Projects

Posted: Thu 16 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Photography, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

One thing that’s been interesting so far in this NCFE Photography course I’m doing is that it sets weekly photographic projects or assignments that need to be completed. If nothing else, it means I’m getting out more with the camera – and that’s really what I needed.

The assignments aren’t hugely complicated (so far) but they at least make you think a bit more about photos, what will work, what won’t, and what will fulfil the requirement.

This week it’s been around taking a series of shots of the same subject, but at different shutter speeds and apertures. Now, I know how that all works, and what the results will be, but it’s still something that’s of interest – and even meant that this morning I had the tripod out, as one of the shots is a full one second exposure, which is impossible to take hand-held without insane levels of blurring.

Having seen the cameras of the other people on the course, there’s only myself and one other with a full DSLR, so most of the conversation on Tuesday was around how to get the other people’s digital compacts to do the same things – and I must admit that I was quite surprised by the percentage of the people there who just shoot on auto all the time. I suppose I shouldn’t be, but well, I was. Hey Ho.

Still, it’s going OK so far, and like I said – at least it’s getting me out more with the camera. And that’s definitely a good thing.

Photography Course – Week One

Posted: Wed 24 September, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

So, the photography course was actually OK last night. Happily, the first ten weeks will be based around the technical side of things, so that’s me satisfied – and the course covers things like focus, depth of field, apertures and the like.

Following on from that, we’ll be doing more about photography, and then digital manipulation (or non-manipulation) of the images, and that’s cool too.

Of course, it would have helped if Norfolk Adult Education had actually sent out the workbooks that were meant to be being used for the entire course, but the course tutor will be chasing that up today, so hopefully by next week’s session, we’ll all have the books.

The other bit of weirdness is that the course was advertised online as being for only four people. However, there are actually ten people doing it. Admittedly, I’d thought that four was going to make for quite a small and intense class, but I didn’t have a problem with that.

All told, it looks like it should be interesting though. I’ll know more once the workbook comes through, of course, but yes, for the moment it looks promising.

Photography Course

Posted: Tue 23 September, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Tonight’s the first night of the photography course I signed up for a while back. Quite honestly, I’ve no idea what to expect – I know what I’m kind of hoping for, but whether that’s what will actually happen or not, I don’t know.

What I’m hoping for is to get a better grounding in the basic terminology and techniques of photography – things like Depth of Field, Apertures, and the like. I use these techniques when I’m taking photos, and I suppose I’ve got a rudimentary understanding of apertures and f numbers – but I don’t understand how f-numbers work or why they are always f4.2 or whatever, rather than just f4 .

I’m also hoping to have to do at least one project or portfolio, to build up my motivation again on that score. I know that I haven’t taken anywhere near “enough” photos this year, it’s just somehow ended up being at the bottom of my list, supplanted by work, business, writing, D4D™ and many others.

So that’s what I’m hoping for. What the course will actually be like, I don’t yet know. I’ll start finding out at about 7.30 tonight. And I’ll write more about it once I know more.

50D

Posted: Mon 1 September, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Oh Canon, you evil evil bastards.

Since I bought the EOS20D, I’ve been really good and not even been tempted by the 30D and 40D. The upgrades they offered weren’t enough to make me think about it at all, really.

But now, they’ve launched the 50D, with double the pixels of the 20D, along with a new faster processor, bigger/better LCD screen with Live View, and a bundle of other features.

And oh Lord, am I tempted. Particularly when it can also count as a business expense…

Photography Course

Posted: Wed 27 August, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Photography | 3 Comments »

In the last week, I’ve signed up for a Digital Photography course based in Attleborough. It’s a year-long course, and will lead to NCFE Level 1 and 2 qualifications in Digital Photography.

I’m actually aiming for the Level 2 more than the Level 1, as I’m pretty certain I don’t count as a “beginner” in photography at all. What I’m hoping is that the course will also include some grounding in some of the basic photography stuff that I still don’t fully ‘get’ – apertures, f numbers, and calculating the appropriate shutter speed for a particular aperture/Depth of Field.

Additionally, I’m hoping that just having the extra impetus of this course will add some motivation for getting out more and taking more photos. It’s something I’ve been struggling with all year, the entire thing of keeping on going out and taking photos, so I hope that having something to work on will help on that score.

The course starts on 23rd September, so I’ll know more at that point. Should be interesting, anyway.

That Was The Weekend That Was

Posted: Mon 23 June, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Photography, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Posts over the weekend were non-existstent because we were running round like blue-arsed flies. There was a party going on over at Herself’s Sister’s place.

So Friday involved putting up tents/marquees and setting up the basics, Saturday involved putting up another tent, and finishing off the set-up, then the party in the evening.

And of course Sunday meant we were stripping everything back down – although the overnight wind had helped a bit on that score, by knackering two of the five tents. Still, at least they didn’t blow away – which had been a concern earlier in the weekend, and meant that all the tents/marquees were gaffer-taped together. OK, it didn’t help when it came to something giving way and bending, but for keeping everything down on the ground and all linked together, it was blinding stuff.

Hectically busy then, but well worth it, and a good party was had by all, thankfully – even with the weather doing its level best to screw things up.

Even better, I got to take a lot of photos of people, which I’ll be putting up on the portfolio site at some point this week. After all, I may have some spare time during the evenings in which to process and upload them…

Camera Cleaning

Posted: Sun 16 March, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Own Business, Photography, Work-related | Leave a comment »

It’s now two and a half years since I got my Canon EOS20D, and in that time the sensor had become disgusting.

So before we went to the Lake District, I invested in a tool to clean the sensor, the Visible Dust ‘Arctic Butterfly 724’ – stupid name, but decent product. It’s just a small(ish) brush that creates its own anti-static charge in order to pick up as much dust as possible, but it came highly recommended by a number of sources, so that’s what I went with.

And so far it seems to have done a good job on the sensor. A couple of swipes and it’s clean, with no more dust specks on any images. Plus, of course, now I’ve got the kit I’ll be able to clean it before it gets disgusting again.

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