2013 365-5

Week five and no shoots worth talking about this week. Guess it's time to fall back on mooching around the house and trying to be creative. Small things, small places.

28/01/13

Damn but I just love this little sock rabbit. My daughter Katie bought the kit for my youngest, Sarah and Katie came round on Sunday to help Sarah make it. This seemed to involve (to an objective observer) Katie making the sock rabbit while Sarah tried to distract her with an amazing repertoire of pointless questions. I'm tempted to say that it was the ruin of a good pair of socks, but how could you not love that little face? It has taken pride of place on the mantlepiece, at least temporarily.

29/01/13

This is a close-up of a little light-up snow globe given to Sarah by the two elderly sisters who live next door. The actual snow flake is tiny and the halo of light is the macro ring light I was using to take the shot.

30/01/13

Sarah's feet. Not actually that little - but then big feet run in the family (see what I did there?) Sarah has a real penchant for going bare-footed around the house. So far, no nasty accidents involving trips to A&E.

31/01/13

Got out orbing tonight for the first time in months. This was taken on the footbridge over Parkway that links the two halves of Belmont Park. Thanks to the kind driver who tooted their horn at me - I'm wondering if it was someone who knew what lights being swung around on a footbridge bridge meant. Or just someone who thought the aliens had landed.

1/02/13

Stuck in the house, very bored, so decided to start working on single flash lighting set ups. This was "clam-shell" lighting with an SB-700 above the camera shooting down and fitted with a softbox. I was holding a  large gold reflector under my face angled up to bounce light back into my face and hopefully kill some shadows. Pretty decent results for a relatively simple set-up - I'm going to keep working at this, time permitting.

02/02/13

This was the big kids' Xmas present - a morning's go-karting at Raceview in Broughshane. Eight of us in total and I was going great guns until i managed to crash in the semi-final race (spectacularly) and put myself out of the final. Here's the winners podium, with Will (right) in third, Siobhan (left) in second and Si in the middle hugging his trophy. It should have been mine - next time, next time......

03/02/13

David Millar has featured on the blog before. He is my aikido mentor and the man who took an interest in me when I started training in aikido 14 years ago. Davy went out of his way to teach me and has never stopped offering suggestions and critique when it was needed. He is a man with a wealth of stories and who loves to tell them, about aikido and his life. He is an avid reader who I've swapped books with over the years, mainly on boxing which is one of his passions. Last night was Davy's 75th birthday and it was an honour to attend his surprise party. I'm hoping he'll be around for many years to come.

367-50 Week 18

Don't ask me why but out of the blue I decided to declare this week "50mm week" on the blog. I have attached my trusty Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens to the camera and will only be taking shots with it this week. I haven't discussed this with Trish yet, and we're shooting a wedding on Saturday. Might have to take the boss's instructions on board for that gig and then get back to the 50mm afterwards. Highlights of this week will be the wedding on Saturday plus the walk up Slemish mountain in the morning to celebrate St Patrick's  Day.

12/03/12

12th March is my number two daughter's birthday, and she was 21 this year. That's Katie in the middle, with Sarah and Ellen on either side after I had cooked dinner for everyone. As Trish pointed out, Katie will be 33 when Sarah celebrates her 21st birthday - that wasn't very well received. Mind you, I'll be 61. If I live that long. The 50mm f1.8 is a cracking little lens for portraits. Sharp, great colours and excellent depth of field.

13/03/12

This is the basil growing in my kitchen, against the kitchen window. This does show off the excellent colour reproduction of the 50mm lens (especially when attached to a Nikon camera) and the superb depth of field. Look at the bokeh on that shot!

14/03/12

Saw this as I drove through Antrim. It's along Stiles Way and there are three of these little bunches, all identical and tied to the fence. Shot this through the car window. I think I had been dealing with death and dying too much in work this week - hence the pre-occupation with this. Although I now realise that I'm, assuming it is some kind of tribute or shrine to someone who died when it might not be. Although it would be my experience that people in Antrim rarely put up flowers on fences for fun.

15/03/12

This is the kind of shot that the 50mm was made for. As in the past few weeks, I took my camera along to Aikido training and the 50mm coped with the low light better than any other lens I own. Again, sharp where it needs to be and nice fall-off in focus into the background. Love the colours, even under fluorescent lights.

16/03/12

A wee bit of cheating/time travel required here. This was taken tomorrow, at the top of Slemish mountain in County Antrim. I knew I was doing the Slemish walk and shooting a wedding on St Patrick's day and wanted to use both in my 367-50 project. We left Belfast at 8am, got the shuttle bus from Buckna to Slemish and were standing on top at around 10.30am. There was heavy, low-lying fog the whole way there but the top of Slemish was bright and clear. This is St Patrick's cross at the very top, looking down onto the fog below. Another advantage of the 50mm - it was light and easy to carry up a mountain. In bright sunlight it gives fantastic depth of field - shot this at f22, 1/125 and ISO 200.

17/03/12

Straight off Slemish, home and shower, bite of lunch then off to shoot a wedding at Ten Square with Trish. As usual, I was doing some shots with the groom's party before Trish arrived with the bride. This is the standard "Reservoir Dogs" shot. It came out well (apart from a slightly grumpy looking best man) and I included it because I was able to clone out a road sign above the heads of the two people on the right using nothing but Lightroom. I surprised myself. It was a lovely wedding shoot - nice couple, lovely guests, a really eccentric priest, great staff in Ten Square and we had dinner laid on for us. Cracking.

I'm heading off to Cuba on Thursday of this week, camera in hand. There may well not be an update on this blog for a couple of weeks, but I'm hoping to have some good shots of Havana to post when I return. Stay tuned!