A Merry Christmas...

...And a happy New Year to you all.

A Fungi to be with...

(Sorry..)

I finished at a job in a church hall a couple of weeks ago and, with nothing else on the list, went looking for Pics of the Day.  I get a bit jaded by Pic of the Day, especially on the same patch year after year, but today inspiration was looking for an outlet and churchyards are a good place to start. Then I looked down in all the leaf litter and saw this...

In many ways this is a simple picture, but I deliberately went looking for a less conventional way to shoot it than I would normally (60mm macro etc etc).  Out came the 70-200, I opened it up to f2.8/f4/f5.6, crawled around in the leaf litter - fortunately it was still dry! - and did a little gardening of a few blades of grass between me and the subject.

I'm no wildlife photographer, unlike my local colleague Rob Canis, but I think this is a Shaggy Ink Cap, Coprinus Comatus.

Shaggy Ink Cap, Coprinus Comatus (I think!), peeking through the leaf litter in St Michael's churchyard,
Sittingbourne, on 24th September 2011. Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness?
Nikon D3, ISO 800, 70-200mm lens at 200mm, 1/800th at f2.8, raw image processed in Aperture.

The D3 was left on what is its near-default this time of year of ISO 800, but it could have been pulled down to base ISO of 200 if you're really worried by image "noise" (though ISO1600 doesn't make a D3 even sweat..). I handheld, flat on my stomach but a  bean bag would be the thing to rest the camera on with a reduced shutter speed. In Aperture I added 0.35EV exposure - on the JPEG the Ink Cap wanted to start "blowing out" at the metered exposure. There's a curve to add some "snap" to the contrast, then a little Highlight Recovery and Highlight Protection to make the Ink Cap look right. I could have gone with the meter reading and added more recovery to the raw, but decided to stop the "blinkies" flashing on the monitor on-site.

Owt from Nowt

Shhhh. Listen. It's Friday evening and across the country that sound you can just hear is hundreds of local press photographers weeping softly in a corner, as they've opened their in-boxes and seen what joys await them on their weekend picture lists...


OK, perhaps I exaggerate slightly but there's precious little "news" work to be seen,  (usually) far too much "padding" for creative comfort, with Coffee Mornings, Jumble Sales (yes, really) and lately, "Xmas Fayres" (broadly the same thing but with tinsel). Sadly, this is all just because there's pages to fill, not because these events are significant or, frequently, even picture-worthy.  Of course, there  "might be some picture sales"...   (sob..)


Right, rant over. Stop whinging and pull yourself together! Only a major shift in outlook will ever change this, it's been that way for years ("Doesn't mean it's right!" "Shut up!") so we need to crack on, even if, as Joe McNally says, sometimes "you just have to hold your nose, go to the happy place in your head and make a bad picture". 


Yet sometimes you are pleasantly surprised at a Christmas Fair; there's lots of happy people, colourful stands, and an image appears that's nicely above the usual "face the camera and smile" local press fare (Fayre? "Stopit!!").


Here's one from last Saturday at a local Grammar School, where the few working brain cells remaining sparked into life when I saw this...

Belgian chocolates and other sweet treats are sold by Joan Stanton, centre, and Jean Carvell, during a fund-raising Christmas Fair at Highsted School, Sittingbourne, on Saturday 26th November 2011.

Nikon D3, ISO800, 1/60 at f7.1, 24-120mm at 24mm, plus SB900 flash, 

fired in bounce mode off ceiling of hall at +0.3EV compensation. 

The flash had just enough "pop" off the high ceiling that I could take off the diffuser dome, otherwise the foreground sweets would wash out, and the ambient was just bright enough to give good fill-in - although there's some 'fluorescent" green, most of the bulbs were pretty close to a warm daylight, which is always helpful. Don't really like the light fittings appearing, but it's the real world so can't do much about that other than accept them.


Almost, almost, a proper photojournalist's image...

Carl...

As a local press photographer, you will rarely get to shoot anything as momentous as, say, a Reuters pro. But what you do does matter, in a small way, to the community that you work in and with.

Sometimes, this can come back to you in good ways, and sometimes it can remind you of just how precarious life is.

I shot Carl Davies. a Sittingbourne and Sheppey teacher, a few months ago before he did a charity tandem parachute jump. Only with him for 15 minutes, but he made an impression in my memory.  A few weeks ago he had moved on. As an ex-marine, he was now a security consultant on a ship in the Indian Ocean, which is plagued by pirates.

Then came the news that he had been found dead on La Reunion island.

And then, following a second post-mortem, it became murder...

I cannot imagine what his family are going through. But I hope they take some comfort from the chinese lantern launch by friends and ex-pupils in his memory which took place on Minster Leas last Saturday evening. Over 150 people and possibly many more - it was so dark - left a glowing tribute slowly streaming into the air...

Dozens of glowing chinese lanterns in the sky over The Leas, Minster, on 

19th November 2011, an airborne tribute to ex-teacher Carl Davies. 

Evan Borg-Myatt, 9, left, and Jack Mair, 10, sons of friends,

 let their lanterns go into the night. 

FOR ABSOLUTE CLARITY- IMAGE ©KM Group, NO REPRODUCTION IN 

ANY MEDIUM OR MEDIA WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION OF KMG.

Girl Boxer

Meet Jodie. She's an ultimate anti-stereotype: 14, pretty, blonde, a grammar school girl. Oh, and she has strength and a punch that means her trainer is struggling to find opponents for her in her amateur boxing, as nobody locally wants to fight her in her age group, or above. She's having to go farther afield for bouts because of her ability...

Amateur boxer Jodie, 14.
She has strength and a punch opponents who know of her don't want to face.
Nikon D3, 1/250 sec f5.6, ISO 800, SB900 through shoot-through umbrella,
above and to camera right, triggered in TTL mode by PocketWizard FlexTT5.
Flash was dialled down (I think) by 0.7 EV for this one.

A shoot was set up at the hall where she trains, and the brief was to get a variety of pics of her sparring, using punchbags, relaxing in the ring (?) etc for a feature. The ring was ready on the stage of the village hall, but I'd had a look at the light and decided it wasn't much help - full sunlight streaming through high windows, leaving hot and cold patches of full sun or nowt. We closed as many curtains as would shut and I reached for the Pocket Wizard FlexTTs to light her and her trainer with flash...

More after the break...

Three views: Three...

And finally; Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC20EIII


This is a very succinct post... 


If you have any recent Nikon long glass, AFS or the older AFI, and you need some more reach, or want a narrower depth of field, or apparent closer focussing, get this. Ditch any other 2x 'converters, including older TC20E versions, because this makes them look like bottle-bottoms.  It's that good!


Like all the TC-E converters, it will only mount onto certain lenses - basically that's AFI/AFS types from the 105VR, 70-200/80-200AFS, then 200/f2 and up. It maintains full metering with all such lenses, and will still permit autofocus with the f2.8 lenses - like all 2X teleconverters it robs the lens of two stops of light, f2.8 becoming f5.6 etc. 


(NB. although Nikon state the minimum aperture for their AF system to work is f5.6, in good light I have seen that it will allow focus with f4 lenses - effective f8 - but probably not to be entirely relied on).


Briefly, it gives very good results wide-open, and improves further stopped down one stop. As is usual, the reduced maximum aperture does make the AF "think" a little more but it remains effective and surefooted, and the VR works as normal. It's a bit pricier than the other TC-E models, but much cheaper than owning a 400+... Certainly I find that the 300 f2.8VR plus TC14EII, TC17EII and the new TC20EIII covers my needs well enough now.

70-200 f2.8G AFS Mk1 + TC20EIII, at 200mm f2.8 (equiv. 400mm f5.6). My little dog, peering in through the back door. This is a 1000 pixel-wide crop out of the original (though it's displaying smaller than 100% here). Remember, this is WIDE-OPEN, on a ZOOM lens. On the 300mm, stopped down one stop to f8 for cricket this summer, this is like having the old manual 600 f5.6AI back - with AF, Matrix Metering and VR!

Booster stage.
 I can't justify the vast expense of a 600mm, but this adds versatility to my 300 f2.8
AND it gives good results wide-open, which the old TC20E11 struggled to match with
the lens stopped down to f11. It goes in the bag day-to-day too, as it also works well on the
70-200 f2.8 shown here.

This isn't a company buy - I stumped up my own cash for this, too!

Three views: Two...

One I do like - Nikon 24-120mm f4G AFS

This came to me with the company D7000, where it's roughly a 36-180 on the cropped sensor. The original version Nikon produced was a screwdriver-drive one, f3.5-f5.6, and was replaced with an AFS model with the same variable maximum aperture.

I've no personal experience of the old AFS version, but trawling around the internet shows that it's not well-regarded in the Internet Nikon User world, especially by the full-frame FX'ers. I confess I wonder how much of the dislike is based on just graphs and figures, since the Mk1 70-200 f2.8 AFS also gets something of a slating (corner sharpness, vignetting) by many internet full-frame users. I DO have one of those and unless I'm lucky to have a particularly good one, mine is nice on my D3 bodies.

However, the new f4 version of the 24-120 sets out to address those issues. And I like it a lot.

Nikon's "AF-S Nikkor 24-120 f/4G ED VR" (phew). Nice.

More after the break

Three views: One...

This is not a review site – RagSnapper doesn’t do those, so there’s no test charts, MTF graphs or marks out of 10.

What this is, is my opinion that I’ve built up of some new bits of gear after using them in the field for work and for my own pictures. They are just that; my opinion based on the way I work and use them, so feel free to disagree if you’ve used these and come to a different conclusion…

First up, Nikon's D7000:

I’ve mentioned this in a few blogs previously, as I have one issued to me by work. The idea is that it lets the photographers begin shooting video for the website, so this is a pilot trial. The downside is, as it always has been since the idea was broached, that we’ve got no way of sending files of any size to the recipients. We only need VGA for the website, but because of the thought that we might pass on newsworthy footage to TV media, the material is shot at 1080p HD. Even a 10 second clip is 10mb+, so a handful of those can add up to 100mb. That needs an office to send them from, even then it won’t be quick and you’ve got to get to an office. At the moment, sending on the road is possible but only by resizing and compressing the original material using software (Apple’s iMovie or Quicktime X) that’s on MY laptop, not the company’s. So really, apart froma few test clips to see if it works, we are no further forward with video.

As a camera, I broadly like what I see off the sensor, but...

Nikon's D7000. Nice images, but not feeling the love...

More after the break

Grasscutting...

As I'd be otherwise occupied on raceday, I decided to take advantage of being on annual leave AND the unseasonal weather to get some suitable pictures for printing from qualifying day at Brands Hatch for the penultimate round of the British Touring Car Championship.

I'd originally wanted to get the cars riding the kerbs on the entry to Surtees, but as they were on the GP circuit for this meeting the racing line is different, so I walked round to the exit of the corner, where they sometimes ride the kerbs on their way out to Pilgrims Drop.

Dave Newsham takes the grassy line with his Seat Leon, British Touring Car Championship free practice, 

Brands Hatch, Saturday 1st October 2011.   

Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + TC17E2 converter (= 500mm), 1/500th @ f9, ISO 200

Picture: © Andy Payton

Dave, you're supposed to be the OTHER side of the kerbing!

He's NOT the messiah, he's...

Or: "47 seconds with Michael Palin"


So much for weekly updates... Oh well.

Got talked into doing an extra day a couple of weeks ago, as it seems we ran out of freelancers on a Sunday (I should correct this to "ran out of freelancers who could do the job"!) when the new season of paper-sponsored youth football league kicked off.

What it did mean is that I had the rare privilege of being tasked to get a pic of TV presenter, actor and ex-Python Michael Palin. There was a weekend of local history, heritage and art presentations going on on Sheppey, called "Promenade". I'd spent Saturday at some of these, and on Sunday Michael Palin was to give a talk at Sheppey Little Theatre about the countries and, especially, buildings that had caught his eye on his world-wide travels. I should point out that Michael's son Will lives in Sheerness, so he had obviously been charmed on his visits by some of the architecture that still exists around the town.

As you would expect, he was very in demand by fans and the local journalists after his talk, but he had agreed to do a joint interview with the two papers and the local radio station and me and colleague Rob Canis, working for the "rival" paper, hoped we'd be allowed a window to get a picture. It was supposed to happen, but reporters sometimes think our job is just "point and click"...

Fellow photographer Rob Canis, early on in the

pre-production set-up we both did as Michael Palin 

talked to the reporters. I prefer the theatre without 

the striplights switched on, but that's the joys of D3

usage... Smile, Rob!

More after the break...

The search for (soft) proof...

As I've mentioned previously here, I shoot JPEG for work (mostly) but occasionally switch to raw for tricky conditions and almost always for sport. My personal work, such as it is, is also shot in raw.

Cricket, in overcast conditions (it's England...!). Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 plus TC20E3 converter (= 600mm), 

1/1000sec @ f8, ISO 1800. This is the raw file, cropped to use and sharpened, but otherwise as rendered by

Aperture with no further processing. It looks "flat" here and when seen larger in Aperture, looks very 'flat". 

How you could leave this unadjusted, as some say they do with raws, is a puzzle. I wasn't putting in enough

contrast previously, but even then I knew this would have needed more...

For all the advantages of shooting in raw the biggest single disadvantage is that, if it allows you to process your own images, then obviously EVERY IMAGE YOU SHOOT NEEDS TO BE PROCESSED. There's no JPEG engine doing it for you, which means that decision have to be made on white balance, contrast, saturation, highlights and shadows etc etc etc.  Now, Adobe's ACR, Apple Aperture, Capture One and all sorts of other raw processors come with a set of default raw conversion settings, but what I've found is that these are really only a starting point. I certainly don't understand how anyone can say "they only check for dust spots and that's it for raws", since none of the raw converters really, really, make your files look like what was in front of the camera without you, the shooter, making some further decisions.

Indeed, although JPEGs are much-maligned by some, most decent modern DSLRs make a very good job indeed of rendering what the sensor saw as a useful JPEG - provided considerable care is taken at the shooting stage to get exposure and white balance correct. Most DSLRs also now let you change contrast, hue, saturation, sharpening and other settings for rendering JPEGs.

But there are still advantages to shooting raw, so it's worth knuckling down and learning what needs to be done.

More after the break...

Spitfire blue

A quickie post - again!

I was down at Whitstable yesterday, visiting my parents for  a very pleasant Sunday lunch, and the afternoon ritual of a walk with Small Dog around Long Rock, the shingle bank and open ground at Swalecliffe.

It was Whitstable Regatta weekend last weekend, and there's often a visit from aircraft which entertain the crowds on Tankerton slopes, looping and rolling out over the sea with fewer restrictions as to what they can do, especially height-wise. I picked up my gear as, although we we not going up to Tankerton, we might see something worth a picture from Swalecliffe.

As we left for the walk, a Spitfire arrived and displayed and I thought that was that, I'd missed it. However, as we were walking around Long Rock, both my dad and I realised we could hear a big aero-engine running, and I spotted a small but distinctive speck which looked like another Spitfire, orbiting overhead.

I grabbed out the works D7000, adding my TC20E3 and 70-200 f2.8, which gives an angle of view like a 600mm. It's best to try to keep some "spin" in the propellor blades, so I set 1/250 sec, VR on, +0.7 of a stop and fingers crossed. We still weren't sure if he was going to actually display, but he orbited back over land and we saw and heard him begin a shallow diving turn from the east.

And he went pretty much right overhead, which gave me the best picture - and certainly the closest - of the 10 minutes display.  I shot about 160 frames, and there's an awful lot that are lost because of trying to handhold an effective 600mm at 1/250th, even with VR, and there's a few dodgy framing, focus and exposure ones. But I've got five that I'm happy with, including one where I can read the registration, which allowed me to ID the 'plane and pilot for posterity.

But the best one was still from the sequence where he went right overhead to start his display...

Peter Teichman takes his Supermarine Spitfire PRXI, PL965, overhead to begin his display at Whitstable Regatta,
on Sunday 14th August 2011. This aircraft, a photo-reconnaissance version of the Spitfire, was built in 1944 and
is currently flown by Teichman from the former Battle of Britain RAF airfield at North Weald, Essex.
The image is uncropped: Nikon D7000, 70-200 f2.8 + TC20E3, 1/250th @ f11,
giving the angle of view of a 600mm.

I've deliberately left this uncropped, so you can see just how close I could get - there are two closer images; but in one the hint of blue sky has gone (damn!) and the other there's enough motion blur from dodgy panning that I haven't selected them as "top" versions. If I was to crop it I'd take a little from the left and bottom sides.

Hoowwzzaaat!!!

A quickie post, again. I'll try harder to put something up every week. Honest!

If you miss the "moment" in sport - and it's easy to do that even for the best photographer - it's always worth looking out for the reactions to that moment. You might be unsighted by another player, or spectators down at local level (!!). You might have had too much glass on when the goal comes in from nowhere, the car spins and crashes in front of you, or as here for cricket, where I was actually shooting the bowler on his run up, with 600mm of lens on.

I half-saw the 'keeper dive with my left eye, but actually heard the ball whack into his glove and was just able to reframe on him as the nearest fielder reached him to grab the ball in celebration...

Mark Tucker joyfully grabs for the ball that Minster 'keeper
Jordan Weller has just plucked from the air for a catch, in
their game against Sidcup on Saturday 23rd July.

How is he??? Out!

It's (County) Show time!

Baaaahhhh!!!

I spent two days up on Detling Hill this weekend covering the Kent County Show. It's a chance for people to be reminded about most things agricultural, and to meet some of the Kent services, businesses and charities.  And of course, there's plenty of retail opportunities.

In times past, this was a well-staffed and reported gig by newspapers. Not any more. In these lean times it seems that the coverage of everything, even the county's biggest show, is scaled back, to the point where you wonder what will happen next year and just what editorial policy is?

However, here's a brief look at two days up on the hill...

Early starts - both Friday and Saturday at before 7.00am, to get in and parked, then set up in the press room in the middle of the showground. Thank Heavens for bacon rolls....

More after the break...

The smell of Castrol R...

Another quickie post, with a couple of pictures from my first photographic specialisation, motorsport.

I let it go for a few years, when I went pro full-time, but have been getting back into it again over the last couple of years (a back story I won't go into). Here's a nice image from last week at the Brands Hatch Formula 3 and GT meeting...

Caterham Superlight R300 championship race on Sunday 19th July. The cars are leaving the Indy circuit
behind as they race onto the GP circuit, and No32, Paul Wilson, fended off his rivals to win.
Nikon D3, 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter, 1/800th @ f8, ISO 250, - 0.3 compensation. Trick here is to keep
enough spin in treaded tyres and a little motion blur in the background , yet keep a high enough shutter speed
that fast racing cars stay sharp when they pass through the plane of focus; even here with the excellent D3 AF
doing follow-focus right up until the shutter opens

The "tilt' is applied after the event in Aperture, because I forgot to get one here in-camera (doh!). I think I could get some better angles in the pic if I'd done it then - told you I was still trying to get back into this! Having said that, I do like the original and so it's up on the study wall as an inkjet print at the moment.

More after the break...

Help, I think I may...

...have a bit of a problem brewing!

I became interested in photography early enough that black and white was still “the done thing” though, like many people, found the lack of any darkroom was a big problem. Colour Neg had begun to take over by the time I had professional aspirations, and I learned to shoot colour transparency in any event, as it was the best medium for the market where I made my first sales.

The arrival of digital technology changed everybody’s outlook on processing their pictures. With easy access to even the most humble personal computer, people who would never have considered getting their hands wet in dev and fix were able and willing to work in the new Light Room. For enthusiasts who previously had no darkrooms, processing and creating was now just a matter of kicking their kids off the PC of an evening :)

More after the break.

Dark, and yet smooth...

Been a bit light on the blog front lately, folks - sorry! Here's a quickie one about a picture from a job on last Saturday's list...

The pic request was action from a Darts Tournament, during the practice sessions early on Saturday. It was to include some of the local regulars at this annual tournament, and at its usual venue at a leisure complex at the "Holiday End" of Sheppey.

Here's the request:

DATE: Saturday, June 4

TIME: 10-11am for practice. Event starts at 12pm.

PLACE: Merlins, Leysdown, ME124RB (01795 xxxxxx)

EVENT: Sheppey Darts Classic

CONTACT: Organiser Tony Cox 077xxxxxxx

CATEGORY: Darts

SLUG: SP CLASSIC

REQUIREMENTS: Pics of players in action. Maybe best to do when practicing, as no flash during play.

Local players pls, names such as Paul McDine, Geoff Harkup. Norfolk defending champ is Andy Belton.

Tony Cox will help if need any.

More after the break...

Be careful what you wish for…

She was tall, dark, leggy. I was always at a distance, never permitted in her presence. She was, I was told, out of my class, forbidden. I could only look on with envy, lust even. Then one day last year, I was allowed, no, encouraged to whisk her to a cricket match and fondle her…


Much more, after the break.

“And they were all … orange” (with apologies to Coldplay)

It’s May, so it’s election time again. With the General Election out of the way for a few years, this time it was just our local council wards who were choosing their councillors. In a rare vote for common sense, it was decided that an overnight count was NOT required for this, so it was off to the local sports hall on Friday last week. I was lucky. Many of my colleagues were obliged to work a 24hr+ shift, covering those who still felt self-important enough to hold an overnight count. (Or perhaps, thanks to our bosses..)

Now, the rival paper’s snapper and I have a name for this place – “The Orange Temple of Doom”. It has possibly the worst lighting I have ever seen in a hall. Orange sodium vapour lamps give a terrible colour cast and there is precious little light anyway. An utterly dismal place to shoot....

More after the break. 

Good Things...

A random selection of things that I think Are Good. The number seems to increase as I type, too. They're in no particular order of importance, either. Not all are immediately related to photography...  


NB; it goes without saying that family and friends should be on this list. At the top, if importance were attached. Cherish yours.

1. Cups of tea. Some days I run on them.
2. Readily available public toilets (an important balance if relying on 1, y'know)
3. The Nikon D3/D3S (OK, and EOS 1DmkIII/IV - I'm not blind to the other side...). We might moan about the size and weight of digital Pro bodies but my god, they REALLY get the job done these days. And just compare them with an F and its F36 motor and battery pack? Not so big and heavy, after all, hmmm?
4. The North Face Men's Amplitude Jacket, in two-tone grey, with the zip-in thermal liner, AND a Berghaus Spectrum fleece under that. A little bit of waterproof warmth through one of the coldest winters for years.
5. Photo Mechanic. The most robust of captioning programs. And $150 (call it £100) well-spent.
6. Modern diesels. If you are a freelance, I would not be running anything else. And they're more relaxing to drive, because they have that precious commodity - torque!
7. Apple MacBook Pro (and no PC alternative... Not even a high-end Sony Vaio). The extra money you begrudged spending means that, treated with the care they deserve, they keep running. And running. 
8. Apple Genius Bars. Just like anything, Macs will sometimes fall over. The Genius Bars seem very good lately at getting them going again.
9. The British Touring Car Championship. A race series I slightly lost touch with over the last few years appears to be growing in health and competitiveness again.
10. Strobist. And Joe McNally. Do I need to say any more?
11. ThinkTank Photo rolling camera bags. How to get a shedload of heavy gear from A to B.
12. ThinkTank Photo StreetWalker HardDrive. How to carry a lot of the above from B to where you need to use it. Without doing even more harm to your back.
13. Apple Aperture 3. Ingest, Edit, Select, Caption, Adjust in Raw, Export. A beautiful interface - especially in full-screen - almost as robust a captioner as PM,  not slower than LR (!) and with good basic raw profiles. Another reason for the MBP.
14. Tea in the garden, downloading.
15. The 300mm f2.8... Nikon or Canon, sharp enough to cut! If sport is in your brief, probably the most flexible long glass if you can only run to just one super-telephoto. Any recent one works fine with the 1.4x extenders, Nikon users have the excellent 1.7x too, and even the 2.0x are OK for news work with care. 
16. Ansmann battery chargers - keeping your NiMH AAs charged AND in top condition, six, eight and more at a time..
17. PocketWizard ControlTL system. See earlier posts. 
18. Broadband. How good is it NOT to have to go back to the office to upload? The tea's better for a start.
19. Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly. "Bugger, dust specks". BZZZZZZT. Swipe. "Bye bye, dust".
20. The Speed Graphic Catalogue. Hmmm, what's my bank balance look like?
21. Indian Restaurants. The best place to retire to with good friends and colleagues after a long (hopefully productive) day's shooting. 
22. Autofocus. I can still out-think my cameras for exposure, if I so choose.  I cannot out-focus them.
23. Yorkies (four-legged variety).
24. D700/EOS 5Dmk2 - 95% of no.3, but in a smaller, lighter package when needed. Seriously considering adding the first to my bag.
25. 27" iMac. Expansive screen and processing power for the space-poor office.

Just a little selection, for fun. You can probably think of your own additions that make life a bit better, sweeter, funnier...

The price of flexibility and range.

Taking Nikon's iTTL/CLS to the next level...


As mentioned previously, I stumped up for a set of PocketWizard Control TL radio remotes recently. I love Nikon's iTTL/CLS (Creative Lighting System), for its ability to let me get a flash off-camera, yet still use TTL, quickly. It's especially quick with a D300 and SB900 combination, as the D300's little on-camera flash can be set to just Command, and the SB900's remote control mode is another click of its rotary on/off switch - simple. It's the (not much) time thing again - local press photography.

iTTL/CLS does have some limitations, though, which are frustrating to run into and not be able to overcome. This is where the PocketWizard ControlTL system comes in...

Nikon D300, with a MiniTT1 in the hotshoe, SU800
above that as Commander, and an SB900 on a FlexTT5 on an
AS21 stand. The MiniTT/SU800 is a nicely compact setup.

More after the break.

Shoot for the (super) moon

Or, have a "Plan B"...


With the moon due to be at its closest approach since 1992, and therefore its biggest size in the sky, I decided I'd try to get a decent picture of it. I decided I'd do this only on the day, so the evening was spent trying to work out what I wanted and how to go about photographing what I was seeing in my mind's eye.

And then adapting it as things didn't work out...

What did I want to see? The moon on its own, big in the frame, is spectacular but (weather permitting) is generally photographable several times a year. The supermoon is bigger, but only by 14%, so it's not really noticeable. What I needed to do was to put it in context, in the sky with something recognisable below it. Moonrise means that you've more choice of things to put underneath it, but, for reasons below, I opted to try something a bit different...

More after the break.

Local Press Photographers Day: Part Five - the results.

Here is a small selection from the pictures I made on that Friday. I've left out ones with kids in, even though I could have picked out a few as personal likes. In these paranoid times, it's probably safest, although I do wonder whether the paranoia now will become something to regret in 20 years time...

"Billy Turner", the  shop assistant in the BBC's1935 

Grocers. 1/125th, f5.6, ISO1000. Nothing fancy, just 

bounced SB900 flash off a white ceiling. Higher 

ISO gives the flash some help, and 1/125th stops 

too much flouro ambient colouring the picture.

More after the break!

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Four...

Some notes on cameras and settings...
My typical set-up:

A pair of company D300's, shooting Jpegs, Normal Quality (about 3.5Mb files), full size (12mp), Adobe RGB, Nikon's Picture Control on “Standard”, but with the contrast and saturation turned down and the sharpening up by one notch each. There was a point where I felt BigPaper’s processes weren’t putting enough unsharp mask on for the presses, hence the increased default sharpening. Both bodies have also got their default Matrix exposures increased by 0.3 stop using the fine-tuning. The D300 seems to be set slightly “dark” for my taste. I have the histogram and Highlight Warning blinkies set to On, and check these for exposure. A white collar, say, "blinking" is normally of no worry to me. A face doing it means trouble: adjustments are made...

Exposure is usually via aperture priority with compensation as needed, though I do swap modes occasionally if I want a particular shutter speed held; for example, I have been known to use Program in the summer - I use the auto-FP High Speed sync on my flashes by default, but if you need every last Watt of power (summer sun fill-flash), then Program mode won’t let the shutter speed rise over the “normal” max-sync 1/250th unless it absolutely has to, and it’s quicker to just click in and out of P than faff back and forth...

I usually try to work through the day on one body, so it keeps the downloading of the cards simple and jobs aren’t spread across multiple cards. If I need two, I’ll use two, though.

For sport, or if I know there is going to be bugger-all or very difficult lighting, I nearly always pick one of my personal pair of D3 bodies (I know, lucky ...!), set to shoot raw to one card and Normal Quality Jpeg to the other. Colour Space, file size and Picture Control are all set as the D300 bodies, though I usually use the raws so it’s really of no consequence. The D3 and D300 share the same AF hardware, but, like others have reported, I find it works better in the D3. It may have something to do with the extra processing power available to the D3, and also that the focus points don't extend so far into the darker "edges" of the frame.

Again, you might be interested to know that both D3 bodies have +0.16 stop exposure dialed in via the fine-tune. I usually don’t dial it out unless I get a lot of highlight warning blinkies, again because I normally go to the raw. This sometimes "sacrifices" the Jpeg, and I reckon I'll stop shooting those on D3 eventually. Both D3 bodies are typically on Manual for sport, with the actual exposure value being set by the excellent Auto-ISO, and usually Aperture Priority for anything else.

With Jpegs you can’t go too mad in post-processing, so the best practice of getting good basic exposure and framing in-camera still applies.  With raws there is scope to do more, which is why I will use my D3s when I know there is likely to be trouble. To be honest, I do it for practice too - I think the raw workflow will be one we all go to eventually. The advantage of raw is you can defer some of your shooting decisions until after the event, especially if you are working in a tearing hurry in difficult circumstances.  The downside of raw is bigger files that take longer to import, that all need adjusting, and then take longer to export as Jpegs.  

My normal workflow for raws is through Apple Aperture 3, so I skip the Photo Mechanic stage, doing tagging, captioning, cropping and adjusting in just the one program. I run through the images and ones I like get one star, then I look at the "one stars" and make a final selection, these getting upgraded to three stars, so they stand out. I sort out the captions, and then Adjust; I keep a set of Aperture presets that I know work for me, like curves, highlight recovery, sharpening and such, so I can hit a preset for quickness and then tweak it for the individual picture. Aperture exports the edited pics as Jpegs, again about 1.8 - 2.0 mb. Now I do go back into Photo Mechanic, but just to use its FTP facility to send the images out. I used to use Lightroom for the raws too, but I definitely believe Aperture 3 makes a much better job of rendering raw images the way I think they should look. I understand Adobe has improved its raw profiles in the latest ACR and Lightroom 3 but, for now, I haven’t coughed up for the upgrade from 2 to 3. 

Next: And finally, some of the pictures from the day...

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Three...

Now I've shot them, time to finally do something with them...

In front of the MacBook, at home, shooting done:

My typical newspaper Jpeg workflow is: Cards out of camera, into card reader plugged into my Macbook, which automatically launches Photo Mechanic. Hit the button to ingest all the images shot.  Now, while I’ve been shooting, I’ve been taking a few seconds during and after the shoot to hit the “protect” button on the camera for images I like the look of.  When these pop up in Photo Mechanic, they are already tagged on the contact sheet, so I just hit the key to isolate them, recheck for focus, eyes open, best expression, exposure and, if I’ve got the selection right, they get a colour code (green) which gives a belt and braces selection. I will still look at the others in the shoot, in case I’ve missed any other good selects. Any that aren’t quite there I just untag and look either side on the contact sheet for an alternative.

Once I’ve made my selection, these are captioned according to BigPaper needs, job by job.  Trust me, captioning is a very nitpicky task! Once you have the blanket one in place, most images then need customising, as they will feature different people, actions, or other details - picture spreads, beloved of local newspapers, will usually need every last image customised...  I hit the key that isolates all “green” images and they are all then opened up in Lightroom, getting any small crops, exposure or tonal adjustments I think needed.  I’m not supposed to do this, but having gained a lot of digital experience over the last few years, I firmly believe there is no such thing as a print-ready image straight out of the camera. This isn’t an absolute, but I still want my images to look the best I can make them. Having seen the butchery sometimes carried out at the production stages, if it’s got my byline on it I at least want it to look its best before it then gets mullered…

Between me and the cameras, I don’t expect to change the exposure much – Once the images are in Lightroom I am disappointed if any need more than +/- 0.3 of a stop - but I will move the shadows, highlights and midtones around a little bit. I try not to crop too much, either, but it’s useful to be able to do a trim after the event. Jpegs otherwise don't get too much adjustment, nor will they put up with it. They get exported to a SEND folder as smaller file-size Jpegs, about 70 on the sliding scale, which gives between 1.4 - 2.0mb images, These are still plenty quality-wise but much easier and quicker to send.  Photo Mechanic is pointed at the SEND folder, and the FTP system built into PM used to send them over the ‘net.

If I’m in a tearing hurry to get a job away for deadline (usually a Tuesday for me) then that will be the job I edit in Photo Mechanic first, and then just that job goes over to Lightroom; crop, exposure, tone - again, with restraint - but these might get exported as even lower quality Jpegs - perhaps 60 - because they are often being sent from the car via 3G. Even these are still 1mb+ images. Just occasionally, for very quick transmission, I downsize the exports to 6 million pixel, 800kb pics.  The beauty of Lightroom (and Aperture) is that these are new versions of untouched originals. Need a bigger copy? Just export it larger next time.

------------------------------------------

With a couple of brief halts to make drinks/tea and a quick snack (remember, nothing but a Latte and water during the day), I finally finish FTP’ing the last pic at 18.30...

That’s before I start charging batteries, cleaning lenses for the same again tomorrow.

I Shot 218 images across the 8 jobs, and actually filed 48 from these. This included the requested ‘Page of Pics” from one of the Junior School jobs and what I took to be another page+ request (“Get as many pix as possible”) from the Beer Festival. I’ve recently arrived at a rough estimate, that each image takes (a conservative) two minutes to select, caption and physically send – that doesn’t include my personal extra step into Lightroom, though I don’t faff much once I’m there for obvious reasons! – so 48 images takes 100 minutes to deal with. The sending could be run in the background as soon as the Lightroom export is finished but, once exported, it really does pay to try to run your eyes over the images again to make sure the data is OK before they go. If you're sending via 3G from the car, you're committed to sitting there whilst they copy over, anyway.

Additionally, my total mileage on that Friday was 62 miles.  The trip computer in the car shows my average speed as 23mph. The distance to the first job was about 10 miles. The distance home from the last job was about 16 miles, so a total mileage “between jobs” of 36 miles. Even in a small group of towns, at the average indicated that’s 90 minutes+ of my day just driving between locations...

So in a theoretical seven- hour shift (lunch, remember – haha), well over 3 hours is used up driving and editing what’s shot. That’s without actually physically shooting, in as creative and interesting ways as I can, eight jobs involving real, ordinary people, at seven different locations…


And the next, penultimate piece: a few notes about camera settings and why, even if time-stressed, I will sometimes shoot raw...

 

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Two...

...OR, Let's try and get this done!

OK -First, some Informal Rules, generally agreed on by photographer colleagues:

1)  Even the simplest head-and-shoulders pic will still need you to budget 15 minutes of your time.

2)  A page of Pix is usually 6/8 images, and 30 minutes work. A DPS is an hour and 12/14 images. You might get them quicker; be thankful if you do...

3)  At least one each, Upright and View, if possible, from each job.

4)  Some jobs WILL be late. Either the location isn’t ready, or the subject isn’t ready, or, TOO OFTEN, the time is wrong or a fiction seemingly invented to fit into a busy list and expecting the snapper to sort it, somehow!

5)  Town centres, especially Friday and Saturday - enough said!

I’ve already decided that I can’t do the list in the order it’s sent out to me. So I’ve e-mailed Newsdesk back to say so, warning them that there’s not much scope to add anything, no matter what they might think. Do they take any notice? Do they heck...

Drive up to patch and:

Start at Junior School at 9.30; the list actually says the Box2BFit goes on all day, so it’s PROBABLE that I will be able to get going earlier - I’m right, and there is a session just starting. Got them 14 pix from the boxercise. The rugby player arrived at 10.00 (phew!) and I grabbed a quick 2/3 pix of him with some kids on the charity rowing machines at the school. No problems with naming the kids, too.

OUT THE DOOR by 10.10 – A result, based on the list as it was!

Next stop Town Centre, for the BBC “Shop 1935” in the Mall - end up parked 5/10 minutes away, but this job was pretty good even if it took me a while to get the pics I wanted. Got my first pic at 10.45, got 6 pix, and was;

OUT THE DOOR by 11.05 - but remember it’s 5/10 minutes back to the car.

Have a think about trying the Beer Festival, the venue is just off the old road between OldTown Centre and Cathedral Town BUT can’t find anywhere to park close enough, despite two passes around OldTown Centre, AND it’s a bit tight for time (remember, the request says “get lots of pix”). Back to Plan A and drive up to Girls Grammar School - park up thinking I have the luxury of 15 minutes to myself! Just about to whip out the MacBook to do a quick few minutes initial edit of what I’ve got so far…

…It’s here that I get the call to go to the new Costa at OutofTown Mall. Newsdesk seem not to have read my reply to the PicList e-mail, (I told them the list needs timing changes and that one, maybe two, of the “anytime between:-” jobs will HAVE to be done in the afternoon after 2.00).  I’m told the Costas job is 3.00‘ish. I have a quiet but pithy swear, and a think, with the ‘phone on mute and reluctantly decide it is do-able if I can get there before 3.00. I’ll do the Beer Festival last.

12.00 - Walk into the school to get the required pix - this is one of those “Yes, and?” jobs - it really isn’t much of a pic so it’s the head, the baroness and a few pupils, upright and view.  UNFORTUNATELY, it then takes the school 25+ minutes to rustle up all the parties - Aggghhh!!! Two quick pics - upright and view!

OUT THE DOOR at 12.30, cursing, because it will take me 20 minutes to get to Old Docks.

It does.  Arrive at the venue in Old Docks at nearly 12.55. BUT this seems to have one of those “made-up times”, as it’s lunch, and even G, the helpful PR liaison at Old Docks wonders why I’ve turned up when everyone is stuffing their faces...  And there is barely any detail on the request - what do they want? HOWEVER, help is at hand, as another PR of my acquaintance is there. I know a bit about the Jervis Bay story, and with her help I put together a passable set of pics of various relatives of her crewmembers, and some copied pics of theirs. It’s just a shame that, even as I shoot them, I KNOW that this is more of a story than the paper can deal with (though I’m prepared to be pleasantly surprised). They’ve got 8 pix, then;

OUT THE DOOR at 13.40, heading for Outlying Town and Small Cafe. There’s slow traffic and again I have to make two passes before I eventually dump it in a business’s space (though I think it’s shut down - phew!) and dash in at 14.05. Wait 5 minutes for hair and makeup - women! Get my 3 pix and;

OUT THE DOOR at 14.15,

Quick dash up to OutofTown Mall, arrive (hallelujah!, there is a choice of spaces, despite it being Friday) and get my first pic at 14.35. The last pic is taken by 14.40 and, with 4 pix;

OUT THE DOOR at 14.40, AND with a free Latte - a small bonus, since you may have noticed an absence of any lunch or proper break...!

Last stop is the Beer Festival, I dive down side-road again, turn left onto the Old Road and - A SPACE! Dive into that, feed the meter, and up to the Festival at 15.15.

I’ve done this event for a few years, and sadly it always suffers from the same problem - too many people not wanting to be pictured. Some of it is because quite a few are supposed to be at work (!), some just the usual shy/embarrassed/surly, some I swear must be wanted in 10 countries... And some is just because of the negative publicity that alcohol carries.  BUT, persisting gets me 7/8 pics, a bottle of water (another freebie blag) and its;

OUT THE DOOR at 15.40, head for the car and head for home to download - I’m blowed if I’m going to Newsdesk Office as the traffic is terrible there on Friday afternoons, and there’s always someone who, if they see you, will go “Oh, could you just swing by…”, ignoring the fact that you already have cards full of images that now really need something done to them.

And the tea is better at home, too.

Hit the drive at 16.20, and after collecting the bits I need (laptop, notebooks, piclist, CF card) it’s time to settle down in front of a glowing MacBook…,

In Part Three - Workflow, Workflow... Is that the Time?!

The Local Press Photographer's Day - Part One...

And so it begins, when this little gem pops up in your in-box on a Thursday evening...

Urban Sprawl Towns, Friday, Early Winter.

9 – 5 Shift

@RagSnapper

TIME: 10am-noon

PLACE: Junior School, Back Road, Middle Town

EVENT: 1. England Commonwealth Games rugby player Danny C is coming to meet pupils and to be reunited with head teacher Mr G. Mr G coached him in rugby when they were both at Other Junior.

       2. Box2bfit running sessions at the school all day for pupils

CATEGORY: Schools

SLUG: 1) DANNY  

            2) BOXING

REQUIREMENTS: Would like a page of pictures from at least one of these

Time: 10am to 5pm

Place: Unit 67, Mall Shopping Centre, Town Centre,

Event: BBC turning empty shop into 1930s style grocers, for a programme they are making

Slug: GROCER

Category: HI

Time: 11am - 11pm

Place: Gloomy Ballroom , Small Hotel,  OldTown Centre

Details: Second day of Beer Festival (event backed by Big Paper - please get as many pix as poss - plan is to use one on Monday and two-three more on Friday)

Slug:  BEER

Category: Festivals

TIME: Noon

PLACE: Go to reception at the Grammar School, Cathedral Town

EVENT: Visit by Baroness A, who will be speaking to students and the work of the House of Lords

CATEGORY: Schools

SLUG: baroness

TIME: 12.45-1.15pm

PLACE Old Docks, near Town Centre.

JOB Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the loss of HMS JERVIS BAY

SLUG jervis

CATEGORY hi

Time: 2pm

Location: Small Cafe, Healthy Living Centre, Outlying Town.

Job: Staff at the new look Small Cafe, which is to replace the old Replaced Cafe.

Category: Charity

Slug: SMALL

And added by ‘phone that morning:

Time: 3.00pm or near

Location: New Costas, Out of Town Mall, (Costas is near Sainsburys)

Job: New Costas coffee shop is officially opening tomorrow, but is having a “test run” this afternoon.

Requirements: Please get pic of some staff (manager is M), maybe at the soft seating in the new shop.

Category: Business

Slug: COSTAS

  

Love, The Newsdesk X

And in Part Two: How I try to make sure this all actually gets done...!