Unbelievably, yesterday was our first trip to Rocky Bay this year. I’d forgotten how lovely it is out there.
More Infrared sensitive camera work here, it doesn’t work quite so well for the family portraits though!
Rocky Bay IR
Fungal Growth
Found these growing in the bottom of a pot in the front garden:
I bought the Macro Lens for baby sessions because my standard portrait lenses just don’t get in tight on the smallest of tots. But there’s lots of fun to be had with it in my own backyard.
More on Chimping
I spotted this photo of the US Open on the BBC website.
I mentioned chimping a couple of times already. The ability to review your shots has helped digital take over from film in many aspects of photography. But this is a classic example of missing a shot due to chimping.
Maybe he had it in the can already. But this guy is obviously a pro, he has a nice big Canon camera and a big lens with IS, what are the chances that he actually missed the shot? And if he had missed it, wouldn’t he be better off shooting some more versions of this key moment, rather than checking his LCD?
How many times have I been at a tourist spot and nearly fallen over someone who has stopped dead in the middle of the path to check the shot he just took?
Digital cameras are very fancy these days. They miss very few shots in most circumstances. Any many times with action shots, if you miss them, you miss them. Taking your eye off the action to check what you might have missed just makes you miss something else. Take the shot, look for the next one or put your camera away and enjoy what’s next.
It’s not that I don’t chimp. I come across many difficult lighting scenarios and the ability to review the shot, check the histogram and adjust wherever possible is invaluable. But I try to keep my eye on the ball.
This video on chimping is excellent. There is a bit of ‘we film guys were good enough without chimping and you digital guys are all soft’ to the whole thing. And to be honest I see what they mean – photographers who shot film had it a whole lot harder and all the more credit for them to get the pictures they got on film. But in the context of sports photography, there’s a lot to be missed by sparing at your LCD and not the game in hand.
Apologies to both the BBC and Getty for snipping this image.
Blue Skies over Turners Cross
I stole an hour on Friday out in the sun. I got as far as Turners Cross
Sunset off Allihies
I climbed the hill after tea to try to get a few shots of the Copper Mines before the sun went down. It wasn’t working out for me but I noticed the evening light hitting the hills across the valley and took a few shots of that before I realised that there must be something creating that gorgeous light and turned around.
Photography takes me out of things to concentrate on what’s in the viewfinder. It is important to ‘feel’ these moments of incredible natural beauty as well as photograph them. So I took the shot and forced myself to put the camera away and just watched the sun set. Ahhhh. These moments are rare enough.
I finally got some time this morning to work on this picture. I wanted to balance sunset and coastline so I effectively double-exposed the original RAW file and blended them to back together maximise the impact of the sun but keep some detail in the hills (I know it is hard to tell from the small version).
The Joys of Film
It is a long time since I waited nearly a year to see a photograph I’d taken. But here’s one I shot last October and just saw for the first time this week.
In the more recent days of film I used to get through it quickly enough. Anything from a couple of rolls a day to one every two weeks max. But during the last film festival I loaded my trusty Nikon F4 with film and went into town on a Sunday morning to catch an early showing. This particular shot is pretty much only a Sunday morning thing, with the garage doors either open, or double parked every other day. I took the shot, went to my movie and that was that.
Time passed. I worked away using the new Digital SLRs and the F4 was stored carefully, just this shot and one of the brewery opposite on the roll. Waiting. “I must finish that roll someday”.
I never went back to shoot them in digital (though I thought about it). Why waste a Sunday morning if the shot was ‘in the can’?
Someday finally came last week. Having developed a taste for film after the star trails thing I remembered the F4 and its two shots. Not knowing whether the film was even still any good, I strapped on the 24mm and finished off the roll. Lovely camera, the Nikon F4s. And waited a little longer to see whether those garage doors survived.
At this point there is a cue for a long diatribe about the value of things that come slowly, that are earned. The thrill of anticipation that is typical of film photography. The need to trust ones skills, take one shot and move on to the next without stopping to chimp.
Oh and then on to “Kids these days have it too easy, everything is instant, they aren’t made to wait for anything anymore, they don’t value anything because nothing is hard earnt. Fast food. Cheap thrills’.
Baa, humbug.
But no-one would bother to read it, it would take too long, maybe if there was a podcast…
Web Site Update Launched
I posted a number of updates to the main web site recently.
There are a lot of more recent images added to the portraiture galleries including some of this year’s Holy Communion photos.
I added a small gallery of Story Boards and Album Pages just to give an idea of how these turn out. The Story Boards are a great product to capture a particular moment in time. They typically include a main portrait, some support images of the child or children with their family to set some context and a then a set of detailed miniature images of the things that are special to the child at that point in their lives. They are all custom designed, printed and framed and range anything from 50cm to over 1.2m wide.
The Look of the Irish
I just finished catching up with RTÉ’s ‘the Look of the Irish’ season on the on-line player. Some really good stuff in there: some arty-farty stuff, artists who take photographs; some very interesting profiles of ‘real’ photographers; lots of interesting archive material as well.
If I had to pick one it would be John Minihan. I came across an small exhibition of his work from Cuba at the Kinsale Arts Week (last year?) and subsequently realised that not only did I have one of his books already, but his work is also hanging in the English Market. Very interesting for me to see the man talk about his work and to get his full bio.
But they’re all worth a look if you have the time. I think RTÉ keep them up for a couple of weeks. Start here and explore: http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1053611
A Little Retro Time Out
I noticed that there has been a distinct lack of photographs in the last few posts! Hey, this is supposed to be a photo blog!
Well part of it may be that a week or so off has obvioulsy made me deeply philosphical but another thing may be that I took the chance while on holiday to shoot some film.
Film!
“Holy 20th Century Batman, you can get cameras that shoot film? What dastardly plot to undermine digital cameras is this?”
“Well not any more Robin but it used to be all the thing”
“What? No endless chimping? No instant gratification? You have to wait hours, no sometimes days to see your photographs? What kind of Victorian Water Torture is this?”
No really, digital is great, especially for my work. Between blinky adults, fidgey kids and weird mixed lighting its great to be able validate your set-up instantly and be able to take enough versions of a large group to reasonably expect that everyone will be looking at you with their eyes open in at least one. Moreover, the recent crop of pro DSLRs has made shooting with available light just an amazing experience.
Film still has a lot going for it. For scenic work where you have the time to set things up the advanages of digital are less obvious.
But I not only went film, I also went full manual. The discipline of having to go back to basics on your photography was really interesting.
“You have to remember to set the shutter and the aperature? AND focus? If it is a little dark you can’t just pump up the ISO? So what do you do? Hold your breath and try not to shake too much?”
It is great to slow things down when you can. Take your time. Remember the basics of your craft.
Then there’s the pure pleasure in operating a purely mechanical camera: the clunk of the shutter. There’s still a bit of the Engineer in me that appreciates a well crafted machine.
There is one application that film still holds a significant advantage over digital: star trails. Sure it is do-able with digital but worrying about batteries, long exposure noise, condensation issues and various other things doesn’t compare to just opening the shutter on a film camera and setting your alarm.
We didn’t get that many clear nights this trip (we didn’t even get many dry ones) and the one time we did get stars there was only time for two exposures (10 mins and 20 mins) before high cloud came over. But this is an on-going project and the FM2n will be in the bag any time I’m expecting to be out under a big sky.
It is something (else) that will take some time to perfect.
Oh, and on the subject of chimping, check out this video.
The Value of a Photograph
I got an e-mail this week from David A Williams announcing more seminars (none in Ireland yet unfortunately) and also his new web site. It is well worth a look, lots of lovely images but also some thought provoking messages.
David is inspirational. Not only in terms of his photography but also the way he encourages photographers to look at the value of their work: ‘You do not make portraits of children for their parents, you make them for when the child is a parent’. He emphasises the work of a photographer as a creator of unique memories which will prove to be priceless.
The thing is, the true value of these memories only truly comes home to you sometime later when your family experiences a dramatic change and it is apparent that the moment captured by the photograph has gone forever.
Getting your family together for a photograph is an easy thing to put off or just never get around to doing.
It doesn’t matter who is missing or what shoes you have on, take the photograph, make the memory. You will never regret taking a photograph, you may regret not having a memento of your family at a unique point their history.
It took a lot for me to ask my mother to pose for a portrait for me way back when I was about 20. It probably took more for her to agree. But in the passing years those photographs have become more precious than I could have possibly realised at the time.
Unfortunately parents age. Inevitably children grow up. Sometimes family leave for foreign shores. Take pictures of your family whenever you can. Get them taken with you in them as well.
Whether you hire a professional photographer or not, make a memory, not an excuse.