Pictures, pictures

Here's a rather good photographic portfolio. Click and enjoy.

B-17 Flying Fortress

Euroject fighter engine exhausts

Taken on yet another trip to the RAF museum in Hendon, London. Sooner or later the boy is going to get fed up with going. On that day we can all take a rest.

Fruity

Here is a still life I took while playing about with the flash commander mode on my Nikon D70 and my spanking new remote flash.

Copyright image

Please note that this has been submitted to my agency and is under strict copyright.

Late seasonal photographs

Here are a couple of still life shots I took for the Christmas season. Both were taken on red card using a tripod and nothing but candle light.

Copyright image

Copyright image

Please note that these have been submitted to my agency and are under strict copyright.

They're ok, but I wouldn't print them out

I agree with John Beardsworth here:

I've never been overwhelmed by the National Portrait Gallery's annual Photographic Portrait Prize but this year's shortlist truly limbo dances under my ankle high expectations.

In other news I recently gave a print away as a gift to a good friend of mine. It was of her and her little boy in a very tender embrace. It made her cry. She didn't say why. I could have asked but I didn't want to take the risk.

This morning I have mostly been doing....

...some stock photography.

Airsoft Tactical Master

Nikon recall to replace rechargeable battery packs

I know at least one reader that will be affected by this. Nikon has issued a recall notice for certain rechargeable battery packs that come with its D100, D70, and D50 model cameras. A few have been overheating during recharging. They have published a list of the possibly faulty EN-EL3 type batteries so you should check if yours is on there and then seek a replacement from Nikon if necessary.

Mine is on the list which unfortunately means that I will be without a camera once I receive the "return envelope" from Nikon. I hope they send the replacement promptly.

Treetography?

Coming down on one side of the light debate

Someone once wrote, and I think that it might have been Don McCullin, that there’s “no such thing as bad light” where photography is concerned. I think I agree with him. All light is good, it’s just that sometimes there’s not enough of it to go round.

Upturned open field mushroom

I photographed this upturned open field mushroom this morning when I took the dog for a walk using my D70 with a 105mm fixed focul length Sigma macro lens:

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Woodland picture

It was a dull day last week when I decided to take my lunch break in a park local to my work. I decided to bring the camera anyhow and I'm glad I did because no sooner had I got there than the weather decided to brighten up a bit.

I took this photograph over the top of a wire fence and through the thin line of trees and hedges that open up into a lightly wooded field. I was in the dark but the field was lit by bright sunlight.

To produce the picture I cropped the photograph, ran it through a seasonal filter and blew the highlights deliberately to enhance the difference between the place where the viewer is standing and the open field.

It looks great full size and, I think, would make a good print at 12x8.

Web Engine

I took this at a nearby weir. This is part of the machinery that controls the flow of water.

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Ships

A photograph of some of the ships that arrived as part of this game. The ship in the foreground is the Titan which is, apparently, quite a capable ship when played properly. My boy sunk it with one of his disgracefully underpowered pirate vessels

I reduced the overall brightness of the image and filtered it through a 'gothic' blur filter.

Another image - Shutters

This one I took on my way to work as I passed an old barn local to me. I've passed it many hundreds of times over the years and have watched the thing slowly degrade. The texture of the peeling paint is the attraction of the photograph for me though, once again, it's a pleasure that you are denied as a consequence of the small size published here.

Another image - Orchid

Taken on the spur of the moment at my parents’ house a few weekends back. The orchid, a moving in present now beginning to fade, was photographed and framed so that it can be hung when the real thing finally goes the way of the Dodo.

Today's image

Here's another image from the D70. Local farm taken at about 7am as RAW then passed through Raw Shooter to increase saturation, reduce exposure, increase fill light and shadow contrast. It's hard to see the overall effect on such a small version of the image but when I look at it it makes me think, oh bugger, better get out of here.

There's a difference

This is a beautiful picture and this is a picture of something beautiful.

Photographic tool for the raw shooter

If you shoot pictures in RAW format then RawShooter essentials by Pixmantec might be the tool for you. It's totally free and is more than just a raw converter because it offers some great workflow functionality too.