I love the detail in this first image that I photographed in a church graveyard. But I didn’t see the humour in the notice until I started writing this blog post. Duh! I know I can be slow sometimes. I’ll need to go back and try and catch an image of the sign with the … Continue reading Field and Fence
Intentional Camera Movement is a style of photography that does what is says on the tin. You move the camera whilst you take the picture. In most circumstances, blurred images are usually considered a photographic mistake. But done intentionally I find that ICM can be a useful aid to clearing a log-jam of imagination … Continue reading ICM
I go to Batsford Arboretum two or three times a year. I can usually find something to photograph whilst I’m there. In winter some of the trees are not looking their best so I try to look for details or other views to photograph. The first image is of a leaf that I noticed on … Continue reading Winter Challenges
The three images in today’s post appeal to me for different reasons. One for texture and detail, one for the questions it asks and the other both for its suggestion of mysterious overtones. The first picture is in my favourite format of 1:1 or square and monochrome. The plant, is a thistle, with its seeds … Continue reading Photographs #12
Colour photographs by their very nature rely in some way on their main characteristic of colour to draw the viewer into the image. So, when you are looking to take a monochrome image, you have to discount that attribute and rely instead on other aspects of the subject to give to your viewer. There are … Continue reading Photographs #11
In Photograph #7 I said that I enjoy taking photographs of flowers in monochrome but of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t also process flower photographs in colour. The following two images show two different approaches to flower photography. The first is a single bloom with the lens opened to an aperture of f/1.8. … Continue reading Photographs #10
These two images are part of a series I have been working on for a couple of years now. The series is called Senescence, which is a biological term meaning “the condition or process of deterioration with age.” The subjects I am photographing are not biological. The images are studies on the effects of age … Continue reading Photographs #9
Most of the images that I take, and have taken, over the years are monochrome. That’s not to say I don’t like colour images, I do, very much, it’s just that l like to produce black and white photographs. I find it easy to visualise the monochromatic values of a scene when I look at … Continue reading Photographs #6
I was looking through some of my photographs the other day in particular the ones that had been in galleries and had sold quite well. What come to mind as I looked at them was that it didn’t matter what camera they were taken with, it was the picture that counted. The image below is … Continue reading The best camera…
I was at the very nice Batsford Arboretum today with a couple of members of the photo club. It started off pretty dark and overcast with some fog still sticking around the base of the trees. Knowing that light was going to be scarce, I took my monopod on the shoot, and I’m glad I … Continue reading Out and About: Batsford Arboretum
Yesterday I went to Whipsnade Zoological Gardens in Bedfordshire. I went there last year with the family, but this time it would be purely to take photographs. I used the D7100 and partnered it with a 70-210 f/2.8 zoom, which on an APS-C D7100 would mean it was acting like a 105-315 zoom. This is … Continue reading Out and About
My Nikon D7100 has some spots on the sensor. I've tried the rocket blower, but they just don't want to move. It's time for a proper sensor clean. I know I should do it myself - and I have in the past - but I hate doing it. The last time I tried cleaning my … Continue reading I know I should but…
Mrs M, Miss M and I decided to have a walk around Packwood House estate this afternoon. One of my reasons for wanting to get out and about was to try out an old Vivitar Series 1 zoom lens on my D7100. The lens is in mint condition and is a version 3, 70 – … Continue reading Out and About
This weekend Mrs M and I took the first trip this year down to Batsford Arboretum, just outside Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire. We like to go and have a look at the gardens and trees a few times a year to take in the fabulous colours that swap and change through the seasons. The Arboretum is … Continue reading Out and About
Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire is one of my favourite places in the county. The ruins of this former Cistercian abbey are huge and magnificent. At the time of the Dissolution it was the richest Cistercian abbey in Britain, which no doubt helped in its demise. It was a lovely warm spring afternoon when Mrs M … Continue reading Out and About – Fountains Abbey
Today Mrs M and I took ourselves off to one of our favourite NT houses, Calke Abbey. This is the stately home that the Trust obtained in 1985 and found rooms that had been shut off for years and piled with the belongings of the Harper-Crewe family. Rather than restore the estate, the NT carried … Continue reading Out and About – Calke Abbey
I’m sitting here at my desk currently going through RAW images that I took in June 2014 and wondering why on earth I took them. I know at the time I saw something that I thought was worthwhile recording and then working on, but looking at some of them now I can’t for the life … Continue reading Why did I take that photograph?
Mrs M and I set out after lunch today for a short walk along the Hatton locks part of the Grand Union canal system. The weather was cold but sunny and we decided to walk towards Warwick for a short while before turning back and getting a coffee at the excellent Hatton Locks café. As … Continue reading Out and About – Hatton Locks.
I had the idea last year that I would try and remember to write an 'Out and About' post every time I went out on a shoot. Here’s the first one for 2015. It’s been a rough start to the year so far. Both Mrs M and I came down with the flu (it WAS the flu, … Continue reading Out and About – Charlecote Park
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
It’s been my normal Wednesday off work and the weather having been very wet the last couple of days meant that my intended visit to Kenilworth castle would probably be quite boggy. The weather today started brighter however and I was hopeful to get some atmospheric shots of the castle. The day started with me … Continue reading Kenilworth castle
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
I’ve been using the newly purchased Nikon Nikon-35mm-f-1.8G-AF-S-DX for the last couple of weeks or so on my D7100, and I must say, I love it. Apart from an old (but still rather excellent) manual focus Nikkor Ai-S 50mm f/1.8 it is the only prime lens that I actually possess and so I was looking … Continue reading Standard Triumph
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
I have just ordered another lens for my Nikon kit. I have been thinking for some time that I need a standard lens. Something that has a 50mm focal length, fairly fast, light and small enough to take on holiday together with a small zoom. Right from the start I wasn’t going to get a … Continue reading Scored another Nikkor.
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
Nikon D7100 ©live
I'm off for a week in Hampshire with Mrs M. It's a part of the country that I haven't been to in many a long year - I was still running around and playing in shorts and wellies the last time I went. Anyway, I decided I would just take minimal gear (after-all it is … Continue reading *&^%£$% Sensor Cleaning.
I’ve been looking for a bag that I can use whilst abroad on holiday, to hold my D7100 with the AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR that I originally got with the D600 that I sold. I wanted it also to have some room to carry a water bottle and other bits and pieces and … Continue reading Camera bags again
Despite it being winter in the UK there is a lack of snow or even frost in the midlands at the moment, so it was 'head-in-the-freezer' time. There was some accumulation of ice particles in the freezer and I quite liked the fact that the shelf rails looked like snow covered ploughed fields. A quick … Continue reading 15 January
This was a tough one. I had a couple of ideas which revolved around movement which didn't work out in practice and also some things that I was eager to get done. Carol kind of pre-empted with the latter but I went ahead and took some images of the brochures we have been looking at … Continue reading 12 January
I spent my early photography days using film, especially reversal film which resulted in slides to show in a projector. Reversal film is not as forgiving as print film and that meant that you had to be pretty accurate with all camera settings and that included using the ISO recommended by the manufacturer. I started … Continue reading Auto ISO
I decided to use the tea caddies for the assignment today, and set them up in various ways; singly, just using the tops and lying down, but it was side-by-side that I thought I had the best representation of their colour. Once I took the pictures in this layout however, I realised that the eye … Continue reading 11 January
I took the image below on a trip out to Blenheim Palace at the weekend. It's no wonder shops are suffering this Christmas with less trade, everybody was at Blenheim - the place was completely rammed full. Anyway, this is an image of one of the statues by the fountains. I thought it would show … Continue reading D7100 image
So it's my birthday today and my wife has bought me a D7100 body to go with the D800 I already have and with that, I think my transition from Olympus to Nikon is complete. My remaining two Olympus bodies, the E-30 and the E-1 together with their battery grips and lenses will be packed … Continue reading Birthday and a new Nikon D7100
