Spring in the Black Country #photography
I live in Wednesbury and it isn’t the most scenic place for landscape photography but there are lots of great places within easy reach. The spring flowers have been evident this week with ‘fool’s parsley’ growing close to pools, the river Tame and the Walsall canal. I was out and about photographing nature in full bloom on Sunday.
A Black Country Event #photography
There are many different types of photography. I’m currently doing a couple of photographic art projects that require high-quality images and I spend a lot of time on those. My print for an art competition is printed on canvas at 300 dpi and measures 20 inches by 16 inches. For that print, I went for high quality. For a Black Country event my priority is getting the shots and although the quality is important, there are many factors I can’t control and so image quality isn’t the top priority. I photographed the Black Country Horse Drive at the weekend and that was quite challenging but it was also enjoyable. Over 300 horses and their owners came to create a memorable event and raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
My thoughts this week #ramble
Each Sunday morning, I allow you into the innermost sanctum of my mind and share my thoughts with you. I’ve decided on something a little different this week. I’ll still share my thoughts but a bit earlier than usual.
Enjoying the spring landscapes #photography
Through the winter I struggled with poor light and even had a few photographs that were ‘noisy’. Noise is those little spots often white or purple that appear at the higher ISO settings. Now, though, we have great light and can enjoy walking in the country and getting amazing pictures. But all that green can be a little boring so watch out for things that will break up the sea of green such as walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The spring is a great season for landscape photography as the days get longer and the evenings get lighter.
History, art and photography #ramble
It’s Sunday morning and so once again I let you into the matrix that leads to the dark corners of my mind and will share my thoughts with you. What’s on my mind this week? History, art and photography as well as publicity and markets and a whole host of other things. I’ve been designing banners to publicise things. That wasn’t very successful but we learn, move on and improve. I have also been working on a couple of art projects. One involves flowers which leads me nicely into today’s photo which is one of the photos I took for the project. What ya think?
Developing a photography project #photography
I constantly develop as a community photographer. I take photographs at events as part of my role as a public relations officer doing publicity. I also do landscape photography, food photography and portrait photography. I not only try to develop the photography skills but the social skills to deal with people and I’m also trying to develop as an artist. I have two art projects at the moment. One is for a competition and is loosely on the subject of spring flowers and the other project is photographing people. I’m photographing people with a wide open aperture and a long zoom lens. That project needs a lot more thought and work. Yesterday, I was out taking photographs to publicise an event and a local company on social media.
Look at the time! #ramble #photography
It’s Sunday morning and so here I go trying to write another Sunday morning ramble. I was out early yesterday photographing narrowboats on the canal. I was even invited to join their tour but that involved walking up some abandoned locks and I know how steep that hill is! It’s a nice day again today and so I’ll be out taking photos again this afternoon. I usually start writing at about nine a clock, but today I thought, look at the time; it was after ten!
Experiments in photography #photography
Once a month we have an evening of spoken word, poetry and music in Wednesbury library and I’m allowed to photograph the performers. It is a great opportunity for me to experiment and see if I can take photos in fluorescent light without a flash and learn how high I can take the ISO up without getting noise. I’ve also done experiments with video. The monthly event is on the last Tuesday of each month and at the end of March, I experimented with wide apertures, spot focusing and monochrome.
Archive and library #photography
My camera takes photos that are 24 Megapixel and often that translates to a file size of 12 Mb or more. I then resize the folder to a size suitable for the internet which is typically 1 Mb file size per image. The images take up a lot of space on my laptop and video takes up even more. It is essential then to move them onto some kind of removable storage. My archive consists of a 500 Gb external hard drive and I have just bought a 1 Tb flash drive which will become another archive for images, video and music. I can simply move the latest files from the library on my laptop to an archive and free up space.
Wide-open in low-light #photography
I’ve been taking photos at more events indoors recently and doing much less landscape photography because of the weather. Indoor photography poses its own problems with low-light. To get some scenes in focus you need a wide depth of field but struggle with the low-light at narrower apertures. The answer is to just stay wide-open and try to take close-up shots of people. After all, at events, it is the people who are the subject!
Is it still raining? #ramble
Is it raining?
It’s Sunday morning and so once again I let you into the weird labyrinth where I keep my innermost thoughts. What’s on my mind this week? On a Sunday, I like to write this ramble in the morning and then after lunch, I like to do some landscape photography while I can drive about without facing mind destroying congestion. Of course, on Friday’s when the congestion is the worst we get the sunshine and on Sundays it’s always raining.
I was out last night taking photos at Churchill’s club where my brother was celebrating his 60th birthday. I have looked through the photos this morning and they are quite good. I deleted far fewer than usual and so I must be getting better at this event photography.
(more…)
New year and so some new plans #ramble
So it’s 2017, I wasn’t expecting to live this long or I would have looked after myself better. Last night my phone said ‘emergency calls only’. I thought maybe the network was overloaded with people wishing each other happy new year. It seems the sim has developed a fault. I have ordered a new one online. My new year isn’t off to a very good start.
New camera for Christmas? #photography
If you had a new camera for Christmas you might want to get the most out of it by learning a little about photography. It takes some time to learn all the settings especially on a DSLR but just understanding the basic settings can help you take better pictures. You can go from just taking snaps to creating images.
Group photos and metering #photography
This year I have moved away from landscape photography to become a community photographer photographing local events. It is a quite different type of photography and requires the use of wider apertures and different techniques. I didn’t expect to be doing so many events now that winter is nearly here but I have done three events in the past three days. All three events involved group photos.
Winter thoughts on Sunday #ramble
It is only 10 days to the Winter Solstice and the official beginning of winter. Anyway, it’s Sunday morning and so as usual, I let you into the darker corners of my mind and share my thoughts with you.
Every cloud has a silver lining #ramble
Good morning, readers. It’s Sunday morning again and so I ramble on and allow you into the darker pathways of my mind as I share my thoughts. I’ve had a lot of ill-health. When I go to the doctor I have to take a list of the things that are wrong with me in case I forget anything. I watched Casualty last night and I try to figure out what’s wrong with people before the doctor tells us. That guy last night with the psychotic behaviour fooled me. I wouldn’t have guessed he had lupus. If I go berserk and start attacking people with a large machete, I have an excuse now; it’s my lupus. Every cloud has a silver lining.
More than enough for everyone #ramble
It’s Sunday morning and as usual, I let you into the dark corners of my mind and ramble about the variety of stuff that is whizzing around in there this morning. As usual, I’m thinking about photography and right at the moment I need a keyword for this post! I’m thinking, there is more than enough for everyone. I mean more than enough food to feed the world and more than enough oil because there is a glut isn’t there?
What could possibly go wrong? #ramble
It’s Sunday morning again and so, as usual, I share my innermost thoughts with the world. What’s on my mind this morning? Spelling for one thing and things that might go wrong. I also have photography on my mind as it’s Sunday and my day to go out. Today I plan to go to a canal festival. What could go wrong? I could fall the canal and drown. I could drop my camera in the canal. There are a million things that might go wrong!
Bokeh and other blurred things #ramble
It’s Sunday morning and so once again I share my thoughts with readers. Today, I have bokeh on my mind. What’s that? I think it’s Japanese for blur; anyway, it’s what photographers call the blur in some wide aperture photos like the one below. I want to get sharp portraits with blur in the background. I also want to be able to take better photos under fluorescent lights so I ordered a special filter. In fact, I ordered a set for my 35mm prime lens and another set for my 18 to 105mm lens. At least I didn’t buy a new camera or a lens. I have some self-control; not enough to resist buying a light meter, though.
Another challenging week #ramble
It’s Sunday morning and so once again I share my thoughts with you and give you access to darker pathways of my mind. I actually went out on Friday, I don’t usually, the traffic is horrendous on a Friday. I decided to go to the food bank because they were in need of donations and while I was out I thought I would see if there was a photo-opportunity at the litter pick. While I was there, I thought I would check out the pool in the morning light. You know how one thought leads to another as you make life challenging …
Choosing picture control #photography
A lot of cameras have picture control which can be set before you start your photo-shoot. On my Nikon D3200, it is found on the shooting menu.
It gives a number of choices:
SD standard
NL neutral
VI vivid
MC monochrome
PT portrait
LS landscape
More summer events #photography
Over the weekend I photographed more summer events and the first was the finale of the Wednesbury in Bloom competition at the town hall. That didn’t go quite according to plan. I think the time of the presentation was changed so I missed it and I might have been told the wrong winner!
Coloured light #photography
Photography is about capturing light and it comes in lots of different wavelengths that we see as colours. Coloured light at events like shows can bathe our subject in a haze of colour like in this image.
Copyright considerations #photography
This is a bridge over an arm of the Walsall canal at Wednesbury. Will this exist in 50 years time? I have put a copyright notice at the bottom showing who took the photo and when.This helps preserve my rights as photographer.
