Well, this weekend I was also trying out some stop motion with the tilt and shift lens. Below is the first attempt, 200 odd frames, at about 1 second apart. I’ll be shooting more on the 30D as it has a larger buffer and so will be getting 2fps at least.
Just another short post to let you all know that the Twitography Project, that I conceived and blogged about in an earlier article, is now off the ground and running. I photographed my first victim, sorry, subject last night and now have a list of other users to start making my way through.
@shepy was my first willing volunteer – mainly willing to stand around and laugh whilst I tried to inflate a stupid blue chair with my mediocre lung power! We took this shot as a homage to another famous Twitter user, @twitchhiker:
To find out more information, to see more images, or to get involved with the project whilst helping to raise money for the very worthwhile folks at Macmillan, please visit the Twitography site.
Well despite our posts about gear not being everything, there are times that you just need to indulge yourself, and there are pieces of kit that you just need for certain effects. I’ve been after a Tilt and Shift lens for some time now, and finally found one 2nd hand (a rare occurrence). And despite the common usage for this type of lens, I wont be looking to do architecture or massive Depth of Field (DOF) landscapes, I am interested in its ability to do the opposite, to reduce DOF and generate a particular look and feel. The lens in question is a canon 45mm TS-E lens, and I opted for that focal length as I want to use it for portraiture and evironmental work, so it made sense over the 90mm or 24mm.
Here are some results with the lens so far:
"Is this the real life?....."
I did a wedding at the end of March last year, that was rained off and I had to shoot indoors with limited space and lots of people trying to barge past…
12 months on and I did another at the end of march, and this time it’s ideal kite flying weather! Hats blowing everywhere, so we had to go inside again!
I got them on the stairs of this lovely old hall, had a strobe up the top of the stairs pointing down onto everyone, and one to the left filling the faces…. which was fine most of the time, but the 580EX 2 seems to have a power-off setting and when I’d set a shot up with lots of people in, like this, the bloody thing had powered itself down!
Still, I got quite a few Bohemian Rhapsody style shots like this, which may even find their way into their book for a laugh!
Following my own earlier article on getting the best from your HDR shots, I’ve subsequently found another article, that describes HDR in an easy-to-follow formula, on the Photographer’s Math blog.
Check out their article on HDR photography here!
16 Minutes to go here… to the start of the new F1 season, first race is Melbourne Australia
I’m excited and awake to watch it (6.44am right now UK time). loads of new rules, more tyre choices and some funky wings! I really can’t wait for it all. I am a huge Gear head, love all thing Motor and racing. I’d like Hamilton to take a second title but the heart is loving Brawn GP…
I only need to hear the first few notes of the classic BBC F1 song (click the triangle upper left) to get in *that* zone for motorsport!
It’s all counting down, interviews on the gird now with the drivers… so close to the excitement, drama and sheer noise of the season!
C’mon, share your predictions for the final champion.
I’ve been a big advocate of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe since I first saw the show almost 2 years ago. For those unacquainted, it’s a show where Charlie has a rant about TV programs in a cynical, vicious and painfully truthful manner.
I was overjoyed therefore to see that he’s started a new show on BBC4 called Newswipe, which is, unsurprisingly, a cynical, vicious and painfully truthful rant about the news.
In the last few years, mainly since Princess Diana died in Paris, the news and media seem to have become a sugar coated soap opera focusing on emotion and speculation rather than facts. We see film of reporters who have no news, just speculating by saying things like “unconfirmed sources say… ” and “we are awaiting developments, but….”
Well if, like me, you’ve not got time to sift through hours of treacle laden stories of how people are saving money on fashion during a recession, BBC4 at 10:30 on a Wednesday is something you need to set your SKY + to record. It’s either that or patronising reporters sticking mic’s in front of stupid people and asking them how incredibly bad their lives are.
Wednesday night’s most amusing segment was a look at Sky News’ Dermott Murnahagn (however you spell that) and his trip along the coast to Cornwall, hoping to find lots of painful sob stories of people going out of business and banks not lending money and people eating babies as they fall into depravity and models not being able to afford cocaine and the world coming to an end….
What Dermott did find was a lot of people benefiting from the weak pound by the influx of tourism to the area, banks being willing to fund the growth and a general positive outlook!
In the background, you get Charlie’s acidic and hilarious commentary on how annoyed the producer must have been not to find a “bad news” story!
Anyway – it’s my pick of the week, has nothing to do with photography nor Angelina Jolie’s best assets, but I thought it was worth sharing 
The Twitography Project, that I mentioned in a previous article, is now fully-formed and ready to go. I’ve created a brand-new blog for it, so that it can stand entirely on it’s own, and now I just hope that as many of you as possible will join and help to make this as big a success as we possibly can.
Please spread the word: Twitography is here.