2013 365-10

This week started off with a day off work and a trip north to Mussenden Temple and Downhill Strand, complete with a return journey down the Antrim Coast Road. I would like to point out that that was not me driving my car at 60 mph along the beach with the roof down and the Foo Fighters blasting out at top volume. Just someone who looked like me.

4/03/13

This is an HDR shot of Mussenden Temple taken from Downhill. Everyone has taken this shot, and I was trying to do something a little different. The reflection in the water seemed to provide a bit of foreground interest and the grey sky really looked like it would lend itself to HDR processing. This was produced from 5 shots with +/- 1 exposure steps using Photomatix Essentials then tweaked a little in Photoshop to darken the sky and add some contrast.

5/03/13

The aim to take more concert shots plugs on. I'd contacted Foy Vance's management team about the possibility of getting a photo pass for his concert in Belfast this evening and they were very accommodating  Standard three shots and you're out rules and no written release to sign. So, I ended up getting to photograph an artist who I like - and it was a great show. Support acts were very good too. I am drifting towards black and white for concert stuff - I just think it works really well under the lighting conditions.

6/03/13

You may recognise this fine little chap from an earlier photo. This afternoon I was lacking in inspiration and decided to stick my finger in a photography book and attempt whatever I selected. The project was "50 shots of the same object" and this is what I ended up with. It was fun and more demanding than I thought.

7/03/13

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a shot of Belfast's first "ghost bike." This is the second one, at the junction of North Road and the Upper Newtownards Road. The bike appeared in late August/early September 2011 and commemorates the death of a 31 year-old local Polish woman Iwona Zakierska who was killed at 7.45am on August 3^rd 2011 after a collision with a lorry.

8/03/13

Another gentlemen psychologist's weekend in Donegal, and another five star weekend. Up to Damien's house in Teelin. This was Friday night (drink had been taken) and I had brought a comic relief red nose for everyone. This is uncle Colin demonstrating yet again how his ability to point in a photograph improves it immensely.

9/03/13

 Didn't take the big Nikon with me on our walk today, from Glencollumcille to the signal tower and over the headlands. I did have the little Sony Nex-3 with me and it did a pretty good job and was a hell of a lot easier to carry. It also takes fair enough panoramas "in camera" but doesn't handle high contrat scenes that well - hence my blown out sky on the right.

10/03/13

This is what happens when you try to get a drunk home owner to spin some wire wool with a drunk photographer working the camera. Only usable shot from the whole sorry escapade.

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.