PLAYING WITH MY dSLR

Video Gadget 2

2010-01-09T20:03:00.002+00:00

Well lets see if it will add these videos now....

Ah it seems that it was just a moment so here is the final video... A group of more or less grown people hand jiving.

Video Gadget

2010-01-09T19:08:00.003+00:00

Hey all you followers out there, who may be wondering what I have eeen doing today... well we went to get breila her Xmas stuff - yes I know we are late but she is actually in this country on Wednesday. Anyway, we got a copy of Vogue because of the model on the cover (and the PVC clothes inside apparently) and decided to visit H&D in East Chaldon - not influenced at all by Lizzie being there. It was Lucia's birthday yesterday, so that gave me plenty of chances to play with my Veho Muvi a tiny spy cam which also records my trips to and from work. So here, in colour and glorious sound are a few video clips recorded today whilst in Frozen East Chaldon. Please note that these videos are heavily compressed from the original - 640x480 at 20fps isn't bad for something about the size of a small cigarette lighter.

The Muvi is a tiny camera so spying on people is easy....

Now we have Lucia's birthday cake

A rather 'Wicker Man' moment in the Churchyard

hmmm blogspot seems to be having a moment... I will post the other two clips in a while.

Gathering Storm

2009-12-26T19:12:00.001+00:00

Gathering Storm
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is what happens when you expose for the bright bits of a picture - you get underexposure elsewhere. In this instance it doesn't bother me - the cloud over Weymouth (right hand side of the picture) really was dark and the slight underexposure emphasises the menace. Shame about the stern of the tanker on the left of the picture though -perhaps I should crop it off then again I don't like doing that because the picture is the picture not something I have messed with.

Fingers Of God

2009-12-26T19:08:00.001+00:00

Fingers Of God
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is one of two pictures I want to waffle about from today's little trip to Ringstead. The weather, as mentioned on Flickr was Turneresque - lots of sky features and interesting interactions with the light and sea. The sun is, of course, over exposed, yet that is how it looks in many turner paintings (where there is sun). I suspect I should have set the shutter speed a bit lower to try to blur the water a little - I must get the camera off aperture priority once in a while - and for that matter get the 50mm off the front of the body as well.

Boxing day Walk

2009-12-26T18:59:00.002+00:00

Well today we went for a walk on the beach. It was a lovely autumnal afternoon with intense sun slotted between heavy rain showers. Typically it wasn't cold and we had a good time with Dan & Harriet.

On to the pictures - well I will blog in a bit about the ones on Flickr, however here is one that I didn't Flikr but will post here. Dan and Daughters.

2009-04-29T23:08:00.001+01:00

Finally - it is done. The green panel is quite uneven, however without the sun behind it I think it will be OK. The final intention is to hang the flag from the tent, although a pole may be in order - fresh cut each camp would be best, I guess, to save having to carry one around. I will leave it until tomorrow before thinking about fixing it - the patches where the yellow goes over the pencil need thought - if I fix the dye will it also fix the pencil? who knows... I guess I will find out

2009-04-29T23:04:00.002+01:00

Well here we are 2/3 done, just got the green to do next. The red is much more striking in real life than on the photo. The silk does relax somewhat when wet, so next time I think I will be stretching it tighter. The other issue I have is that an even colour is impossible to achieve without airbrushing the design - there is just too much space around to keep the ink even. Perhaps an airbrush is the next thing to get, though it will be even less authentic.

2009-04-29T23:00:00.002+01:00

Start with the light and work to the dark. I picked that up along the way somewhere, so yellow it is. Portcullis en Or where Or is yellow that is not too red or orange but fits with the artists palette. My eyes were playing silly tricks after painting this - ghost yellow portcullis shapes floating in front of my vison. The anti-dispersant works extremely well. I am so glad, because that means I won't be messing about with guta; I have a congenital shake so straight lines or even straightish lines are virtually impossible.

Anti-Dispersant II

2009-04-29T22:57:00.003+01:00

Well here is the anti-dispersant having been painted in a thin(ish) band over every junction of colour on the map. It is quite sticky but even so seems to go in to the cloth well. I just hope it performs for real as well as it did in the test.

Flag Painting

2009-04-29T22:48:00.003+01:00

This is the flag template, with the new portcullis taped to it. It just fits in the bathroom. I found earlier that I have made some mistakes when making the frame. Perhaps I should see Dan and see if we can Merso something more useful.

Here the silk is stretched over the frame, and lowered over the template for tracing. All edges where two colours meet need tracing in pencil. Hopefully it will wash out after ironing however I don't know. This is very much a Mk 1 flag and may not be good enough for use.

Anti-Dispersant

2009-04-22T20:11:00.003+01:00

Well, well, well. This picture, again nothing to do with my dSLR, shows the difference between silk treated with anti dispersant and plain silk. Can you guess which is which?

I put one drop of yellow paint on the silk on the left and one drop of anti-dispersant on the material on the right; the anti-dispersant I smeared out and made sure that the stuff was worked into the fabric - it didn't flow itself. The paint on the left cloth wicked out from the point of impact.

Once the anti-dispersant dried I dripped a single drop of paint onto the treated cloth. The dye just stayed in one place. I touched the bubble of paint with the other cloth - it wicked out immediately and made the second spot. It also spread the ink further on the treated cloth, however it still did not wick. Looks like I am on to a winner there. I will paint a strip of anti-dispersant along each line on the flag design, leaving the dye to wick across the vast open expanses of shimmering silk.

The progress of the flag is stalled as I reworked the portcullis but failed to measure it so the new pattern is too small. I cannot print out a new one at the correct size until friday so, medieval flag fans, you will have to wait for further progress till then.

And now for something completely different

2009-04-20T21:00:00.002+01:00

And now for something completely different
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is a filtered scan of a MF (6x6) picture I took as part of this thread on the Talk Photography BBS.

The picture was taken in early December last year, shortly after the pic in my photostream of the sun through a rock on Portland - here.

The camera in question was a Twin Lens Reflex made by Lubitel. Kev M from the TP forum describes it thus "Be warned, this is a mass produced russian camera dating from somewhere between 1955 and 1982. Don't get hung up on the focus, there are no garuntees with this thing. Think Holga and you'll be somewhere in the right area."

Personally I loved it. I took the time to read up about exposure - you know that thing the dSLR takes care of for you (and mostly gets almost right) - I found some universal exposure tables on the interweb which I used instead of a light meter and the result, after developing and scanning by another Talk Photography member, is the picture you now see. Not bad for guess work and hand held camera on slippery rocks.

I hear the siren call of MF or even LF photography but, similar to Odysseus, I am tied to the mast of all things digital for the moment... who knows what the future will bring.

Not my dSLR

2009-04-19T18:13:00.003+01:00

Well here is a departure for me. A post not about the dSLR at all, rather the new medieval project. My Burgundian tent is looking rather bare without decoration, so I am making semi authentic Tudor flag. Here is a photo of the pattern and the stretching frame. The silk is ready - almost, I haven't washed it yet - for stretching however I have no drawing pins (yet). The next stage is to trace the places where the colour meets in bleed resist so that one colour doesn't overrun the other and then paint away. There are only three colours, so it shouldn't be too tricky.

Spray

2009-02-16T21:14:00.001+00:00

Spray
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

I never thought I would say this, but I can now see why one may have use for a ND Grad filter!

The white sea here is not white because it was choppy, in fact quite the reverse, but because it is over exposed. With an ND Grad I could have exposed the rocks correctly and also the sea, retaining detail and reducing the glare. I suppose I could have used a circular polariser as well/instead because that is good for -1EV or there abouts.

So new shopping list! I will go for Cokin P-System filters owing to the price/performance issue I need the following:-

2 adapter rings, one 52mm for the nifty and one 58mm for both the telephoto and the kit 18-55mm
1 P system Filter holder
1 ND Grad 4 - good for a couple of stops of exposure.

The trouble with using this arrangement is that the slower shutter speed will increase the water blur, which in turn will prevent one from seeing the spiky effect as the water crashes (!) over the rocks.

Another suggestion has been that I take an equivalent picture but in landscape orientation. next time I get over to Kimmeridge I will try that as well - after all I have a tripod and I am not really afraid to use it!

Machine Elbow

2009-01-24T21:33:00.001+00:00

Machine Elbow
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

At long last I have found some more machinery to photograph. This is a fork loader, used by Wessex Water or their contractors whilst repairing what I guess is a sewerage pumping station at Osmington mills.

I love machines - I think too much watching Koyaanisqatsi, under the influence of certain substances, in my youth is responsible; though thinking back to age 3 or 4 I remember dragging my mother round Salisbury looking for "workems" and their associated machines.

The colours are good and strong - Auto Levels just emphasises the shininess which wasn't my impression of the image when I took it so yet again I post a picture with no post processing.

I should perhaps have made the silver coloured bolt head the focus of the picture, however hind sight is a wonderful thing and I like the picture as it stands.

Blue

2008-12-28T21:41:00.001+00:00

Blue
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Here is the first proper picture taken using the tripod and 3-way head I got for Christmas.

I quite like it - though it is not square, but that adds to the atmosphere I think.

I have a stop motion film to make tomorrow, with the younger daughter directing, so that will be fun. Hopefully we can use this rather eerie light for effect.

Stop Motion - Balls 1

2008-12-28T19:48:00.004+00:00

Well, now I have a tripod and a couple of lights, here is a simple stop motion tale of silver balls who escape from the pot and vanish off on adventures who knows where... we may catch up with them another day...

I find it a bit bizarre using a dSLR to produce stop motion video, but the wonders of modern software and computers mean that the process I last undertook in a dark, hot animation studio at the age of 14 can be relived in the comfort of my own kitchen, with beer available on tap.

Sunset

2008-12-06T19:46:00.001+00:00

Sunset
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

I really must get out more.

This was the best of 3 passable shots, selected from 80... my 'hit rate' has fallen from 30% to 3%!!!

I haven't been out with the camera much because walking and getting into awkward positions has been difficult with the last nagging bits of my ankle injury.

I think my new year's resolution must be to get out at least once a weekend with the camera, otherwise I will loose any learning I have done over the last year.

Legs

2008-11-07T22:14:00.001+00:00

Legs
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Ok,

well here is a picture of legs. Wrapped in fishnets. The composition of this picture is rather bad to be honest - I should have crouched lower on the floor and lost the heads of Claire and Sam who were modelling for the shot.

I did try flood filling the top of the photo with plain black but it just looks rubbish - so here is the picture to remind me that getting down on the floor sometimes means getting really low.

There are other, less discrete, pictures but they remain firmly in my archives.

Claire and Livi

2008-11-07T22:10:00.002+00:00

Claire and Livi
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Here is a candid portrait that I stumbled upon at a Halloween party this year.

If I run autolevels on it, everything goes over exposed and blown; I prefer the straight out of camera look to the composition. It also is slightly grainy - though the camera was (and still is) on ISO 100.

Had I really posed the shot, I would of course ensured that the dress label was hidden or removed and fixed any number of other things which aren't quite working.

However this is my favourite picture out of the many I have taken this year. OK Livi is squawking but that adds something I think.

On to the next post - more of Claire, I am afraid :)

Fence Post and Barbed Wire

2008-10-16T20:36:00.002+01:00

Sunset 03
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Here is one of a sequence of 5 photos I selected from 20 odd I took this evening at Falcon Barn.

I had to pay a visit so I took the camera just in case the sun played ball and lo! it did. The pre sunset pics were a bit bland, the after sunset though... well this picture gives you some idea.

There is a lot of black in the pic, however the colours more than make up for it i think.

Today I was mostly using the kit lens as well.... the nifty stayed in the bag; the 7-200mm came out a couple of times as well, though that was for hand held shots of a huge moon, which were too wobbly for words.

Hoodie

2008-10-11T16:12:00.001+01:00

Hoodie
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

My first Blog post for ages... I know, I should be out photographing stuff more. Wel lI have had an excuse this year - having severely sprained my ankle in June I haven't actually been able to walk around for long periods of time much. The ankle whilst much much better is not yet right, thanks for asking.

This pic looked a bit "bleh" when in colour, so I took out the red and blue channels, boosted the green a little then converted to grayscale. After tweaking the brightness and contrast a little I am happyish with the result - especially given this was taken on a sunny afternoon!

Weddings

2008-09-02T22:10:00.001+01:00

Order Of Service
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

A random staged shot for a blog entry, but this one is about my first (and possibly last) wedding shoot.

Oh my how many pictures did I take? 1779...

That is a large number but divide by 3 because for the majority I was bracketing exposure. This is because I am aware that the camera will guess about white, so sometimes you need +1EV and also sometimes it will burn out whites, so -1EV is called for.

Out of the 1779 pics I got about 247 which were worth giving the Bride - nothing special just all the pics on a CD (they just fit)

Then out of those 247 pics I picked the most "Ben" ones. - examine my Flickr stream to see what I mean here.

I now have to go through the 247 and do a bit of sharpening and auto levels then make another CD with the final results. Stck a nice label on it and job done.

I hope Hannah likes them, I certainly had a great time taking them.

Not a photography post

2008-06-18T10:39:00.007+01:00

I was pointed in the direction of Wordle by a Flickr contact and pasted the text of the front page of this blog (before I made this post) into the machine. A bit of Java later and....Here is the result

The Sands Of Time

2008-05-27T21:28:00.001+01:00

The Sands Of Time
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Another shallow depth of field photo produced by the 75-300mm lens. Jason's hand dripping a little of what sand there is on the beach. This is a candid - he was completely unaware that I was taking this picture.