2013 365 33

Zoot alors! It's week 33. A lot of this week involved getting ready to travel to Swansea for my first ever roller derby tournament. About a dozen bouts to shoot in two days, so a lot of prepwork involved.

The death by accidental misadventure of my 70-200mm lens during the week has also added to my sense of panic but a relatively inexpensive (2nd hand) replacement is on its way as I type. Hopefully it gets here on time.

12/08/13

I'm still getting a lot of fun from my 8mm fisheye lens. I took this on a visit to the Ulster Museum today and really like it and some of the other shots I got. OK, so it's HDR'd to within an inch of it's life but so what?

13/08/13

Very small and select secret gig this evening for Belfast punk/oi band Runnin' Riot. Got the chance to hear some of their new stuff ahead of their forthcoming CD launch. There's a chance some of my shots will make it onto the CD cover. In short, it was a blast.

14/08/13

Had my first visit to Castle Espie just outside Comber this week, a haven for a huge variety of birds. I don't do wildlife, but managed to get a couple of half-decent shots. This has to be a day of note as it was the last shots taken with my Tamron 70-200mm lens before it bit the dust big time. Adios my old amigo, you will be missed.

15/08/13

Old shot that I've done before, but not with a fisheye lens. It gave me several other ideas for shots involving a fridge that I naturally didn't get around to.

16/08/13

Had been on the lookout for a set of these blocks to use in the pregnancy/bump project I've been working on for the last few months. It's nearing the end, but we have a few set up shots we'd like to get and spelling out words with these blocks was one of them. Again, the temptation was too much for me. Sorry.

17/08/23

Mods vs Rockers fair and festival today? Sounds like a great idea and an opportunity to get some great shots. How wrong was I? It was dull, there was nothing worth seeing and this was the only shot I came away with. Lesson learned.

18/08/13

Full on zombie shoot with the ladies of Belfast Roller Derby this evening. I had three ideas for shots, two of which worked and one of which I was disappointed with. This was one of the ones that I felt worked very well, although it took a bit of fiddling to get the lighting right. I ended up with two remote flashguns balanced on my stomach and dialled down to 1/32 power to get it just about right. Using the fisheye again, and it also worked really well for another shot - but you'll need to check in next week to see it.

Belfast Banshees vs Stuttgart Bad Seeds

Shooting roller derby again on Saturday just past, and a first ever international bout in Belfast with the Stuttgart "B" team travelling to take on the Belfast Banshees. I had picked up an extra Nikon SB-800 flashgun second hand during the week and pressed it into service as my key light, lighting down the straight. The SB-800 was backed up by my two faithful SB-700's as fill lights on corners 3 and 4 with the really old reliable SB-28 parked on my back up body which was equipped with my other second hand purchase of the week, a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens.

8mm Fisheye lens in action

Anyhooo, the lighting with three flash units worked really well, as did setting a custom white balance using the weird mix of flash and flourescent.

Rosa "Sigourney Cleaver" Hughes takes her bow

The bout itself was really close and pretty exciting, with the lead changing hands a couple of times druing a hectic first period.

Stuttgart were heading for a big win with a 40+ points lead in the last few minutes until the unstoppable Hanabolic Steroids hit the track to jam for Belfast in what was the final jam of the night.

Hannabolic pulled out all the stops, aided by some pretty dedicated blocking and closed the gap to a very respectable 16 points before the final whistle.

A big result for Belfast and one which will move them up a few places in the European rankings.

2013 365-29

Way late this week partly due to being very busy, very tired (I blame the heat) and having too much bloody photography to do. I never get backlogs of photo stuff - until this past few days. It's been an interesting week on the old photography front, not just because I was forced to spend part of it with no camera.

15/07/13

Thanks to good old King Billy defeating King James at the Battle of the Boyne, today was a public holiday and being a public servant, I got the day off. I decided to make another attempt to get to Cloughan Point and photograph the jetty there. I got there and got some shots, but I had foolishly attempted to clean my camera sensor myself before heading out. I made a complete mess of it and ended up with hundreds of streaks across the sensor and managed to convince myself that I had fatally ruined the damn thing. Anyway, Cloughan Point is an amazing spot for photos and today was just the right day - plenty of nice clouds. This was a quickly processed pano of the jetty from the railway tracks and as you'll notice, the streaks are running vertically because its made up of shots taken in portrait mode.

16/07/13

First job for this morning was to book the D800 into my local Calumet store in the hope that it could be cleaned and wasn't, in fact a total write-off. That done, I spent some time this evening working on this shot from yesterday. It's basically an HDR shot with three bracketed shots at +/- 1 EV and then converted into black and white. I spent a lot of time in Photoshop dodging and burning parts of the image and even more time cloning out streaks and spots on the sensor. It's Ok at this resolution but any bigger and it's still a mess. particularly the sky. However, having found how to get there, I intend returning some evening and doing some more long exposure shots.

17/07/13

I admit to owning three cameras. With my D800 in to be rescued I had foolishly lent out my other two cameras to other people and was left camera-less. How to take pictures with no camera - there was the challenge. Of course I still had my iphone, but the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I became with the idea of using my flatbed scanner to try some shots. This is the first of the baby courgettes to be harvested from my greenhouse this evening before they got cooked for dinner. Courgette went on scanner, black cloth went over the top and there you have it. Nice enough detail and an interesting depth of field.

18/07/13

This is a pretty dreadful shot of my hand pressed onto the scanner. I think I was either getting desperate or very quickly ran out of ideas.

19/07/13

Good news all round. Camera cleaned with no permanent damage and I found a second hand Samyang fisheye lens for sale. Its an 8mm and is totally manual but with a bit of research got it working on the D800 with some metering. This was taken while walking up North Street, past Keats and Chapman bookshop. Maybe not the best example of fisheye photography but nice to be able to get a well exposed shot right away. I can assure you, there's more to come.

20/07/13

Saturday night meant one thing and one thing only - roller derby. The first ever international bout on Northern Irish soil as the Belfast Banshees took on the Bad Seeds from Stuttgart. This was a great bout with loads of excitement, lead changing hands several time, hard hits and a few laughs. So much so I might just do my own wee write-up for the blog if I get some time this evening or tomorrow. I picked this shot out of the 120 I ended up with; Ra-Ra Rasputina jamming - I've had the pleasure of watching this skater since her early days with the Banshees and she has blossomed over the past two years. Seeing this shot made me think that her style and technique sits pretty well alongside the many top rank American skaters I get to see shots of.

21/07/13

It wasn't a good idea to drink beer before going to the roller derby bout yesterday and then (after sobering up to take photos) going for a couple of more pints at the after party. Those last two pints were quite tasty. Up early with a muggy head and started processing and posting photos from last night. I eventually decided that I needed some fresh air and took a walk across the road to Civil Service Sports Club to watch a bit of cricket. Armed with my 70-200 I soon realised that this lens was just not long enough, shooting in full frame on the D800. Then I had an idea - bump the D800 into DX crop mode which should (in theory) increase the range of my zoom to something closer to 300mm. This worked, but at the cost of losing some sensor space and pixels - I think in DX crop mode the D800 knocks out around 16 megapixels. It worked out pretty well all things considered, but I think that a 400mm telephoto lens would be the minimum for shooting cricket.

2013 365-21

Aaaaaaaaaaaand here we go with week 21. It's an all-singing, all dancing photography whirlwind this week so buckle yourself in and get ready for...........no, wait. It's just another week of trying to crank out shots and be a wee bit original. Sorry for building your hopes up there.

20/05/13

The marvellous Hellcat McCloud on the Jam Line during Saturday Night's all-Ireland rookie bout at Belfast Roller Derby. I got into the centre of the track and waited for this, as I had noticed how this particular skater tended to get into the zone before each jam. The facial expression is hard to read and ambiguous - that's a big part of why I like it.

21/05/13

This was shot in a mirrored table in a furniture shop using my iphone 4s and processed in high-key style using PhotoToaster.

22/05/13

Fresh bunches of flowers on the Larne-Belfast road this week. I had passed them several times but today actually had my camera with me and got the chance to pull over and get a shot of them.

23/05/13

My son Conor had shown me a picture of this taken on his phone. Its just outside the back gates into Belfast Met. There had also apparently been a Peppa Pig up there too, but she had departed by the time I got there.

24/05/13

And speaking of my son Conor, this was my favourite piece in his end of year show at the college where he is studying art. Its quite small but just looks amazing. He describes it as a self portrait in the style of the Easter Island statues. I've purchased it from him for my mantlepiece.

25/05/13

Last two pics see me going postal. Above is Royal Mail HQ in Belfast's Tomb Street and below are two leaning post boxes in the Titanic Quarter. I was out and about on my bike and decided to travel light, taking only my little D60 and a Lensbaby and did get some good shots.

26/05/13

2013 365-17

I haven't been well this week, and the medical opinion is divided, to say the least. It's either a real nasty infection or some weird muscle problem. The result is few photos, but here they are anyway. Shorter descriptions than usual (every cloud has a silver lining) due to a splitting headache.

22/04/13

It was great to see how well the new lighting set up worked. The two shots (above and below) show what I like about it. Nice exposures at really low ISO and good depth of field.

23/04/13

24/04/13

I was outside trying to play kerbsie with Sarah with one of those really cheap plastic balls when I noticed how well it glowed when the sun was behind it. Quick dash into the house for the camera and there you have it.

25/04/13

This is Lola the house rabbit, belongs to my eldest daughter Siobhan.

26/04/13

..and this is Siobhan with her lastest stuffed animal purchase from the auction rooms. I had to drive her home with an antelope head in the front seat and a stuffed fox in the back. I'm not making it up.

27/04/13

Second chance this weekend to shoot wrestling in Belfast. As much fun as the last time and my timing was a little better than before.

28/04/13

2013 365-16

Another "low week" in terms of shooting opportunities but still kept going. The result is a set of shots are that really "bitty" but at least they're up here.

15/04/13

This was an attempt to take another roadside shot of a memorial which failed dismally. There's nowhere to stand to get this shot, just two lanes of dual carriageway. I tried to take this while driving and using continuous shooting mode on the camera. It's Ok from this distance, but the plaque is way too blurred to make anything out. Back to the drawing board.

16/04/13

Slightly more successful attempt, not too far away from where I live in East Belfast. This sits beside a road, taped to the gate which leads to a small concrete culvert and river. I'm wondering if this may mark another suicide, given the proximity to the little river or whether it is another traffic fatality.

17/04/13

Sarah returned home from Guides with her first badges. Apparently these are to be sewn onto something, something which I haven't got for her yet.

18/04/13

I'm easily confused at best. Inside was a second hand book shop with no-one there, even though the door was wide open. I browsed for a while and then gave up.

19/04/13

Path leading down to the courtyard ar Rowallane Gardens just outside Saintfield County Down. First time I'd ever visited here and the gardens appear to have suffered very badly after the severe snow and cold weather. I'd like to go back in the summer.

20/04/13

This was an attempt to try out the Brenizer method - using a shallow depth of field and then stitching a series of photos together. I used my 24-70 lens at f2.8 and frankly, this technique needs a wider aperture. Next time, I'll give the 50mm or 60mm f1.8 lens a rattle. It has possibilities.

21/04/13

Up to the Valley Leisure Centre to get a big group shot for Belfast Roller Derby. Sadly this shot is embargoed until the BRD 3rd birthday bash on Friday night, but naturally I took my gear and shot some scrimmage while I was there. It was great to see Pucifer back on skates and taking part. I don't have a favourite roller derby skater to photograph, but if I did...........
Loving the light set up I have now, and it's amazing how varied the shots are. Some come out crisp and clean (like this) while others are darker and moodier. I'm liking that.

2013 365-15

Week fifteen, 100th picture posted on this bout of 365-ishness. It's still up and down in terms of what I'm shooting (as well as where and when) but I'm generally keeping busy and making opportunities for myself. Having a couple of long-term photo projects on the go has also helped and it looks like the old faithfuls (i.e. niche sports) are really the gift that keeps on giving.

8/04/13

This was nearly a defining moment for me. I finally bit the bullet and sprung for a set of dedicated wireless flash triggers with reasonable range. The Phottix Ares transmitter and receivers arrived by post at the weekend so naturally it was straight up to roller derby training to try them out. Their advertised range is 200m+, they have 8 channels (with the option to group flashes) and run off regular AA batteries. They fired every time and also will wake up the flash guns if they go into sleep mode. The fact that company I ordered them from accidentally sent me an additional (un-ordered) set of two receivers was just a bonus. The triggers worked brilliantly and allowed me to use three off-camera flashes to cross-light a very large section of the track and their range allowed me to move around a bit more. The shots I got were crisp and sharp (even at 1/200 or 1/250 shutter speed) and the lighting and colours were dramatic and edgy. I'm so happy with the results I could dance a wee jig.

9/04/13

A strange one this. Not by the side of a road, but along the Comber Greenway in East Belfast. I passed it while out cycling and had to go back today to take a photograph of it. This is notable for a number of reasons. I recall the closure of the Greenway and then subsequently finding out about the suicide of this young man. The memorial itself is situated pretty much directly behind my old house which backs onto the walkway. It’s a permanent memorial, although fresh flowers seem to be placed there regularly.

10/04/13

Yep, one of those "oh shit I need to a photograph days." An empty picture frame, a willing assistant and a small dog.

11/04/13

I ended up spending a hour or so in a furniture shop this evening, in fact it was a furniture shop with no customers, thus making even less interesting. However, I was there for other purposes which greatly lifted any boredom although I did end up wandering around and trying out some macro shots with different bits and pieces in the shop.

12/04/13

Another roadside monument today and like the one above, one with a bit of personal resonance. Ben was a 17 year old pedestrian and a pupil at Regent House Grammar School Newtownards. Ben lived in Donaghadee and was struck by a car while walking home in the early hours of the morning with a friend after attending a Halloween party. This hit a nerve with me, having attended the same school and lived in the same town when I was younger. I'd also walked along the same road after more than one party in the wee small hours of the morning. Coincidentally, a classmate of mine at Regent House was knocked down by a car and killed a little further along the same road while I was at school.

13/04/13

This is the statue outside the Titanic Building in Belfast, and again this is far from original and every togger in Belfast has probably taken a similar shot at some time since the building was opened. It's a noce shot and I suppose the trick was getting the balance right between the detail in the statue and the texture of the outside of the building.

14/04/13

I spent the afternoon with my big son Conor working on architectural photography for his art course. Architectural photography has to be the dullest form of photography ever invented and I can only assume that he's being asked to a module on it in order to put him off photography for life. We did mange to find a rather interesting wall with five of these frames attached to it. See frame, jump inside it, take photo. I can't help that sort of thing. I did not hesitate in pitching this as potential band shoot to a few people. Conor ended up with two rolls of Ilford HP5 film full of abstract shots of various buildings - here's hoping that he has something worth printing off for his course.

Bloctopussy

I was asked to do a promo shoot for Belfast Roller Derby at the weekend -the aim was to get posters for their next home bout with the theme being Octopussy. First stop was the Original Octopussy film poster and figuring out how to re-create this. It looked like it could be done with four shots layered in Photoshop, using one shot as a base/background and then adding in the extra sets of arms.

I selected the potential arm positions in pairs (four sets) and decided to shoot these in a sequence. The key was going to be to get my male (James Bond) model to stay perfectly still. The setup for the shoot was as follows:

Lighting was provided by 2 Nikon SB-700 flash guns on TTL mode, with shoot-through umbrellas. Canera was set up with 1/160 shutter speed, f 8 and ISO 100 and I was using a Nikon D800 (full manual, RAW files) with a Nikon f1.8 50mm lens. Focus was locked on the models and then switched to manual focus to stop the camera's af changing focus during the sequence of shots and the shutter was triggered with a remote cable release.

We did a total of four run-throughs of the sequence of shots and this sequence was the one which seemed the best:

Some basic adjustments were done in Lightroom (cropping, exposure, saturation) and then synchronised to all four shots before exporting them to Photoshop. Starting with the base photo (above left) I added the next photo as a new layer underneath the background layer and then used the eraser tool to rub through the background, exposing the second set of arms. I then flattened the image and repeated the process with shot three and then shot four. After this, I made some minor adjustments using the dodge and burn tools and also used the dodge tool to make the background completely white. This gave me the final image:

All in all, an enjoyable afternoon's shoot and a reasonably good end product to pass on to the people who are producing the finished posters. I'll try to remember to post an image of the poster once it's available.

Major thanks to to my models Katie and Fintan and to Sarah and Barbie from Belfast Roller Derby who looked after the organisation and managed the shoot on the day.