So we recently held Lancaster Photographic Society‘s Annual Projected Image Competition, judged by Tillman Kleinhans.
Congratulations to Ruth and Allan for getting colour and mono Image of the Year, respectively.
My images are shown at 8:18, 15:46, 24:20 and 29:14, and linked below the video.
Continue reading LPS Annual Projected Image Competition 2014
After 5 or 6 months of almost non-stop rain, we’ve finally started to see some breaks in the clouds the last couple of weeks and had one or two days of rather lovely sunshine.
That means it’s time to get out of the studio and back on location!
Throughout the year, even when I’m not actively shooting on location, I’m always looking for new places to photograph clients, models and other subjects. It’s just something I tend to naturally do when I’m out travelling somewhere.
This post is the consequence of a conversation I had yesterday evening with my sister, chatting to her about the upcoming South Lakes Interclub Photography Competition, and how the whole thing works.
But it is also kind of the point I was attempting to make on my previous post about fixing things in Photoshop that you could’ve resolved at the time of shooting (well, one of the points I was trying to make).
In previous years, we’d remained at the venue (as a competing team, not as host) until at least 11pm usually (once past midnight – after which we had to make an hour and a half drive back home) due to waiting for technological hiccups to be overcome so that we could continue, but last year was different.
SD cards are pretty cheap these days, but that doesn’t mean we should let our smaller ones go to waste, especially when a system doesn’t fully utilise the space of a larger one that could be more useful elsewhere.
So, what can we do?
Normally, to backup and restore SD cards, I use Win32 Disk Imager.
The main problem of Win32 Disk Imager is that it creates an image file the same size as your SD card, no matter how much of the card is actually being used. If you’re using a 32GB card with a 4GB partition and the rest is unallocated space it will still create a 32GB image file.
Typically, however, I think most of us will allocate the full size of the SD card to the system.
During my talk for Lancaster Photographic Society recently, I was asked a question that I’m also going to answer here. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something along the lines of…
“Is getting the right exposure in camera really all that important? Can’t we just nudge it in Photoshop?”
Before I start, I want to clarify a definition here, and a difference between “right” and “technically correct”. It is perfectly possible to make an exposure that is “right”, but not “technically correct” when you shoot with your post processing in mind in order to maximise the capabilities of your camera’s sensor.
Sometimes intentionally over or underexposing slightly allows you to capture the scene and process it in a way that gives a better final result than if you’d started off with a “technically correct” exposure. So, sometimes “technically correct” isn’t the same as “right”.
But to answer to the question, the short answer is “You can, but if you don’t have to, why would you?”.
I have been a member of Lancaster Photographic Society for about five years now, ever since my wife and I moved to Lancaster.
Each week throughout autumn and winter we meet, and usually the photographers who come and offer presentations to us are detailing projects and genres that are very personal to them.
They tell some amazing stories, they sometimes go pretty in-depth into the technical aspects of how they do what they do, detail the circumstances that led them to be where they are today, and list some of the challenges they have faced along the way.
Occasionally we have a speaker from our own membership, somebody interesting, worldly, and presenting images the rest of us could only dream of creating. So when I was first asked to present a talk, I was quite surprised.
In photography, there are many items we would buy if only we could find a viable reason for putting down so much cash.
First, for me, was the 70-200mm f/2.8VR. For years, I lusted after one, but didn’t really had a legitimate need for one that would justify dropping £1600+ until about four years ago.
Then there was the 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor. As much I would’ve loved to have been able to splurge on one, it was an expense I couldn’t justify until last year. That was another one that had been on my wishlist for about a decade.
The Sekonic L-758DR falls into that same category. It’s a handheld light meter that I’ve wanted for years, but with a retail price of £399, it just wasn’t going to happen. Certainly not when my L-718 has performed so beautifully the last few years.
Continue reading Sekonic L-758DR “Digital Master” Light Meter
I’ve talked about some of the pros & cons of the Eye-Fi card before, but on location these days, it’s something I find difficult to live without.
It’s a luxury, not a necessity, but it does allow me to speed up productivity and waste less time on a location shoot wondering whether the image I just shot is adequately sharp, if I’ve hit the correct point of focus (the camera LCD is just too unreliable – especially when you need to manually focus), or just to see the overall composition on a larger screen.
So, I’m now officially a Trucker. A CubieTrucker, that is.
It arrived yesterday, sadly about half an hour before I had to go out, so I pretty much just had chance to put the case together (almost), and didn’t really get to play with it properly at all.
But, it’s beautiful, look at it!
There was one location at which I shot at quite a lot during 2013 (at least 20 times over the amazing few weeks of summer we had last year). It’s fairly close to Lancaster (about 10 miles out), and it looks absolutely gorgeous, but only up until about noon.
During the morning, shooting upriver, the sun creates a beautiful backlight on the water and your subject. Pop a flash from the front, and…
