Category Archives: Photography

Photography

The last DSLR I’ll ever need

Leave a comment

This post stems from a conversation started with my good friend Chris Frosin, during a rainy visit to the Lake District a few days ago.  Chris and I don’t get together too often, so when we do, it’s a good opportunity to geek out on the some of the latest photo news.

I’ve been shooting with SLRs of one type or another for about the past 17 years.  I switched from 35mm to digital in 2002, and for the last 7 years, despite bouncing around between other various cameras and brands for certain shoots that had specific technical requirements, my body of choice has always been the Nikon D300s, and still is.

It’s my go-to camera.  It’s what’s always charged and ready to go at a moment’s notice.  I use it for both personal and client work.

DSC_2900

While I do love the D300s as a camera, there have been one or two shortcomings that have always bugged me.  I’ve never really kept these annoyances a secret, and they have been very minor annoyances, but I have been one of those yearning for a D400.

What did I want in a D400?  Well, to be honest, not really that much more than the D300s offered, but I did make a short list.

Continue reading The last DSLR I’ll ever need →

Photography

Winter was coming

Leave a comment

For the third year in a row, various news outlets have reported that we we’re going to be seeing the “Worst Winter in 100 Years”.  This year we finally got to see a little weather action.

I’m not sure the flooding of great chunks of the North West of England is quite what they had in mind, and being one of the 55,000 homes that was without power for several days, I didn’t venture out much while most of the city was underwater, but we did get to see a little snow last weekend.

Continue reading Winter was coming →

Photography

Smartphones – A Valuable Photographer’s Tool

Leave a comment

“What’s in your bag?” seems to be an often asked question.

Typically, this question means “What do you have that I can lust after?” or “What do you have that isn’t as good as what I have?”, but it also has another connotation.

Of course, the gear is important, don’t let anybody ever tell you otherwise, but it’s not about having “the best” camera, lenses or flash equipment, it just means you need the right ones for the task at hand.

But what about the other stuff?

There are so many things that, while not absolutely required, make life a whole lot easier during a shoot, and they’re often ignored when “the question” is asked.

I’m going to compose a series of posts that will attempt to address some of those things.  I suppose this could be considered “Part 1”, and I’m going to talk about some of the various ways my iPhone (but it applies equally to Android) has become an essential part of my kit.

Continue reading Smartphones – A Valuable Photographer’s Tool →

Photography, Photoshop

DPI vs PPI and Why it matters (or not!)

Leave a comment

This is a slight rework of a post I made on an old blog back in 2011, with a bit of an update to elaborate on a couple of points.

Originally this was in response to an article written by a particularly well known photographer claiming to “bust” some myths that his article actually end up reinforcing and propagating (which might explain why his post now seems to have magically vanished from the web).

I’d had a little back and forth on Twitter with this person regarding his new article and why PPI doesn’t matter when resizing images for digital display (meaning, on the screen, on the web, via digital projector running off a laptop, via a mobile device, whatever) which he claimed was a myth, and that it does matter.

Continue reading DPI vs PPI and Why it matters (or not!) →

Photography

Assisting in the clouds

Leave a comment

That’s “clouds”, as in, “those pretty white balls of fluffy stuff in the sky that are actually just big masses of static rain when you’re standing inside them”.

At some point around the middle of 2013, fellow photographer and good friend Graham Binns got in touch, as he does from time to time, to ask if I’d be interested and able to assist on a shoot.

I’ve assisted Graham before, a couple of times, and he’s assisted me in the past, too.  Whenever Graham and I get together, no matter who’s shooting, I know it’s going to be a fantastic day, we’re both going to come home exhausted, probably in a great deal of pain, and at least one of us will get wet.

So, of course, I said yes.

Continue reading Assisting in the clouds →

Photography

Developing your own film

Leave a comment

I started off in film and jumped wholeheartedly into digital back in 2002 when the Nikon D100 was released.

It was supposed to be a short break from film.  I’d always intended to return to it at some point and shoot the two side by side, but I was smitten by digital and it was a good 10 years before I finally pulled my Nikon N90s back out of retirement.

One thing I’d never done when I originally shot film was to develop and print it myself.  This is something I wanted to correct when I started again (prompted by the acquisition of a Nikkormat FTn for the princely sum of £1 at a local car boot sale).

Continue reading Developing your own film →

Photography

Birds, Birds, more Birds and a Dog!

Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending four and a bit days at the International Centre for Birds of Prey at Duncombe Park in Helmsley, Yorkshire.

I go to a number of game fairs and falconry fairs throughout each year, sometimes for work and sometimes for personal pleasure, but this one was a little something extra.  As well as being ICBP Duncombe’s first Raptor Fair, which looks set to become a great annual event, I was to photograph some of their display birds.

Of course, I photographed the birds during the displays themselves, as I often do at such events, darting about the arena and hopping from post to post, but I wanted to give them something a bit special.

arena_pano

Continue reading Birds, Birds, more Birds and a Dog! →

Photography

What is “Sync Speed”?

Leave a comment

Most people who use flash understand that your sync speed is the maximum shutter speed with which you can use flash.  What people generally don’t know is why.

“My camera goes all the way up to 1/8000th of a second, so why can’t I use flash past 1/250th?”

Well, this is really all down to how your shutter works in a DSLR.  The types of shutters in DSLRs are called “focal-plane shutters”.

Continue reading What is “Sync Speed”? →

Photography

“Do you photograph babies?”

Leave a comment

My reply to the question posed in the title of this post is usually something along the lines of, “It depends.  What type of baby?”

Then the conversation tends to go one of three ways.

The first two answers are the obvious ones.  I either hear “a little boy” or, not surprisingly, “a little girl”.

The third answer is my favourite, and the one I seem to hear most often;  “It’s a baby [insert random non-human species here].”

It’s not that I have anything against kids, you understand, but if you want the absolute best photographs of your new children, go find somebody who’s good at photographing babies and LOVES doing it.

The images will be worth it!

When it comes to animals, however, it’s a whole different story.

Continue reading “Do you photograph babies?” →