The Imperial War Museum has a huge observation like tower which you can take a ride up and take pictures, providing you have a photographers pass.
There are a few little slots in the wall in which you are supposed to put your camera I guess? because judging by the walls being made from mesh it’s not like you can’t see out to the horrifyingly dizzying drop below. (i hate heights)
This is Ed pointing his camera through one of the gaps.
Because I was only allowed to set up a monopod it means I could only capture a single RAW exposure and therefore only get a pseudo HDR. Also, because of the huge difference in between the light and the dark in this area, I didn’t want to lose all the detail outside but at the same time I didn’t want a silhouette of the structure and to lose all of the features inside the tower.
It turned out to be a heck of a noisy picture and I could only manage I think an ƒ/5.6 so a lot of the shot isn’t in focus.
Live and learn.
The storm clouds had just passed so I had to work quickly to get the darkness of the rain clouds in the image before they moved on.
These circular structure just outside the Lowry in Salford Quays is an interesting building. Sort of Industrial Chimney Meets Futuristic Watch Tower.
My regret with this image is it’s slightly skewed. Because I was working quickly to get the cloud in my composition the tower wasn’t as vertical as I would have liked. Unfortunately, added to this, when I attempted to rotate the image later in Photoshop, the cloud on the left of the frame was almost entirely rotated out. In the end I left it was it was. I don’t think the angle ruins the shot but it’s just a minor regret.
The 10-20mm is a fun little lens. I had to get closer and closer to the tower because there was so much ‘dead space’ in the shot.
Just thought I’d share this with you.
How large as wood pigeons in general?!
It seems so strange that they are technically pigeons and they are so large but you don’t seem them a quarter as often as their flying-rat counterparts.
It wasn’t me who spotted it. Meg’s brother Jack came to me shouting “look at the size of it!”
So I came a-running with the Vivitar 80-200mm and did my darndest to get a decent shot away.
This, unfortunately, was the result
Yesterday’s shot of the car reflection in the copper coloured building was taken at the same time as this.
It was taken just at the end of a bridge over the quays.
I felt the HDR was necessary because it makes reflections look brilliant!
The day was fairly windy so cloud movement is pretty obvious.
How I yearn for a camera with AEB.
A pseudo-hdr from sunny Salford Quays.
I didn’t think a HDR was necessary so I shot a single RAW shot but turned out it was a little dark in areas.
I quite like how the car is broken up into different “sections” by the various panes of glass from the building.
A HDR!
It seems like a long time but here we are again.
Taken on a day trip out to Salford Quays. Which was awful, weather wise. I mean really bad. The weather cleared up only long enough to get a couple decent shots off and the odd HDR but it was a long time spent doing nothing.
I really wanted to get one of those wide angle car shots done in HDR that you see way too often around the internet but sort of spoof it and get a really plain or a really run down automobile.
After a few minutes looking around this one particular car park I gave up and settled for an alloy because I am half magpie and can’t stay away from shiny objects!
Okay so I decided that I am going to post another shot I took with the Vivitar 80-200mm.
I just like it okay?
It’s a ring-neck dove, or collar-neck if you prefer.
This is on the feeder in my girlfriend’s front garden. I spent a couple of hours staring at it, hanging out of the window. Lots of things passed through that morning. Squirrels, magpies, woodpigeons..
It was good and I feel like shooting these birds has actually influenced a little passion for wildlife and nature in me.
I also quite like the arching of his/her neck and how it follows the out of focus leaf just above.
I bought a rocket blower a little while ago because I had a problem with dust. I attempted to clean it and made it worse because I touched the filter in front of the sensor with the end so it smudged.
I decided for my first sensor clean I would get it done “professionally” so I started a thread on Flickr to find out where to get it done.
Mathers of Bolton was recommended so I took it there Monday (21st July)
I only used my camera last night (24th) since then to do another dust test because the guy assured me it was spotless and I believed him.
Here’s how I tested for dust (just to cover my bases to make sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong).
I got a white piece of paper, stood next to a window, I had my 50mm attached, set to ƒ/22.
(I had made ABSOLUTELY sure there was no marks on the lens)
I took some shots in RAW.
I opened the image in Photoshop and it gave me the RAW open dialogue box. Dust was very obvious on the screen already but I upped the exposure and the blacks only slightly to accentuate the specks. So I knew I had dust.
I rang Mathers this morning to tell them. The guy I spoke to told me to come back in. So I went in and straight away I could tell he woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Continue reading »
This is the first image and maybe only image I will share with you on dontdopeas that I took with my girlfriend’s grandfathers old Vivitar 80-200mm lens. It was great fun when I pulled it out of its case for the first time and begun playing with it. I’d never played around with a lens quite like it.
It is a push-pull barrel zoom and entirely manual. I have to set it to M for my camera to even recognise a lens is attached.
At first, a lot of my shots were either well under or well over exposed because I had to set both shutter speed and aperture manually. I have done this before with other newer lenses but this lens didn’t meter so it was a lot of guess work. But it was fun.
The blackbird was sitting on the wall (as you can see) and I was about 8ft away.
In my defense, this was handheld and it’s not a light lens.
This is the best result I could with it without using artificial lighting.
Since playing with this lens I’ve discovered it’s by no means a sharp lens, unless you stop way down and even then it’s only okay. Gotta give a 20+ year old lens some credit though
This is Meg with a handful of flowers.
We went for a walk a while back because it was a nice day and along the way she picked flowers.
The sky was getting a little overcast and light was pretty poor so drastic measures were taken and I had to use the onboard flash because I really wanted to capture this image that I had in my head at the time.
I took a few other shots without flash and the background had some nice even light to it but what with a sub 1/20th second exposure it was extremely difficult to get a nice sharp shot at ƒ/10!
It was a good evening and I have this shot to prove it!
p.s. sorry i know it’s more flowers…