I decide to go for a walk to get some fresh air after a full day easting and drinking. So the Boxing Day walk was around Whisby Nature Park nr Lincoln.
The cafe was open so I called in for a bacon and and sausage sarnie and then had a look round their lower floor Our Changing World Exhibition.
And that’s were I found this scary pair. I’ll probably use the photo (taken with the iPhone) in a layer in a montage at some point but for now it’s part of my photo365 project.
Lazy day today after lovely Christmas dinner, so I decided to photograph the bottle of bubbly that we drank to celebrate over lunch.
When I was a little boy I used to play with marbles a lot. As well as the usual games I invented my own. I used to roll them off the top of the stairs and watch them bounce down and see how far they would go. I then started adding obstacles, things that I had to try and hit. So they bounced down and then flew past or knocked down things.
I passed this on to my kids and they loved playing. The game developed…you lost points if they didn’t make it all the way down the stairs, and you gained points for knocking down things (and we added an extra level – things you had to land on).
The marbles were split into colours so we could see who did what. We would set either a time limit or a number of runs and the one with the highest score at the end would win.
What was good about this is it got them away from the electronic gadgets for a bit and brought back a bit of the traditional values.
As the Christmas break approaches, I looked in the games cupboard to dig out Trivial Pursuit. I found the bag of marbles. The kids are grown up now…I wonder if they will show their kids how to play our game, or will the electronics world have totally removed any need for those old games.
I just did the standard bauble in shot Christmas card pic for ePHOTOzine. I used a red cloth background to add extra colour and make the lights go brighter. Here’s a version without. The background is the patio window. A reflector (nearby Christmas card) was used to fill light in on the bauble.
The Olympus E-P2 had a Canon 50mm f/1,4 mounted on the front (another of my cheap eBay finds. My gadget pile is building!
I guess most of you will be finishing/finished for the Christmas break, thanks for reading my blog so far this year…only a few days to go to hit my 365 target.
If you’ve followed my photo365 you will know I’m a fan of shallow focus, and bolting things on the front of a camera that weren’t designed to be bolted on. My latest purchase is an 85mm f/1.8 Canon FD lens. You can buy lenses of this type on eBay for far less than the modern versions. And this one is much lighter too. I’ll eventually get a Nikon or Pentax version (as I don’t like the FD lens mount) but this was such a bargain I couldn’t let it go.
It’s attached to the front of an Olympus Pen E-P2 with a cheap Chinese adaptor. I added a 15mm extension tube to allow the closer focus. The shot is taken with the lens wide open.
I was photographing the neck then I saw the out of focus highlight and adjusted position so it sat in the dip of the guitar’s body. It reminds me of a sunset. I focused on the thicker E string. I’m going to have fun using this lens. I just wish the EP2 would have the magnified view when focusing manual lenses as it’s quite a challenge to focus using the screen at 100%.
Having been inspired by the pepper splash series that Dave Ovendon posted a few years ago on ePHOTOzine , Ive been meaning to have a go myself. My first recollection of this type of photography was a brilliant photo posted by iraddict way back in the early days of ePHOTOzine. It was a green toy with a comical face.
So I had two initial things to do before attempting this. One to buy a suitable container to do the drops. I found a low cost fish tank in B&M (about £13) – I then went on the hunt for a toy. I wanted soemthing that would look good under water with bubbles around it that was also quite humorous. I tried Toys R Us first with no joy, then a number of lesser know toy shops around Sheffield, Worksop, Lincoln, Doncaster.
Eventually found Scooby with in a kit with some slime and Velma (glasses not lost at this stage) and only £3.
Today I performed a test run using a standard 1 litre glass measuring jug and two flashguns. The water isn’t clean enough so I will have to fill the fish tank with distilled water.
The flashes were placed at each side of the jog one was set to auto as the main trigger and the other was a Vivitar 283 with a vari power module set to 1/32 power. I did a quick test and found f/13 was the right exposure.
I then dropped Scooby from quite a height and triggered as he hit the water. A few shots later I had determined when to press the shutter and also that dropping from a close distance resulted ion a cleaner set of bubbles.
Here’s the best one from the test.
I went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a few hours today. Took a bag full of Pentax kit and the iPhone. I love using the iPhone. If only you could control focus and exposure – it would be even better.
I came back with just short of 400 shots. I saw some new sculptures today by Joame Plensa – I’ve uploaded one to the gallery – Spiegel, 2010. His work is fascinating top look at, and photograph. Well worth a trip over if you like sculptures.
This one is by Chinese Artist Sui Jianguo, it’s a representation of the tunic worn by Chairman Mao.
As I approached I spotted a robin perched on top looking at me. I took this photo with the iPhone and then proceeded to get my Pentax out. It had the 12-24mm on and I needed to switch to the 80-320mm as I unmounted the lens (quietly) the robin flew off. Missed a good one!
I sometimes get inspiration from photos in galleries or stores. While in B&Q last week I saw a framed photo of a bear in a bed. So I thought I’d get my old old friend out and photograph him. This is the bear I had as a kid. It was already quite old when I got him – I think it’s from the 50s.
The photo I saw was a clean and bright “chocolate box” shot…not what I had in mind. I wanted a bed time sleepy image. So I used the bedside light as a backlight and a torch to fill in around the front. The exposure was about two seconds which gave me enough time to paint over the arm, face, pillow and sheet. I did several until I got the desired effect. The light in the eye was important.
Taken on the Olympus E-P2 with a Chinese Leica M adaptor attached and a Minolta Rokkor 28mm which was made for their CLE.
Today seemed to be a day of power. It started when I decided to go on a bike ride. I haven’t been on the bike for a few weeks and some areas where quite a struggle on my route. Mostly flat, but the hills hurt and power was certainly needed in the legs.
I cycled up the canal from Worksop towards Chesterfield and got as far as Kiverton Park. Here I photographed the old colliery – a symbol of mining past and power fuel. I then took a circular route back passed the wind turbines near Harthill. I stopped to photograph them backlit by the low winter sun. As I was taking photos an airplane appeared in shot, and I quickly managed to get this one -seconds later the plane was behind the turbine and the moment gone. The shot brings together two forms of powers.
I cropped the photo taken on the Olympus E-P2 and darkened it to bring out the rim light edge.
I continued my journey and was passed by a car, seconds later I saw the car stop. As I approached it was in the middle of the road with the front end crushed and oil leaking onto the road. In front was a four wheel with a small dent. The women driver of the 4×4 was saying she’d only come this way because a crash further up the road had blocked the road. I looked and in the distance I could see another pair of cars head to head. The same stretch of road seems to be perilous.
I cycled passed feeling relieved that I was on a push bike. The second pair was an older guy in a 4×4 and a young lad in a small car that, like the previous one, was well and truly crunched in the front (but this one was also rammed backwards into the steep bank so the back end was a bit wrecked too. Seems like 4x4s may not just be good for getting around the countryside, but also protecting you in a head to head!
I couldn’t help thinking power in the wrong hands maybe?
I wore my Stealth Gear coat which allowed me to carry the Olympus E-P2 in one of the pockets, while spare lenses and the iPhone were each in another pockets.
Photo365 – Day 361 – Eyes on you
I spent a day in Nottingham looking round the sales. I always call in Fopp records, and today picked up the old film by Ken Russell – Altered States on dvd and a Sigur Ros deluxe limited edition of með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. That was easier to copy and paste than try and type!
I spotted this poster outside Fopp and hung around a few minutes until someone past. It’s a new film / lens combination on the iPhone and I like the sepia tones and treatment that are mainly generated by the Libatique 73 lens from the Cowboys and Aliens FreePak
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