December Days

December 6, 2016

December rolled around just in time for the temperature plummeting. People that know me are aware of how much I like the cold and dark days of winter. It's perfect for light trails, Christmas lights and early golden hours. As demonstrated (hopefully) by the photographs at the bottom of this post. Since the Instameet I have been trying to post a new photograph everyday. It reminds me of the marathon photo days of 2013, which became very stressful towards the end of the year.

The majority of my photos get some post-processing, it is a perennial subject for me talking to other photographers. For some people post-processing detracts from the photo and think that it is 'cheating'. Other people think that it adds to the photo. I am in the latter camp, I like to think I can make the picture look more like I see it in my mind when I am taking it. I think it's good that there is discussion around these topics in photography, as there is no 'right' answer.

The photograph below uses Apple's new Depth Effect on their iPhone 7+. I was wondering if this is regarded as post-processing as the camera takes two shots at different focal lengths and mashes them together. It works quite well, although there it is no substitute for using my 50mm lens. Of course, I added a little more post-processing...

I thought I would post some of the SOOC (straight out of the camera) photographs, that have been edited and can be found on the Instagram page that I have taken from recent trips to Edinburgh.

Instameet

December 1, 2016

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.

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

November 24, 2016

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

November 10, 2016

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

November 9, 2016

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!