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.

Photo Project 1, 9. In the Kitchen

B regularly has me on call to take pictures of her culinary delights, which she then uses on her blog... so again this was an easy one to source an image for.

F5 1/60 sec. ISO 1600 at 38mm on a 15-85mm + Speedlite.

I love the colour on this picture, it's a bit like that vomit of colour you get from HDR photography... but it's all berry red. This cheesecake did not last long.

And if anyone thought it'd been a while since I posted a coffee related picture:

F2.8 1/00 sec. ISO 100 on a 100mm Canon Macro + Speedlite.

I had this as a wallpaper for a long time, but it led to me wanting to drink too much coffee.

Photo Project 1, 8. Perspective

Perspective... Well the 'weirdest' shots of perspective are normally photo-stitched jobs.

This is a 360 degree view from Hoover Dam taken summer 2011... because of the perspective it looks like the road on the dam is a straight line on the right and also behind the picture going off to the left.

Photo Project 1, 7. Holding an Object

Well rings are held to ones hand with a finger aren't they? Well that's tenuous enough for me!

I've got lots of picture of rings on fingers, but this is a little more special to me... This finger and ring combo happen to belong to my other half, who is now referred to as my wife to be. I'm not allowed to use the F word.

Photo Project 1, 6. Floral

Flowers? Easy!

F2.8 1/800 Sec. ISO100 100m Macro and loads of sunlight on a good summer's day.

Boom.

Photo Project 1, 5 Shades of White

Really lost interest with this one... any B+W picture is surely shades of white, there was a lot of snow a few weeks ago and I got a bit carried away trying to capture it melting... but it was hard to work into a single picture.

 

So here's a simple picture of lots of white, which has shades. (From left to right) My brother, our Dad and myself up a mountain skiing for my brother's stag do back in January.

This was a rare chance to get a photo in-between blizzards! And the 10second timer was a real challenge, as I refused to take my skis off.

Oh, and heres a prettier landscape picture from the same trip... looking down on the valley as we descended down the windy road in the French taxi with so many flashing warning lights it looked like the Vegas strip (including the ABS). Anyway, photography came up as a subject of conversation and he pulled over for me to take this shot.