Thursday 31 October 2013

Happy Halloween!


This may not be a photography post, but it's Halloween so I couldn't resist showing you all some outfits and the pumpkins we carved!

Halloween was great this year with a pumpkin each, my friends round to enjoy some drinks and of course some fancy dress!

Firstly we carved pumpkins which was great. Child or no child it's just so much fun! We did however only have knives and spoons, so with us choosing some fairly intricate designs it was quite tricky and there were a few mishaps, but overall I'd say they were a success!!

First of all I apologise for the quality of the photos! It was either taken in the dark and I didn't have time to set up my camera properly, or they were taken on my iPhone! not ideal but had to get a snap!

The first one is the one I carved...

This is one my girlfriend carved....


And this is one my housemate carved....



Which is your favourite??



Then obviously I had to try get a little close up of the flame as it just looked so good with the orange hue around it!




Then we got dressed up ready for Halloween!


My girlfriend went as a witch. Standard outfit choice, but she looked pretty cute!

I decided to go for more gore so I was, well, I don't really know! But it involved an unzipped face! So scary enough!!!


And here we are together!


Some other cheeky little Halloween bits and bobs include my sister in law's genius food ideas for her toddler!

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Edits and Effects

Edits and effects are something I don't really play about with. Infact I don't really like them at all! so it seems a little odd to be posting about edits and effects doesn't it?

Well...


When I was out and about this July I went on a waterfall walk in Ingleton. It was a great day out with really nice sun and some beautiful sights, however it is a little challenging climbing a path to the top of a waterfall! Highly recommended for a family day out or a spot to grab some really cool photos. I'll post some of my other photos from Ingleton another day!

Anyway, when I was at the top of one of the hills there was a waterfall pool which was just too irresistable to not get into, even if it was only our feet. So after dipping our feet into the surprisingly cold water I obviously got my camera out. This is when I started playing around and found the inbuilt effects in the camera!

So, with my model (girlfriend - if you don't recognise her from other posts) at the ready I started shooting. These are the results:












Unfortunately I can't remember the names of the settings and can't check as they were taken on my old camera! nightmare!

However the original settings is the first photo. There's also a standard sepia in there, a greyscale and one called 'vintage' if i remember correctly. The rest is an unknown! maybe I'll call it a quiz to save a bit of face...?

What do you think? Do the effects make it a better or a worse photo, or just something different? let me know!


Sunday 27 October 2013

Food, glorious food!

Man i love food. I mean who doesn't? And there's nothing better than photographing something you love!

Now people take photos of food every day. It's impossible to go through a day without someone facebooking or instagramming what they're having for lunch, and then what they're having for tea a few hours later. It's just a part of life now, and as much as people moan about it, I'm sure htey will do it every now and again too!

But I don't want to just take photos of a plate of food. I want my photos to look like the adverts do. If they can make something look so delicious that I'd buy it even if I don't need ro want it then I can do the same! I want it to look so delicious that when you look at it you try to eat your screens!

One of the issues with taking great photos of food is that you have to have great food to start with! Now I like to think I can cook, but by the end I am too hungry to bother to make it look nice, so I never get the opportunity to take a photo of it! plus I dont often take my DSLR when going out for meals as it's a pretty big thing, plus it's not great conversation to spend time taking photos rather than talking!

So when I see some delicious food, it's well presented and I have my camera, I have to take a snap!

Now the first photo totally contradicts everything I said, and is actually something I made. I did have some help from my girlfriend, but still, it's my creation! Its a calzone pizza, and it's really easy to make!


 My dad is somewhat of a baking lover, and especially loves to bake bread. He literally does it every weekend, after his more 'manly' other hobby of riding his bike. This one here is a cheesy loaf called 'Jarlsberg Twist Loaf'. It's actually pretty tasty too as every now and again you hit little pockets of cheese within the bread, delish.



If you want the recipes for either of these just leave me a comment to let me know and I might just do a random recipe blog!

So did anyone try to eat their screens? It definitely made me hungry putting these up!


Saturday 26 October 2013

Winter is Coming!

For any of you out there who watch Game of Thrones, I hope that title got you at least a little bit excited. for those of you who don't... shame on you, it's fantastic.

Anyway back to the photography.

As winter will soon be upon us I decided to look through my photos from the last time we had snowy weather, the first snow in which I had my DSLR. Winter really is a great time to take photos, adding a blanket of snow to everything makes it a real challenge to find the normal things I would think of photographing, however when you do find something it adds that little extra magic to have it covered in or surrounded by snow. With it's rare appearance in England it's a real treat to be able to take some photographs before it is gone as quickly as it arrives.

I think snow itself adds a completely different dimension to photographs that you cant find at any other time. The natural bright white canvas is a free piece of equipment all photographers would be a fool to not make use of, and it brings out a lot of light and makes colours really stand out in front of it.

The cold comes with its challenges like taking photos in gloves (trickier than it seems!) and getting close enough to a subject without freezing to death! These death defying (maybe a little extreme) photo opportunities provide some of the most interesting photos such as icicles, snowflakes, snow drifts etc, all have a real natural beauty behind them. And on the other side, people generally take the time to really enjoy the snow when it is about, so you get some fantastically happy photos without the doom and gloom you can find everywhere else.

Here is my favourite photo from the snowy weather featuring my girlfriend once again! To be fair she is in a lot of my photos! I really like the colours that the snow highlights like the red of the hat and scarf, the blue of the hoody (peeking under the jacket) and of course the pearly white teeth! Plus the snow pile was HUGE so we had to get a photo of it! Taken in Glossop (Again?!) in Derbyshire in March.


Friday 25 October 2013

Macro-nificent

Macro photography is something I really love. The only issue is I don't have a macro lense. But using a telephoto zoom lens you can get pretty close, close enough to satisfy my love for all things macro at least! And it saves me spending hundreds of pounds on a lense! I did buy some macro extender tubes recently on ebay for around £12 but as they lacked the electronic elements it removed all of the lenses electronic ability, and the manual focus couldn't seem to get in focus until you were touching the object you were wanting to photograph! Not ideal! I'll have a play with it again now I have updated my camera and see how it goes - pictures and review to follow!

So, from now on I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of my photos will be of real close ups, doing my best to capture the things that we miss when we live our lives at a hundred miles an hour.

So my first macro photo that I am going to post is this - a pine cone.



Taken in the woods at Hardcastle Craggs in the summer. I saw this pine cone and couldn't miss the opportunity to take a snap. I set up my tripod (another post will cover that bad boy) and snapped away. Obviously it isn't glamorous lying down on the floor trying to set all of the focus and settings, but I think it was pretty worth it!

Whilst looking for the pine cone picture I stumbled across some other ones from the same day!








The hunt for the perfect photo

My first ever blog. it's a special moment. So I decided I would post my favourite photo I have ever taken. I have only just got into taking photos as a real hobby, buying my first DSLR two years ago. A few weeks ago upgraded my camera to it's big brother camera and now I'm ready to show of what I have produced!
Im yet to learn a thousand things about photography, and I am certainly not one to ask if you need to know about aperatures and shutter speeds etc. I just go with what I think will work and trial and error until I get the photo I want. And as my hunt for the perfect photo continues I vow to avoid photo editing as much as I can to find the most naturally perfect shot possible.

So here it is, the big one. My favourite photo I think I have ever taken.


It was taken just off Snake's Pass outside of Glossop in Derbyshire, around March. My girlfriend and I went for a walk just as the last bits of snow were finally drying up. I think it really shows off some great colours, it sticks (nearly!) to the ever famous 'thirds rule' that ever good photographer claims to live by and really shows how vast and open our country can be!

What do you think?