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Photo of the day : October 2013

Shot my first ever roll of transparency film.

It was the most incredible feeling getting it back from the developers and instantly seeing the image. Instantly in love with the process and will savour the next three rolls I have.

Need to sort out my scanning workflow at the moment though as for once I can really see what the image is supposed to look like straight away and my scans really aren't doing it justice.

My roll was shot as a 'behind the scenes' for a video shoot I was doing this week. Some of the others are quite exciting I think and I will hopefully post them when I get a chance. Tempted to make a thread about shooting on slide film as I would really recommend that everyone do it at least once before it's too late!

As always, comments appreciated!


Jack by AcearchieArchive, on Flickr
 
Rae, my 9 year old Solomon Island Eclectus. In typical fashion she attacked the iPhone 5, grabbed my finger and left a nice beak tattoo.
 

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NeGRit0 said:
This in Las Vegas, or nearby?
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Yeah, this is in Las Vegas. Most people think Vegas is nothing but casinos and the strip, however, there are loads of old farms in specific areas and there will be loads of mansion sized house right next to them... Vegas is a hidden art sometimes!
 
Puckman said:
Lovely photo. I love this whole world of English countryside that I only really get to see through your eyes. I REALLY must travel out there one of these days. This kinda of location and landscape really appeals to me.
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spitfirejd said:
These are really such neat buildings. Talk about maximizing your resources, building a house around an existing tower shows not only conservation of resources but a lot of ingenuity as well. Would love to see your article when it's finished.
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The 'conservation of resources' extends to the building materials. Hadrian's Wall (built in a decade, from 122AD) was abandoned when the Romans left (about 410AD). It took centuries for the Brits to build - roads, houses, etc - to ‘Roman standards’. Then the wall, stretching from coast to coast, became a convenient source of ‘dressed’ stone (and saved the bother of quarrying it). The Romans used stones of a uniform shape and size, so they are easy to spot in buildings a few miles north and south of the England/Scotland border.

This is Black Middens Bastle, a small, 16C, fortified farmhouse: animals on the bottom floor, family at the top, without internal stairs. When the ‘border reivers’ were on the rampage, the family could take refuge upstairs and barricade the door...

qtkd.jpg
 
Chasing Atlas Air Polar Air Cargo DHL N644GT down the runway:



F/8.0, 1/640sec, ISO800, 280mm, 1000ft.

Yes, I was indeed racing it down the runway. The 767 won easily. ;)
 
avro707 said:
Chasing Atlas Air Polar Air Cargo DHL N644GT down the runway:



F/8.0, 1/640sec, ISO800, 280mm, 1000ft.

Yes, I was indeed racing it down the runway. The 767 won easily. ;)
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Just out of interest, do you make a business from photographing planes? I have noticed that recently you have had access to a helicopter to grab some great shots. This can't be a cheap hobby if it is only a hobby!

Also, in terms of aviation photography what is the criteria for a good shot?
 
A good shot should be something dynamic - with a sense of movement. If you can manage it, low shutter speeds to blur props or elevate that sense of movement. From helicopters, that is easier said than done with wind gusts and the like. Today was no exception - 18kt winds. Long exposure night photos are good too, with star trails in the background.

The most popular shot will unfortunately be the one depicting a crash or other incident. Quite macabre, but that's the way things are now. And if you should capture it in fine detail... I hope I never ever photograph anything like that. But look at places like airliners.net, top ranking photos are something like the Etihad A340 engine test failure (slammed into blast barriers - killing the test engineers), bad Kai-tak landings, US Airways ditching in the Hudson river, or the horrific SQ006 B747 accident in Taipei. As Elliott Carver said, "there's no news like bad news". News organisations love bad news. It sells.

Some of the best shots might be those in Brian Shul's book, Sled Driver - the inside story of his time flying the SR-71, the plane he called "the lady in black". Or was it dancing with the lady in black rather than flying? While his words were so eloquent, the pictures related to the story well. In that respect, it's not different to other photos. You are telling a story. The photos in his book are more remarkable, some of them are self-portraits at 75,000ft!

BAe also had a damn good staff-photographer too who took lots of great photos of fast-jets and RAFAT and various other planes. I have his book/portfolio here.

To minimise cost, I go up with one other person too. It makes the return on investment easier - and it gives them a go at it too. It's affordable enough if you don't do this all the time. But if you did it every weekend, then it is no good at all. It also takes a bit of preparation to make it happen as well.

Anyone can do it, but things can and do change at last minute. Wind direction changes can put paid to the best preparations, because inevitably the runways in use will change and you'll be going somewhere other than where you'd planned. So you have backup plans and ideas of what you want. Wildfire smoke can seriously wreck your plans too.

What I did today was weeks in the planning, and was initially scheduled for last weekend, when unfavourable weather and smoke delayed it. And the location today is also very hard to get to - because it is in a more risky area between two parallel runways (which are fairly close together). It can be done, but not easily. What I did today, other elements of the news-media couldn't do when the inaugural Air India B787 Dreamliner flight came into Sydney maybe one month ago. They were all on the other side of the runway, with the light in their faces, resulting in washed out, dark, poorly lit images.

The best thing is when you go up with the same pilot a few times, you get to know the pilot and he gets to know the kinds of photos you like to take, so it becomes second nature. And you always remember that getting photos is nice, but safety comes first.
 
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Swing

Another walk today. Found this beautiful swing. Wasn't easy to decide on exposure taking the picture against the sun.

What are your thoughts about the result?
 

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uvafan1 said:
I shot this in my yard using the nikon 105mm, 2.8 macro lens. It was a hand held shot.


image by wwsakall, on Flickr
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This is a cool shot with outstanding colours uvafan. Two suggestions for you:
- People, wildlife or insects, the eyes in clear focus can make or break the shot, and
- I don't know if your seeing it or not but your sensor is in need of a cleaning.

~ Peter
 
So, I finally got my macro rig all together, with two wireless speedlites on a circular rig that fits around the lens. This may just work for me!

Interesting thing I just noticed. As the image is shrunk down to appear in the extremely limited capacity here, moiré has appeared on the eyes, which is not there on my original. Ce la vie!

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Tamron 90mm f/2.8, Extension Tubes,
 
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macAllen said:
Yeah, this is in Las Vegas. Most people think Vegas is nothing but casinos and the strip, however, there are loads of old farms in specific areas and there will be loads of mansion sized house right next to them... Vegas is a hidden art sometimes!
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I live in Vegas too. :p



EXIF Summary: f/8.0 ISO800 45mm
 
Lisbon pano

Hi,

here's a pano from this summers vacation. Took some pictures handheld, the stitched them together with Autopano Pro.

One question: how can show a picture embedded in my post like some others do. All I could figure out was how to attach it.
 

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Groucho123 said:
One question: how can show a picture embedded in my post like some others do. All I could figure out was how to attach it.
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We host the pictures on another site. One of the forum regulars put together a very helpful guide to posting images, it should be linked in the OP of this thread.
 
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