360 photo of magnificent tree surrounded by bluebells

Bought myself an Insta360 X3 360 Degree Camera

Having seen some 360 degree camera footage, i felt compelled to buy one, hoping it would give me something new to photographically explore. I bought an Insta360 X3 It didn’t disappoint!

The best thing about playing with a 360º is how the rules of composition using traditional cameras does not apply. In fact, it’s really strange at first, not knowing where to point it, since you don’t. Instead you place it in the middle of what ever view/ final image you are after. That’s the hard bit, to get used to knowing exactly where to place the camera to get the shot you want.

The bonus of a big learning curve, is every now and then you get complete surprises when you inadvertently get a shot you didn’t expect, and one that makes you go wow! The hard part is then trying to recall how you captured it, to recreate the same effect elswhere.

The cameras connect to your phone and there’s a very powerful app that controls all settings, provides live preview, and best of all, allows you to edit photos or videos with amazing tools and options, including set piece video effects, which are really amazing.

Much of my early experiments were just that, experiments. On a walk through local woodland, I accidently discovered I could photograph trees in a way unachievable with a standard camera. The tree could really be the centre stage and, using homemade spike, I could support the camera and hid behind the tree (the main subject) with no sight of me in shot! Using the mobile to connect to the camera, I hide out of view and remotely take the shot. I love these…..

I soon found myself homing in on trees and with a focus on the surroundings. Spring came and so did the bluebells, which are glorious to photograph. I managed to find a majestic tree in woodland surrounded by bluebells and after some experimenting with the camera position, I captured this!

Whilst these images might to be everyone’s taste, I’d like to think you’ll agree with me, in that 360 photos can bring a pleasing and powerful view point, that our standard cameras can’t.

I’ve got more 360 to come!

Bird Box “Honeysuckle House”

This is a live feed to my son’s birdbox, a Christmas 2020 gift from his grandpa. We set it up and to our amazement, blue tits moved in, laid eggs and fledged in 2021 and 2022

We have created a Facebook page to make it easy to share and follow their journey https://www.facebook.com/HoneySuckleBirdHouse.

Here are the latest posts

4 weeks ago

Honeysuckle House
Introducing this year’s house hunters, Bob & Babs, who have been checking out Honeysuckle House for the last few weeks. We’re hoping they’ll put in an offer soon 😃 See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

12 months ago

Honeysuckle House
Meet Victoria and Albert, who have just moved in and Victoria is getting it ready. Not sure what Albert’s up to 🤣 See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

1 years ago

Honeysuckle House
Joseph and Mary early Christmas morning house hunting. See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

1 years ago

Honeysuckle House
Early Christmas present. Couple it be Joseph and Mary? See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2 years ago

Honeysuckle House
Watch Mandy feed the one chick that she single handedly raised to the point of fledging. Well done Mandy 🙂 See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook

2022 – Blue Tits are back, and we think we may have spotted something about their behaviour

We believe we might have accidentally stumbled on unknown blue tit behaviour. It would seem that, ‘sometimes’, the female really does start to build the nest, only to empty it all out and start again.

How do we know?  Here’s the story….

In March 2021, we had our first blue tit couple start nesting in our new nest box which has a camera in it. Excited, we watched the footage and the outside of the box through the window.

All was going well, until the female started to empty it out.  Now we couldn’t be sure if it was the same bird who built it, or another bird emptying it out and stealing the nest box.

Time passed and the nest was rebuilt, eggs were laid and 3 of the six fledged.

This year, March 2022, we were excited to see blue tits nesting again!  The nest building was progressing well.  Then the same thing happened, a blue tit started clearing it out, just like last year.

However!!  This year, the female building the nest has a very large and easily recognizable distinguishing mark on her left cheek.  We watched her empty the nest, only to start building it again.  The same as last year, the pair were in and out, built the nest, then emptied and started again.

We have searched everywhere for an explanation.  There are many stories on the internet of nests being cleared out, but the conclusion is always: “it’s a different pair”. 

The fact our female has a very obvious unique distinguishable mark, leads us to believe it might prove it’s a perhaps part of the ritual, even a common behaviour.  We have considered, maybe there’s a change in the male, and whilst he is typical in form, we are able to disguise him from other locals, by his shape/ size.  He has a very raised bouffant haircut.

They blue tits are back. You can follow

We’ve named them Mandy and Max.  Mandy laid six eggs, but sadly Max was taken by a local cat :-(.  Mandy soldiered on and 3 baby blue tits fledged :-).

Bad Moon Rising (Lockdown Version)

Lockdown Ukulele Group – Bad Moon Rising

I have had a certain video project on my photo/ video bucket list for quite some time; the creating a grid of my fellow ukulele group players all playing the same song at home or wherever.

Lockdown here in the UK spurred me on, as we are all locked down at home, unable to meet up at our usual pub (The George, Tunbridge Wells) for a jam 😞

The group, of which I am the current leader, is The Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing (TWUNT for short) We always start our jams with a rendition of Bad Moon Rising, and so it seemed logical to use that as our first virtual strum along, even if (with hindsight) the tone of the song might seem inappropriate.

It took longer to create this than I thought it would though! Firstly recording the audio track for them all to play to. I chose to add a drum track to play along to, to help everyone keep to time. I don’t play along with drums typically, so that was a learner 😁

I posted the audio with the simple instruction, “film yourselves playing along to the track in your headphones, making sure we can see and hear you”. I said they could use whatever device or app they like, and upload to a Google Drive folder. A bit of a gamble, but didn’t want to restrict folks to any specific device or format. Finding a method for people to upload from all the different devices proved tricky, but we got there with footage arriving to me on all the channels.

Once I had the footage, it was a simple case of aligning the clips, using the audio waveforms. I did notice that some videos seemed to play out of synch. Turned out it was variable frame/ bit rates, solved by transcoding to fixed.

Next step – arranging the different shaped videos into some sort of Grid. I cropped as best I could, but couldn’t simply go with a square, so had to manually create the tiled layout you see above. This took a while, as no matter where I moved them around, I always ended up with a gap. Then BOOM – I had the idea of filling the gap with the group’s logo and video title 🙂

I would do it again, but mabe specify they film themselves centrally on screen so I can crop to a square. Plus find a universal means of sharing the footage with me.

Thanks for reading… Time for you to watch the video 😁

My New DMs

Street Photography Workshop – Marc Newton and an Olympus

Friday 13th March, I attended a ‘Street Photography’ workshop.  The event was hosted by Marc Newton of The School of Photography, in association with Olympus UK.

A dozen or so of us arrived at the Project Space Gallery in Bermondsey Street, London SE1, where Marc was exhibiting a recent project “The British Boot Fair”.  Marc took us through a class in what Street Photography is, or I should say Documentary Photography, as he reminded us that Street Photography referred to those who took you photo in the street for a fee, back in the early 1900’s, before being used to describe to the current form of what is still document photography.

Marc walked us through methods, examples, technical and practical tips, before viewing his British Boot Fair project with lunch.

Next up, the Olympus kit.  We got to choose our shooter of choice.  I went for an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, with the 12-40mm f/2.8 M.ZUIKO PRO lens. Out on the streets, it took me a while to unlearn how I dive my Canon to drive the Oly, but got going.

We wandered towards and around Borough Market and started shooting.  Street photography isn’t as easy as you’d think.  The hardest part is getting going, especially at shooting others in public.  It can be quite intimidating, and it was for me that day. Need to try harder next time. At least there was plenty of other interesting scenes to point the camera at.

I quite liked the Oly, it was certainly a little more discrete, and with that pro lens, took some lovely sharp images.

Of my shots, these are my favourites. The one of my boots, at the top of the show, because of the “what are the chances” type of shot – I love those lucky situations that leap out at me.

Next up is this chap leaning against the wall of a bridge arch. It took me while. I thought I’d try Marc’s suggestion of finding the stage and waiting for the action to take place and shoot. This was more about waiting for people to disappear than take part 🙂

Coffee Man

Next up is this chap leaning against the wall of a bridge arch. It took me while. I thought I’d try Marc’s suggestion of finding the stage and waiting for the action to take place and shoot. This was more about waiting for people to disappear than take part 🙂

Selfie

Not the first time I’ve captured this type of shot, but what I didn’t realise till afterwards, it looks like mum and daughter.

I really enjoyed the day out and can highly recommend keeping an eye out for similar camera manufacturer events.

Here’s the rest of the best of the rest.

Pixelstick – First Attempt

Got my hands on any Light Painter’s bucket list, the PixelStick.

Put simply, it allows you to paint bitmap images, from and SD card, in thin air!

Since I’m borrowing this thing, my first outing was a simple cut to the chase, using some pre-prepared images from ThePixelstick.com.

I’d already had the image in my head, of characters and maybe a Tardis beneath the Millenium Clock in the centre of my home town, Tunbridge Wells.

Not as easy as I thought it would be though. It’s not just about the image on the card, it’s about timing, pace, brightness settings.

My son and I set up the camera and tripod and set about wafting the stick, left to right, in front of the camera. When photographing the Storm Trooper, go too slow and he was too wide, too fast, and too thin.

Then it was Tardis time. However, I didn’t realise the converter tool on the thepixelstick.com site converts PNG file transparency to white! So lesson learned is ensure transparent areas of your image, must be black, as obviously, black = no light!

Here’s the result of the Millenium Clock outing.

Following the first outing, I thought I’d see if I could PixelStick an Aston Martin DB5 on the road.

The challenge here is how to paint the image at the right scale and at the right angle! Kept me busy for a while, over the Christmas break. Here’s the result..

I’ll be back with more images and tips, once I’ve got the hang of it 🙂

Grosvenor and Hilbert Park Sign

Photo-walk around Grosvenor & Hilbert Park Tunbridge Wells

Grosvenor and Hilbert Park Sign

Last weekend my son and I took part in a photo-walk around the Grosvenor & Hilbert Park, located in Tunbridge Wells, at 10:30 Sunday the 7 of May.

Tree

We are familiar with the park, but there’s nothing like tagging on to an organised walk to get you to look around from a different angles.

It was a misty grey morning, which you’d think wasn’t ideal photography weather, but I enjoyed the challenge, and found “Dehaze” in Adobe Lightroom, most helpful.

Lone Shoe
Someone ended up walking home with one shoe!

Thanks to the Friends of Grosvenor & Hilbert Park for organising the event, encouraging my son and I to start Sunday early.

Below are the rest of my shots, which went head to head in competition with my son’s shots. My wife judged and this time I won! Not always the case.

Soldier Ghosts in Chislehurst Caves

The story behind my Favourite Light Painting image

By chance I saw an advert on Facebook for a light painting work shop in Chislehurst Caves. An Olympus UK event promoting the OM-D E-M1 Mk2 and the chance to play around with its unique “Live Composite” feature.

I got me thinking, what would I paint down in the caves.  A while back, I ran a small workshop with friends and came up with a line of stick men walking bay a dome.

lightpainting-dome-army.jpg
Strobe light painting of stick men, around a dome – part of my 365 project of 2017

Except now I have some Electro Luminescent wire and reckon thought that could add a new dimension!  So…… I had a practise on the driveway and came up with this.

Stickmen walking on grass past dome
Stickmen walking on grass past dome

Nice.  The green wire worked really well.  But I couldn’t help thinking it needed something more, so I thought “can I paint a poppy?”.

Had a go…

Light Painting - Poppy
Light Painting – Poppy

Put it all together and I ended up with this, which I was rather pleased with.

Soldiers Ghosts Marching Past Poppy
Soldiers Ghosts Marching Past Poppy

Next stop Chislehurst Caves

After playing around with the Olympus, which was great fun (see some samples in Light Painting With an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk2), I came up with this…

Soldier Ghosts in Chislehurst Caves
Soldier Ghosts in Chislehurst Caves

It’s still not right, but that’s part of the journey.  I’m sure I’ll revisit this again, but for now (today at least) this is it 🙂

How’s it done?  This was using a Canon 70 with Multiple Exposures enabled.  This shot is 4 images which the camera lays on top of each other.  First the green misty grass, then the poppy, then the soldiers, then the cave walls.  This is nothing new, you used to be able to do this in the old 35mm film days.  However, the bonus of digital, is you get to see each layer, and if you screw one up, you go back one layer and redo it, which I had to with the poppy!

Hope you like it.

Lightpainting with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk2

domeI had the pleasure of attending an Olympus UK Events workshop at Chislehurst Caves, on the 19th October 2010.

We wandered into the Caves and were each given an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with M.Zuiko Digital 12-40mm PRO Lens, and were shown how to drive the “Live Composite” feature.

As someone who light paints in one shot or by multiple exposures, this was really different for me.  In short, you set you camera up, focus, then hit the shutter.  The camera takes a 2 second “noise reduction” frame, and it’s then primed to start…  Hit the shutter again, start painting, and you can see the image appearing on the screen in real time, bit by bit.  It took me a while to get my head round this, as I’m so accustomed to painting, then running round back to the camera to see what I’ve got.

Thanks OlympusUK Events for putting on this workshop, as it not only provided the opportunity to try a new camera, but also meant I had the chance to recreate an image I had in mind “Soldier Ghosts Marching Home“.  Though I had to resort to using my own Canon 70D, as I’m familiar with it.  Read this post “The story behind my Favourite Light Painting image” to see the image and how it evolved

Some of these shots are me simply driving the camera, and other’s me painting.

 

 

mountain-rooms-editing

First Photo Montage to an ambient Soundscape

Mountain Rooms video thumbnail

My first photo montage – Mountain Rooms

I was recently asked if a friend of mine could use photos from my Driving Lights collection.  I was delighted and said yes.

A few days pass, and he asked if I could provide another set of photos to accompany a live performance of a Soundscape, by Diane Dunn, during the same gig.

Having never done such a thing before, I naturally said yes!  I was sent a wav file of the piece, no title or story behind it, and was left to my own devices.  The only remit was it should be black and white, which made life a lot easier, not having to worry about colour matching, etc.  I’m not sure it would have worked well in colour anyway.  mountain-rooms-editing

At first, it did seem a bit weird, but as I browsed my photos, inspiration slowly grew and I began to piece together a to timeline using Premiere Pro.

It took a few passes; and at 12 minutes long, it took longer than I thought, but it grew on me, both the piece and the process.  It’s rather satisfying when you find an image that really fits in with the sound, like a ‘bingo!’ moment.

The gig went very well, and Diane was pleased with my montage, a huge relief, especially as I was unsure if my photos fitted with her vision, let alone the name of the piece.  Funny how sometimes, things come together.

This experience has been inspired to give this genre a go myself, and so i have begun experimenting recording out and about with my Tascam DR40. (though I need to get a wind shield for it!).

Have you got any photo montages to share?  What do you think?  Let me know below.

My365-Mosaic

My 365 Project Completed

My365-Mosaic
My365 – Mosaic

I finally got to the end of My 365 Challenge for 2017.  Last year (2016), I saw a post on Facebook of a friends last photo of his 365 Project.  I thought – yep – I’ll give it a go; how hard can it be?

Well it’s a lot harder than I thought!

At the beginning, I had loads of ideas, enthusiasm, and there’s loads of stuff around me to snap away at.  The inspiration was flowing in bucketfuls.  I even had ideas of for weekly themes, such as using old cameras.  I started off with much excitement, and the notion “I’m going learn a lot from this”.

pantiles-tunbridge-wells
The Pantiles, Royal Tunbridge Wells

To be honest, there were times when I did learn a lot from it.  Notably using it as a means of encouragement to take those photos I’ve been meaning to take for some time.  One such photo was a shot of the Pantiles in Royal Tunbridge Wells, specifically after it had rained, for that shiny pavement effect.

One of my favourite forms of photography is light-painting, and My365 spurred me on to experiment with a stencil.  I made a stencil of a stick man, and using a strobe, was able to create the illusion of a line of stick men.  One around a dome, and another a wee bush in the woods.

 

For one of the weekly challenges, I dug out my very first digital camera, a Sanyo XPC350.

As time rolled on, I must be honest, the enthusiasm began to wane.  Then there we times, when I was simply snapping away at anything for that day, and that made the whole thing seem a bit of a chore.

Another photo bucket list shot – I also managed a 6 AM trip to the local park to catch the sunrise.

Sunrise at Dunorlan Park
Sunrise at Dunorlan Park

 

From the begging, I chose to post each entry to Instagram, to see how that might work.  I did miss some days, but still had to post something, so decided upon uploading a “Whoopsie”, a black image with text, numbering the Whoopsie.  Yes, I know it’s spelt wrong, but I think it looks better this way.

I did learn some new techniques.  But the biggest lesson of all was: “not every day is a photo day”, least not for me.  There are days, when I just don’t feel like taking photos – hence the 50+ Whoopsies

whoopsie-23
One of my 54 Whoopsies

Have you done your 365?  If so, comment below and post a link to it – maybe It might inspire me to try again in a few years time 😊

 

 

#162 of my 365 project

Gig Photos – The Orange Circus Band

#162 of my 365 project

Took the camera with me to Horsmonden’s Summer Festival, as I was playing there with TWUNT, and The Orange Circus Band were headlining, and I like them!

The nifty 50, did catch some nice shots, in very low light, so was pleased with the results.  The biggest problem, was the lighting.  The red lights were so strong to the right of the stage, they washed out the fiddler and bass, making them look radioactive!  That’s why their shots are black and white, which fortunately look even better!

Don’t you just love it when you have a spot of fortune whilst processing in Lightroom 🙂  They liked them so much, they’re on their website too!

My365 #1

My365 Project (2017)

Just before Christmas, I decided I would attempt the photographer’s bucket list challenge – the 365!

Labelled ‘My365’, I hoping it will ensure I think photography everyday, forcing me to venture beyond what I normally do.  Having a day job and a commute, will make it a bit harder, so I’m going to have be even more creative.

I suspect I’m going to learn more about other stuff too, not just photography.  There’s the ‘getting it out there’ social media stuff to improve on; hash tags and all that jazz.  Then there’s presentation.  I’ve seen people with borders, logos, and watermarks of all varieties.  The one thing I have decided, is to experiment, rather than fret, on day 1, about my watermark.  I might not even stick to anyone style, instead choose to tweak as I go along.

I am sharing on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and here of course 🙂

It’s day 3, and so far I have the following.

And so it begins #365project #365 #photography

A photo posted by Simon Reeve (@simonlreeve) on

Too much #email. #outlook is grim. #My365 #3

A photo posted by Simon Reeve (@simonlreeve) on

Under water balloon pop

Fast Flash Capture of Stuff Falling into a Fish Tank

FruitAt a recent meeting of a camera club, to which I belong, we thought we would have fun with a fish tank of water, two flashguns (speed-lights), a black backdrop and some small objects to drop into the water.

Needless to say it was great fun and another one of those photographic exercises that generates the excitement of the anticipation of what you’re going to get.

We’ve all seen these types of photographs, which can look very impressive, but look beyond the reach of the amateur.  Not so!  It’s surprisingly easy.  However – the caveat is, you have to take loads of shots, and there’s an element of ‘lucky timing’ required.

The tank set upThe setup is simple, but will require at least 2 flash guns and a remote flash trigger to trigger both simultaneously.  You could do it with 1 flashgun, but it will be harder to illuminate more than one angle.

Next you need a tank of water with some black card or cloth behind it.

The room needs to be in near total darkness when you take the shots, then you use your flash guns to light the objects as they fall in the water.

Get your camera on a tripod, then focus it at the distance at which your objects will fall into the tank.  Get an assistant to hold an item in the tank, then focus manually.  Set the camera to F11 ‘ish’ and your lowest ISO.  Yep – You’re going to use ‘M’ manual mode.

The key to what freezes the shot is not your shutter speed, it’s the duration of the flash!  Set you flash output (in manual mode) to 1/32 or 1/64.

You can try to capture the shot buy using fancy infra-red beam, that triggers the flash as the object passes through it, whilst your camera is on a very long exposure.

OR, as we did, set a shutter speed to 125th and set shutter to continuous shooting.  The fact your flash is set to a low power output, means it should keep up with the burst firing of your camera.  Again, remember, it’s the flash that freezes the action, not your shutter.

Get your assistant to hold the object above the water, then countdown out loud 3,2,1…GO.  Hold down your shutter button from GO.  Then enjoy the excitement of seeing what you’ve caught.

We experimented with dropping fruit, miniature Star Wars figures, Lego figures and finally bursting a balloon under water.

Under water balloon pop

The shot and, coincidentally the last shot, of the day was this, the balloon pop.  The timing was such, that we could still see the shape of the balloon as air bubbles, before they started to race to the top of the water.

There is some post processing to be done to get what you see here, but nothing complicated.  You are likely to see light reflects around the tank, such that you can see reflections on the walls of the tank.  The solution is to reduce highlights, darken shadows and blacks, in Lightroom/ Photoshop or your favourite editing program, to make the background as dark as possible.

I use Lightroom, and found darkening blacks, shadows and upping clarity did the trick – with cropping too to remove your assistants arms!

So give it a try – it’s fun.  Enjoy photography!

Here’s a gallery of the other shots.

Photo shoot with a Mobile? Is it possible?

Photoshoot with Mobile PhoneLast week I attended a ‘photo shoot’ at our monthly camera club meeting.  The shoot was all about using continuous lighting, with a very patient model present.

One problem!  I forgot to bring my camera with me!  How could that happen?  Well, it just did.

Much to the bemusement of the rest of the group and the model, I pulled out my mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy S5.  I must admit, to thinking this is pointless, but took one shot, and it got me thinking.

I thought I’d take this fateful opportunity to do a shoot using just my mobile phone and that includes post processing!

Taking portrait shots with a mobile phone camera meant I had to get in real close, closer than normal.  But we soon got the hang of it, the model, myself, and the other photographers, whose view I obscured 🙂

I didn’t play around with the settings, just turned off flash and let the phone to do the rest.

Next step – processing.  For some time, I have had Adobe LightRoom Mobile on my phone, though never really used it much.  Again, this fateful camera club meeting, meant I had the perfect opportunity to test it our, importing, processing and exporting (in this case to Facebook).

I took me longer than usual, but I’m not as familiar with LightRoom Mobile as on the PC.  I did find it easy to do all the typical things I do on the PC version, and soon had my selection to upload.

Now I’m not saying it’s time to ditch the DSLR, but it does show just how far mobile phone cameras and software have come.  It also made me think differently, not using a view-finder, for one thing.

Maybe challenge yourself to just use the mobile, next time.

Tunnel Gallery Preview in virtual 360

Here is a 360 view of the front of the Tunnel Gallery.  A virtual sneak preview 🙂

My work is the collection of photos on the left, whilst the large abstract paintings are by my friend Scott Heasmer.

Tiz Bell-Richards, features in the rear of the gallery (out of view)

Come and see them in real life at The Tunnel Gallery, Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent from Monday 21st March to Monday 28th March 11am – 6pm  (event night Wed 23rd March 7pm-9pm)

StickMan on Bicycle

Event Night at the Gallery

Update for our Gallery Exhibition

We will be having an event night on the 23rd March form 7pm to 9pm.

You will get to hear myself, Tiz Bell-Richards and Scott Heamser talk about our artwork, over a glass of wine.

Plus, time and space permitting, I will put on a light painting demo, with a little
audience participation.

Event Info:
The gallery is open from the 21st to the 28 March, 11am – 6pm
Event Night – 23rd March 7pm – 9pm

How to get there http://www.tonbridge-school.co.uk/contact-us/maps/
The ‘School Grounds’ link on the page highlights the Tunnel Gallery location.
School visitor parking is in The Quad

Poster

Finally going public in a Gallery, Photographically!

Before Christmas, two artist friends asked, if I would like to join them, hiring a gallery to show my work.

Well….  I had to take on the challenge, having never shown any of my work before.  My photography has always been a hobby and private, focusing mostly on friends and family, with the arty creative stuff, always taking the back seat.

The Tunnel Gallery, at the Tonbridge School has been booked and the race is on!

We (Tiz Bell-Richards, Scott Heasmer and I) shall be showing the week of the beginning the 21st of March 2016 through Easter to the the 28th March, Easter Monday.

Tiz specialises in very detailed illustrative artwork – http://tizbellrichards.com

Scott’s speciality is larger abstract work that captures the imagination.

My speciality is “the new to me”, i.e. I like to experiment, rather than try to reproduce photos already produced, and that’s no mean feat, now everyone’s got a camera!

One theme I shall be displaying is “Driving Light” –  a slight twist on light painting, in that the camera is moving, as are some of the lights, whilst driving.  I love this form of photography, as, whilst digital, it still gives you the “what will that look like” moment.

Poster

 

 

 

Fireworks at St John’s 2015

Took the camera to take a few shots of this years Fireworks display at St John’s School Tunbridge Wells.

This is the 3rd year of them running the show, and it’s great.  Thankfully the rain faded away in time and the display provided some lovely shots.

I was planning to experiment with taking shots whilst moving out of focus to get some images of firework trails moving from crisp focus to lovely blotchy soft edges, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get it right!  Will have to try next year.

Here’s my favourites from the evening, taken with a Canon 70D and the 18-135mm zoom (and a tripod, of course 🙂 )

Time for a Change

For the last year of the last 6 years I’ve had this blog, it’s time for a change.

So I will be changing it.  Not sure exactly what yet, but probably focus more on my ever more time consuming hobby of photography.

So as a start, I’m going to get me a photography look and feel, and tidy this place up!

(I’ll be keeping the Bakewell Pudding recipe though!)

Bakewell Pudding

Bakewell PuddingDuring a summer break in the Peak District, we visited Bakewell. As a fan of Bakewell tart, we were curious to try Bakewell pudding. Well it’s naughty, but V nice, and indeed preferable over a Tart. We had the fortune of visiting Bakewell again during the same break and bought another!

There are a few shops and bakeries selling the tarts and puddings, and the one we visited, The Bakewell Pudding Parlour, posts them too. So I ordered one for Christmas.

I have since ‘googled it’ to find the recipe, which is often cited as being a well kept secret, until I came across a ‘The history of Bakewell Pudding, and how to make one’ by Charlotte Morgan, over at lovefood.com.

Reading it through I warmed to the comment at the bottom of the page by Tracey015 who refered to a recipe in a Darbyshire cook book.

I’m no baker, but gave her recipe a go.  It came out pretty close indeed.  I’ve since made some more, adding ground almond too, to give the pudding a wee bit more texture.

Here’s the recipe I follow (at the moment), and one that returns a right treat, pretty much exactly how we remember it from our holiday.

Ingredients

  • 1 ready roll of puff pastry – I cheat!
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 3 egg whites
  • 4oz butter 6oz castor sugar
  • 1oz ground almonds
  • strawberry jam – no bits – one standard jar is more than enough, unless you like a lot of jam! 
  • 4 teaspoons of almond essence

Method

  • Melt butter and sugar.  Lightly beat egg whites. Mix the melted butter, sugar, egg whites, yolks and almond essence together.
  • Next line a cake tin with the pastry.  I use an 8inch tin – whatever you have that the puff pastry roll will fit.
  • Spoon the jam on the pastry, a generous layer.
  • Pour the mixture carefully (so as not to disturb the jam) over the jam and fill the tin.
  • Pop it in the oven @ 220 deg C for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180 deg C for 25 minutes.
  • Once cooked, allow to cool with oven door ajar, to allow it to cool slowly.
  • Then enjoy it with custard, ice cream, or my favourite, evaporated milk! YUM!!

I even had enough pastry and mixture left over to make a wee star shaped pudding for 2 🙂

This was an earlier attempt, trying to replicate the star shape we had from the Pudding Parlour.  Whilst it tasted good, the ready roll pastry was no match for the size of mould.  I ended up re rolling the pastry, so it didn’t ‘puff up’ and I had to patch it up at the extreme edges.

Movember again already! 2013

Last year was my first Movember.  I liked it so much that the Mo spread to become a beard!  (After Movember of course).

I’m Movembering again, except this time, was challenged by work colleagues to do a ‘full reset’, which meant shaving of my Mo, my beard and even my hair!  So I did.

Wether you know me or not, why not sponsor me anyway, for this very worthy cause.

My MoSpace = http://mobro.co/simonreeve

I’m doin Movember!

MovemberThis is my first Movember.  Having taken on the London Moonwalk 4 times, I thought it about time I did something for Cancer charities relating to Men.

Here’s my MoSpace http://mobro.co/simonreeve where you can see more photos and sponsor me.

Movember is about raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer, and walking around the office people have noticed the tache and I’ve told them why I’m doing it.  So it does work!

I’m hoping to take as many photos as possible and animate them together to see the journey that is Movember 2012.

It’s quiet round here…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done much with this blog, but there’s a reason for that, and it’s the Ukulele.

More specifically it’s being part to TWUNT, The Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing.  Having only taken up the instrument back in May 2010, it’s grown and grown, through many a TWUNT night in the pub, to playing local gigs, to playing Chris Evans’ Carfest South 2012.

See our write up on how it went, with a wee bit of footage and photos – it was brilliant!

I am the web guy for the group, of my own volunteering and it’s nice to have a real reason for doing stuff with WordPress.  The Ukulele has impacted my life quite considerably and I’ll write that up one day.

 

 

 

 

London Moonwalk 2012 – Done ;-)

Moonwalk 2012 MedalLondon Moonwalk 2012 Done!  That’s Moonwalk number 4 for me, 15 for Walk The Walk.

This time, as ever, I failed to follow the training programme, though this year the weather did give me an almost valid excuse. I managed a few 5 – 8 miles and a 12 ish mile, but that was it.

On the day, I had the usual faff, deciding what to wear, take, etc.  The bra’s the easy bit.  After checking the weather, I plumped for a vest, t-shirt and a zip top for the early morning chill.  I packed the bum bag with 2 Snickers, 1 Red Bull, 3 energy bars, 1 packet of dextrose, chewing gum (to clean the teeth), spare mobile phone batteries, camera, tissues, etc.  Fortunately for me, I can use the bra G cup for storage too 😉  It typically houses battery pack for lights, tissues and water bottle.

I got there nice and early – about 7pm and pitched up on my wee foldable stool, right by the entrance.  It’s quite something to be the first in the tent (pink palace) empty, then watch it fill up.

Weather – how lucky were we???  In the run up to the event, I was seriously worried about it raining, but it turned out proper nice 😉

After the entertainment and the very powerful 1 minute silence, the warm up started and we made our way to the start.

This year I walked with Deborah, who I met on the first Moonwalk, her second walk, having had a 2year sabbatical 🙂  I was a bit nervous about walking with her, as she had reported some serious training and speeds!

We were in the Green group and, as usual, I reckoned on 8 hours.  We started at 11:40 and all I did was yawn and yawn, as the tiredness kicked in (I like my sleep).  Round Hyde Park, then off towards Westminster, we were on our way.  It felt a bit quick for me, and at mile 4 to 5 I started to ache.  Oh dear!  This went on for a few more miles and I was a wee bit worried.  Time for a Snickers and later on, a Red Bull.  I came to life and all was good, although Deborah was probably sick of my increased energy, as I kept on talking.

Mile 10 and the Half Mooners peel off.  That’s hard, as it rams home the fact you have a long way to go!  Still, onwards and onwards..

Next up Battersea Park for the obligatory loo stop, and this year a chunk of banana and orange.  I only ever eat oranges on the Moonwalk – strange but true.

Then it’s the hard slog to mile 20, where we were promised a surprise, as it was the 15th Birthday of the London Mooonwalk.  When we got there – lemon tea or hot chocolate!  As soon as I saw the hot chocolate being poured, I knew what I was having.  Yum!

Then it was the home run, just 6 miles – easy, especially as the Sun was coming up nice and warm.  Although each mile was slower than the previous, so much so, the last mile always seems to be longer than a mile.

After a stop at the Mile 26 marker, it was the last whatever it is to the finish line.  Brilliant feeling to finish and have someone put the medal around your neck.

After some good byes and collecting the bag, it was time to walk back to the tube to get the train home.  Walking down to Hyde Park Corner, there were morning runners going in the opposite direction and one of them, a lady with a huge smile, shouted ‘enjoy your good rest’ – a very memorable thing to be acknowledged by someone clearly far fitter than I!

I managed to stay awake on the train, so as not to miss my stop.  At home I had the pleasure of seeing for the first time, the two huge blisters on my feet, which in as somewhat strange way I’m rather proud of 😉

Now to collect the money – may target is £1000 and I know, once I’ve collected the cash, I’ll beat it this time – so that’s a very chuffed Moonwalker.

This event can lead to fabulous things, from meeting people on the walk that you keep in touch with beyond, to raising funds for a worthy cause, to being invited to talk about the walk at your son’s school!  Yes – I was invited in to talk about The London Moonwalk at my son’s school, which made him proud of me and vice versa!

Here’s to Moonwalk number 5 in 2013

Simon

Some photos I managed to get:

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London Moonwalk 2012

I’ve left it a bit late to update my site with the fact I’m walking this years London Moonwalk, but better late than never.  This will be Moonwalk number 4!

My training has been far from regular, but hey ho – loads of chocolate with carry me to the finish!

Please sponsor me direct with Walk The Walk “Uniting Against BreastCancer” using the sponsor page here http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/simonreeve2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st go at HDR Photography

I’ve had a go at HDR (HighDynamicRange) photography.  I’ve heard about for a while and recently Googled to learn more and have a go.  There’s a fair amount of info on the web (including this bit now!), and loads of examples on Flickr.  It seems some people don’t like it, but for some shots, it does create a high contrast wow factor, which I quite like.

I’m no expert, but here’s what I’ve found out.  In short, it’s simply take at least 3 shots bracketed -2/ 0 / +2 stops.  Then with some HDR software, merge them together, and twiddle with the sliders till you have the effect you’re after.

There’s more to it than that really, and here’s what I’ve found out so far, including my first HDR image.

The images should align, else when merged, the result will be blurred:

Use a tripod! (if you’re steady, then hand held is possible)

void anything that moves, unless you want blurring on purpose such as waterfalls.

Depth of Field – you should use aperture priority to ensure consistent depth of field, and manual focus too sometimes, to avoid autofocus picking different points from shot to shot.

Once you have your shots, the next thing you’ll need is software to process the images to an HDR image.  It seems the most popular is Bracketing.  My camera (Olympus e620) will do auto bracketing, but only 3 shots and only +-1 stop.  My Googleling suggested, for the most part, that +-2 stops is better.  I haven’t experimented enough with 1, 2 or even 3 stops to be able to comment properly.  I’m using 2 stops if using tripod and, if I have to take shots handheld, then I use the camera’s one sop auto bracketing.

Photomatix from HDRsoft, but I stumbled across Picturenaut, a free alternative.  So “Free” will do for now, until I get a feel for how this stuff works and whether I like it.

So here’s my first HDR image using Picturenaut.  This bench’s graffiti caught my eye, shot sunny day, with the bench half covered by shadow from trees above and behind.

The 3 shots were taken on a tripod with -2/ 0 and +2 stops respectively, then the HDR image below that.

Feel free to comment below.  I hope to report back with more HDR stuff soon.

The Epic Bench (-2ev) The Epic Bench (0ev) The Epic Bench (+2ev)

Here’s the finished image (on Flickr)

The Epic Bench in Royal Tunbridge Wells

London Moonwalk 2011 – Done!

This being my third London Moonwalk, I was a bit complacent and did not do quite as much training as I perhaps should have!  Still, I was very excited, looking forward to the event.

I raised £965, which is so close to that magical £1000.  Must try harder!

I had the fortune of being offered a lift with a group of ladies from Tunbridge Wells, some of whom I travelled up with last year. There were 7 in all and they hired a minibus for the journey there and back.  This made a HUGE difference, not having to walk to and from train stations, etc.

I was picked up at the end of my road at 4:50, which meant we arrived with plenty of time.  I strongly recommend if you wish to avoid queueing on your feet for an hour or so to get in.

The sky looked ominous, threatening rain, and it was notably windier and cooler than previous years.  I had 2 t-shirts, a fleece  and, of course, my bra, tutu and hat.

Nina BaroughHad the pleasure of being right at the front when founder Nina Barough yelled the countdown to open up Playtex City.

Once inside, it was down to business.  Get blankets, water and food. This year was pasta and banana cake for me. The tent is huge, especially when you’re one of the first in, but it soon fills up with walkers and atmosphere.

I had arranged to meet with Sam who I walked with last year from about mile 7, since like me she was walking alone.  We were both in pink group (the last group of four to start), whilst the TW ladies were in orange group (2nd off). It’s not easy trying to recognise someone, when everyone’s wearing a pink hat!

Following speeches from sponsors, beneficiaries and Prince Charles on video, it was warm up time, before which Nina asks us all to hold hands and stand quiet for 1 minute.  This is a rather powerful moment, to hear complete silence.   Now here’s a tip if you’re in pink group. Don’t over do the warmup, else you be knackered before you even start! 

view from the stageDuring the warm ups, Roy the ‘warm up guy’ invited folks up on stage and when it came to the last warmup I just had to get up there and see what it was like to look out at all the walkers dancing. I’m not sure who the warm up guy was inviting up, but I just blagged it anyway. Once up, he dragged me to the front, since I was the only bloke up there. The view was great, loads of pink hats all bobbing up and down following the instructor. I wasn’t particularly good at keeping up with the routine, but it was an experience I’ll not forget.

After that, it was off to the start line and the beginning of the 26 miles and a bit walk.

The route was more interesting this year but there was more congestion and some stop starting. Having said that, it meant the field didn’t thin out completely for the whole distance.  This proved quite nice, as you saw a sea of pink all the way round, most inspiring during that tough bit from 3 to 6 am.

As the sun comes up, and the birds start to sing,  you get your second wind, knowing that you’ve probably only got 15 miles to go.

This year I thought I’d try to take pictures on the way round, but to be honest, it’s not easy. At the beginning, there’s too many walkers to just stop and click.  After a while, the last you want to do is stop and take pictures, you just want to put your head down and go.  Still, I got a few, though most are not really good enough for the web (a bit dark or blurry).Nearly at the finish...

Some other points to mention.  There’s a really cruel bit, where you see walkers (the fast ones) on the opposite side of the road, some 8 miles or more in front!

Another hard pill to swallow is when the Half Mooners peel off with one mile to go. You soon get over it though, after all, if you don’t finish, you don’t get the badge!

So how long did it take me? Just short of 9 hours! Bit longer than last year, but that’s probably due to there being more congestion.  Still it’s not a race, it’s a walk, an experience and a poignant one at that.

To anyone reading this who sponsored me, a BIG THANK YOU.  I’ll be badgering you again next year!

Too anyone googling, researching Moonwalks and considering doing it next year: See you at the London Moonwalk 2012!

London Moonwalk Bra @ Ukulele Night

Moonwalk Bra and UkuleleJust a short post..  I thought I’d attend the Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing wearing my suitably lit London Moonwalk Bra and Hat.  Put a smile on many faces, even got to pose with a pink ukulele.  To top it of, some kind folks sponsored me too.

I managed another walk last weekend – 13.5 miles @ 3.8mph.  Found it harder than last year, so will have to step up training if I’m to complete this years London Moonwalk intact!

London Moonwalk 2011 Hat

London Moonwalk 2011 HatSo my Playtex London Moonwalk 2011 hat, bra and T-shirt have arrived, together with my Moonwalker number.

The hardest part will be the walking. Not that I don’t know how to walk of course, just this last year has been a somewhat lazy and self-indulgent one. Indeed, I typically walk a few yards from house to car, car to office, and back again.

I’ve completed one longer than normal walk so far, of 11 miles in about 2hrs45mins. So that’s a step count boost from 3k to 20k for that day!

Still I’m trying to train more; even typing this whilst walking a couple of
miles at lunchtime.

Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing website

www.twukulele.com

Here’s a website www.twukulele.com, for The Tunbridge Wells Ukulele Night Thing, I’ve built and there’s quite a story behind it.

It all started when I bought my toddler son a Ukulele.  The scale of the Uke to the wee lad seemed a perfect match.  Then, by chance, I bumped into Dave Kinder who was organising a Ukulele night in Royal Tunbridge Wells and he invited me along.  Having never played guitar or uke before, I thought what the hell, I’ll give it a go.

After the first night, I was hooked and have been going ever since, and I’m not alone.  The group has grown, such that we have even played in public on the Pantiles Bandstand and appeared on TV (Meridian Tonight – Southeast).

The idea of a website, was born out of the fact that whilst we have a Facebook Group page, not everyone in the group uses or wants to use Facebook.  With the group growing in size, with songbooks, video clips and photos, it seemed the next step.

www.twukulele.com is a hobby site for me that is growing and proving a very exciting real life experiment.  I am not only the web developer, but the customer too (no excluding the rest of the group).  That gives me great freedom to experiment, in a controlled fashion, of course!

Powered by WordPress, I initially created a two column site for simple blog posts.  As content and traffic grew, I’ve widened it to 3 columns, to give me more space near the top, for the stuff I want visitors to see.

I did make and early mistake, by adding a forum and discovered forums are dangerous, as empty forums look awful and give the impression no one visits your site.  Since no conversations got going, I removed it.  We now leave that to Facebook, email and good old fashioned conversation in person.

The group has given me the opportunity to experiment with my Olympus E620 camera too.  It’s not easy photographing in a dimmly lit pub, especially when crammed full of ukulele players.  Still I managed to get enough to justify populating galleries.

Next up came video and I decided we need a YouTube channel.  Two reasons; firstly it’s saves on my web space and bandwidth (this is on a budget!), more more importantly, YouTube increases our exposure, driving traffic to the site and maybe new members to the group!

In line with that, I created a Twitter account for us and added a widget to the site listing recent tweets.  Adding the Facebook group’s badge to the site, completes the loop (for now) and traffic is on the up 🙂

Songbooks are maintained in Google Docs to save having to upload every time we add to them.

Then there’s the Newsletter module too to help us keep followers and non Facebook members up to date with latest news.

I am making use of Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and a Stats module for WordPress, to keep track of our progress.  This is really interesting, see the effectiveness of Newsletters, Tweets and Videos.

The site is being followed by other Ukeulele groups, such that we’ve had a contingent from another group join us for a session, taking our record to 45 ukuleles at once!.  We’re also seeing request to make appearences!

Who knows where this will go!

Please visit www.twukulele.com and let me know what you think – you may just find yourself joining us!

Moonwalk 2010 – Completed

The Finish LineI completed the Playtex London Moonwalk 2010, and never finished my post!  Yes, this has sat in drafts for quite a while… Since I’ve got into the 2011 walk, I think I best finish this post off!

I had the pleasure of travelling up with 3 ‘first time’ walkers from Tunbridge Wells.  I found myself reciting everything about my 2009 experience.

We arrived rather early, in fact, the Playtex Village wasn’t even open.  This turned out to be a good idea as, whilst it meant we were there for longer, we didn’t have to queue for long, enabling us to maximise the time sat down, resting our legs!  I intend to arrive early for the 2011 walk too!

I was in the Pink group (yep, the slow coaches) and we were next to the stage, unlike last year.  This was great, as we were the ones in the tent the longest.  Having found a spot to sit down, I tucked into the pasta and flapjack.

I had brighter lights this year and boy did I get a lot of attention!  I had to pose for so many photos, I lost count.  To that end, this time I will take a camera with me and try to get as many photos as possible with as many different walkers as possible.  It was great to see my outfit get so many smiles.  For Moonwalk 2011, I’m in the Pink group again., which seems fitting since my outfit is covered with bright pink LEDs.  This will be the third outing for the feather covered bra – Hope it’s up to it!

After the warm-ups, and waving off my fellow Tunbridge Wells walkers (who were in the yellow group), it was time to get going, at 12am!  It was very busy and a wee bit congested, there by ensuring we all took the 8+hours ;-).  Whilst the weather was great compared to the recent horrible stuff we had, it was cooler than last year, such that I had to don my jacket at about 3.30.

I almost made the fatal mistake of not eating and drinking as we went along.  At the big loo stop in Battersea park I did have to sit down and whoof a snickers and (Marathon) and a sports drink.  Whilst I felt feint, I did manage to come round and get going again some 15 mins later.  I guess that was my lesson learnt!

Had the pleasure of completing most of the walk with Samantha who just so happened to be walking by herself and at my pace.  We both came the the conclusion, that walking this thing alone, is no mean feat, so if you are considering walking along, try and talk to someone at your pace and help each other round!  I know Sam’s also got a place in the 2011 walk and reckon we’ll join up and take on the whole thing together.

We finished around 8.30, so a long night!

My admiration goes out to the marshals.  They clap and cheer all night long.  I made a point of cheering them, as to stand there all that time is about as hard as walking the route!

The Moonwalk is a fantastic experience and for a very worthy cause.  It’s not easy, especially if you like your sleep.  As a walker you’s start off very noisy, excited, then you’ll settle down as the long haul ahead is realised, before experiencing elation during the tearful, emotional last few hundred yards to the finish.

So that’s my brief take on my Playtex London Moonwalk 2010.

I promise, along with more training, to not leave it so long before posting about my Playtex London Moonwalk 2011 experiences.  I hope to post about training and my tips I’ll be using for the next one.

Photos!

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New Outfit for Moonwalk 2010 – Complete

Training is still a bit sparadic, but I did manage to complete a half moon’s worth of practise walk yesterday 13.5miles.  Avg speed was 4.1mph, so should shave some time of last year.

Tonight we finished the new outfit.  Loads more lights and rather fetching!  What do you think?

Don’t forget you can sponsor me on-line here – it’s very easy and you’ll be helping a very worthy cause.

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/simon_reeve

Visit my sponsor me on line page to find out more about WalkTheWalk and where the money goes.

Many thanks folks.

Moonwalk 2010 Training – Finally Started in earnest.

Well despite only three weeks till the night, I’ve finally walked further than the usual 3 or 6 miles!  It seems this year, either the weather has been so bad or uninspiring, or I’ve been ill or too busy to follow the training plan provided by WalkTheWalk.

The final parcel arrived at then end of this week, including bra, cap and t-shirt and, coupled with the glorious sunshine, it spurred me on to nail at least 10 miles+.  I managed 13.7 today, before getting back home in time for BBQ number 5!  Yes you read correctly, BBQ number 5!

Whilst walking, my wife finished of the new addition to my Moonwalk outfit – a fluorescent pink tutu, with flashing LEDs!!

So I’m feeling more confident now, as the actual walk is only twice what I did today – “how hard can it be!”.

Getting set for London Playtex Moonwalk 2010

My Fund Raising PAgeThe London Playtex Moonwalk 2010 is not far off now, on the 15th May!!

Well it’s a bit late to start training, but I’m now spurred on by the final arrival of the Sun here in the SE of England, the setting up of my on-line sponsor page here http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/simon_reeve, and the arrival of more bright pink LEDs for this year’s outfit.

I’ll be using the trusty bra of last year, with a new bright fluorescent skirt to help me stand out! 

My fundraising page is very new, so why not be the first to sponsor me for what is a very good cause.

Chinese New Year in Tunbridge Wells – With a Flashgun…

p2130306asmallOn Saturday February the 13th, residents of Tunbridge Wells celebrated the coming of the Chinese New Year – The Year of the Tiger!  My family and I joined in too, with our own lnaterns and me with my camera, eager to use my new flashgun.

How hard can it be?  Well not that easy!  Armed with a new Metz Flashgun 48 AF-1, that has so far proved more than powerful for home and garden, I soon found myself getting all sorts ofgood and bad results.

The parade began at Trinity Theatre in the centre of town.  We arrived at 16:45 and found the place full of lanterns and people gathering for the parade.  Bloco Fogo were there two, and I hoped to get some good colourful shots of them in action.  The weather didn’t look too good, it was raining lightly.  Thankfully the rain held off once things got going, though it did make me wonder, how sensitive DSLRs are to rain….p2130143asmall

Bloco Fogo lined up and started drumming away in the car park, whilst the rest of us lined up behind.

I made my way to the front to try and capture the parade as they left  Trinity Theatretowards the centre of town.  I soon realised, that despite the parade being a slow walk, when you’re trying to capture it on stills, it all goes too fast!!  This is especially true when you’re still learning.

The hardest thing of all was to get the right ballance of exposure and flash between the fore and background.  Too much emphasis on the back and the front’s washed out and just right at the front, meant the back was too dark.  This coupled with the fack the whole parade is moving meant for many blurred shots.  I tried fiddling around with higher ISO, but that just introduced noise.  Slower shutter speeds sort of worked, but too much lusk was required to ensure the right things were blurred/ not blurred.

So photographically, it was a bit disappointing, but then I guess with some right proper expensive kit, it might be easier.  If anyone’s got any tips for such scenarios with similar kit to mine, I’d be very grateful to hear from you.  For now, I’ll stick with daytime parades!

p2130257asmallThat aside, the evening was great, ending up at St Barnabas School on Camden Road for a hotdog and some more drumming from Bloco Fogo.  My son enjoyed it big time, especially watching a couple of Chinese lights float of into the sky, listening to Bloco Fogo, and even tapping a drum himself!  Hopefully I’ll be better prepared for next year.

Here’s the best shots of the lot…

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Olympus e620 Grainy Film Art Filter

Grainy Film photo of Union FlagEver since moving to digital photography, I have often thought of taking black and white photos.  Thing is, I use the ‘take it in colour and convert some later with PhotoShop or similar’.  Theflaw in this approach is, at least for me, is I never seem to get round to trauling through the hundreds (thousands) of photos and converting them to black and white ‘just to see’.  Net result?  Very few black and white photos. 

Art Filters to the rescue!  Now I know there are many posts and reviews around the net that slate such functionality built into Digital SLR cameras, but I think it is useful, epsecialy for people like me, where the post developing never actually happens.  To some, the more experienced photographers, they may seem a bit gimigky, watering down the skill required to use a ‘proper’ camera.  However, not all of us are pros (yet 🙂 ), so please remember that folks.

Why is it useful?  The biggest reason is using the feature in situe gives you an immediate answer to the question “What would it look like in black and white?”.  Not only that, you can alter the shot to get it right there and then, something you may not be able to acheive in post developement. 

Another reason for me is it can inspire further creativity, as you see other nearby opportunities that might look good in black and white.  You almsot start hunting for black and white photos.

Whilst on can take photos in black and white on most digital cameras, the Art Filters on my e620 includes ‘Grainy Film’ filter.  This is the only Art Filter I use and I like it as it has a lot more contrast compared to the monochrome setting, which always seems a bit too grey.  It doesn’t always work though, and you have to play around with exposure to try and get it right as somethimes the detail you’re after, get’s lost in the black or the white.  Some shots just seem to come alive when the colour is taken out.

So that’s my waffly defence for the Art Filters on the Olympus e620, especially the Grainy Film one ;-).

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What’s not so good about my Olympus e620?

Olympus e620So it’s nearly been a few months now, so here’s what’s not so good with my Olympus e620.

Well I’m very gald to say, “Not a lot!!”.   Yep, nearly all incredibly minor niggles are down to me as much as the camera.  By that I mean, I’ve still to learn how to drive it properly.

Nothing I hear you cry?  Well you’re right to be suspicous of my claim, as there is one thing that is annoying.  Theres no autofocus assist beam!! 

Auto focus struggles in low light or low contrast situations.  Now the e620 makes use of the pop up flash, which it strobes whilst trying to focus.  Not only is this very slow, it’s quite annoying and, if I’m honest, embarasing.  Having moved from compact cameras with those handly little focus assist lamps, this is annoying when considering a DSLR is supposed to give me more photographic power.  Sometimes it just fails to focus at all. 

I know there are ways round it, like focusing on something nearby, but same distance, or turning all the house lights on, but that’s not always possible.  You can of course revert to manual focus, but without any means of knowing if focus is acheived, other than using ones eye, this can be hard too in low light.Metz 48 AF-1 Flashgun

So what do I do now?  Simple – I chose to buy a flashgun with an AF Assist lamp.  I purchased a Metz 48 AF-1, which has turned out to be really good and has solved the low light autofocus problem.  It does mean I have to cart the flashgun around with me, but then I do, since I’ve payed for it ;-).

I guess this is a problem with DSLRs, as even with a built in beam, you are often focusing on object much fiurther away than you would with a compact point and shoot.

Other than that, all is going well and I’m enjoying the Olympus e620.