Lens

I've just found a great website,

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

It offers loads of tutorials for your digital camera and I've just been reading one about lens. I have three lens and until now I didn't really know in detail what they could all do and which ones to use when photographing particular subjects. After reading this article I feel much more confident in making the right desisions on which lens to use and aperture also.


I have a 55mm - 200mm zoom lens which is a telephoto lens which is good for landscape photography, wildlife and sports. I have also found it really good for taking pictures of bands, as it's difficult to get close up to them and this lens allows me to take good pictures from a distance. It only goes to 4# at 55mm so isn't much good in low-level light conditions. Telephoto lenses, suprisingly to me, are also good for portraiture because they have a long focal point which results in a narrow angle of view. This compresses or flattens your image, basically making people look abit prettier and even featured, i.e disguises big noses etc.





I also have a 50mm prime (fixed focal length) lens. This was the most expensive and I always wondered why as I thought it was at a disadvantage as it was fixed and therefore did not have the variety of perspectives as a zoom lens. But what I've learnt is that even a inexpensive prime lens often gives much better image quality than a high-end zoom lens, offering greater apertures and they are lighter and easier to carry. It drops to 2.8 which is really good for night time photography and portraiture.

My 18-55mm lens is pretty much an all-rounder though not appropriate for long distance shots. It drops down to 4# which is quite good for low-light levels and creating a narrow depth of field which is good for portrait photography when you want to separate your subject from the background. This type of lens is also supposed to be alot easier to use manually due to it being able to create narrow depth of field as you can distinguish more clearly the foreground and background, which is something I'll have to try as I never manually focus my camera.

My first challenge

I've just been to Hyde Park to attempt photographing some of the skateboarders there. I didn't appreciate how difficult this would be. I found that most of the pictures I took were out of focus or just the background would be in focus becuase the skaters were simply moving to fast for me to keep up! At first I just kept my camera on the automatic setting as I'm lazy and used to doing this, but after a while of unsuccessful photographs I had a go at doing it all manually. I wanted to find a balance between a good depth of field to solve the problem of just the background being in focus, and a fast shutter speed to capture all the movement. I got a few alright pictures using this method but found the shutter speed still wasnt fast enough so I compromised on depth of field by focusing my camera on a particular box then waiting patiently for someone to do something cool looking on it. This meant I had my camera totally ready to take a picture as it was already in focus and I was holding it really steadily, and it worked much better as I got most of my good shots from using this method.

I'm quite pleased with how all the above shots turned out. I did have trouble keeping the whole person in shot, as you can see above, I cut off this guys arm which totally ruins the picure - I just didnt anticipate how high they could jump! I also used the sport function on my camera which enabled me to take continuous shots which helped capture a range of different actions so I could then choose which one looks best. You could also display them together to get some sense of movement. The only problem with this setting is that it only focusing once at the beginning so not every picture in the sequence would be in focus.

I tried to take afew pictures using a slower shutter speed to get parts out of focus to really emphasise the movements the skaters were making. Most of them didnt turn out too well, I think the shutter speed was a little too slow because they all came out as a messy blur. But I did like this shot as you can still make out the figure but the long blurred lines capture the action well.

I just like how the shadow tells the story of what the bmxer is doing and not him.

This guy was taking pictures of his friend riding this box over and over again to get the right shot. He set up an automatic flash to one side to light up his subject and got low on the ground for a really good angle. I think this is definately the best way to photograph sports like this. If you know someone who is willing to have their picture taken and doesnt mind doing the same stuff again and again it really helps you capture the best moments, whereas I was stood considerably further away as I didnt dare go onto the actual skate park (too dangerous!) so I encountered a lot more problems, like people walking in front of the camera, camera shake as I was zoomed in so much and limited angles to take pictures from.

Communication Technology 2

Statement of Intent

For this brief I want to explore digital photography. It feels like nowadays, anyone can go and buy an inexpensive digital camera, not know the first thing about photography and still take a good picture. And I'm wondering if photography as an art and a practice is any longer viable. I want to learn as much as I can in the next two months about digital photography in the hope that I can, with my new skills, stand out amongst the millions of other people with a digital camera. I've always played it safe and took photographs of the same kind of things becuase I know I can do that well, so for this brief I am going to stay away from macro photography, something I do a lot, and try something new and challenging. I especially want to learn how to use the studio as I do not know much about lighting or flash. And I also want to work on instructing models and making them feel confortable being photographed as I think this will be very useful in a real-life context.

bestival

Bestival was so much fun. I saw alot of artists that I thought would be awful but actually werent that bad. Plus it was a great place to take pictures. Everyone wanted their picture taken, they'd see my dslr and just jump right in front of it! It was a good opportunity to use my 55m-200mm lens to take some pictures of the bands and people acting naturally without knowing they were being photographed. I wasnt used to using it so Im going to have to practice with it this year but its a good starter lens for people wanting to take pictures of subjects that they cant get close to.

camping with cuz

took my 11 year old cousin, laura camping on the east coast last month coz i promised her ages ago i would. We camped on top of a cliff in Filey and had to come home a day early because the wind nearly blew us off the edge one night! was fun all the same.

greenman festival

Raining all summer - but for the weekend of Greenman the sun shone and shone and shone! Great weekend, even though I was sharing a two man tent with two other people. got to see some good music - animal collective, four tet and andrew bird being my faves.

summer

Ive been meaning to post what I got up to this summer all summer and never got round to it. I thought I hadnt really done much but it seems I have so here are all my summer pics. me and nathan bought ourselves train tickets and saw abit of europe in June which was awesome. We went to the Italian Lakes, Venice, Corfu, Rome and Menton in France over 4 weeks. All we had were the bags on our backs and a tent and it was so much fun being able to go where ever we wanted to and I didnt even get tired of living in a tent for a month. It was a great experience and something I'd definately do again if I had the money!