[Photography] Grass | Lensbaby.

Grass.

Bude Cornwall | June 2011 | Canon 400D | Lensbaby Muse Plastic Optic

[Photography] My 50/50 Project.... Lives Again!

"Life" [50/50-027]

The 50/50 project is back up and running now that I have replaced my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that got broken in Southend back in April. So nice to have the shallow DoF and limited field of view again. Love it.

The full 50/50 set so far is here. It's a pretty random affair, no links between the images apart from the lens used. 27 images so far, 23 to go.

[Photography] Overreach.

Overreach.

Apple iPhone 4 | Edited in the Instagram app.  Grabbed this on the iPhone whilst out taking Polaroid for 'RoidWeek.  The scene was too dark for a Polaroid to work, but came out nicely on the iPhone, even better when run through a "vintage" filter in Instagram.

[Photography] Palma in monochrome.

Some photography from Palma, Mallorca, Spain. Top image is the Cathedral of Sanata Maria of Palma, more commonly known as "La Seu". An impressive building, the reflection was impossible not to take a photo of.

The 2nd shot is of a side street up by the main shopping/eating area of the town. The washing hanging from the window made the shot for me. The 3rd and final shot was of one of the water front palms that line the main road that runs along the coast.

All shots were taken on the Canon 400D with my Tamron 18-250 lens attached.  All shot RAW and edited in ACR before being converted to monochrome in Photoshop.  Mono worked so well for the Cathedral shot that I tried it out on some other shots and decided to stick to it.

[Photography] Countach.

Lamborghini Countach, captured at the Haynes Motor Museum in Sparkford, Somerset; a great place to visit, especially for the "Red Room".  I think they are about to undergo a massive renovation of the place.  Canon 400D + Tamron 18-250 lens.  Some editing in ACR and Photoshop to remove distractions and clean up.

[Photography] Suburban Sunrise.

A mini-project I undertook last winter. 33 shots between October 10th and December 26th of the sunrise from the back of my house. All the shots were taken on a BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone and all were edited on an iPod Touch using combinations of PhotoshopExpress, SwankoLab and LoMob.

My "Suburban Sunrise" set on Flickr.

I was impressed with the diversity of the sunrises I saw. There were plenty of eye-grabbing reds, oranges and yellows, but even the subtlest hint of colour in the sky led to a pleasing picture. The days when it was too wet, foggy, snowy or dull I tried to do different things with foreground of shapes to convey the mood.

I've always had a thing about hard black silhouettes against a coloured sky and this project gave me plenty of scope for that.  There was something about special about the cold, dark rooftops jutting into the warm colours.  I tried to vary the skyline as much as I could by using different views from windows, doors, the garden... in order to create some variety; but as you cant help where the sun rises, the long-view was nearly always the same.

The photos from the BlackBerry and the various editing tools worked well for this. There was a kind of relief not to have to work with a DSLR, a film camera or even Polaroid as the BlackBerry lent itself to an easy "point and shoot" style, knowing that the more lo-fi the better with this project.  Might have to do another camera-phone based project at some point, when I finally finished my Polaroid book and my [on hold] 50/50.

The original photos from the project can be viewed on my Flickr stream within this set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobymarsh/sets/72157625286704872/

[Photography] Surface To Air.

A shot of Palma taken as we were coming in to land at the airport.  You can see the rain and storms hitting the mountains on the left hand-side, with the sun beating down on the bay and the sea.  Drove through the storm to get to the villa after getting the hire car.

Taken on my Canon 400D with the Tamron 18-250 lens attached.  Shot in RAW and edited in ACR/Photoshop.  I shot more film than digital in Mallorca [on a cheap 135 'panoramic' camera with no frills], looking forward to getting the rolls developed - mono, colour neg and xpro chrome!

[Photography] Parking.

This shot made Explore on Flickr. I'm glad of that as I was thinking I had lost my photo-mojo for a while. I didnt really pick up a camera over the Christmas and New Year period and just couldnt get motivated to get out and shoot at all.

I took this on a trip to Canary Wharf for some shopping. Just took the camera more out of hope that expectation.

[Imported from old photoblog] 

[Photography] Lo-Mob fakeryness.

Been playing about with the "Lo-Mob" application on my iPod. iPod you say? Yes, I dont have an iPhone, but I do have an iPod Touch. And a BlackBerry. So I take the shot on my BB, email it to myself and pick it up on iPod, edit it and upload it to Flickr. Not the easiest workflow, I admit, but it works.

As you can see, Lo-Mob is kind of like Hipstamatic. It gives you the chance to "retro" up your mobilephone photos. Unlike Hipsta, you can edit shots stored on the iPod rather than only as you take the shot. Hand for those like me that have a iPod with no camera on it.

When yo go to process the photo, you get the option of:
"Classic Vintage" - seems to be Holga and Diana style
"35mm Film Experimentation" - 4 types of 135 in a medium format camera, plus 2 slide styles
"Through The Viewfinder" - 8 different TTVF options, from mono to colour, square and wide
"Emulsions" - 6 different retro print styles
"Instant Matic Photography" - 2 Polaroid 80 clones, 5 Polaroid 600/SX-70 styles, 2 Fuji Instax styles, and 4 Polaroid/Fuji 100 effects
"Contact Mask Photocards" - 3 photocard styles, the most basic and simple of the effects.

Some of these are more impressive than the others. Some dont work well at all (Instax clones) and some will get boring after a while (the same backpeel on EVERY Polaroid 100 fake...); but overall it kind of fun.

So was it worth the £1.19 and the hassle of moving files from the BB to the iPod? Yup. The camera on the BB is OK, but the lack of any image editing software or app annoys me. This gives me the chance to play with images without having to download them to the PC and bother with Photoshop

 

I know some out there will moan about these fake Polaroid, Holgas etc. but does it really hurt anyone? If I upload these to Flickr, they will be marked as fakes, with the name of the software used to create them. Im not going to try and dupe anyone. And anyway, Ive got the real deals here... SX-70s, Holga, Lubitel... so it's not like I dont do film at all. It's just a bit of fun!

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Scottish Landscapes.

Hills in the Galloway Forest.

The Banks Of Loch Doon.


Ayrshire Sunrise.

Three new landscapes from Scotland. Im only just getting round to processing these shots and some of them are coming out so much better than I thought.
The Sigma 10-20 served me well up there, creating some vast sky-scapes that worked well with the sparse, harsh land.

[Photography] Now I Just Stare Into The Sun And See Everything I've Done.

Another sunset shot from the Canon 400d. We went to a 1st Wedding Anniversary party for some friends of our who have a farm. Of course I packed a camera or two. This was the choice image of the day, the sun set perfectly behind this tree and the orange glow licked out between the branches at just the right spot. The golden field helped with the colouring and I couldn't have asked for a better sky.

The shot need a few bits done in Photoshop. The sensor on my Canon is getting really dirty and you could see a few blobs of dust on the final image. I also had a small tweak of the levels and a crop as my framing was out.

[Photography] I Have Burned My Tomorrow And I Stand Inside Today.

The Breakwater in Bude, Cornwall.

I've longed for years to get this shot, the Breakwater at sunset. I've seen the Breakwater all my life, different times to day, different times of year. I've seen water rushing over it on a high, stormy tide, I've seen it it sitting in the middle of the sand at low tide. I've walked to the end of it and up the steps.

I've shot it before, just after sunset in May 2009. The sky was pink, blue and purple.

But this was the first time I've seen the sunset behind it over the Atlantic. My Dad and I had originally planned to drive to Widemouth and get some sunset shots from the top of the cliffs there, but as we drove through the town we saw the orange glow along the canal and decided to stop there instead. So glad we did, Im really happy with this image. I shot the sunset of loads of cameras and set-ups. Digital wide-angle, digital ultra-wide, film slr, cross processed film... even on Polaroid Blue as featured in my previous update. This was the one I was happy with the most though.

The sunset was nice and slow and gave the clouds time to drift slowly in and out of the scene. The seagull sitting on the pole stayed there until the last light had gone and we had stopped taking photos and then flew off.

[Imported from old photoblog]

[Photography] Rise the Ghosts Of War.

A series of photos from the old abandoned RAF base at Davdistow in Cornwall. The main focus of these shots is the old Control Tower that sits at the top of the main runaway. There are some smaller buildings at the other end that I will explore next time I'm down that way.

The RAF base at Davidstow was created in 1942 and closed in 1945. After, it was used for a short period as a racing circuit, hosting a few minor non-championship Formula 1 races in the 50s. Today it is common land, generally consumed within the overall Bodmin Moor area. The runways are still there but in bad condition and are now home to ponies and sheep.

The interior is covered in garffiti from various people at various times (I spotted tags marked as English, French and Argentinian). Most of the ground floor is covered in sheep droppings and wool where the local sheep have sheltered.

Upstairs is more clean and more open to the elements. There is a stunning view, from what I can assume was the main control room, out over Bodmin to Rough Tor and Brown Willy.

I only took shots on the Polaroid SX-70 and the Canon 400D as it was too windy to bother about getting other cameras out. Even then, I only took a single shot on the SX-70. The Canon shots are with the Sigma 10-20 ultrawide lens.

[Imported from old photoblog]