The Crystal Building by Siemens

 

Loved the reflections in the glass. The foreground was very dark so I decided to do an HDR using three exposures. Expures then fused in Photomatix.

 

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/2.8 @ 24 mm, ISO 100

Escalators

Canon EOS M, f/2.8 @ 22 mm, 1/40, ISO 800, No Flash

ExCel London at night

The more I use the EOS-M the more I'm impressed with it. The performance at higher ISO is great as this picture shows, and the pancake lens is impressive even wide open. I really like the touch to select focus and shoot option.

 

EOS-M, 22mm f/2.0 STM, 1/60s f/2.0, ISO 1600

 

Northampton at night in infrared

Thanks to Bob Latham for lending me his IR converted Canon 450D. I think it is around a 665nm conversion.

This was a quick test shot - I just desaturated the colour a little and upped the clarity in Lightroom.

Canon EOS 450D, f/4 @ 24 mm, 1.6s, ISO 400, No Flash

 

Fungus on wood

A close-up using the Eos-M and my Zeiss 100mm f/2. I really like the Eos-M for Macro work. I might do a review of the camera at some point, but for macro it is great to have a light body with an excellent live view.

I had the camera on a monopod to help me steady it. The touch-screen zoom helped to ensure critical focus - I was so confident of being in focus at the point of taking I only shot a single frame.

I loved the winter light on this.

 Canon EOS M, f/6.3 @ 100 mm, 1/250, ISO 400, No Flash

The last of the snow

Testing the EOS-M with the kit zoom. It's actually very sharp from wide open and handles nicely.

 

 



Canon EOS M, f/6.3 @ 18 mm, 1/800, ISO 100, No Flash

Minibeast

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/200, ISO 400, No Flash

John Sledging!

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/2 @ 135 mm, 1/640, ISO 400, No Flash

Tracey Fisheye Portrait

Fisheye's aren't the most flattering lenses for portraiture but they give a unique look.

Here I lit Tracey with flash and deliberately underexposed the background with exposure compensation.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/4 @ 15 mm, 1/800, ISO 800, Flash

Lighting up - candid HDR

Single image tonemapped in Photomatix

Canon EOS 7D, f/4 @ 12 mm, 1/2000, ISO 100

2013_52 Week 3: Gravity

Well I risked life and limb for these shots! I stood about 1/3 of the way down a sledging slope and used my 135L at or near wide open (f/2.0) to capture these shots. All need a little boost in exposure to get the snow white.

To assemble the tryptych I first cropped the middle shot to get the subjects a similar size in the frame to the other two and then used the Lightroom print function.

All were taken on the 1Ds3 - thank goodness for its good servo AF!

 

Mother and child snowy portrait

Asked mother and child in the park if they'd like their portrait taking...

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/2 @ 50 mm, 1/500, ISO 100, No Flash

Snowy Sywell

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/4 @ 85 mm, 1/250, ISO 100, No Flash

A quiet lunchbreak

Candid of lady sitting having a quiet smoke over lunchtime.

 

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/2.8 @ 200 mm, 1/1000, ISO 200, No Flash

2013_52 Week 2: Season

For this week's topic I considered doing something with spices, but then decided to go for a wintry portrait.

I spent some time waiting for a suitably wrapped-up person to walk past and asked if I could take a couple of shots. The kind lady agreed, and here is my favourite.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/4 @ 200 mm, 1/200, ISO 200, No Flash

Theresa on a chair

 

One @Lencarta softbox firing from behind and camera left.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/9 @ 85 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Swans at Willen lake

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/2 @ 135 mm, 1/2000, ISO 100, Flash

Peace Pagoda - de-fished HDR

Just around sunset I took this three shot HDR of the peace pagoda on my Canon 8-15L Fisheye.

I mostly liked the result, but felt the fisheye distortion detracted from the shot. I used the lens profile in Lightroom from Canon's 15mm f/2.8 fisheye to combat some of the distortion. I include an original fisheye frame for comparison.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/5 @ 15 mm, 1/320, ISO 800

One frame un-edited:

Out for a walk with Geoff

I took Geoff on his first outing - I was hoping he might meet some old friends. I got the impression he was happy enough.

Taken with the 85mm f/1.2 L wide open.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/1.2 @ 85 mm, 1/400, ISO 100, No Flash

Normal for Norfolk

When this chap appeared under that shop name I really had to take a frame!

Canon EOS 7D, f/2 @ 135 mm, 1/3200, ISO 100, No Flash

Solitary Grave

The excellent Canon 24mm f/1.4 MKII wide open, HDR.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/1.4 @ 24 mm, 1/1600, ISO 100

First shoot with Geoff

This is my first studio shoot with my latest model, Geoff. I'm planning to do mostly location shoots with him, but I felt he could do with getting comfortable in front of the camera first.

Geoff is lit with barn doors and gels from camera left and a gridded snoot from camera left.

Many thanks to Mary Townsend who managed to find Geoff for me.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/16 @ 85 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Great Orme / Llandudno at sunset

Had a quick play with my Lightcraft ND500 (8 & 2/3 stop) ND filter minutes from sunset. I blended three long exposures to try and soften the water.

 

 

I'm quite impressed with the filter  - it doesn't appear to have a strong colour cast from my (very) limited testing, and I'm looking forward to some other opportunities to use it.

 

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/4 @ 24 mm, ISO 100

Kayleigh and Mike

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/6.3 @ 50 mm, 1/100, ISO 100

2013_52 Week 1: Sin

Hi all

I plan to do the '52 challenge this year (one themed photo a week). The first week's theme is sin, so I chose 'Lust' and adapted an existing shot for it. Usually I'll shoot a new photo.

This was shot with just a gridded beauty dish firing across Joel from camera left. I deliberately de-personalised the shot a little as I felt the face might be a distraction from the theme.

Canon EOS-1D Mark III, f/7.1 @ 50 mm, 1/125, ISO 100

Natalie Rim-lit Profile Shot

Natalie rim-lit with a @Lencarta strip box behind camera left and Octabox camera right.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/9 @ 85 mm, 1/160, ISO 100

Natalie Silhouette

I had very little space for this sort of shot. I lit the background with a pair of softboxes and no light on Natalie. I then darkened the image and used selection tools in PSE to cut out Natalie. Finally I expanded the canvas and flood-filled.

 

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/8 @ 50 mm, 1/80, ISO 100

Wood in the winter sun!

Hello - apologies for the gap in posting - normal service now resumed!

This was taken today on the traditional walk to invigorate after the excesses of New Year's Eve. I loved the warm winter sun falling on these logs.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, f/4 @ 135 mm, 1/1000, ISO 100, No Flash