An epic fail!

Well, keeping the blog updated seemed to have failed a bit. It's one of those things which just sort of slipped by me. I'd like to say that the daily grind got in the way, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse! I need to re-prioritise my life again.

Me and some friends where in Avebury as I was filming a wonderful "Gong Healing" workshop. The bed and breakfast we stayed in was looking out over Silbury Hill and in the morning we thought it would be a good idea to take a walk to it before check out. So i loaded up lightly, just taking my camera and the 17-50 f2.8 lens.

A word to the wise, don't forget your battery! They do come in handy when out and about with your camera, they don't work very well left in the charger sat in my backpack! Do'h! Thank god for the iPhone.

My three regular blog followers ;-) will know that this blog in mostly about me and my D7000, however in a diversion from normal programming, today i'm going to look at some iPhone4 photo's all shot and edited on the iPhone using various apps. As i heard said once before, the best camera for taking photo's is the one you have on you!

Enjoy the wonders of Avebury. I will be going again sometime soon without having any work to distract me, just to enjoy the place properly.

Laters ya'll.
Gordon

Video test

Just a little test of my new lens a Sigma 17 - 50 f2.8 ex dc os. I quite like this lens. It's very well built and feels as good as nikons own 17 - 50 lens. Optical quality for still images is in the process of being tested at the moment . But the video looks good, contrast is nice. And if you wanted more you could dial it in o the camera settings or do it in post.

These shots are hand held with the sigma Optical Stabiliser turned on (this helps to keep the camera stable for still photography but also works for video which is great), I think it gave good results for hand held shooting with no planning. As with anything a bit of planning and i should have rested my arm on something as i took the shots. But hey, i'm not judging my hand held skills here.

Nikon D7000

Sigma 17 - 50 f2.8 ex dc os

I think this lens is very well made. It all feels very solid, as solid as the nikkor 17 - 55mm f2.8 lens which is several hundred quid more expensive. I think i'll run this video through the editing suite again this time colour grading the image and adding some post stabilisation to make it look smoother.

The Depth of focus is really nice on the lens and although the focus has a small motion, turning from close to infinity in just a quarter turn, there is some resistance in mechanism which makes pulling focus quite smooth. The bokeh (the out of focus blurriness) is really nice at f2.8. I'll do more little tests on this lens in the next few days, both video and photography. I'm going to use it to video a few interviews tomorrow!

Anyway this has been a bit tech heavy compared to my usual blogs so if you've made it this far and have questions don't be scared to leave them down below.

Gordon

The continuing adventures...

Thursday night I was returning from a little art showing in Mayfair, where Laura was displaying one of her commissioned pieces. I as per usual brought my camera. I definitely think this blog thing has helped me to focus and I got some killer event shots.

Anyway I digress, I was walking up the tube platform with the umpteen million people squeezing themselves through the doors and barging past each other like the Gap was going to chase them down and eat their brains. I stopped, like the git I am, to do up my boot lace. I can hear the muffled moans as the Gap catches up with these people and their dispare that my inconsiderate bootlace has caused them.

After the bootlace is sorted and I can safely perambulate without tripping over and really encountering that dreaded Gap people are so fearful of, I look around me. The platform was deserted, apart from one man who was just waiting, but what for I don't know because I was on that platform for 3 more trains after my one passed and he didn't get on any of them. Digressing again...

Like any good photographer in this situation I decided to get as close to the big DO NOT CROSS FOR DANGER OF DEATH sign and lay down on the floor to wait for the next train, resting the camera on this little diddy table tripod I had in my pocket.

Zoooooooommmm.

Having the camera stable on the floor allowed me to have a long exposure speed of about a second, meaning I could capture the motion of the train zipping past me whilst the rest of the shot stayed in crisp focus. On top of this laying on the floor gave me an angle which is not seen often by the casual observer adding interest to the piece. You can try this yourself on pretty much anything, look at pictures of flowers. Who many good ones can you see taken from the top down, you'll see they're all take from the side or from down below, because it presents a familiar object in an unfamiliar way.

I've been playing around with creative borders in my pictures also.... I love borders and vignettes. Have you noticed that yet?

Talk soon.
Gordon

Day 30. Feb 2st 2011

Final Day. Wow. I made I lot of photo's in this 30 days! Today's photo is a portrait of myself. I'm definitely not the most photogenic person on the planet but i think i succeeded. I used the simple method of adding shit loads of soft light to smooth out my skin tones.

And there we have me! I kept this one simple with the photoshop, though the temptation was there to airbrush the crap out of my face. I would have liked to use more lights to be honest, but one of my little flashes has started to malfunction. Let that be a lesson to those who buy cheap stuff from Hong Kong. Though ti be honest, the ebay seller is more than happy to replace the light, I just have to return the faulty one in it's original packaging, it's going to take some time to get back to me. Wish I'd spent the extra £20 and brought it from amazon.

So in this luna cycle what have I learned? I've learned that I can show more photo's as i've been so bad in the past of just snapping away and saving things to my harddrive never to be seen again. I've learned to focus more on composition and hold back on my itchy trigger finger. I've discovered that in a short space of time I can produce better results. I think i'm still miles away from having my own photographic style. I've learned the importance of backing up my harddrive and how useful that extended warranty can be. I've come to the understanding that I should only every attempt poetry as a comedic gesture. I can write. I must stop taking photo's, I need to make more photo's.

Although this is the end of my Photo A Day challenge, this is not the end of my blog. I'm looking forward to once a week posting a photo, which has had much more thought behind it than what i've, sometimes very, hastily composed this past month. I may even try my hand at reviewing camera equipment. I'll also be posting dSLR video footage too, though how and when has yet to be decided.

I hope you all have enjoyed my ramblings and my photography.

Stay tuned ya'll, this blog ain't going no place.

Gordon C Burns

Day 29. Feb 1st 2011

You know, we're already 1/12 of the way through the year. It's going to be a fast year I can just feel it, so please everyone buckle those safety-belts.

Today I was a bit mehh. After loads of days at work I've finally got a day off and my brain just shut down. It wasn't until I was about to give up on taking a photo today when I saw some mist rolling in (I live in london so when I say mist i mean smog; deadly, choking, polluting smog). The light on the other side of the little communal garden was on lighting the mist quite eerily.

Now to be honest after I returned with my camera some of the mist (deadly pollutants) had dispersed. But still i think it's an interesting composition. Very little in terms of photoshopping has gone into this, apart from a tiny touch of contrast adjustment and I removed a bit of light reflecting on the lens.

So tomorrow's the last day of my Blog a Day for this luna cycle! So i'm going to make it a good one. I'm hoping to return to head-shots/portfolio pictures... wonder who the model will be?

Gordon

Day 28. January 31th 2011

A simple picture today. Mainly testing out ways of enhancing lighting in a photo without it looking fake and exaggerated.

The colours are very "movie like", seeing as the prop is from Doctor Who. I thought the colours would give a more "real" impression as our brains, when confronted with a TV or Movie prop always find the actual objects to be somewhat flat and lack the colours we remember from the big screen. Interesting how we sometimes have to add elements to an image to give some things an effect of reality.

Does that make sense?

Gordon

Day 27. January 30th 2011

My little Mac is back from the apple store and all shiny and fixed, they even cleaned it for me! Some people think that paying for an extended warranty is a waste of money. My £100 apple care warranty on my laptop has already paid for about £400 worth of repares! So, along with the piece of mind this gives me, I think it's money well spent.

Finally had the time to snap a picture on my way to work! Yay. Didn't have time whist at work to cheekily edit it though, hence another late update. Be warned for those of you reading you may need your maths brain switched on for this!

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. When you take an image the camera sensor can capture more information than can be displayed. So, for example, if a JPEG image can display brightness from 1 (dark) all the way to 10 (bright) , your digital camera may be able to capture from 0 to 11. That is why it's possible to brighten or darken an image in a program like photoshop.

When you shoot in RAW which on most dSLR's is the really BIG file size. They are massive files for a reason, using my made up scale of light to dark, a RAW image captures -2 to 13 this gives you much more information which you can play around with in terms of brightening/darkening an image.

Here is the original image.

Now with HDR you basically take the dark parts and make them lighter and the light parts and make them darker revealing more detail which would normally be thrown away. This can be done subtly which gives you a more natural looking image. But this next image is what happens if you take this idea to extreems, because I rarely do subtle.

And there you have todays HDR photo of the day. I love the eerily dream like qualities you can get with this process making an average looking street in north London look spectacular.

See you all tomorrow for more photo madness.

Gordon