Everythings changing...

After some thinking I have decided to move my blog to wordpress my new address will be as follows

www.nickbarkerphotography.co.uk

I hope you'll like the changes to the look of things!!

Cakes for Japan!

Cakes for Japan33, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Today was brilliant plenty of money raised for a good cause and plenty of cupcakes and baked goods to be eaten ... But not before they have been photographed by me ha ha ha (evil laugh) All in all the day raised around £900, which was more than Leeds which surprised us all well done to all involved.

Urban art form or Crap on the wall...

ISO100 -F8 - 1/200
Duck?, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Now most people and government organisations do not Condone or acknowledge Graffiti as an art form, well not when it's done illegally anyway... We passed this abandoned half of a building near Eland and we had to stop.

The semantics and legality of it aside and I for one love the bold colours and contrast it makes really good material.

Just another brick in the wall....

ISO200 -F8 - 1/125
Just another brick in the wall, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Experimenting with filters and stone again... But keep the faith I'll through more colour in my next post ... Well maybe but I'm not promising ....

This abandoned red brick wall look battered and warped .. Great material when playing with red / infra filters as certain filters highlight different tones with in the brick ... Yet another reason to always shot in RAW + JPG.

Have a Nice Day......

ISO200 - F8 - 1/250

Have a Nice Day.jpg, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Now here is a complete surprise find from a shoot I did down at the canal near Leeds where someone had painted this barge mooring. I have tweaked this a little and removed te colour from all but the mushroom, the strange thing was the smile sticker was leeched by time / sun and had turned black it was only once I had taken away the colour on it that the smiley face could be seen .... That's amazing (well I think its pretty damn cool)

I love the colours against the Black and White background it gives the shot a real month python feel if you ask me.

Stand By Me...noo body knoows..

ISO400 - F8 - 1/250

Stand By Me, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

I feel that today was a massive turning point on my journey. This picture is the first that I can truly say has "my" stamp on it. Apart from feeling slightly self-aware again.. I saw the shot in my head and took the moment and once I had editied it everything fell into place.
It's hard to know what it is you like and even harder to know your own style .. But I suppose 6 months and over 4000 photos taken (not all good I might add) gives you time to practice.

Bad - High Moon A rising...

High Moon, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Late night very quick snap of the moon as it was huge.... Not sure if I rushed the shot though still more practice required...

B.e.a--uutiful lines and great architecture....

Victoria quarter central, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

I ended up being 20min late for a cake club meeting but for my sins I captured this brilliant celling in Victoria quarte, Leeds .

I have been struck quite heavy with a fondness for architecture especially when it looks like this.. And to think I once said It didn't float my boat :)

Under The Bridge...

ISO800 - F8 - 1/80

Under The Bridge, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Not only my favourite RHCP song but a great place to hang around to get weird looks of couples walking past...lol

But at least I'm getting over handling my camera in public areas .... don't read to much into that!

Apple and Custard Cakes Mmmmmmm ....

Apple and Custard Cake, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This was the entry www.stickypinny.co.uk brought to the clandestine cake  club. I forgot I had taken this due to the fact I was dragged from my bed early that morning.. and summond to photograph this lovely cake..

221121

ISO800 - F8 - 1/30

221121, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

After finishing work I caught the quiet terminal and its lights rolling down the track...

Tunnels.com....

ISO800 - F8 -1/80

Eyes Front, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This was a great shot of a walkway down by granary wharf the bright sunny day gave great reflective ends to the tunnel.

Corn Exchange Revisited...

ISO400 - F11 - 1/100

Corn Exchange Revisited, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Similar to my earlier shots of the corn exchange but this time i wanted a bright sunny day so I could get plenty of natural light in there...

Forest of Green

ISO400 -F8 - 1/125

Forest of Green, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

I was slightly chuffed when I saw a similar copy of this in digital photographer magazine... (I saw it after I had taken it for those non-believers)..

It gave me a boost to know my eye is on the right course!

Something out of nothing....

ISO3200 - F3.5 -1/8

Under Section Art, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This was taken around 5:45 in the morning.. underneath a railway bridge where a florescent light was casting great shadows and texture.. once i got this into edit I increased the blacks and brightness to give a comic book effect..

Japan Charity Bake Sale...

Cupcakes For Japan Charity Bake 2, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Various people from my wife's work donated ingredients and the Cakes were made by @stickypinny (My wife) I took the photos...

The Forest Of Ogden...

ISO400 -F8 - 1/160

Forest Clearing, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

After a lovely colourful sunny day a well needed walk around Ogden water is just what was required.... along with some black and white..

Framed... Focus and countless attempts..

ISO400 - F10 -1/400

Thornton Viaduct 1, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

since I started delving into photography I have been researching, reading ... and experimenting with various techniques and effects.

One of the major ones is framing and above is probably one of my favourites.

There seems to be an ongoing constantly development .. which always keeps me on my toes.

To Bokeh or not to Bokeh....

ISO800 - F8 -1/60

Purple Theme'd cupcakes 4, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

The wiki definition of Bokeh is as follows..

In photography, bokeh (Japanese pronunciation: [boke]) is the blur,[1][2] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,[3][4][5] in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."[6] Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively.[1] Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

So I was going through a few pictures when I started to notice that I was in a very unintentional way pulling off this hard technique I suppose with a little bit of luck.

ISO400 -F9 - 1/320

photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Now I have had the penny drop.. and understand what it is and how to achieve it there's no stopping me .....

Another Comp...

ISO200 -F8 - 1/160

Rusty Bridge, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This will be the third time i have entered this comp and hopefully I'll get a publish picture this time round. This weeks guardian theme was elements.. so i have decided to go with something a little different and the above is my take on it.

This was taken on our trip to Rodley wildlife reserve..a brilliantly old rusted bridge..

Saturday night ends up Sunday morning....

ISO800 -F8 - 1/40

Vine Creeper, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This shot was taken early sunday morning as I was at a wedding I nipped back to the car to get my camera and caught this shot using the flood lights outside the woodhall venue!!!

Stickypinny's, Weddings and cupcakes...

ISO800 -F8 - 1/60

Purple Theme'd cupcakes 6, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

As I was helping my wife set-up the cupcakes she had made for a wedding .. I was charged with not getting in the way and capturing these wonderful cupcakes before they were eaten ..

www.stickypinny.co.uk is were you need to be regarding all baked things nice and pretty... and yes they tasted better than they looked..

overall an easy capture all i added was the vignette around the edges..

Bouncing here and there...

ISO800 - F6.3 -1/60

Free Love, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Taken at work whilst myself and a colleague were very distract by a a bag of sweets !!

And it all fades to black....

ISO200 - F8 - 1/200

B&W Wood Stack.jpg, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Say what you like but there is so much more to be gained from a photograph once you have converted it to black and white and played with the tones and colour filters...

Stairway to heaven....

ISO400 - F9 - 1/320

Cloud steps, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

This was a shot which wasn't really intended if im honest, a little bit of vignetting and thats it a lovely stepping effect and there's even a little silver lining at the top right !!

Solitary Daisy...

ISO200 - F8 - 1/200

Solitary Daisy, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

There is something very beautiful yet sad about this shot .. but i like it!!

Springtime is here!!

ISO400 - F9  -1/320

Blossom 2, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

If getting back at 4 in the morning on saturday wasn't rock and roll enough for you then today I took a trip to Rodley nature reserve!

Plenty of trees, birds and nature... it would usually take 30min to walk round but because I cant help but snap pics of anything that catches my eye it ended up taking an hour or so.. I just glad my wifes tollerant of my hobby!!

Saturday Nights all right..

ISO 3200 - F4.0 - 1/40

Sky Larkin 3, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Today was a brilliant day as far as my photographical career goes.. for today we try low light band photography (with no flash I might add). A friend of mine invited me to watch some local Leeds bands at the packhorse pub.. so I took my camera.. firstly there was no light minimal at best from normal ceiling mounted halogen bulbs.

 

ISO 6400 - F4.0 - 1/50

What I learned:

Metal bands move fast!!

Try not to use direct flash (Flash photography is not permitted at offical venues)

Lowest aperture possible (my tele lenses drops to F4 but really for the best shots you want F1.4 ( exspense but worth it im sure)

Use Wide angle lenses

Autofocus doesn’t help!! so do it manually take a test shot and only adjust if you move position (you will )

Use a high ISO but beware this increase noise (grain on the picture)

ish that looked ok.. so not that bad

The day I caught the train...

Rear window, a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Today was a day like any other and on my daily train ride I tried snapping a moving train window.. not the easiest thing to do!

But i managed to capture two sets scenes in one window very moody and grainy !!

Sky's the limit....

More buildings around leeds.... I noticed this the other day but it pays to look up every once in a while.

ISO400 - F11 - 1/100

Sky's the limit a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

A Sign of summer....

Outside my local train station and I saw this lovely little daffodill... Using my Tele lens I made sure to blur the background which blends nicely with the foreground.

ISO100 -F5.6 - 1/80

The Yellow Flower a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Perigee Moon

The moon was 15% larger and 30% brighter me and my Dad drove up to the top of baildon moor.. dispite the bitter wind that was kicking up I managed to capture this shot the effect of the clouds creeping across the moon looked perfect.

ISO800 - F20 - 1/40

Perigee Moon 3 a photo by Nick Barker Photography on Flickr.

Going up in the world....

Another morning shot before work..slightly off-centre shot which i will have to revisit and possible do again.. but its an ongoing project...

ISO800 -F8 - 1/125

Cloudy with a chance of ... Cloud

On my drive back from the train station I noticed the cloud cover over the valley... After battling for the right spot with a random bloke taking photo's of his motor bike I snapped away then once back I "tweaked" it within PS.

First of all i decreased the saturation just to bleach out everything apart from the blue, this gave a faded retro look to it and following some further messing with the blacks it added a nice depth to the clouds themselves.

ISO200 - F11 - 1/250

1940's Cloudscape a photo by The Knight Of Noo on Flickr.

Anchors away...

Great merge of corporate 80's architecture and an abstract Bohemian  pub!!

ISO200 - F11 - 1/60

Leeds Cake Exchange

I was lucky enough to be a plus one at a cake social over at primos in the corn exchange. Now I’m a man that love’s cake and couple that with brilliant architecture and im all set. In my youth I had often sat outside the corn exchange looking moody and angry with the world… But now following the refurbishment of the exchanges ceiling it truly is a beautiful site.



ISO800- F7.1 - 1/10

Leeds Corn exchange 1 a photo by The Knight Of Noo on Flickr.

I didn’t have my tripod on me at the time and now looking back I wish I did so that I could use a longer exposure rather than a high ISO as the end results look good but do have a certain amount of grain due to the fact I was up at 800-1600 (this was mainly to avoid handheld blur).

And the wheels on the bus ..

Mobile bus jam packed full of vintage clothing...

ISO200 - F8 - 1/50

Downtown..

Vintage street capture, overall the colour version was ok but after switching to black and white, dropping the contrast and a little tweak in PS I think it works better.. then again I am becoming a little obsessed with my black and white / Infra shots..

ISO200 -F9 - 1/200

Mr Blue Sky.....

Another beautiful day and the contrast of this weird orange building against the deep blue sky. I'm not sure what is drawing my to architectural photography but maybe its the lines or shapes that seem to appease my OCD. I added a polarising filter to my 18-55mm and that seem's to enhance the vivid colours.

ISO100 - F8 - 1/60

Also the ELO song Mr Blue Sky was a fitting sound track ....

Its a concrete jungle out there...

Leeds city centre mid day lots of people and brilliant sunshine, the shadows cast from this tree looked very desolate, add the fact that the tree was bare and its a great urban capture...

ISO200 - F6.3 - 1/200

A chance meeting...

This shot below wasn't actually intentional as i was waiting for a gap between people walking through the tunnel. However it just proves that having an open mind and a little bit of luck can lead to great results

ISO400 -F10 - 1/100

Water Reflections...

Just managed to capture this about half an hour before the sun was due to go down.. amazing light bouncing off the building. Another added effect was using HDR to capture the whole range of colours...

ISO800 - F11 - 1/100

Ice Ice baby...

Quick Marco shot using my standard 18-55 mm Lens, early morning and some mean frost about lucky really as I caught this on the way to the train station.

ISO800 -F8 - 1/20

Right then you Bastard! lets have some HDR photography...

As the above title suggest HDR photography is something that I have seen alot of and known very little about. The general overview from my (simple) point of view is that the basic concept of HDR photography is to take what they call bracketed photos (a quick succession of photo's at varying exposures) then use a software to stack them together to increase the overall contrast between the light and dark in one shot.

So basically taking all the good bits from multiple shots making one good one........ EASY!!

ISO400 - F9 - 1/30

If you go down to the woods today...

The below picture has great texture but the thing. That drew me to shot was the light casting interweaving shadows over the trees it add's a little dramatic horror to the shot. Then I edited the pictrure by adding a ND / BW filter and boosted the blacks to enhance the shadows.

ISO100 -F11 - 1/40

All Hail the mighty Viaduct...

As a yorkshireman I'm often blessed with living near to rural green sweeping vistas... So on my day off I went walk about...

ISO100 - F10 - 1/25 

ISO100 - F11 - 1/15