Tag Archives: DSLR

Picture within a Picture

05 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Photography, Wildlife

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Morning.

Some of you will know I actually shoot a lot of wildlife photography as well as my bread and butter portraiture and bridal work. Wildlife photography is much harder than people think, you can’t ask the subject to “pose like this”, or “just move this way a little bit”, you have to take what you can get – usually.

Sometimes though an opportunity presents itself when you least expect it!

This image of the fountain – there is a lot going on, water splashing, sun poking from behind the centre pillar – but I wasn’t taking a picture of the fountain. Take a close look and you will see a Carrion Crow perching all fluffed up. He was in the middle bowl of the fountain bathing (heaven knows why it was near freezing where I was stood!) and I only had my iPhone on me at the time.

Straight away I saw in my mind this picture, but it had to be a silhouette, behind me were grey buildings so anything other than being backlit would not have worked. I positioned myself so the sun was just poking from behind the pillar to give added interest and waited for him to jump out.

I was lucky that he jumped out the right side AND fluffed his wings – I took several shots using the iPhone and the Hipstamatic App, there are several with him in full silhouette just perching, but I prefer this fluffed up one.

Carrion Crow - taken using Hipstamatic - using Foxy Lens & Kodak XGrizzled Film

Carrion Crow – taken using Hipstamatic – using Foxy Lens & Kodak XGrizzled Film

Sometimes pictures of wildlife can have greater impact on the viewer when they show the environment more than the subject, in this instance the picture only works because of the surroundings, a close up silhouette of the Crow (if I had my DSLR with me) would not have been so appealing.

Best – Colin

What do you photograph when you have nothing to photograph?

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in General, Photography

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Morning

Sometimes us photographers get the equivalent of writers block, there is just nothing there, no ideas, no inspiration – nothing.

So what do you do? Well, you could keep your cameras locked away in their bags and go and watch TV, you could sit by the phone waiting for it to ring with your next paying client, or you could pick up your camera and just go out and shoot.

But, I have nothing to shoot – I hear you cry.

Well this is the thing. There is plenty to shoot, in fact, there is so much you could shoot that if you shot every spare day in your life you would never shoot everything you could ever shoot.

Set yourself a goal – if you shoot people – go out and shoot flowers, if you shoot flowers already then go out and shoot people walking dogs, or if you shoot wildlife go and shoot as many different street signs as you can in an hour.

By doing this, not only will you be a little outside of your comfort zone, but you’ll also have to “look” a little harder for a picture, but once you start looking you will eventually see, and once you start seeing pictures, that creativity will start flowing back.

I did this just at the weekend.

I set myself a target of only shooting 10 pictures, just ten pictures using an X100, no DSLR, no fancy lenses, just ten pictures – but ten pictures of man made shapes and within 1 mile of my home.

So I take a walk and it’s hard, very hard, I’m used to shooting people, either on location or in a studio. But after a while I started to look a bit harder. This is a road bollard, at the end of my road, nice textures on the wood and I liked the contrast between the red/white.

Road Bollard

Crossing the road I walked down an alleyway, I go down this alleyway almost every day, but this time I saw the leading lines into the distance, focus on the fence and a bit of flare, could have done with a person in the shot, but this was all about shooting other things.

Alleyway

At the intersection of this alleyway and the road, there is a piece of corrugated iron, great textures, I just had to shoot a couple of frames.

Corrugated Iron Fence

 

Corrugated Iron Fence

Another man made object, a wooden fence door with a chain, great, another shot, by now I’m halfway towards my total of ten, and I’m not 15 minutes from my front door!

Wooden Door

I walked a little further and came across this pipe in the wall, it didn’t seem to go anywhere, but I liked the texture and colour.

Blue Pipes

Only four more to find now and then I stumbled upon these amazing garage doors. They are doors to a block of apartment buildings, pretty cool and never noticed them before, used up two of my ten just on these.

Garage Doors

Garage Doors

So only two images left to find and I was on the limit of my 1 mile from home rule, I then looked across the river and spotted these blue buildings with red windows. I walk by them 2-3 times a week, and never noticed them before!

Blue Facade

On my way back home I had one shot to find – this doorway was an interesting subject.

Blue Doorway

And that was my final picture.

I’m not going to give up my day job just yet 🙂 But it was certainly a different way to go about my photography, and you know what, I quite enjoyed it.

So next time you get lost for ideas, set a target or make a list, and just go and shoot

Best – Colin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cameras don’t take pictures, photographers do.

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Photography

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Afternoon.

Photographers are always chasing that one “special” image, be it the most dramatic landscape lit by the once in a lifetime sunset spectacular, the “killer” Motorsport shot where it all comes together with perfect composition, great motion blur or panning and the jauntiest of angles or that perfectly and meticulously planned and thought out studio shot – we are always after it.

Some of us are lucky to get that image, some of us are not – but nearly all of us are guilty of one thing, and that is buying the latest and greatest camera/lens/flash/or other bit of gear that, if you are to believe the manufacturers, “will make you a better photographer”.

It won’t.

That super fast 1.2 85mm prime you crave for, it won’t make you a better photographer, nor will that new super duper camera body with pixel count off the scale that you are keen to remortgage the house for. None of it will make you a better photographer.

To be a good photographer you have to “see” the picture, look at the way the light falls, look at the shadows, have an understanding of depth of field and to be able to visualise that in the scene you are looking at – photography comes from within.

If you can shoot well then you can take a compelling photo with an iPhone, a compelling photograph comes from inspiration, not from the latest equipment.

The photograph below was taken at my old studio, I was setting up my lights and getting everything ready and the model was just chillin’ in the window frame waiting for me. I turned around and immediately “saw” a picture, my studio lights were pointing the other way, my DSLR had the wrong lens on, so I quickly picked up my trusty X100, (a fixed lens rangefinder type camera) and asked the model to tie her laces on her ballet shoes – I took three images, no flash, just ambient light.

This image is my favourite – it was the models too and it just shows you don’t NEED lots of high end expensive equipment to take a half decent image!

Best – Colin

X100 shoots Ballerina Girl