Walk to Bluebell Wood, Melbourne, Derbyshire

New Toys

I like the four thirds format - a reasonable compromise between quality of image and size of kit.  It's better that the camera is actually with you.  One real problem is the cost of native lenses.  This is still a relatively new format and making things small increases cost.

A friend at work has been kind enough to lend me some old Olympus OM glass - something new to play with.

Original Olympus adapters are also expensive, but quality alternatives can be obtained fairly cheaply. The above taken with an Olympus 50mm OM lens at F2.8 - sharp, but shallow depth of field - the dust is on the box, not the lens.

Nice clean example of the Olympus OM 50mm F1.8 lens, tempted to get one of these after a very short time playing - much cheaper than current alternatives.  Operation has to be fully manual, but have continued with manual after the C&G stuff anyway.  The camera will still meter for light.

2secs, 50mm, F1.8, ISO400

Crop of above showing shallow depth of field.

My wife was sewing while I started playing with my new toy.  These 2 images, both cropped, were taken at night with only the living-room lights (3 X 5watt energy savers). Both taken at F1.8.  Some edge sharpening on the square image below.  Great detail as this crop is about 25% of image.

Few images below taken in the grey daylight that was available this morning.  Cropped and converted to jpeg's.



Street photography - Format International Festival, Derby

'Right Here, Right Now'

Exposures from the public realm

4th March – 3rd April 2011

Derby, UK

About Format International Festival, Derby

Whole range of different events and exhibitions around the city - well worth a look.

Press release about it is here

Aurora Borealis to light up the night sky

Aurora Borealis to light up the night sky

Great photo opportunity if you are travelling north for half-term.

Critique or criticism

Composition, Colour, Shapes, Patterns, Lines, Tonal Range, Frames, Rule of thirds, Texture, Form, Focal Point, Perspective, Scale,  Denotation, Connotation, (literal and implied meanings).

Anyone from 7512 will recognise these.  Words we have been encouraged to use when analysing and researching photographs.  OK, but is the picture any good?  It's just so subjective.  Well most of us know something that we like when we see it, don't we?  The difficulty, or the beauty of it, is that they are often linked with memory and / or emotions.  So is it the picture we like or is it all the other stuff.

I've had a root round to try and find something that will help me get behind this and came across this book - Criticising Photographs, Fourth edition - Terry Barrett, 2006.

I'll get back once I've had a chance to look through it and let you know what I think - subjective again.

I think my favourite quote to date comes in a section that is looking at differing art critics, criticism and styles:

"Allan Sekula's writing is so suspicious of photography that it has been called 'Almost paranoid' and has been likened to a history of women written by a misogynist"

N&EMPF - North & East Midlands Photographic Federation

Went to a presentation of images from the 56th Annual Exhibition of N&EMPF at the Derby City Photographic Club last night. 

Some amazing images, some I really liked, some I could appreciate and some that didn't do anything for me.  The only thing that they all confirmed was how far I still have to go if I attempt the journey.

February Snowdrops

31mm  1/160th  F7

ISO200   100dpi

This image did not work in colour.  Lighting was poor - taken in the middle of the afternoon on a very grey day.  Converting to B & W brings the snowdrops very clearly into focus as the subject.  I did not see the damaged flower when I took this, but I think it's OK, it is what it is - the first flowers of Spring.  No cropping other than to reduce the size of file.

Flowers used to form triangle with 1/3rd, 2/3rds divide.  Aperture set to bring most of the flowers into focus with background blurred.  Strong lines of leaves emphasising delicate flowers

Just liked this composition with the walled garden beckoning.  Difficult exposure trying to retain detail in the shadow without completely overexposing the image through the doorway.  Have been reading about merging two images of the same scene with differing exposure levels which I intend to explore over the coming weeks and months.