Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 23 December 2010

Merry Christmas to all my Twitter and Flickr friends, and everyone who reads my blog.

Thanks for all your brilliant and encouraging comments on my photos during 2010. I can’t wait to take more images throughout next year and to keep in touch with all of you in 2011. I’m looking forward to sharing more pictures and to seeing more of your excellent photos.

This chap lives on our mantlepiece, and was a good excuse to get some seasonal fairy light bokeh in the background. The tree’s lights are reflecting off the window and picture frame next to it, which gives a nice spread and different intensities. I have desaturated the whole photo and darkened the red to give a bit of an old-world feel to the picture. I undid the desaturation on the big red nose to make it stand out a bit. He was lit from directly above by a ceiling light with the dimmer switch as low as it will go. Two wall lights from behind camera-right, and behind the character, have given a nice highlight on both sides of his face. It was also the first time I have used my camera’s live view mode to check that the face was crisply in focus in the low light.

Best wishes,

Mike.

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25mm, 4sec at f/2.8, ISO 100
Autumn in Swinley Forest

Childhood wonder: autumn 1 November 2010

We visited friends near Reading at the weekend. They took us to Swinley Forest for a rainy, muddy walk through the trees. Much of the forest seemed to be pine, but there were large swathes of beautifully yellow deciduous trees too. The slight breeze was causing a ceaseless drizzle of yellow leaves to drift to the forest floor. Autumn detritus of leaves and seed pods littered the ground. It was as autumn should be.

Despite the drizzle, I took the camera out for some shots in amongst the trees. I took loads of photos and I’ve not yet processed them all, but this one really jumped out at me.

We found a deep section of gorgeous yellow and orange trees. There was an even light and the whole place seemed to be glowing. Despite my best efforts, Charlotte was not in a modeling mood and was doing her best to avoid me. My luck came in though when she found this spiky seed pod (what is it – do you know? Use the comments and educate me!) She was captivated by it for a few seconds and I managed to compose and get this shot. It is completely unposed and this was her natural reaction to finding the thing on the floor. Half a second later the spell was broken and away she ran, determined not to be photographed.

I was using the lens wide open at f2.8 to get the background as blurred as possible while focussing on her nose. I love how it has turned out. I love the colours and the way her body and arm point through the photo making it look nicely balanced. Her pink hat and blue spotty coat make for a nice contrast against the natural “autumness” of the background.

The background is very bright. If I’d had a Speedlite with me, I would have underexposed the background a little to make the girl really stand out a bit more. Having said that, by the time I’d set up the flash, the moment would have passed and the image would not have been possible.

I’ve done some minor post processing on the image. I’ve added a small S curve to add a little contrast and I corrected the white balance. I boosted the saturation of the yellows and then undid the adjustment on the yellow spots on her coat by using the ‘brush adjustment away’ feature in Aperture. There was a small part of completely blown out sky which I brought back a little in the top right. It’s still blown out, but won’t stick out as pure white if the image is printed. I added a little bit of sharpening too to really emphasise her outline, but that’s only really visible at 100% magnification.

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70mm, 1/200sec at f/2.8, ISO 400
Incy Wincy 2

A visit from Incy Wincy 14 September 2010

So there I was, simultaneously doing admin and writing tweets about the upcoming Saltaire Brewery beer festival when Sarah brought my attention to the massive spider that had just run across the living room carpet. I believe that my response should have been along the lines of, “don’t worry, I’ll put him outside”, but being the person I am, I jumped up, found a bright light and my extension tubes, and set about photographing this beautiful model for 10 minutes.

The extension tubes give a ridiculously shallow depth of field and it is very difficult to focus with them attached, so it was a lengthy shoot to get some images that were worthwhile keeping. I love the one of his hairy leg, but the three of the whole spider are brilliant too.

I’ve not had to do much post processing. The images are a little noisy because despite the bright light shining only a few centimetres from him, the extension tubes are light hungry and I had to use a high ISO (400 on some, 200 on this one). I corrected the white balance and sharpened them ever so slightly. I am really pleased with the outcome. My first attempt at macro wildlife photography!

By the time I’d processed them, Incy was long gone. Sarah would still have preferred me to have put him outside!

See the other images in the Spider set on Flickr.

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50+mm, 1/250sec at f/0.0, ISO 200
Dripping swan

An accident of good timing: Canal Swan 30 August 2010

Down on the Leeds/Liverpool canal near Shipley, between Saltaire Brewery and Dockfield Mills, live a family of swans. There is a pair of adults and three signets, which are growing up quite fast. I took Ted for a long ride in his pushchair this morning and we passed the swans. We stopped for a look and they all swam over, expecting bread which we did not have.

The adults were wary but let me creep quite close with my camera, hissing at me to let me know where the boundary was (I was about 1 metre away). With only 55mm of lens to play with, I had to get extremely close for this shot.

I have tried photographing swans so many times, yet have never achieved a shot that was any good, so I was really happy when I saw this one come out of the camera. Although I was crouched as low as I could get without actually lying prostrate on the grass, I was sufficiently high enough to ensure that the only background was the water of the canal. At f5.6 at this close, the water is nicely out of focus. The drip of water falling from the end of the swan’s beak was a complete accident of timing. I in no way attempted to capture it, and the first I knew of it was when it downloaded onto my computer.

I have sharpened the image a little to make the swan stand out even more from the background. My first attempt was way over the top though and I ended up with a black line around the neck that was very obvious at full size. I also had a bit of blue/yellow chromatic aberration around the beak and neck. This is the first image that I have really noticed it on, and that I have ever tried to remove it on. Using the sliders in Aperture, and not fully understanding the cause of it, I think I did OK. I am still not entirely happy with the top of the swan’s head though; it’s not quite right.

If you view the image at full size and look at the swan’s eye, you can see a reflection of the sky and the Dockfield Mills building that was behind me when I took the image. I’m really pleased with this!

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55mm, 1/160sec at f/5.6, ISO 200
Precious kiss

Tiny new born baby Daisy 28 August 2010

This is the newest addition to our family – little Baby Daisy. Three weeks early and weighing less than 2kg (4lb 14oz), I cannot believe how tiny she is. She is a miniscule, fragile, delicate little thing. Her new parents Mandy and Stephen are very proud of her, and rightly so. Congratulations to them both, she’s gorgeous.

My boy Ted is now a hefty, chunky, mobile one year old, but he was twice the weight of Daisy when he was born. She fits into the palms of two hands and is the most delicate little thing I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I have found it hard to comprehend how much a baby changes in the first year. In adult life, Daisy and Ted will be considered to be the same age, but right now they could not be any more different. It is a cliché that you hear time and again that “it all goes so quickly”, but looking at Daisy has made me realise for the first time that it’s true. I simply cannot remember a tiny Ted, despite the photographic evidence.

I took this photo at a recent family barbecue. I wasn’t particularly prepared for shooting a new born baby, especially one that does little other than sleep and feed, but I got a few snaps when the opportunity arose. I am happy with the set of photos I got, especially the black and white ones. This one here is the best example; I think I have captured her delicateness and the protective love of her mother.

I also love this one in landscape orientation, mother and child nose-to-nose. I chose not to use it though as Daisy’s yawning mouth makes it look like she was crying. It amused me that today’s release of the first photo of PM David Cameron and his new born is almost identical in composition!

With a little more time or preparation, I would do this shot a bit different as you can’t see much of Daisy’s face, but I think the emotion is there anyway. I tried several different black and white conversions at different levels of contrast. I found this one to be the best. Not too contrasty, but keeping enough contrast on Mandy’s face to enhance the delicate look of Daisy’s.

This is the first time I have tried to photograph someone else’s child, and I am happy with the results. Congratulations again Mandy and Stephen!

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45mm, 1/100sec at f/5.6, ISO 100
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