Sigma 50mm 1.4
Sigma 50mm 1.4
Posted July 19th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
A week or so ago I splashed out on a new lens, the Sigma 50mm 1.4 – I’ve wanted a prime for a while, and initially looked at the Canon 1.8. This led me to research the Canon 1.4, which in turn pointed me in the direction of the Sigma. Apparently the Sigma bokeh is creamier, if various reviews and forum opinions are to be believed.
Anyway, it’s a lovely piece of glass, and heavy with a diameter of 77mm (nice cheap filters then…hmmm….) Here are some test shots from a recent outing…mmm, lovely creaminess…
Inspiration
Posted July 10th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
One aspect of photography that I love is the sheer diversity of styles and techniques out there, including landscape, macro, portrait, flash, wedding and architectural photography, amongst many, many others. This means that there’s always a wealth of inspiration waiting to be uncovered, and thanks to the Internet we can all be inspired via a simple click.
Here are some photographers whose work has particularly moved me of late:
Living in London means that there’s always something interesting to photograph, and David’s portfolio is chock-full of superb shots. I’ve always loved night photography, and it looks like he’s used a super-wide lens and a Gorillapod or similar (unless he likes laying down on the ground a lot…whatever floats your boat, baby…)
No, not Gary Numan…jeez. I’m a sucker for a long exposure shot (especially during the day, when the results can be surreal), and Gary’s work doesn’t disappoint. I first noticed him on Flickr via his Hammersmith Bridge shot, and if I can nail a shot as good as that one day, I’ll be a happy man.
Another long exposure specialist, Donald’s also an expert wordsmith too, often accompanying his fabulous photographs with moving poetry and songs.
I’m also a sucker for architectural photography (as you may have guessed), and Frank’s work contains a multitude of fascinating angles and compositions, alongside some funky post-processing work.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these artists work, and I’ll be posting some more inspiration posts soon.
Balancing Ambient Light with Flash
Posted July 10th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
Or, “How to Mangle Your Head By Reading Too Many Articles”
Last week I treated myself to the rather saucy Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens, as well as a Nissin Di622 flash unit. Being the control freak that I am, I wanted to ensure that I was attaining correct exposure using the flash unit, so I’ve probably read about 50 articles over the last few days dealing with mixing ambient light with flash.
Now my head really hurts.
Basically I’m shooting in manual mode, setting the flash to TTL metering, taking a meter reading for the ambient light, under / overexposing the ambient light via aperture / shutter speed / ISO, and then taking the shot (hoping the flash will correctly expose the subject now that the ambient exposure has been set).
My head still hurts.
However, I shall continue to absorb as much information as possible to understand this subject, and hopefully some beautifully exposed pictures will appear on this blog very soon.
Meanwhile, these people seem to know what they’re doing:
- Balancing flash and ambient exposure – where do you even start?
- Balance
- Balancing Flash/Ambient Indoors
- Dragging the shutter
WordPress Photography Templates
Posted June 19th, 2010 by admin with No Comments
I’m not ashamed to say I’ve become a bit of a WordPress fanboy in recent weeks. Since deciding to take the plunge a while back, updating this site has been so much easier – the creation of an average blog post used to take me around 30 minutes (edit raw html, resize and upload images, manually update the Google sitemap XML file, edit and upload the RSS feed, bang head repeatedly against wall), but now it takes around 10 (think what to say, type, upload image, click Publish, done).
As you’ve probably guessed, I thoroughly recommend WordPress not just for a blogging platform, but for a Content Management System too – there are a number of photography templates out there (free and commercial), and gallery plugins are in abundance to help you manage your images.
After a trawl of the interweb, here are some of the best photography themes that I’ve found:
Aperture by WooThemes
Aperture WordPress Theme
Photo + by themeforest
Photo + WordPress Theme
Modern 3 Business Dark by themeforest
Modern Business Dark - recognise it...?!
ProPhoto Blogs
ProPhoto Blogs - a collection of WordPress themes
Gallery by wpzoom
Gallery WordPress Theme
Raceclan by web2feel
Raceclan WordPress theme
The screenshot is of Paul Healey’s site msport-images.com, and the original theme can be found here.
I hope you find something you like, and if you’d like any help setting up and installing a WordPress theme, please contact me.
Sigma 150-500 Gear Envy
Posted June 3rd, 2010 by admin with No Comments
My good friend Paul Healey came over this week for a couple of days, and brought with him his shiny new Canon 7D and Sigma 150-500mm lens. The 7D is a fantastic piece of kit – continuous shooting sounds like someone letting rip with a snub-nosed Uzi, but it was the lens I found particularly impressive.
The Beast
Paul’s an excellent motorsport photographer (the above lens is his weapon of choice), so pop on over and check out his excellent work.
