Another Ansell Inspired Shot

Sierra Nevada Scene

Half Dome Sunset

with added smoke! I took a lot of shots of Half Dome, along with the crowd of photograhpers gathered, but didn't get many that weren't ruined by drifting smoke from the earlier controlled burns.

Adams inspired

I have to admit I did feel quite inspired looking at the Ansel Adams photographs, but sadly with all the smoke in Yosemite on my visit I didn't get many 'clean' shots so have to make do with the odd one or two. Hopefully this one works.

Dining Cars

I had breakfast in this diner in San Francisco recently. Quite an unusual exhibit too. I really liked this but it was pretty difficult to get some decent shots due to the lighting and all the other diners!

SF Tram - playing with Lightroom again

messing around with some lightroom settings to see if I could make this pic a little more interesting. I was trying to get something other than the standard postcard shot!

Compact Evening?

I had a thought. It happens from time-to-time. Would anyone be up for an evening in London? Lets shed the Lowepro's and travel light using compacts only? Maybe small tripods and a spare compact flash are allowed. It would be interesting to see the results on the blog where we're not restricted by all the usual DSLR paraphernalia (assuming the stop to Gordons doesn't take up the whole evening) I'd expect the results to be more edgy and certainly more creative.

Thoughts anyone?

Compact Evening

How about arranging a "Compacts Only" evening next week. No filters, camera bag and other stuff.. Just Compact Camera and Tripods allowed?

Landscape - Sonoma County

Here's a shot of an unusual scene in Sonoma County. I did a tutorial on Lightroom covering B&W conversion (Scott Kelby). I'd be interested in to hear what you think of the conversion?

Water Splash 2

Ok ok I did warn you. This was a little further down as the water was running off the car. This gives a lovely feeling of speed but with 10% skill and 90% luck I managed to keep this picture sharp at a 1/50th second. A little over exposed I feel but I have left the picture more or less untouched as I quite like the look.

Posted by Chris

Water Splash

Just to prove that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth a new blog to start the month off. I was at a rally revival at chatsworth at the weekend and I'm sure there will be a few more to rally pictures to follow :). The lighting here was really difficult as there was a shaft of light through the trees but this was only apparent when a car was there so I had to meter a few cars going through. I ended up at 1/80th of a second at f2.8 at around 140mm. Most cars were just completely obscured by the spray. Good fun though.

Postedby Chris

Now For A Bit Of Colour

The general store Bodie.

Posted by John

A Tricky Lighting Situation

Another interior shot from Bodie.

It took me a load of attempts to get this one right. Trying to balance the exposure and the shadows of the interior but keeping the detail in the buildings across the street and without blowing out the sky. I settled on 1/30th second f11 (infinity) ISO 100 which was about 1/2 stop underexposed.

Texture

A fallen tree washed up on the beach of the Russian River estuary.

1/30th second, f/20 ISO200 - Lightroom Aged Photo filter.

Posted by John

Exposure Compensation with Filters

I found a really useful article in this months Outdoor Photographer regarding use of filters. With my newly aquired, Ansel inspired interest in film, I'm going to be using the Bronica over the coming weeks so I thought it might be useful.

The guide in Yosemite has convinced me of the creative benefits of using Manual mode on the camera, which I did throughout the holiday and thoroughly enjoyed thinking more about the shot, how DOF work and exposure compensation. I will only go back to AV and TV now if I'm really stumped...

It might be worth printing this off and sticking inside the filter wallet.

Filter Type Filter Factor Exposure Increase

Polariser 4x 2 stops
0.1 ND 1.3x 1/3 stop
0.3 ND 2x 1 stop
0.6 ND 4x 2 stops
0.9 ND 8x 3 stops
ND Graduates 1x None
Skylight 1x None
UV 1x None
Soft Focus 1x None
Close-up 1x None

If anyone fancies putting this into a nice HTML table then go ahead :)

Sunset @ Pier 39

My first post from the California shots. I took this at Peir 39 the night I arrived. No tripod, just balancing on a hand rail with a ND grad filter

Jelly Dancing

The coloured version of this came out really well with deep blue water and bright orange jellyfish but I think it has much more impact in Black & White. Tricky things to shoot in an aquarium, they're constantly on the move and the exhibit was pretty dark plus there were loads of reflections.

I switched to the 50mm 2.8 Macro and shot this at ISO1000 at f3.5. Conversion done using Lightroom B&W High Contrast with a couple of levels tweaks in the curves in Photoshop. Not the sharpest of image and a little noisy. But hey.

Posted by John

Rapids - Kings Canyon

A shot from the Kings river at Cedar Grove Kings Canyon. A place where my camera and I nearly got very wet. 1 second @ f22.

Posted by John

Yosemite Valley Trees

The light during the day in Yosemite was fairly harsh, and it was a bit on the warm side. We ducked for cover under the trees. This was a bit experimental, playing with the wide end of the 10-20mm Sigma. I'm really happy with how the light and colours worked on this and also how the lens distorted the trees rising from the bottom of the frame.

Bodie Part 2

Next shot from Bodie. This one was crying out for the split-tone treatment. I made this image up from 2 exposures, I metered of the sky, car and background and averaged the exposure for the car and background. Both images were then merged in Photoshop. I found this old car at 4:30 and we needed to be out of the park by 5pm. Sadly I only had a short time with it as there was plenty of potential for some detail shots.

Posted by John

Decay

We visited Bodie National Park. It's a bit of a photographers mecca in these parts. It's an old gold mining town in the Sierra Nevada near the Nevada State Line. It's been the subject of a number of books on photography. When in full swing, it had 10k inhabitants and boasted 700 Chinese restaurants. Today, it's in arrested decay and what's left is much smaller in scale.

Some buildings are in better condition than others. The last inhabitants departed in the late 30's. I spent 4 hours in Bodie as it was a fascinating place, not just from a photographic standpoint but even more interesting as a window on how people used to live. The shops still have dusty goods on display and the saloon has an unfinished game of pool.

Dungeness just doesn't seem as interesting anymore.


Posted by John

First of a few from California.

This shot was taken at Kings Canyon CA at the Kings Canyon National Park. Unlike Yosemite, this place had loads of water rushing through it. I took this on the 100-400 at 300mm at f32 at 1/6th second exposure at ISO 100. From my viewpoint I could see the whole falls as it cascaded into the dark green pool below. I had a load of waterfall pics already and wanted something different. I'd not have been able to get this shot had I not taken the 100-400 with me. I'd expected to see wildlife on this hike. So I suppose it shows, the long telephoto has it's uses in landscape photography. It allowed me to focus on the darker parts of the falls where the light was more interesting rather than the rest which were pretty much blasted with the midday sun.

Posted by John

Feisol CT-3441 mini review - My new three-legged friend has arrived..

..after a long wait to get it shipped from Taiwan and through customs.

I thought it would be good to put my thoughts up about this piece of kit as there are not a great deal of reviews available for products from this company, and especially this new model.

Initial thoughts
I bought this as a travel / everyday use tripod - I didn't want anything too bulky but sturdy enough to handle most of my kit (Canon 30D, various lenses, with the heaviest being the 100-400L). I have to say after opening the (small) case I was pleasantly surprised. This is a small tripod when folded - smaller than my old Manfrotto - but does not sacrifice height when setup.

The other striking aspect is the wieght - or lack of it. At around 1kg it's light, but still feels quite solid and is well constructed. With some larger lenses I'll need to hang some weight from the centre column hook but that's expected.

The legs extend using a twist mechanism which works well. Maybe not as speedy as some of the pullout models, or the snap locks, but a lot less dangerous to fingers!

I also have the CB-30 ballhead which seems ok. The quick release is not the quickest - a few turns required but it's still fine. My only minor gripe is that the lever for this almost touches the bottom of the camera. This head supports the 100-400 but I would like it to be a little wider. I've got a Manfrotto 486RC2 ballhead which also fits so may go with this when using larger lenses. The only issue with this will be not fitting the tripod back into it's carry bag - which btw is pretty nice - well padded with an outside pocket for the short centre column and leg spikes. It is a snug fit though, hence a bigger head will not fit. I don't see this as much of a problem - I'll probably put the head on and not use the case for the short trips anyway.

I'll put up some more info after I've taken it out a few times - it will be interesting to compare to Johns new Manfrotto.

Experimenting with Split tone

just trying to make something out of some of the shots taken in Trafalgar Square. I've experimented with split toning on this one to give a slightly different look.

Danger Money

Rob in a rather prone position..... Cars, mopeds etc whizzing past....

Posted by John

National Gallery at Night

Time for a black & white image since I've been too busy playing with Lightroom Sepia filters recently. I think this one from last night converted nicely.

Posted by John

Anyone Seen Big Fish?

The resemblence is striking!!!




It's amazing what a 10mm lens and a badly chosen shooting position can achieve :)

Posted by John

Velvia visions

I've got lost of similar shots of this scene - as has John no doubt - so lots of choices in the processing. I've gone for a strong velvia look, but I may change my mind...

Sorry, obvious, but I could not resist it.

First of a series from this evening's shoot.

Posted by John

Just for fun!!

See if you can find him???

Posted by John

Putney Sunset

well...I had to put something up before we had to rename the blog!

Birdman of Camber Sands.

If only I'd have had more time to prepare (and clean my lenses)

There was lots of potential for a great picture here. Sadly I missed it.

Anyway, I got talking to the guy afterwards. It takes then between 15-20 minutes to travel the 40 miles home to Canterbury. He joked that the birds would be fed and sleeping by the time he got home.

Was a good test of the 10 fps though.

Posted by John

Selective Focus

Some more junk on the beach at Dungeness.

I took this with the 50mm Macro at f/2.8 at about 2 cm from the metal cables.

I really like the shallow DOF on this image.

Posted by John

Rust Bucket

Posted by John

Ouch!!

I found this just lying in the beach. Still attached to part of the bench surface. While trying to get a nice low angle I managed to kneel on a shard of glass sticking out of the sand. Nice.

Posted by John

Dungeness Scene

More strangeness from Dungeness. There was a bright blue sky today, not a cloud in sight. I've cross-processed these to make them a little more interesting.

Thoughts appreciated.

Posted by John

Decay

First of a series from this weekend. Back at Dungeness. I love this place.


Posted by John

Crossword Man

This guy clearly had no interest in participating in the Summer Sales.

Posted by John

Building conversation

my first from the London shoot last week.

Posted by Rob

Something a little older.

With the weather being quite crap of recent. Most of my time has been spent in front of the computer rather than behind the camera. Plenty of time to sort out the masses of pictures that have spread across multiple hard disks over the years. It's nice to revisit some older pictures, sometimes with newer skills.
This was taken on my first visit to Camber Sands earlier this year. I'd never bothered to process it at the time but in the recent clearout it caught my attention.

Anyway, added the vignetting to it as I'd not correctly positioned the P Holder when the shot was taken. I think it's added some mood to the shot.

Thoughts appreciated.

Posted by John

An experiment

Another shot from last weeks trip to London. Experimenting with both composition and processing.


Posted by John

Ken is watching you

Posted by John

Turning things around.

An attempt at something architectural. The original shot was a bit boring. A 60 degree rotate and crop makes it a little bit more interesting. Might stick to more natural landscapes :)


Posted by John

The Commute

Spot metering the sky to get a nice silhouette of the London commuters on their way home on London Bridge. Glad I don't do that anymore!!


Posted by John

London Sky

Amazingly, no filters or PS were used in the making of this shot. Not seen a skyline in London like this in years.


Posted by John

Something a litle different.

Not to everyones taste. Playing around with remote capture and Lightroom.



Posted by John

20:45 Saturday - Dinner was late again.

Simone was very patient again.

Posted by John

Coastal Scene

Nice weather continues. Here's a coastal picture.

Posted by John

Brighton Pier - take 2

slightly different filters than John's pic

Hay ho

The first of the hay bale efforts...may try a few landscape shots to see if they work

Posted by Rob

Fields of gold

Now that the three-legged friend has been sourced, time to start on the uploading..this one taken just after the tripod had a heart attack and dumped the camera onto the floor - so just pleased to get any result out!

Posted by Rob

Brighton Pier

Blimey, surprised I was first with a picture... Rob's obviously too tied up investigating a new three legged friend.

I've found my vocation, I am going to create cheesey postcards for seaside resorts.

Posted by John