Playing with fire

Playing with incense smoke for an hour last week.  I was attempting a slightly different idea, but that didn't work out, so I decided to just go ahead with some normal smoke trails anyway.  I usually like the simpler compositions of this type of image, but I like elements of each of these exposures and they worked best as a merge, rather than a quad.  I find it quite a mesmerising image following all the smooth curves, spirals and coils, hopefully all the details outweigh its busy composition

ISO100, 29mm, f/5.6, flash, levels, noise reduction, cropped, 4 exposures

ISO100, 29mm, f/5.6, flash, noise reduction, cropped

Smoking girl with a curl

The second image is a freak smoke formation of an 50's movie star, 

complete with arms, curly hair, dress, shawl, neck and nose.

Night Life

Orion and Jupiter in the sky above St Andrews church Chippenham.

Taken from Monkton park, which was still relatively busy thanks to the mild evening and proximity to the weekend.  It's always easy to feel a little vulnerable carrying expensive camera gear around urban areas at night, but it felt pretty chilled out and there is something reassuring about having a few kilos of metal tripod handy.  Having so many windows lit up was a bonus, but the reflection in the river didn't add as much to the image as I imagined, so it's been mostly chopped.

ISO400, 16mm, f.9, 30s, tripod, cable release, mirror lock up, cropped, noise reduction

Cottage in the mist

ISO100, 35mm, f/13, 1/3s, tripod, cable release, shutter  lock up, cropped, noise reduction

A misty sunrise with plenty of subtlety (too subtle?).  

It was an impulsive sunrise rather than a planned one, so the scene isn't the best, but the depth, smooth tones and pastel colours are worthy of posting

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HMS Royal Arthur

Had a quick scout around the nearby HMS Royal Arthur at lunch break last week. An MoD training base built after WW2, famous for having trained Prince Phillip (Duke of Edinburgh), but left derelict since 1993, it has been overtaken by vegetation and graffiti. A very interesting site which I will definitely re-visit soon.

Warm up

Dismayed with my continuing lack of photographic inactivity I decided to get my motor running last night and headed out to the highway, looking for adventure and whatever came my way. Rather predictably it was a highway full of cars and not much else, not a single lit up church or patch of clear sky in sight. So I decided to just do a practice run of a straight forward light trail, which turned out to be warranted, as I had forgotten to pack my head torch and tripod mounting plate?! Rusty to say the least. So with my camera bungeed to the tripod I fumbled around in the dark and took a few shots, using the distant glow of Bristol to brighten the dull sky. Lessons learned and brain refreshed, hopefully I'll get somewhere slightly more exciting sometime soon ...

ISO100, 16mm, f/8, 90 seconds, tripod, cable release, mirror lockup

Up periscope

ISO400, 560mm (400mm + 1.4x teleconvertor), f/8, 1/800s, -1/3ev, cropped, noise reduction

A mad march Hare pops its head above the grass-line in a local field, while a whirlwind of four buzzards circle in a thermal nearby.

Pic 'n' mix

A clear out of some images that didn't reach the blog over the last few months, possibly the most diverse mix of shots I've ever posted!?

Camels ahead - road sign, Morocco

Winter Walkers - Chippenham (home town)

Every sheep has a golden lining - Sunrise

Relaxing at Lisbon fashion week

Roman temple - Volubilis, Morocco

Seagull sunset - Wales

Symetrical archetecture - Lisbon, Portugal

Sunrise panorama with village chimney smoke trails

Quiet March

ISO100, 35mm, 1/500s, f/2.8, -1ev, cropped, levels, stacked

Seven spot Ladybird takes flight in a stacked sequence of images.

It's been a lazy start to March for my camera, thanks to moving house and starting to run in the evening sunlight. I did intend to get some night sky photos done Thursday night, with the planetary conjunction ongoing at the moment, but after two nights of clear skies it clouded over and another plan was scuppered.

A good mothers day weekend to all and we'll see what comes into focus next week...

Lunar-Jovian-Venusian Alignment

Was out looking at the stars at the weekend, taking a look at the alignment of the three brightest objects in the night sky - Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. Couldn't resist fitting the x1.4 teleconvertor to my 100-400mm and seeing what I could see. No moons around Jupiter unfortunately, but easily visible as a planet, especially with the Live-View screen set to 10x zoom.

It's not a blog without a photo, so here's a photo of the crescent Moon..

ISO200, 560mm, f/8, 1/13s, cropped, corrected chromatic aberation

Venus. Not quite the Hubble ST, but about $1.5 billion cheaper..

Interesting red and blue light, caused by prismatic aberation of the light coming through the Earths atmosphere. Also note that Venus has no moons, so the blobby bits must either be a UFO or dust/dirt in my camera setup.

Bristol Classic Bike Show

Four images taken last weekend at Shepton Mallet and styled in Photoshop to give them the tone and feel I was looking for. Saved in a slightly different size than usual in an attempt to see if it avoids the distortion that Blogger image viewer seems to be cursing us with of late ...

ISO1600, 105mm, 1/100s, f/2.8, -1ev

ISO1600, 16mm, 1/6s, f/4, -1.6ev

ISO1600, 30mm, 1/25s, f/2.8, -2ev

ISO320, 23mm, 1/30s, f/3.2, -1.6ev

Robins in the snow

ISO1600, 400mm, 1/400s, f/5.6, noise reduction

Taken on a wander at the weekend, since all the robins around home seem to have taken to the recent trend of singing and interacting at night, even though it's not exactly a noisy metropolis.

ISO200, 350mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, +0.3ev, cropped

Another taken in a passing patch of Sun, it's near side eye was in the shade, but as it turned it's head just before leaving, I capturing the catch light in its eye and a more interesting pose.

It's nice to at finally have something to blog, after getting out for a Sunrise that turned out to be un-inspiring and setting up for a steam locomotive panoramic, only for the train not to show, has led to a bit of a gap in the photographic flow here. Especially frustrating at this time of year when there's a fantastic sunrise burning the sky, I even have my camera with me, but I'm going in the door to work. I think of all the places I could have made the most of the moment - photographers curse.

Happy Valentines Day to all!

I will post again soon...

Arty birds

Okay, as usual lets get the excuses out of the way to start with! I've had a bad foot for about two weeks, crutches, painkillers, sleepless nights and all that, so not done much running around with the camera. Bit of a shame as I quite fancied blatting up to Scotland to see the Northern lights this week!

ISO320, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6

Starlings surveying their surroundings from a TV aerial, with a textured and coloured background. I liked the shot with the oil-slick rainbow colours of the birds, poses and composition, but felt it was a much better image with some toning and texture to give it a bit of an artistic, contemporary feel.

Review of 2011

Well 2011 certainly slipped by in a hurry, with the main event for me being the big tour in september and october, it almost felt like eight months of saving and waiting, followed by six weeks of craziness, followed by two months of "where did summer go? - blimey its Christmas already!".

Between the budgeting and lack of spare holiday I'm not sure that my photography didn't suffer a little overall, especially as when the tour did arrive I un-expectedly felt the desire to bask in the adventure of it all, rather than let my photography have much influence on events (which it usually does). I'm pleased with the photos I brought back, but I know they were not the product of any concerted effort.

I guess the same can be said of my to-do list that I set myself, failing on almost all counts! I definitely got closer to some half decent Kingfisher photos, but the chase continues for another year. So with a self administered, "must try harder", slap on the wrist, most have made their way onto the 2012 to-do list.

The one area I have been really pleased with is the four weddings we've photographed in 2011. I've learnt a lot, had lots of fun and got some great feedback from the couples brave enough to let us be their photographers. With some luck and a concerted effort I hope to build on the experience we've gained and drive this on to be the start of something we can get going properly in 2012.

And with all that waffle out of the way, time for some more tour photos...

Berbers take photos too! - Merzouga

Hands of carpet weaver women in Fez - worked hard for little money

One of the many Mosque doors in Fez medina - almost all exquisitely carved

Cats in the blue alleyways of Chefchaouen - deemed clean animals by Islam they roam most of Morocco

Crescent moon setting behind the Koutoubia Mosque, Jemaa El Fna - Marrakesh

Priests preparing for a large televised service in Santander cathedral, Spain

Board-walk Sunset on the south coast of Portugal

Only donkeys and handcarts are allowed to make deliveries in the Medina - Tetouan, Morocco

Walls made of leg bones and skulls at the Chapel of Bones, Faro, Portugal

Sunset in the Algarve, Portugal

The heavily photographed tannery district of Fez

Wedding #6

A selection of images from the wedding we photographed just before Christmas.

Despite the venue's dimly lit, mood-lighting, which proved to be double edged, the very handsome and beautiful couple were fantastic and we had another fun day.

M and P Photography

Lisbon

Some photos from a stop off in Lisbon, Portugal on the way back up from Morocco..

One of the many colourful trams, looking colour-popped amongst the grey buildings and cobblestones

A stack of flats adorned with the trappings of everyday Portuguese life in the setting Sun.

Grand architecture and moody lighting, always a bonus.

A Sunset Moonrise

(Selective levels & colour balance in PS)