I think I've entered a black and white phase. I was happy with the boat shot the other day and it lead me back to some of the other photographs I took during that trip to see if they worked in monochrome.

I'm still not decided on these, but I thought I'd share and see if anyone felt like commenting.

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Old Row Boat

 

(Just in case it interests you, the Row Boat used to be much more blue. Most people seemed put off by the colours though, so I toned it back. I still like the blue version though...)

Ok, I'm sticking my neck out here and hoping for once I got something right.

Remember the HDR stuff from a day or two ago?

Well, I remembered one of the Chromasia tutorials talked about conversion to grayscale and it got me thinking...

If you'll excuse the pun, this picture floats my boat.

 

(The conversion here was performed using photoshops lab colour mode. the original plan to use the channel mixer worked well, but this seemed a little less contrasty and a little more light).

 

I'd put the process to convert this here, but you should really just check out Chromasia's tutorials as they're better than anything I could write.

"My name is Paul, it's been one month since my last HDR photo."

I swear HDR is like crack cocaine. It all starts innocently enough. Sure, you're just compensating for the lack of range in the photo. what harm can it do? Then, next thing you know you're seeing improvements in the picture, maybe saving an image that might not have been great otherwise. And then, before you know it, you're back looking at psychedelic skies and crazy moonscape beaches...

Well, I tried to be good. I tried to stay away from the evil addiction of HDR.

But, dammit. I love those skies man. I love those skies...

 

Original Image. (Some minor tweaks to curves)

(f/13, 1/80sec, 22mm, ISO-200, 19/07/08)

 

HDR - Image 1. Simple balance here to keep it close to natural colours but to remove some of the shadows and generally balance the thing out.

 

HDR - Image 2. High contrast drugs ahoy.

 

 

I know it's wrong. But why oh why do I still love 'HDR - Image 2' so much?

 

Ah well back to cold turkey.

 

 

Oh, in case you're interested, the boat here is an old trawler that's been beached on the channel between Donegal and Cruit Island. During low tide you can walk out to it from either side.

"They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed."

The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft

 

I've mentioned before that my wife comes from an island fishing family. Well, sometimes fish turns up on the menu when we visit. Normally shell fish, but not normally in a form where it might just eat you back.

Poor Larry wasn't long for this world so I thought the least I could do was give him a pictorial memorial here.

 

(f/5.6, 1/200sec, 250mm, ISO400)

 

Sometimes these photo opportunities fall on your plate (excuse the pun). It's a good reason to always have a camera close to hand (like a fork).

 

No lobsters were harmed during the shooting of this picture. Afterwards...

Sometimes I just hold up the camera and click. I know it's bad. But, I enjoy it. I sometimes get nice pictures, I almost always get shouted at for taking too many pictures. Sometimes it's worth it.

This shot is the exception. I saw the fencing and considered how best to frame it. I thought out the line of posts and considered what I wanted the depth of field to do.

I quite like it.

I still got shouted at though.

(f/7.1, 1/50sec, 55mm, ISO-200, 13/07/08)

Months ago I mentioned my obsession with taking pictures of red flowers after Dermot said it was difficult.

Well, I think I'm getting closer.

 

(f/6.3, 1/100sec, 50mm, ISO-200, +4 close up filter, 15/07/08)

 

As a point of reference, in the last two weeks I've taken in the region of 700 photographs and I'm likely to shoot another 200 over the next two weeks. I may jump around a lot with my train of thought in here as I review and post pictures.

This weekend saw the start of the annual Burtonport Festival. Given we've family there it's always a bit of fun and since Mad Dog McRae were playing it seemed like a good chance to try something I'd been wondering about for a while.

 

How exactly do you take a photograph of a band without using a flash?

The answer, it would seem is - "With great difficulty".

The band were playing on a converted trailer (I did mention this was happening in Donegal right?) which was lit by fluorescent tubes (Donegal, remember) and some simple stage lights. The sun was a setting and the music was a pumping.

(f/5.6, 1/50sec, 208mm, ISO-800, 19/07/08)

 

(f/3.5, 1/15sec, 50mm, ISO-400, 19/07/08)

 

Even with lighting on stage, it was very difficult to get enough light into the camera from the angle I was working at to keep shutter speed down. Also, given the light setup was "different" there were a lot of shadows obscuring faces in many of the shots I'd taken.

I tried a few things, initially using my zoom lens but quickly realising it wasn't fast enough (if that's the right term) and so switching to that little f/1.8 50mm I own. Whilst the second shot might have been cleaner if I'd upped the ISO a little more and reduced the shutter speed by opening the aperture, I just kinda liked this version.

Of the thirty or so shots I took, these were probably my favourites. By no means the best I've taken, they're definitely soft/blurred and unimpressive compared to concert shots I've seen elsewhere.

That said, it was Saturday night at the festival and the beer was flowing so I'm lucky it wasn't a picture of my eye or my toe.

There's two more weeks of festival fun, so if you've any suggestions or tips for this sort of shot please let me know. (the band, not my eye or toe).

 

Oh, and if you're in the Donegal area you'd probably have a good time at the Burtonport and Dungloe festivals. alternatively, if you get the chance to see Mad Dog McRae, they are much better than my dodgy pictures suggest.

I promised two little girls (well, their dad anyway) I would put a picture of a flower from their garden online.

(f/8.0, 1/80sec, 10mm, ISO-200, 15/07/2008)

 

Hopefully you can find this when you're next outside?

OK, things have been a little slow, but I've been away on my holidays.

This time I took the camera.

I have some stories to tell, but they'll have to wait since I'm sleepy.

 

(F/7.1, 1/200sec, 250mm, ISO-200, 14/07/08)

 

Oh, does anyone know how to tell if this was a turtle or a tortoise?

I found him in Germany if that's any use...

I'd mentioned revisiting the train tunnel that I used in the challenge (here) again.

One of the things I was never keen on in the original picture was the amount of dark space to the left. Adding to that, a few people suggested that putting the far end of the tunnel into focus might work better.

Well, I gave it a go...

 

(f/5.6, 1/125 sec,  24mm, ISO-200)

As well as a crop, I dropped the saturation in this a little and added a little sharpening and curves (because, well, you know...).

I like this. I like this a lot.

Please tell me I did a good thing.

Since I got the camera I've been fascinated by the concept of off camera flashes and using multiple lights to create effects.

There are a few good examples of this done well out there, try flickr or The Strobist as places to start.

One problem I did have was what kit (yes, more kit) would be needed to do it. In my reading I was constantly confused by terms like "pc to hotshoe" and "pocket wizard" and I've been reluctant to put a huge amount of time or money into something which, as an outsider, looked complicated.

However, never one to shy away from having a play I found a set of triggers (essentially wireless hot shoe mounts for the camera and the flash) on ebay for about £30. I had read that this sort of solution was definitely the budget option, but I figured what the heck.

For £30 you get a wireless transmitter and a wireless receiver. Each of these have a hot shoe attachment and slot onto your camera and flash respectively. One thing to note is your flash should really have manual controls on it.

What I discovered however was that when I plugged them onto my flash I had problems. Big problems...

The kit I bought consisted of an RF-04 transmitter and a PT-04 receiver. When connected to my 430EX flash all was ok until I fired the thing. The flash would then continuously fire as it recharged.

It took until today before I found the answer was as simple as setting the transmission signal to '1N'. If you look at the transmitter and the receiver, there are two little switches labelled - O-1 and N-2, just set these and the problem went away.

So, if you're using a 430EX and PT-04 receiver, hopefully this will solve your problem.

Edit: Forgot to say, as well as the 1N setting, the flash gun will need to be in MANUAL mode or it will just cycle and fire continuously.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who sent entries in. I appreciate it was neither a pure photography competition or a great picture to build upon. That said, it was a bit of fun and I hope you had a laugh doing it.

Given how frequently cropping was used within the entries, I'm guessing nobody liked my original composition!

In order to make it impartial, I asked Dermot to judge the entries and provided them to him in an anonymous flickr page.

You can find a gallery of entries here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27345143@N05/sets/72157606014987089/


About the winner, Dermot said:

"A nice clever crop, good composition, a little bit of brightness tweaking to bring out the colours and give definition to the clouds, we don’t need to see the whole digger to know that it’s a digger…"


So, without further ado and with much ripping of virtual envelopes, the winner of the 2008 Learningtosnap challenge is.....




Andrew!


Thanks to all that entered and to Dermot for judging the entries.

I wanted to retake the image of Moira Station using a wider lens to see if I could improve on my first attempt at it. Without the constraints imposed on me at the time, I hoped I could make something more of the lines and the skies.

Well, Friday provided me with that opportunity (as well as the chance to revisit the tunnel), so I gave it a go.

(f/14, 1/25sec, 10mm, ISO-100, 04/07/2008, polariser used)

As well as some curves adjustments, I made a slight crop to remove my shadow.

 

I'm still not sure I like this more than the original.

OK, whilst I look at the entries for that competition and deliberate and conjugate and all those things the bloke on Master Chef did I thought I'd show you this.

I took it today, more to prove to myself that it was impossible to use the close up filters with the 50mm lens on a tripod.

Well, you know what.

Turns out you can.

(f/10, 30sec, 50mm +10 filter, ISO-100, 02/07/08)

 

This is part of the back of one of those pin pressions toys (just in case you're interested).