Captive Animal Photography

Within the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to walk around both Yorkshire Wildlife Centre and Chestnut Wildlife Park.  The Chestnut Wildlife Park is know for it’s collection of owls and otters as well as it’s deer park in which you can walk through.  This was my first outing with my new lens, Tamron zoom 70-300mm.  The day was not a success in my eyes.  I tried complete manual setting, using large ISO of 800 to help with the increased shutter speed and large aperture.  I managed to get some decent shots of otters including the one below.

The owls on the other hand was hard to capture due to the three layers of chicken wire on the cage.  I had to manually focus on the birds of prey which I didn’t like doing as I have bad eyesight.  I have one or two that I like but you can still see the wire making the image look dirty.

The Yorkshire Wildlife Centre, know for saving lions and have a lemur forest to walk through, was more of a success.  

I did however have issues with birds of prey in flight, I couldn’t get close enough due to the crowds and always managed to get them flying away.  I think next time I will need to go see a birds of prey santuary owner for some private sessions.

I tried a different approach and turned the dial to Tv, Canons shutter speed priority.  This was I could set the shutter speed much higher without having to worry about aperture.  Some say this is cheating, but why only limit yourself to manual if chosing shutter speed or aperture priority can get you better images much faster.  Don’t get me wrong I use full manual for most of photographs these days, however for animals and wildlife which move so fast and erratically I would rather have a setting where I don’t need to think much and manage to get a photograph I’m proud of.

As usual more photographs can be found on my Flickr account;  http://www.flickr.com/photos/marriott_rob/

Shooting People

Don’t worry I’ve not gone over the edge just yet.  By shooting people I mean taking photographs of human beings.  I’ve read the numerous books about it.  I’ve bought the magazine specifically on the subject and I’ve watched countless numbers of web videos.  So why do I still hold back on actually doing more portraits?

As a photographer I tend to shoot a lot of landscapes as I have no need to pose them and you can more or less always get a perfect picture.  I also have a tendency to photograph pets and wildlife, my skills in this still need improving but I enjoy it immensely.  I think this is because they can’t comment or criticize if the photographs don’t come out as planned.  I can alway use the knowledge learnt on depth of field from my plant life pictures.  I have had a chance to photograph my baby and a friend of mine who is a mother of two little girls and they came out alright.  My is too shy to let me photograph her “professionally” all my photographs of her are candid ones.

So what would I need to start photographing people.  I don’t have a home studio so most of my shots will be outside or by a window.  I do have a reflector so would need an assistant to hold it, but mainly I would need people to photograph who I feel easy with.  Some of my friends have volunteered to be practice models which I will be a great help, but would I find it more nerve wrecking to tell my friends how to sit or stand.  I would love to work with someone who has done modeling before as they will have more idea on what poses would work best, but I wouldn’t be comfortable with this, at least I don’t think I would.

My next step will be to think up some projects, poses and looking at each person that will be willing to be my test subjects and see what props will be needed and locations to shoot in.

Any advice on this subject feel free to post a comment or send a message.

Many thanks

Rob

Streets & Pathways

May’s project was great.  Even though I had a baby to deal with I managed to get out and about to get photographs of Streets and Pathways.  

My first one is of a wall at Linacre.  I like how the path is parallel to the brick wall running along the bottom of one of the reservoirs.  I just wished I had someone on the path so that the eye could lead to something and not just off to distance.

My next one was a muddy pth at Holme Brooke Valley Park.  Granted I cheated with this one as I had taken it a few months back.  However turning it black and white made it more atmospheric and so I added it to my collection.

This is my last one for the project and I think it’s may favorite of the bunch.  I have gone more urban with this one, though the tunnel is near to my home which is set in the country-re side of Chesterfield.  At first I did not like it, but I whacked it into black & white and looked at it and looked at it and well got inspired.  The mono tone brings out the texture and grittiness of the tunnel.  The arrow directs the eye to the end of the tunnel to the bright light of hope.  I have looked at this photograph and am wanting to do a “Secret Chesterfield” project for myself and find hidden subjects of interest.  Like the Rose Girl 

from Queens Park.

Now I must go to change a nappy, sorry this is a short blog.

Birds

Seeing as our baby hasn’t stopped crying for almost two days, except for feeding and sleeping, my wife and I decided to go with Henry for a walk around Holme Brook Valley Park.  I go regularly and have taken some decent photographs of birds.  I wanted to test my skills and capturing birds in flight and my last attempt worked out well with seagulls.

This time around the gulls have gone back to the coast and so we were left with swans and ducks on the lake.  My wife and I had some old bread so wanted to share the peaceful quiet time to feed the water birds.  At the last minute I grabbed my camera just in case there was a chance to capture more birds in flight.  I switch the setting to Av and placed on my 70mm-200mm lens so my was on an F5.6, ISO 100 and shot in RAW.

I have also been trying my hand at baby portraits using my son.  I still need to work on my depth of field and will probably need a hand to keep him entertained as well as holding a reflector to bounce light back onto the subject.  The shoot was at home using basic colour covers over a feeding pillow.

Finally just a note that I have almost 3000 photographs on this laptop and you can tell.  My next pay will go toward blank DVD to download them onto and free up some space.

As always check out more of my work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/marriott_rob/

Thanks for reading.

LLAP

Rob

Bar/self portraits and streets

Hello,

It’s been a really busy few months as my son was born on 16th April 2011. 

I haven’t had much time to do photography (or much else for that matter) but have tried to keep going with my hobby.

Firstly, a while back I did some photography work for Bespoke Bartender, a mobile cocktail bar.  The photographs came out well but I did use cheap batteries on my flash and it made a difference.  It took ages for it to power up again and I missed a lot of flaring done by the bar staff.  Every shoot is a lesson learnt.  Some of the shots that came out bad I edited a bit to make them look arty.

I have been using editing software on my photographs.  However I’m trying to move back out of this so my skills can improve more on the field without me think, Oh well I’ll make it work on the computer.

My self portrait project wasn’t what I had planned but with not much time I shot some quick ones.  The first one I wanted to add my hobby of collecting comics and the phrase “I have issues” always amused me.  For this reason I wanted to look serious with my collection.

The second one I wanted to capture rain running over a face.  I planned on doing this outside with a hosepipe but time again meant I had to use my shower.  I have turned it black and white and highlighted my eyes to make the image more dramatic.  

In who I’m not too pleased with this project and hope to try again in the near future.  One image I have in mind is one of my back, jeans low showing off the top super hero underwear, with a bat-a-rang in my hand.  Again a tribute to my comic book hobby.

I also got a chase to be at Free Comic Book and take some photographs of the cosplayers there who helped with the event.

As always more images at my Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/marriott_rob/

The next project set is of streets and paths.  My initial idea was to take a macro photograph of a snail with a trail of slime behind him, however finding such a think with this warm weather will be time consuming.  I really want to avoid the country side paths as most of my landscapes are within the rural setting.  Which means I will have to look for interesting places within Chesterfield town and surrounding places.  I do like this project as we need to photographs, one has to be in black & white, so will need to this of tones and textures.

Anywho must go feed the baby.

LLAP

Rob

Starting Projects

Since I last made a blog a few things have changed.  My wife and I are having a baby so I haven’t had much luck in getting out and doing photography.  On the flip side i have rebooted my Camera Club to Shutter Squad and so far it’s working well.  As a group we have swapped ideas and techniques.  I for one have learnt that editing photographs on the computer isn’t a bad idea.  I’m cropping more and using photoshop and more so Iphoto.  I’m also going for manual settings on my camera rather than the easier pre-set modes.  RAW is a great format that I’m getting used to.

I have done many photographs of animals, pets and have been to various events & parties.  As well as my Facebook Page I have been using Flickr with positive feedbacks from other photographers.  I need to get some money to go Pro though.

As part of Shutter Squad I have set the group a project of Self Portraits.  I thought it would be an east way for us to take people photographs and get used to poses that look good on camera so that when it comes to using models we’ll have more of an idea and confidence to pose them.  I have found this the complete opposite.  I find it hard to get into a pose without, well, making it look posed.  By that I mean too posed, I look like a right dick head.  I’ve looked and looked at other peoples self portraits, even though I had an idea, it has become more obvious that I need to involve more of my interests, my past and my inner thoughts.

My interests are mainly geeky.  Comic books is my main interest and so I have looked into comic book covers and images to see if I can re-create them.  I enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons but find it hard to come up with an idea to include this interest.

My past and inner thoughts; should I do something that would show my insecurities, my good side or my worst side.  The inner sin would be interesting but would it be showing too much of myself?

Hobbies would be easy enough.  I like walking, photography and writing.  I would want to do something to make them stand out though.  I never thought about editing my photographs for this project but my friend has and it looks really effective.  So not stealing his idea per say, but more ideas are coming to me about framing and backgrounds.

Anyway I best get on with some stuff.

LLAP

ROB

Extra Cash

As most of you are aware (that's if anyone actually reads my blogs) my hours at work have been cut and finding a new job it becoming a tad bit tricky.  So I'm trying to start up a new business to earn a it more extra cash out of something I enjoy.  Taking 10 years away from photography though was a bad idea as I have no full portfolio to show clients.  For now I'm working for free, but I'm enjoying myself.  I have done some promotional photographs for food and have been approached by several people to take portraits of themselves and their children.  So far things are going good, Camera Club is helping to focus on going out and taking photographs, as well as helping me gain confidence to talk to people about my work (something I've been lacking for a while as I never thought my photos where worth much more than memories).  I've set up a new email account and business cards and eventually I'm going to look at setting up the business using business link website with the help of a friend.  Finally, I have always been again photo editing using software like photoshop, recently however I have seen how well it can enhance images, so I'm going to put aside some time to teach myself all the techniques I'll need, this will be thanks to youtube.
Right best get with it.
speak soon
LLAP
rob