Needless to say, I was adamant not to be caught in such a situation again. Therefore, when the Met Office issued severe weather warnings early this week, I didn’t think twice about leaving work early and working from home for the rest of the week. Mind you, working from home for 3 consecutive days does have its perks.

For instance, you could pop out during your “lunch break” for a little photowalk in the snow…

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Aside from my favourite lens (50mm f1.8), this is now my second favourite. The only reason is because I use my 50mm a lot more than the 85mm. The 85mm produces the same brilliant result as the 50mm. It works really well in low-light & produces brilliant pleasing bokeh. However, it’s too ‘long’ to be used at a dinner party for example. But works brilliantly for indoor shots like concerts etc. I got some really lovely bokehed shots of the Christmas tree this winter

What really sents this lens apart from the other prime lenses is the quality of images when snapping outdoor portraits. Because of the longer focal length (it’s almost like a mini telephoto), I could easily capture candid moments from a distance rather than shoving the 50mm in the subjects’ faces which I feel instantly disintegrate the ‘candidness’ of a portrait. It’s sharp. It’s quick. I like it. It autofocuses really quickly on my D90. However, that it doesn’t autofocus on the D40 or D60 to bear that in mind.

On the other hand, it can also be used to create interesting indoor shots:

I have to say, it’s only been a couple of months but I can safely say that it is a brilliant buy and I’m loving it more each time I use it. Considering I only paid £100 for it, it’s exceptional value for money for the quality of images I’m getting. Can’t often say that for many lenses…

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However, it took 2 men to load it into the boot of my car when I picked it up and an extremely exhausted me to sneak it into the 3rd bedroom. The snow & ice between my car and the front door made the what would have otherwise been just a 30 sec journey…a lifetime.

Furthermore, we were spending Christmas day at his Dad’s – which meant me having to risk breaking my back once again to move it. After much contemplation, I was fairly confident that since it was such a great present anyway, maybe a picture of it will do. It was a gamble. It was risky. But I took it.

I placed the amp in a good spot. Dressed it up a little. Snapped. Tweaked it a little with Photoshop. Popped into Jessops and got it printed within the hour, wrapped it an envelope and voila! Under the tree it went.

And this was what greeted him on Christmas Day.

And it paid off! The huge smile on his face was all I needed. He loved it! (And totally understood why I had to do what I did).

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and best wishes for 2010!! xxx

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Having caught the DSLR bug, I couldn’t possibly settle for a crappy little compact which would take mediocre images. I needed something small enough to fit into my clutch bag on a dinner date but yet have the ability to great pretty damn good images.

I googled extensively until I came across the Canon Ixus 980 IS. My sis had an older IXUS and I have heard good reviews about it from her. In addition, a lot of the photographers I know said that this particular camera is pretty much a “photographers compact camera”. I was intrigued. The one bonus feature about the Canon Ixus 980 was the Manual control capability it offered.

I was sold.

Until of course, I discovered the price.

Currently retailing at £329.99, it is a hefty price to pay for a compact camera. I could get another lens/flash for my D90 with that amount of money. The surprising thing however was that even with the latest Ixus (Canon Ixus 990 IS) which was released as its successor, the 980 is still a favourite choice amongst consumers (particularly photographers). What baffled me even more was the fact that Canon totally abolished the Manual controls on the 990 even though they knew how popular its predecessor (the 980) was because of its Manual controls capabilities and knocked down the resolution from 14MP to 12MP.

The Ixus 980 was a clear choice for me but I soon resounded to the fact that I was going to have to wait for a little while longer in order to save up for it.

Until one evening after work…

I was passing by a local second-hand electronics store only to discover an immaculate looking Canon Ixus 980 sitting in the shop window. On further scrutiny, I realised it was going for £150! I immediately went in to have a look and low and behold, it was pretty much brand new. I mean, this guy (I’m guessing it was a guy…) hadn’t even taken the wrist band out of its packet and tied it to the camera. Neither did he even remove the film over the LCD screen.

Now, what would someone do when faced with a bargain like this…
You grab it! And that was exactly what I did.

And I have to say, it is a brilliant piece of kit. With its 14Megapixel resolution and full control over aperture, shutter speeds and ISO settings, it’s almost like a mini-D90. The Auto mode works a treat as well (for J).

Exactly what I was looking for. I’m pleased.

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Now, I will be the first to admit that I’m not particularly good at still-life photography (as you could probably see in my first attempt at using off-camera flash a few months back). Now, these were especially difficult for me due to the reflective nature of the surface finish of the rings coupled with the jewels etc.

At first, I was using my 50mm f1.8 for the job. However, the built-in flash on my D90 triggering the SB-800 interfered with the final exposure mainly due to the fact that I was positioning the camera way too close to rings and getting huge reflections off them. The white balance wasn’t quite right either.

I therefore, switched off all the lights in the room (yes…I was shooting in complete darkness), swapped to the 18-105mm and zoomed out considerably. ISO set to 640, Aperture f5.6, Shutter Speed: 3″ (D90 mounted on tripod). The images now were turning out to be pretty good. I was reasonably happy with them when I reviewed them on the computer and and didn’t bother with any post-processing and this was my best shot :

I’m fairly pleased with them actually. But an expert might disagree. Anyway, iIf you’re interested in the set-up (taken with iPhone):

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The rides starting closing down at 9pm which wasn’t even dark yet so I reckon I could have had better shots if the fair was open much later. However, on the other hand, I do like how the blue in the sky in some of the shots.

Either way, it was still so much fun!

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I’m not overly pleased with them as I felt a 2nd flash on the left would have made the pictures a whole lot better. The top right hand side of the pictures were whiter than the left hand side…mainly due to the fact that I only had one flash source. I used a white foam board on the left to bounce off as much light as possible. I find the peppers situated on the right a tad too overexposed as compared to the ones on the right.

Also, I didn’t quite get the focus and depth of field right. All in all, it definitely was an experience and good fun but something I’ve yet to master.

If you’re interested in the set-up, have a look:

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What makes the whole thing even worse is that for my next submission, I’m not allowed to use the 2 pictures which I know for a fact would definitely be accepted by Shutterstock. Shutterstock clearly states that I would need to submit 10 brand new images.

Anyway, brief reasons for rejections were given for each image (eventhough I don’t necessarily agree with some of them…)

So there you go! Granted these pics aren’t the best I have taken and some of them were taken with my old Panasonic Lumix point and shoot. I have to admit, it was quite disheartening finding out that none of the images I submitted were really good enough.

Does it take a certain kind of photographer to take stock photography? Cause if these 10 images were anything to go by, I’m certainly not one of them…

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On looking at some of the stock agencies online, I can’t help but think…”Do people actually enjoy taking such pictures??”. Every single picture is so perfect. Pictures with people in are so posed and immaculate from their perfect blue skies to their shiny perfect white teeth. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of extreme lack of inspiration and creativity that were nonexistent in these shots. But…that’s how photographers make money! Stock Photography. Extremely boring. Stock Photography.

I can’t see myself spending all my time perfecting a shot I didn’t-wanna-take-but-had-to-just-for-the-sake-of-it so I decided to see just how stringent their review/critique process was. I decided to try Shutterstock first. I came home last night and put together 10 images which I felt would meet Shutterstock criteria. Most of my best work is in portraiture so far but due to the whole model release issue surrounding those, I had no choice but to submit any photos which I thought were not too bad and had no recognisable person in it. It’s been 24 hours since I submitted them.

Will update on the result in my next post. Stay tuned!

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Tried a couple of moody shots this time. I had a wonderful young musician Charlie to work with and it was pretty easy getting the soft moody shots from him as he was more comfortable just simply chilling with his guitar and not having to pose too much.

The general idea I was trying to get at was having half his face lighted up with a off camera side-on flash. The result: Quite a harsh shallow on the other half especially the one from his nose. However, I quite like it!

I love how his guitar was all battered and patched up with tape in places and I tried to zoom in on the little details as much as possible. I shot in black and white this time because I felt it would give me the closest result to what I was trying to get.

Best part about this session was that I had to do hardly any post-processing. In fact, I reduced the exposure even more if anything as I wanted the pictures even darker with more shadows. Photography is extremely subjective and eventhough I kind of went against all the rules of shadows and white balance on these shots, I thought it brought out Charlie’s surreal and relaxed nature…without being too imposing.

More shots can be seen in my portraiture gallery.

If you’re interested, check out my flickr account for the entire collection from this session.

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