Miscellaneous
Seagull and sail boat
Thu Aug 2nd - 6:13pm
Seems like I've been sat at this computer for weeks, doing prints and then re-doing them, over and over and over again. Upgrading to Vista and a backlit screen was a great move in some ways, but it also means I need to approach my workflow for prints very differently. I'm only just getting the hang of it.
So I'm sitting here this afternoon, bored and gazing out of the window, wondering how it would look if I went and took a picture of this big tuft of grass with a flash behind it. Then a seagull landed on the only rock that stays above the water at high tide, so I went and took a picture of him instead.
I wanted to get a shot of the gull as he flew off but he decided to turn around and fly away from me. But then a sail boat arrived, presumably the same one I saw at 4am this morning. If anyone knows who the owner is then drop me a line so I can send them a copy of the picture.
Both shots were done with a Canon 1D and 300mm lens with 1.4x extender. You can click either picture to view a larger version.
Strobist Lighting 102: Cooking Light (part 2)
Sun Jul 29th - 6:32pm
Here's my next attempt at the Cooking Light challenge. I tried a few objects such as an egg cup, glass and a knife but I'm getting bored of that same old "macro studio" look that we're being bombarded with every day. So instead I tried to create an image with a grander sense of scale.
If you're not familiar with the ultra-simple ethos of Strobist techniques then take a minute to think about how that image could have been made, then click here for the set-up shot. And don't forget to have a look at the discussion thread on Flickr to see all of the other photos. There is some amazing work being produced.
While playing around with various kitchen implements I also tried another technique that's as old as the hills, and just to give it a sense of purpose I knocked up this logo / advert / flyer / whatever for Lighting 102. (Hi-res version.) If you know the technique then you'll recognise it straight away but for those who don't I'll leave it as a mystery. We've got to have some secrets, right? 
Having said that, these earlier attempts pretty much reveal how it was done:
Cat pics (purrr)
Fri Jan 5th - 12:50pm
What's the point of having a photo blog if you can't post pics of your cat? Well really I was just using her as a model to practice this style of photo that I love seeing but rarely get chance to do. Remember folks, never put your cat in a tumble dryer! But if she happens to climb in of her own accord…
Pouring water set-up
Fri Jan 5th - 1:27am
Here's how the bubbles/drips photo was done, a single flash positioned below a glass container with water being poured slowly from about a foot above. The camera was positioned on a tripod, pre-focussed on where the water would be. It was a 1-second exposure with the flash firing at 5Hz so although it was a single exposure the flash fired five times, making it look like there were more drips than there were, creating the bubble effect. The black background was just a large sheet of black paper. Took about 100 attempts to get the shot I had in mind. This shot of the set-up was taken after I'd been trying it with milk instead of water, which produced some interesting effects but not what I wanted.
Bubbles or drips?
Sun Dec 31st - 4:06am
Give me an evening at home with nothing to do and chances are I'll end up trying to figure out some new lighting technique, so here's a little homework for anyone who wants to play along. This is a single exposure, full frame, not rotated or flipped or otherwise distorted in any way. So what is it, what direction is it travelling in, how many lights are there and where are they positioned? I'll tell you next year!
