Instameet

I took part in the worlds smallest (unauthorised) InstaMeet last night! Well, the planning stages of an InstaMeet anyway! What's an InstaMeet you say? An InstaMeet is a group of Instagrammers meeting up to take photos and videos together. An InstaMeet can happen anywhere and be any size and are a great opportunity to share tips and tricks with other community members and an excuse to get out and explore someplace new.

This was on the roof of the bar, it would have been crazy not to take a shot of it.

This was on the roof of the bar, it would have been crazy not to take a shot of it.

I met a few new people and we discussed arranging an InstaMeet in Glasgow (Scotland) in January. As we met in a bar it quickly descendant into midweek drinking and complaints of hangovers this morning. Thankfully I did take some pictures, before the Guinness started flowing :-) Thanks to Jens, David and Tina for being willing (?) models for me! The links are to their Instagram accounts and are well worth checking out and following.

I have been wanting to start shooting portraits of people and this seemed as good a time as any to start. The photo's below are all shot with my 50mm fixed lens, f1.8, ISO200. I am moderately happy with the outcome.

If you would like to join our InstaMeet in January get in touch with me for more details.

Edinburgh lights

The end of the year is bearing down at breakneck speed once again. I have been demonstrating in the GIS course and I find it amazing that the semester is almost done, thankfully I am not going to be doing the exams! :-)

I am made more aware of the impending exam diet due to the Christmas Market opening in Edinburgh, I have caught a few shots on the way past North Bridge overlooking Waverley Train Station, I think this one is my favourite.

 

Go Pro Drone

GoPro - Karma

A bit of a scary recall from GoPro, their drone (UAV) has been recalled due to power failure when flying. All 2500 sold so far are being recalled. Am starting wonder whether any company is doing product testing before they release their products. Samsung's recent phone issue (exploding batteries in their flagship phone) has now been backed up by their recent washing machine problems, don't worry, only 34 models were recalled due to the lid flying off.

How hard can it be to test products? Full story here from PetaPixel.

Victoria Street

Victoria Street has been described by many people as the nicest street in Edinburgh. It is very photographable. Inspired as I am again to start taking more photographs, Edinburgh, where I spend a lot of my time, is the obvious place to take some time out and shoot some photographs.

I was recently inspired by Lisa Bettany's post on taking photographs of light trails, especially as some of those were taken in Edinburgh. I had the chance to replicate a couple of the photographs that were in her post. It was good experience as it taught me few things that I had forgot, didn't think about and re-learned....

I forgot: Early evening there are a lot of parked cars. If I went back at 3am there I would be surprised if there were any cars, but then if you want light trails you might also be waiting a long time.

Didn't think about: Bringing my larger tripod. I couldn't get the shot I really wanted due to the small tripod not being able to keep steady in the position I required.

Re-Learned: Gloves are fricking essential in winter. An emergency stop at Starbucks was required so I could get some feeling in my fingers.

I also took an image on my iPhone (7+) which is on my Instagram page, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the image is from the iPhone at night. Click or tap on the images below to view the large image!

Over-processed

Sometimes I feel like making the wildest of changes to images that I have taken, I very rarely post them, but I feel like mixing things up a little of late. This was Edinburgh on a nice day, until I played around with it. :-)

I like to think that most people that know Edinburgh from the North Bridge would still recognise it.