the layer you're cloning.

If you do it well your eye shouldn't be drawn to it, so sometimes the less work the better... sometimes it feels like a scene from Father Ted. If that happens start with a new car, re-open the file or jump back in the history.

Cheap Photography

Well it's cheap because I used what was to hand, it's more cheap in terms of amount of effort.

You'll need a Macro lens, remote flash, SLR and item to photograph.

I picked a crocheted rabbit which B made for me, the fluff on the edges hi-lights the flash.

Yorkshire Waterfalls!

So on Friday some of us were heading to the Peak District for climbing, but I decided to leave earlier and nip past the Yorkshire Dales to hunt down some waterfalls... Having set off at 9am I wasn't at Richmond till 1530, but that wasn't a huge problem as the light was still too bright for slow shutter speeds.

I built a Google map list of waterfalls I wanted to track down and I did my best to manage as many as possible in a short time.

Richmond Falls was a bit of a wash out, very impressive to look at but darn near impossible to photograph at 1530/1600 on a summer's day. Only when zoomed in could I reduce the shutter speed enough.Ooooh this would be a good time for an expensive dark filter!

F36 1/3s 63mm

But while I like this picture, it doesn't help show the mighty nature of the waterfall! Which is impressively wide, although short.

F22 1/3 15mm

It goes out to that wall too, but the only rocks to stand on in front were too far away for a good photo. I also made it out to that wall on the right of the picture, but it's impossible to see the main fall there.

Anyway, so mindful of time i raced back up the hill and jumped back in the car and headed on to Orgate Force (that's not my picture). But honestly, I couldn't find it - well more to the point I couldn't find anywhere of parking the car within a few miles so after a while of trying to walk up stream... So I cut my losses and went on to a place with no name. Where I found these:

 After this I went for a walk down stream in search of the next, and while I could hear one I couldn't find a way down to it... which bummed me out a little. But I found myself in a field full of rabbits, which was good too.

I'll most definitely be going back, I only managed a fraction of my list as they take a surprisingly long time to track down, frame up and then photograph. It clearly needs to be at least a week, but I'm not sure Bex could be dragged around Yorkshire for a whole week of my hobby.

How to make a silhouette

OK really simple post, normally I just Google image search for a silhouette when I'm after one. For example we recently had a murder mystery night for which I made the place names:

Now these were really easy and Google images returned great samples to use, but it's really easy to turn a standard image to a silhouette... and here's how.

1. Open a stock image, remember you'll loose detail so you want one where the shape is clearly defined.

2. Select around the image - here I've just used a combination of the magic wand + select tool to remove the background. You don't need to remove the background but it's easier to see whats going on.

3. With the selection in place, get the brush tool out set it massive + black, paint and you're done.

The feet were a little tricky because the bird was on a branch, but you can edit that however you like. You don't need to use Photoshop, but the layers make it easy.

But should you want a pigeon silhouette, feel free to use this one

p.s. Not that I'm condoning this, but if somebody had water marked a stock silhouette this also works very well to remove a watermark, as you select the shape and just fill it in yourself.

Photo Project 1, 24. Traditional or Lifestyle

Lifestyle? Well I thought about picturing my other half, she runs her penny saving themed blog and regularly returns with items she's reclaimed from charity shops and the like, but this seemed a little too obvious.

How about feeding pigs wearing black tie? Seems like a lifestyle choice to me.

The only change from the original was saturating the colours.

This picture is of a gentleman referred to as Mutley, who was hosting a wedding reception on his farm – naturally the pigs still need feeding regardless of attire. The wedding was of the lovely couple Kate &Rob Crothers. 

Photo Project 1, 20. Self Portrait

I've got a feeling this has been covered off before in a post about the 10 Second Challenge - basically you set the timer on the camera and run to be in shot, some of the mores tricky locations for this were on the end of the Grand Canyon or on top of the Death Valley sign (the silly footwear was on account of American Airlines deciding to send my shoes (and rest of clothes) on a tour of the states without me).

Also on that previous post was me staying very still in a river... well I've taken that picture and added it to a few more to make a panoramic.

Photo Project 1, 19. Light and Dark

Light and dark meaning Silhouettes?

Photo Project 1, 18. Texture or Pattern

Its a pattern, amazingly complicated... and normally dogs don't stay still enough to notice this detail. Luckily for me Jazz was fast asleep at the time.

Photo Project 1, 17. Mirror or Window

Well out the window it was pretty rainy, sadly the view out of our windows is onto an office car park... which is only entertaining when it's covered in snow.



So instead I have a pirate getting rained on.

Photo Project 1, 16. Pastel Palette

Pastels remind me of excel 2003's colour choice... but not wanting to put a graph up here is a flower which went through some effects to make like a comic book page.

Photo Project 1, 15. Sunlight

Sunlight, honestly?! Oh I'm loosing my rag with this project.

F13 1/250 ISO100 @ 34mm on a 400D with polarising filter.

This is possibly my favourite photo of all time (that I've taken anyway), it was taken on my old camera with what I'd class as a 'knock about' lens now... but it goes to show that being in the right place at the right time is often more important than the gear you have on you. The best camera for the job is the one you have with you... and other such expressions.

Infact I like this picture so much we have a variation of it printed on canvas and hung in the living room.

Photo Project 1, 14. Faceless Portrait

This is easy... B loves to hide behind things.

Enjoying last autumn (2011) in a national trust garden.

 Or here's me playing with a home-made light ring idea I had...

It looked a little like this:

It’s quite simple to do, just buy some cheap LED lights from Ikea and poke them through a piece of cardboard in a shape of your choosing, then cut a hole the right diameter for your lens of choice. While interesting to try, it's not really sensible outside the house.

Photo Project 1, 13 Mother Nature

Again, I picked this photo project because it was suitably vague and girly enough to present a challenge. Mother Nature could surely be nearly anything?! Well I'm guessing we're supposed to go down the weather route, and I don't enjoy photographing in the rain. So here is some water hitting a rock instead.

This actually turned into quite an expensive shot to get, a that tide of water coming in hit my tripod... and it's never been quite the same since it got salty water on it.

Photo Project 1, 12 Favourite Colour

Hmm... I'm sure I change my mind every time somebody asks me what my favourite colour is, normally it's orange.

This picture was taken at the Eden project, at F10, 1/200sec. ISO100 on a F2.8 100m Macro Lens. It's rare I go as high as F10, but here it was important to keep the depth of field, and it was a very sunny day.

Simple colour filter applied to the orange.

Colours and blacks tweaked a little to add a little more drama.

Photo Project 1, 11. Ordinary Beauty

OKAY... maybe this is just my translation, but this post has the possibility to get me into a lot of trouble!

What does 'ordinary' mean to you?? I'm taking it as "not different or special or unexpected in any way"  Which isn't exactly faltering!


Well to avoid any problems with ordinary ladies, here are a couple of picture of the other lady in my life, Gladys. She's a Gladius 650 Suzuki I bought for myself as my 24th birthday present. She's definitely ordinary, looking identical to THOUSANDS of others which came off the production line in the same period.

F2 1/50sec. ISO-1600 taken with a F1.8 50mm prime on an old 400D, the poor low light performance of a 400D required some tweaking to smooth the grainy'ness.

F3.5 15sec. ISO 100 18mm - taken on an old 400D with a sturdy Tripod.

Using just street lights you can get some very powerful shadows if you're prepared to wait for a long exposure.

Photo Project 1, 10. Fur

Well fur was always going to be a pet related post...

Here is Jazz, she's a collie who loves to play... to get a good picture of her staying still it requires a good 20minute run before she'll consider posing. Even then I only got a couple of shots before she came to lick the camera some more.

If there wasn't quite enough fluff on Jazz's fur then this is Princess Lilly, she looks cute but harbours the mind of a twisted criminal villain. Again, not a pet to stay still for long... stretching was a weirdly still pose!

If you want to take a 'good' pet picture try these simple tips:

• Most importantly, get down to eye level. It sounds simple, but it makes such a difference.
• If you can manage this without them licking the camera or running towards you you're on to a winning shot
• Keep backgrounds neutral (unlike Lilly pictured above).
• Keep the rule of thirds.
• Rule of thirds on Wikipedia
• Don't use the flash, certainty not a direct flash.
• To keep the shutter speed fast use a bright sunlight, not backlit obliviously.