Night Time shooting - Starry skys

This is not an easy image to capture. A slight bit of movement over the exposure time and the objects become blurry, that and the problem that you are technically trying to focus on something that is millions of miles away...all hindrances to good quality pictures.

these ones came out ok though. So have a look:

The lens collection - slowly building

I'm experimenting with different styles of photography, but I am certainly on a budget. I enjoy taking pictures...but I am not about to go and spend half my income on lenses and camera parts to carry on doing it. I am a 2nd hand man, with an eye for a bargain I like to think.

So with that in mind I picked up some nice manual focus and aperture lenses to get the effects I am after.
Here they are as they stand right now:

from left to right: Canon Ef 28-80mm, (front) Helios-44 58mm f2 prime, (back) Sirius 70-300mm f.4.0-5.6, (front) Pentacon 50mm f1.8 prime, (back) Prinzgalaxy 135mm f3.5 Prime, (front) 0.46x Wide converter on 58-46mm step down ring, (back) Macro extension tubes (non focus).

That is the extent of the collection right now. But I am looking to add a Canon telephoto lens instead of the Sirius.

Day 37 - More HDR

Thought I would delve into a little more HDR while I was in Manchester.
Got this one off the apartment balcony.

Thought this came out particularly well to be honest.

Day 36 - A Leaf, Aloof!

This carefree leaf caught my eye, and i fancied getting in that green Bokeh hue in the background too.
Thought is a nice end of summer/beginning of autumn shot.

Day 35 - A Nasty End

Using the new Extension tubes (macro enablers) coupled with different lenses of mine, both the 18-55mm and the Helios, I was able to get reasonably close to this creepy crawly, and a good few others. These are my select pictures however: (this spider was small, as the wasp it has wrapped up will no doubt tell you).

errrrghhhhh! I'm not a fan of spiders or wasps, so this picture is designed to rile me right up lol.

Day 34 - More reflections

After seeing that bottle of Gin hidden inside Dan's phone, I've been on the look out for similar hidden wonders.
The recent rain gave me such opportunity and i managed to get these.

captured once again with the narrow depth of field advantage of the "fast" ish Helios 44 f2.

Day 33 - Helios-44 - It's all about the "Bokeh"

New toy, a Helios 44/2
nice smooth Bokeh to it, and comes out with some interesting shots. This is just one example of many I could show:

Day 32 - A late Night walk

In the lovely village of Llanon lies many an undiscovered treasure.....

Day 31 - Home is where the "Hearth" is

A lovely picture of the wood burning little fire we have in the cottage. 

Day 30 - Car photoshoot

Took a spin down to Cardiff bay with some Drifters to do a quicky photoshoot with St. David's Hotel in the backdrop.

First bit of close up non HDR night photography for me, so was interesting. Still got a bit to learn with this Camera though. So onwards and upwards for me...

See what you think of these ones.

First one is the Pic for today....the rest are just extras

Day 29 - Inside a Mobile Phone

Mysteriously hidden inside this mobile phone is a lovely bottle of Gordon's finest gin.

Got to love the reflection

Day 28 - The HouseMate

My housemate Chris Nicholas in his room.
Usual dull look on his face ;)

He has the most important things in his life with him. His DVD collection, a guitar, his mac and some Cherry coke.....(and the hairspray)

Day 27 - Same lens different flower

They are disappearing fast like i said and i noticed this one was a bit bigger and more open, so it BEGGED to eb taken a picture of.
I obliged.

Day 26 - New Lens Old flower

The roses are on their last legs as winter creeps in, so i thought i'd try and get the last pictures of some flowers for a while. Nice colour and a hint of a spider's web if you look closely.

Day 25 - Dan's Idea

Found some barb wire on the fence in my garden and thought of Dan's pic from earlier in the month.
Figured i'd use my new found aperture freedom to do some shots on it. was bit dark out, but this came out ok.

Day 24 - The EF-S conundrum

And the solution....
Cut it up.

I wanted a wider angle lens for my EOS 10D.....but there are none that i can afford for a standard EF mount.....So, my solution, modify an EF-S lens, so that it will fit.

fairly simple process....as described here http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/efs-10d.html
I've done that now.....taking the original lens as pictured here:

Cutting off the top 2 layers of plastic so that it doesnt collide with the mirror on the 10D.....it worked very well.

This is the result....nice clean finish and more clearance on the back.

This gives me a 28/29mm equivalent (after the 1.6x crop factor of the digital camera) at the wide angle end.

enough for me to take some nice landscape shots, and fit in more of a room in one shot.

Day 23 - The Jelly Bean Factory

Not having BEAN out of the house yet I decided to take a picture of something inside...

These Beans are amazing. They remind me of the sort of sweets that Willy Wonka would make. And that look on your face when you get one you dont like lol. Priceless!

Day 22 - The New camera

I've been distracted these last few days with regards to my photos, but i WILL catch up and get back on track. My new camera arrived today so i've been fiddling with it and i'll go out and take some more tomorrow.

I bought an old Canon Eos 10D as a new toy (old toy).

This will allow me to take some pictures that I have not been able to take with my old camera due to the restrictions in the settings.

It may well be 7 years old, and it may only be a 6Mp sensor, but its Quality that counts, not size lol.
It came with 6 batteries!!!! A 28-80mm Canon EF lens and a 4GB CF card.
It's a good start, and miles better than the fuji was.

Day 21 - Night car

Caught this one in a layby on the heads of the valleys road from Neath to Merthyr.
Nice long exposure as a car came past and a good clear night.

Day 20 - Mr Blue Sky

Wow,

Didnt expect to see such a blue sky today. What with all the random weather we've been having and the winter vibes i'm feeling of late.

Day 19 - Musicians house

Welcome to the musicians house,
Only 2 of these guitars are mine.
The rest of them are my House mates....not that he plays any of them but 1 now lol.
(and that's mine for some reason)

Day 18 - The World's Biggest Amp

Poor little soldier is dwarfed by large amp.....
ears must hurt

Day 17 - The Guitar shot

Here is my old electric GEEEtar.
Did me well when I was younger, but kinda just sits on a stand now.
Thought I'd put it to some good use.

Day 16 - Epic Van-idge!!

The is my trusty steed, the c15 aka "Frenchy".

Taken using a x0.42 wide lens and filtered.
number plate erased and as you can see replaced with the word which best fits the description of said vehicle.

:D

Day 15 - Purrrrrrrrrrrrr....

The Girlfriends cat......
Isn't she lovely?!

Day 14 - "Bridge over normal water..."

Took a moment on the way home from the G/f house today to take this picture.
Literally had to stop at the side of the road and jump out to take it.
Wish I had a wider angle lens though, would have made for a more picturesque setting.

Day 13 - "Taking the biscuit......."

".......Dunking the biscuit"

That warm comfortable feeling you get get you have a hot mug of your favourite joojoo and you can crack open the biscuit tin and dunk till there's no more to dunk.
Then go to the biscuit cupboard (what?.....just me) and get some more....

mmmmmmmmm dunkalicious

Day 12 - "When blow-up whales attack!"

Today I found myself in grave danger.
I narrowly avoided horrendous injury when I was mauled by a rouge blow-up whale.
I can only stress to others to take heed of this lesson, and to never walk around the house on your own when a pressurised sea creature could spring a trap.

You have been warned.

Day 11 - The fuel that fires

This stuff is like my blood sometimes, I should probably take a detox.
mmmmm, freshly ground coffee beans!!

Day 10 - The Assembly

Went for another venture around Cardiff City Centre tonight and thought I'd take a gander down the Bay.
The Welsh Assembly building was suitably lit up so I figured it would be a good shit.

Set up my camera nice and neat, had a fiddle with some settings.....then I noticed a bit of a whirring, buzzing sound coming from above me to the left. I looked up to find the CCTV camera staring straight at me and moving around a bit. Clearly the security peeps were not so comfortable with me taking pictures.

I gave them a nice wave and said hello....and they kept on watching me. They followed me wherever i moved, so i played around with them for a bit. It was quite fun if I'm honest lol.

So here is one of the final versions. I took this shot from several different angles, but the first is my favourite.

There were several different angles I could have taken this from and ideally I would have had a bit more of a Wide-Angle lens, but it came out ok. This next one is another 30ft back and includes a bit more roof.

And finally, that wood work looks amazing, so i took one of the underside of the roof itself.

Day 9 - One trAck Mind

Hey,

I wrote this down as my only to do list today, but low and behold I made the mistake of having a kip at around 7pm....which turned into me being asleep all night. So that is why I'm here posting my picture AGAIN at the wrong time (or day).
There will be another to follow today, seeing as i'm up already I have no excuse.

Day 8 - It's a beautiful day

Well the Sun is shining here in Pontypridd, so I figured an outside shot is a must. I just got back from the Gym and liked the effect of the sun through the slats but I also love my little house. So here's a bit of both.

Hope you've all enjoyed the sun too if you had any :D

Day 7 - A drive in the Country

My parents were still down this morning after staying over last night, so we went out for a drive in the Welsh Valleys and I took the chance to take some scenic shots of the views.

Day 6 - I am guilty for being late again!!!

Hi all,

I apologise once again. This one is gonna be a double whammy. I took this picture yesterday with every intention of getting it up on time, BUT....my parents came down to stay with me and we went out for food. I had a few beers, and I was conked out by half past 10.

Sooooooo, here is the picture for the 10th of September.

Day 5 - HDR 1st attempt

Thought i'd experiment tonight, so i did a late night run into Cardiff to see what i could find to shoot.

This is the back of the Saint David 2 shopping centre development in the centre.

It's my first foray into HDR stuff, and its not perfect by any means, but it seems okish.


hope you all like it

A lot of HDR stuff is all about settings, so it can turn out very different depending on them.

this is another example slightly changed

Its all good fun either way.

they've just prototyped HDR video cameras tooooo
So that will make for fantastic visuals




Here is the Original Picture for your comparison.

As you can see the above High dynamic Range pictures make for a more engaging and deep image.

Day 4 - Night shift

Yes I am late once again to the 365 parade but I have a valid excuse (I think).
I am currently operating on a Nocturnal Bodyclock and as such, midnight is equivalent to around my midday lol.
So realistically this is ok....and this is in fact my photo for the 8th of September.

So, on to the photo itself.
This little critter looks awfully guilty that I've caught him on camera. A bit of a Rabbit (its a cat I think) caught in the headlights lol.
I ventured over to my Girlfriends house this evening and found this cheeky chappy on the window. I thought he had lots of character and would make a good pic, so here we have it. The final masterpiece: The "Piece de Resistance" lol

Day 3 - The quick think

I'm late!
Fashionably so maybe? who knows.
Either way, here is my offering for today.

Just a quick snap with some mini 150ml cans and a whole lot of fish eye!!!
(editing just involved basic cartooning)

Day 2 - Close up on time

Well,

Day 2 of the famous 365 project has rolled around oh so quickly...
those 24 hours go by FAST!!!

So here it is:

"A Bedside Motif"

Definition of Motif: dictionary.reference.com/browse/motif

Day 1 - where to start

I've rummaged through the digital Charity shop (thrift store to you yanks) that is Youtube and came across some interesting photo diary type things, 365 portrait pictures, 1 a day kinda thing. I must say they are fascinating to watch.
This is a similar idea, which has been done before of course (I take no credit for its invention) but it insists that you take 1 picture a day for 365 days....not as a diary but more as a creative incentive I suppose. A chance to look at everything you see with the aim to at least get one interesting picture out of your day.

So here it begins, I and some friends have decided to set out on our photo-journey and see where it takes us.

Day 1 is a late night find, a few things that live in my kitchen.

I call it "The Working Man's Flower"