2013 365-6

Week six it is then.

04/02/13

A pack of little skaters and skateboarders arrived today in the post. This was quick try at getting something with one of them, using a bit of black string and a fruit bowl. With the aperture set at 3.5  the background came out black and covered up the string from which the wee man was suspended. Lost detail in the oranges though.

05/02/13

Still cracking on with single light flash portraits. This is my daughter Ellen taken using an SB-700 flash unit fitted with a small softbox and was fired on high speed sync (auto FP on Nikon) with a shutter speed of 1/2000. Nice shot of Ellen - even she liked it and she's a hard audience to please. She was delighted that a lot of her friends saw it on Facebook and complimented her on it. Result all round.

06/02/13

I returned to Belmont Park this evening to try out one very long exposure shot of the wooden statues there. I was aiming for 20-30 minutes in order to get some star trails, but sadly there was too much cloud cover to pick these out . I did capture one star trail in the top right-hand corner but it really just looks out of place. The statues themselves came out pretty well on a 30 minute exposure although I noted some "hot pixels" when zoomed in. Probably why it's recommended to take a large number of shorter shots (i.e. 200-250 30" exposures) and combine them in the appropriate software in post production. We live and learn.

07/02/13

A long time ago, I ordered some business cards in an attempt to promote my photography. People always ask me if I have a card, website, etc. The cards were, frankly, rubbish and I never actually handed any of them out because I was a little embarrassed by them. This week I finally bit the bullet and sat down to do it properly and that meant researching print firms and thinking about the design of the cards. Moo Print seemed to come out on tops in terms of quality and service, so I went for them. I used one of their existing designs, modified it to suit me and uploaded five high quality jpegs. The cards arrived today (five day turnaround) beautifully packaged and presented. They look (and feel) really high quality, complete with a funky case than fans out to display your cards in all their glory. I love these and definitely won't be embarrassed to hand them out.

08/02/13

Half price Haribo sweets? I'll be having some of these. The fantasy mix seemed to be the most promising in photographic terms - big and colourful. This is my packet of sweets set on a sheet of perspex, suspended between two chairs in the kitchen with a flashgun placed directly underneath.  Colourful enough, almost in a stained-glass window way.

09/02/13

More single flash portrait practice this week. This time using a honeycomb grid to modify the flash and make the light more directional. No backdrop used here - the highly directional light wiped the background out (my cluttered living room) and there was very little post-processing needed with any of these shots.

10/02/13

Fresh meat session (i.e. newbies) with Belfast Roller Derby this afternoon. Always fun to see new people on skates and there was a big crowd turned up today. I was shuttling between the fresh meat session and the intermediates/advanced training. I think I'm now about 95% sorted in terms of using lights with roller derby. This rear view belongs to the fantastic Rosa "Sigourney Cleaver" Hughes.

367-50 Week 31

Boredom, ennui and lethargy are my enemies as I start this week. Routines are what's keeping me going but days are starting to feel the same - I need to find something to lift me a bit; something to get lost in for a while. Gotta keep looking for it - I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.

I'm supposed to be going to Donegal at the weekend and am not really feeling like it but have been being bullied mercilessly by my friends to go, regardless of how I'm feeling. Damien and Colin, my two closest friends have been very good with me over the last month and I guess I feel that I owe them something. Still not looking forward to it.

On a different note, I've added a button on the page (lower down and on the right hand side) that allows anyone reading this to share the blog via Facebook. If you like what you see, please share it - you'll be making an old man very happy.

11/06/12

 More by luck than design I had booked a place on a workshop at Townhouse Gallery in Belfast - my first time shooting with a "real" model. Met some really nice people at the session and it was pretty good fun although I'm still not convinced that I can't get the same lighting effects with two speedlights, wireless triggers, stands and umbrellas all within the confines of my back bedroom. Anyway, Sandra was a fantastic model and George was an excellent host. This is my favourite shot of the evening; mainly because I did a sneaky bit of homework beforehand on the model and on different poses.

12/06/12

So, Sister Mary Agnes - is the hereafter what you'd imagined it to be?

No, Sister Assumpta, I hadn't thought it would be so feckin' dull

Ok - it was late (10pm by the time I got round to taking a shot today). I have just come into possession of an ex-hospital lightbox (Ta, Coly - you're a star) and started playing with it tonight. A box of miniature nuns was at hand - it's complicated - and voila. Sister Mary Agnes and Sr Assumpta in the afterlife. Again, apologies to any of my religious readers, but it's not as bad as the wee nuns entering a beach volleyball tournament.

13/06/12

This my daughter Ellen doing the same pose as my picture from Monday. The only difference was that this was taken in my spare bedroom. I set up a pop-up studio in exactly 15 minutes. The gear was as follows:

Backdrop: 1 Tesco double bed sheet, white - £4.97
Lights: 2 cheap flashguns with manual settings (total cost £100)
2 light stands and umbrellas - £20 from Amazon
1 set of Yongnuo wireless triggers - £45 from Amazon

Total = £169.97

14/06/12

This is one of the pair of cucumber plants I've grown from seed in the greenhouse. It looks like they're starting to flower, so I'm hopeful we might get to see some cucumbers in a month or two. Having never grown cucumbers, I'm not sure what I should or shouldn't be doing with them.

15/06/12

Friday night, the Lobster Bar in Burtonport. Alex attempts to lift my spirits by strangling Colin. Having spent four hours travelling with Colin, I wasn't sure if I wanted to kill myself or just give him a hug. This is turning out to be the wettest gentlemen's weekend ever. I have to return to Belfast tomorrow for what can best be described as "personal reasons" and the guys were very understanding. Even to the point of two of them offering to break my legs if I didn't go.

16/06/12

9.30 on a very rainy Donegal morning. Packed and ready to head back to Belfast, stomach in knots and nerves jangling. Three hours in the car like that isn't going to be fun. Colin surfaced just as I was getting ready to leave. There's some thing quite surreal about your best friend hugging you while he's wearing blue stripy pyjamas as the rain pours down.

17/06/12

Woke this morning (4.30am) feeling wasted and drained. Getting out of bed was an achievement and even a fag and cup of coffee didn't perk me up. After wandering round the house aimlessly, I went back to the lightbox. I bought a bag of fruit yesterday and got stuck in this morning. I found that it was tricky getting sharp shots, but the colours are really nice. I also forgot to set my white balance for the fluorescent lights but was able to correct it later in Lightroom. Might play some more with this later. There's a watermelon and a grapefruit that might be pressed into service.