Purple Flower

Salad

Some salad. I've never tried food photography before.

Taking pictures of bugs is difficult. I think I'm getting used to the camera settings, and having off-camera flash makes it much easier (I'm not sure I'd manage at all without it) Even so, using manual flash settings, manual exposure and manual focus is quite a challenge for me!

The main problem though is composition - having only a second or so to take a picture means I pretty much take whatever I get. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from earlier today. It's great what you can find in your back garden!

Must. Start. Blogging. Again

DISCLAIMER: The following post is long and probably boring. So don't be angry at me if you read it all and hate it.



Well, it has been the longest ever interval between posts in the short and troubled history of my blog. It's been so long, in fact, that I haven't the foggiest idea what a blog actually is anymore. I just have a strange compulsion to enter words into this here text-box and click on the 'publish post' button...

I need to ease myself into this slowly, like a patient recuperating after being unable to walk for some time. Nothing dramatic happened - I just got lazy and busy in equal measure, and found myself with less and less to say and no inclination to say it.

I think when I began, I had a purpose: to write something about my experiences with photography and a strange new place which I would remember over time. Then, returning home from Geneva, I moved in a new direction. I was a learner, and filled with the enthuiasm that one has when faced with a new and exciting field of knowledge, waiting to be explored. I learned new things about photography, which had a huge impact on my experiences of taking photos, on a daily basis. I wanted to share this with the world.

While I still have, of course, an enormous and infinite amount to learn, and still come across new stuff on a regular basis, the initial period of acquiring knowledge has slowed to a steady trickle - the dam burst, the flood washed over, and the regular river is all that flows now. This gave me less impetus to post. My enthusiasm for posting has subsided greatly. As I am now more-or-less comfortable with techniques, when I post a photo it is now, from my point of view, open to raw criticism. I can't dismiss criticism by excusing my faults by way of a lack of knowledge.* Now, my photos, for me this is, should be judged by how they are composed rather than if they are in focus. The quality of the lighting rather than the correct shutter speed and aperture. This is ever so slightly terrifying, but, there is more. I have a morbid fear of becoming self-absorbed. I have swore that this would not become a "what I did today..." type of blog. I could justify posting beforehand as it helped me to learn. Now that I have that bit more confidence, I find it more difficult to write, afraid of appearing arrogant. This blog is not now so much of a learning process for me, rather I wish to publish it for the outside world for the very first time. And that is were the real fear is.

Several photography-related things have happened to me since Christmas. There has been new gear: Two manual flashes and some radio triggers, with which I have been practising off-camera flash, mainly through the Strobist website. This has opened up a new and fascinating area for me, which I will hopefully write about here as I learn more. The publisher of the Strobist blog, David Hobby, has an infectious writing style. Read a couple of his posts and I almost guarauntee that you will, no matter how you felt before, agree that the coolest and most important thing that you can possibly do is to start using off-camera flash. I also bought a second hand Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro. This is a lens that is so sharp and contrasty that is makes anything look good. It's astonishing, really. It has also opened me up to a new world, that which we do not see without really looking. The second thing that happened was getting short-listed in the amateur section of the World Photography Awards for this photo:



I didn't win anything, but my photo was one of 50 out of 25,000 entries. I was stunned, and although it was probably a one-off, I think I can ride on the encouragement it gave me for at least a couple of years.

Well, I said I would ease myself into this, and I have failed miserably. Before I finish, I'm just going to make a note of a couple of 'resolutions' which I will try and follow with regards to this blog:

1) I will try and post more than once a week.

2) If I don't have anything to say, or time to say it, I will still post photos if I have taken any.

3) Fear of embarrassment/appearing arrogant/self-absorbed will not put me off.

That'll do.

Here are some photos of the last couple of months, in no particular order:

Some actual photos!

Sadly I haven't picked up my camera for quite a long time now; essays, exams and even (shock,horror!) work has got in the way. I also have a feeling that having ordered a couple of flashes and wireless triggers from ebay has given me some sort of unconscious 'excuse' not to take any photos. I'll just wait until the flashes come. Sure there's no point in trying until I have all the equipment... I have to stop it though! In the meantime, I did finally pick up the camera, and took a few pictures of the Christmas tree. Nothing spectacular, but at least it's something.

My 'studio'

Well, I'm finally back, and yet again the pangs of guilt over my neglected blog overcome me. I'm quite excited about the following photos. They are of an mp3 player. And a Swiss Army Knife.

Why am I excited? Has the stress of two-essays-and-two-presentations-all-in-the-space-of-one-week-oh-dear-god-what-am-I-going-to-do caused my brain to melt into a pile of slush? Well possibly, but that's not why I'm excited about these. These mundane photos represent the future... The future, I tell you!

This is the first time I've ever attempted to use manipulate light to my advantage. It's something that I have been interested in for a while. Nearly all of the best photos you have ever seen contain two things: photoshoppery, and manipulation of light using flashes. Granted, these humble efforts are far from being included in such a list, but the important thing is that I tried. And the results? Far better than I could have expected.

This was the set-up. My studio, if you will... Stop sniggering - a man has to start somewhere! That unassuming piece of tinfoil in the lower right corner? That was held on front of my flash, so that the light would bounce off the piece of paper balanced precariously on the top and diffuse the harsh shadows and uneven lighting with a direct flash.

You're still laughing - or at least raising your eyebrows in bemusement. I asked you to stop, remember?

So, what happens if you pop up the flash, point the camera at the subject, and shoot? This hideousity:*

Or this:

Yeuch. Not much more to say about that.

And with my Super Advanced Super Studio SetUp TM?:

Prepare to bask in the glory of this:

and:

Okay, so they're not exactly Ansel Adams-esque. But I'm proud of them. And hopefully this is just the beginning - the next step is people. And then.... The World!





* Yes it's a word!!! Tsk!**

** No, no it's not...

Just one picture...

I took this in the same place as the photos in the last post were taken, but only realised I liked it after I had made that post. It needed quite a lot of 'photoshopping' (in inverted commas because I actually use The GIMP and Lightroom) to make everything black & white except for the red, and then I replaced the sky with another one because the original sky was completely white and very boring. I constantly look over my old pictures that I didn't see anything in the first time around. There's plenty of rough, but the occasional diamond.