Been a while…

So hey! I’m not really sure why I haven’t found the time to update this place in over a year. It doesn’t say very much about my ability to stay committed to something, but I assure you that in the past year I’ve had this photo blog in the recess of mind. It sat there prettily happy in the knowledge that I would update it, just as soon as I took a decent picture. We’ll ignore the fact that the pictures in question was taken a few months ago now…

During the summer my parents celebrated their circa 400th wedding anniversary (expert opinion on the exact timing of their marriage varies, carbon dating has proven inconclusive) and they took the opportunity to invite family and friends to a National Trust location. Alcohol imbibed, cake consumed, anecdotes recounted, and a great chance to walk round the gardens and take some photos.

So a bird and a bee (of sorts, don’t get technical on me entomologists!) Enjoy!

This cute bird was totally checking me out

Could have been sharper for sure, but I like it.

New lens, ready for wildlife photography

So I know I haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been taking photos. In fact a few weeks back I splashed out on a new lens, one that would be ready for just about any situation. It’s an 18-250mm lens that on my Sony A55 will equate to something like 27-380mm, which I am more than happy with. Previously I’ve made do with a 50mm portrait lens (that I love), and my stock 18-55mm lens, but now with the new lens I can achieve so much more, for instance; wildlife photography.

This was something I’d had in my head since I got the lens and so on my way to work I would, every so often, go via a nearby park called St Ann’s Well Gardens. The first time I went I was really lucky and the place was literally swarming with squirrels, very friendly squirrels who didn’t mind getting very close. But these ground level shots in the morning gloom weren’t really working well. Every time I returned to the park on a brighter, nicer morning it was instead swarming with dogs and their owners. The squirrels kept safely hidden. Then a few days ago, after all but giving up on the squirrels, I was walking along my normal route to work and heard something move in the trees above me. And this fella posed for me;

More breakfast than I'd had that day

The Brighton Trail

At the start of October I went on a little thing called the Brighton Camera Trail, a present for my birthday in June. A small group of amateur photographers are led around Brighton by a professional taking photographs of anything and everything whilst getting tips and tasks from the the pro. A lot of the things being taught were things that I already knew, but it was incredibly useful having someone affirm what I’d learned myself by messing with my camera’s settings. The highlight of the trail was a task we were given in the heart of the north laines where we were told to approach strangers and take portraits of them, in order to create a series of similar pictures, forming a ‘project’ of sorts. We weren’t forced to do this, and in fact one guy didn’t approach a single person, but it was a really useful exercise in building confidence with my camera in public settings.

So, here are a few of the photos I took on the trail. My project is going to feature in its own post, with a little more detail.

Enter the Laines

A very handsome building

Possibly the girliest image I have ever made

I’m going to do so many more of these, they’re awesome

A bit of long exposure to end the day

Solo: Accidents that you wish were intentional

Sometimes I’ll just take pictures of the sun and sky, or stretch my hand out as far as I can and take a picture from some dodgy angle, or mess with my cameras settings as much as possible then snap away. If I were to then say that this has worked for me, I’d be lying. It’s produced some interesting shots, but nothing that great.

This shot however came from a far less contrived accident. I was simply taking a picture, a portrait, and accidentally lined up myself and my friend  in the subjects shades. Bam, instant cool. Now this could have been set up, but then I wouldn’t like it so much, it would be far less natural, so unnatural in fact that I’d probably have remembered to keep my eyes open.

Rose between two thorns

Solo: More Macro

I’ve done some macro before, as can be seen here and here, but my camera’s ability to take macro shots has recently been improved.

I haven’t got a shiny new macro lens, because they cost a bomb. What I do have is a £30 attachment, provided for my birthday. The doodad is a dual wide-angle and macro lens converter. It consists of two pieces, each containing lens of particular shapes.

The effect produced when both pieces are being used is to expand the picture that my current lens is capable of capturing. Essentially it lets me fit more in to the picture. The picture is warped slightly, with a slight fisheye effect, because the adapter is essentially a fisheye lens.

When you remove the larger, frontal piece, of the converter you are left with the macro portion. This does exactly the opposite of the combined pieces, it reduces the picture taken. The angle at which light enter the lens becomes much tighter, essentially magnifying the central portion of whatever is in front of the camera. This also allows me to get closer too, as without the converter my lens has a minimum focussing distance, and because of the converter light is able to enter at a tighter angle the camera is able to focus on objects nearer to it. The result is images of far finder detail than my stock lens would normally be able to capture. The downside however is that the depth of field is also reduced, meaning that a thinner slither of the image is in focus, which isn’t always noticeable in macro work.

So without further ado here’s my first proper stab at macro with this converter, expect much more in the near future.

Solo: Harrogate’s Cenotaph

‘Solo’ is simply the name I settled upon for when I can’t find a theme amongst my pictures and end up posting them one at a time.

Today’s Solo is of a monument I have been unable to spell for a long time, a cenotaph. A cenotaph is an ’empty tomb’,  from the Greek κενοτάφιον, rather fitting as they are usually dedicated to the dead, specifically dead soldiers.

This cenotaph in particular is based in Harrogate and was constructed in 1923 by the sixth Earl of Harewood in memory of fallen soldiers from World War I, it was then rededicated after Word War II to include the dead from both wars. Every year on Remembrance Sunday a service is held there, as happens across the country.

The Cenotaph in Harrogate

Panoramas from Portugal

Panorama is an unbroken view of an entire surrounding area. The word itself comes from two Classical Greek words bolted together, as they often are,  πᾶν meaning ‘all’ and ὅραμα meaning ‘sight’.

My fancypants camera can take panoramas by way of taking a large number of pictures as I slowly and steadily swing the camera 90 degrees on the spot, and then the demon inside magically stitches the captured images together with his forsaken arts. Or at least that’s my understanding of the process. The technique itself isn’t actually all that wondrous as it can by be achieved by a novice with only 9001 hours of experience in MSPaint too with conventionally taken pictures.

I’ve run out of interesting tid bits about the fascinating definition of a word that you already know, and the incredible tendency of us Brits to cannibalise Classical Greek words. And since I don’t want to bore you with sinister workings of the Sony ‘Abaddon55’ DSLR camera, I’ll just post some more pictures.

Not a bad view from a hill above the house. (You can see the house in the bottom left, it’s the yellow one)

Nice view from a small beach in Figueira

The much bigger beach in Figueira, every where you look there is sand

The stunning view of the rice fields from the top of the Castle in Montemor-o-Velho. The fields will soon  all be flooded like the one on the right, don’t worry they do it on purpose.