Miserable weather today
The picture below wasn't taken today but you get the point. Bad weather should not necessarily stop you going out and taking pictures. I was about 20m out from shore with my tripod legs sat in the water, my boots soaking wet and the spray from the waves constantly forming water drops on the front of the lens.
HUGE Cairngorms panorama
It's amazing what you can do with photo software these days. This picture of the Cairngorm mountains taken last year is 15 (if I remember correctly!) individual pictures seamlessly stitched together in Photoshop CS5 with the touch of a button. Ansel Adams would have loved this technology, something he was always on top of. The hard part, yes there was a hard part, was trekking half way up a suitable hillside with a clear enough view of the mountains as the sun started to dip and then finding my way back down in near darkness. Taken with a 5D MK2 and 70-200mm lens (using the long lens meant I avoided any parallax too) the final RAW output (far too large for TIFF's) was something like 500MB! Just imagine how big you could print stuff like this! I'm heading up to this area again in March and hope to get some nice landscape stuff done.
Linking Blog to Flickr
Just learned you can link your blog to your Flickr account. In fact, this post is written on a Flickr entry albeit without the template stuff you get on Blogger. Will be handy in future. Here's a picture from the student protests that took place in Edinburgh a few months ago, like the bridge background in this. The preview pic is low quality though using this method and when you click it takes you through to my Flickr account.
Homework promo shots
I was asked recently by a friend of mine to do some promo shots of his band. Homework, who are fronted by Oliver Kass are earning recognition as one of Scotland's next top bands having already played at T in the Park. The band members are all excellent musicians in their own right and are beginning to forge their careers in the music industry having all studied at Napier University (or Edinburgh Napier as it's now called!). The photos are part of Oliver's efforts to promote the band on several fronts as they prepare to release their debut album. We were lucky enough to have access to Camera Obscura in Edinburgh for a few hours and had fun checking out all of the weird optical illusions, thanks to the folks there for allowing us access.
No photoshop involved: the first picture is taken in a room where one end slopes away and down a few feet to give a funny shrinking/gigantic effect. The second picture is taken on a walkway that has a revolving drum of lights around it kind of like being inside a washing machine, the first time you walk across that thing you feel sick! After a while you get used to it, but well worth a visit just for that.
Spot of mountain biking today
Went up Kemback Woods in Fife today to take some snaps of a few mountain bikers I know. I had two flashes with me wrapped in plastic in case it really started tipping down but the weather stayed fair. The majority of biking photos play on a few techniques, either the action is caught super sharp (best with short flash duration strobes) or you can give your background a bit of a blur with a slower shutter and perhaps some second-curtain sync.
Unfortunately, most of my photos from today came out a bit OOF and it's because I wasn't tracking the rider before I took a picture (low light conditions playing havoc too). I don't photograph much action or sports. That's now been put in the memory bank. Though I was quite happy with the last couple of pics I took considering this is new to me, just felt like I was starting to get into it. 1/40th, F4, ISO 160, 580ex camera right up high and 430ex camera left down low to give catchlight. Those eyes are sharp!
It's important not to flash riders head on or too strongly as well, for safety. I would say that in biking photos the most important things are getting good catchlights which can be difficult. Also trying to convey speed is important, though if you can freeze the action too this is good for capturing the rider in a pose when cornering or mid-jump for instance. Super wide-angle lenses are useful here too. Another thing I learned is that having a fast camera is not always too your advantage, at best you can fire off about 2/3 flashes in a row at quarter power. Though if it was any more I think the riders might be having a word with you!
