Playing about with saturation...

This shot was taken at millennium  square in Leeds... Once I got this picture into PS I reduced all the colours saturation level to 0 and left a little in the blue spectrum, this gave a nice subtle black and white feel whilst leaving the Blues.

ISO200 - F11 - 1/250

Mental note to self next time use a quicker shutter speed and the angle could be better!!

The white tower..

Buildings and more buildings...Lovely Gothic spire in central Leeds.

ISO100 - F13 - 1/80

The Beer and Pie Cometh.....

Today was the annual Bradford beer festival and the only thing better than a Beer festival is Pie and Beer!!

 

ISO320 - F5.6 - Shutter 1/80

And for those of you who are wondering how big the pie was here's another one

For more foody goodness have a look at stickypinny's blog.

Man About Town.............

The first sunny day in a long time... Now I'm really getting ready for summer... Again i used a high shutter speed as i was in the middle of busy lunchtime pedestrian traffic.

ISO200 - F9 - Shutter1/400

Stone Guardian...

Another overcast day... This picture was originally going to be in colour but seem'd to look better in Black and White. 

ISO400 - F8 - Shutter 1/100

Urban Walkabout......

Although walking round with camera and backpack kit might come easy to some, with me I still feel slightly uneasy and there is a certain tourist stigma that comes with normal phtographers wandering aimlessly about snapping and obscure angles etc...


So to overcome this I constantly carry my camera either in the car or when I'm out just for that impromptu snap or perfect sunset and to be honest its paid off more times than not.

ISO800 - F8 - Shutter 1/100

A step in the right direction....

News Flash... I have decided to enter the Guardian February competition and the theme is Black and white my entry is as below... also just got my email back saying they have accepted it!

ISO100 - F32 - 1.6 Sec shutter @300mm

With a little splash of colour...

Whilst on a walk I found this old branch with budding moss i'm not entirely sure if it was meant to be like this bud after i removed all the colour apart from a green hue it looked rather interesting..

ISO800 - F5.6 - Shutter 1\100 

I'm not quite sure i managed to get the correct focal length and the settings were wrong but i suppose it goes to show that luck does come into photography

Dark gloomy train station revisited...

Quick snap of another hard lined seat at the train station.. not bad to look at pretty rubbish to sit on for any extended period of time.

Mornings and Hangovers..

As a morning work took me through the county arcade in the centre of Leeds the clouds seemed heavy and look rather ominous the view from beneath the glass roof was brilliant but editing it to B&W really made the most of the tones.

Nobody likes mornings... I especially hate them !

Sat in a cold dark and what felt to be an isolated train station I decided to entertain myself by playing with my camera, most of the photos were crappy apart from this one.. once I had changed it to B&W and added a tungsten white balance to the shot in PS it seemed to black out the windows to the rear looked better than the original.

At the moment Black and white images are mostly all i can think about, there seems to be much more intensity and mood than when it was originally shot in colour.

More shadowy things and that....

Still playing with silhouettes and colours to counteract the amount of Black and White at the moment..

Who say's working with animals is hard...

We seem to live with one of the worlds most photogenic cats Brodie loves having her photo taken lately we believe she worked for a modelling agency in a prior life...

Things to make and do...

In a wave of creative inspiration Iam making an attempt at a light box. Hopefully once completed I'll be able to using is for some cool closeup shots.


It's basically a cardboard box cover with a side cut out of it then lined with black felt or white paper.


A good tutorial:
http://m.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive
Photography-Lightbox

Another handy tip was putting a cloth under the white sheet of paper to stop it rolling :)

Food Glorious Food...

After working the full weekend I came home to this most brilliant dinner it was so good I had to photograph it.

ISO800 - F8 - 1/13 Sec

I may had over saturated it  when editing but hey nevermind...

I'm in the mood for cupcakes...

As today is valentines day I am not spending much time blogging for obvious reasons but here is another picture of stickypinny's lovely valentines day cupcakes.

 

ISO800 - F8 - 1/5 Sec

More patterns with Macro Photography...

This shot was taken whilst I was playing around in the spare room / mock studio on a cold rainy day....... I experimented with a high ISO to add grain to the shot.

 

ISO12800 - F8 - Shutter 1/160

One of my favourite types of photography......

I often get the chance to freelance my skills to my better half who is a very accomplished baker.. below was a snap of her malteser cupcakes mmmmm they taste better than they look believe my ever expanding waist line proves this...

ISO 100 - F5.6 - Shutter 0.5 sec

Cameras in the mist... Or not ...

Today was supposed to be a challenge day. My plan was to visit multiple photographical sites setup my shot (whilst enjoying the views) then move on to the next.

Sadly this  wasn't to be as the mist and fog descended... today was now a blog catch-up day.

But I managed to get this brief one... I have also experimented with the RAW file as im sure you can tell...

Too Many Beetroot Puns......

As I am married to an amazing baker / chef it's easy for me to experiment with food photography. For this shot I used my tripod and a 70-300mm lens.


The subject was beetroot soup and the copious amounts of purple look great against the white bowl.

ISO 100 - F8 - 0.8 sec Shutter

NB; Food above made by (http://www.stickypinny.co.uk/), added under marital duress.

App -Re-voui Rodders....

Right...... Although this blogs backbone is supposed to be myself taking a photo and yapping about it I thought that nearly 70 blogs were enough and I would yap about relevant apps that have help me in my infancy with photography....
Social & effects:


flickr (free) - brilliant app very easy to use and you get everything you would do on the net version. fairly simple uploaded but I mainly using it for hand held searching of mine or other peoples photos. (http://www.flickr.com/)


Instagram (£1.79) - initially like Facebook for photos, some nice simple filters and easy interface. (http://instagr.am/)


DOF Master (free)- Depth of field calc, once I know how to properly use it to is potential happy days..this is my ability not the app - (http://www.dofmaster.com/)


DSLR kit For dummies - This is hands down the best app I have used so far, it features handy tools like settings and guides, tips, a shoot diary, check list ....I could go on and on but definitely worth a look.

SLR Photography Guide (59p) - This app again really helps someone like me who needs to understand the techniques and terminology. It has built in guides, videos and manuals useful for referring back.

This was taken on the Train after writing the above... 

 

Oh right so that's how it's done...

As ever my daily commutes to work leaves me with a lot of spare thinking / reading time, this is mainly due to the fact I hate public transport and most of my passengers.Regardless I don't however like the time to think..

Whilst reading digital photographer I found a brilliant issue on luminance and saturation editing... Top tip coming up (ripped from the magazine) ... Drum roll when trying to add colour or drama. To the snot always decrease the relevant colour as adding it in will only bleach it out Seemed to work rather well on a recent shot of mine I have added the before and after.

                                                                                                                                 

                 Original                                               Editied

There's Never enough Time...

More thoughts from the deepest recesses of my mind ... Lately what with work and other commitments it's been hard to keep up with the photos an blogg luckily tomorrow is a photo day of

and I'm feeling like some Inner city walkabout.

Oh and mental note for a great landscape pro search for Fay Godwin - brilliant

Heres one of mine in the meantime...

ISO400 - F16- 1/160 Sec Shutter

I see those cupcakes arising ... Mmm Cake

Quick close up shot of a great batch of cupcakes made by

 

NB; Food above made by (http://www.stickypinny.co.uk/), added under marital duress.

There's a light.....Over at the ....

Yet more moody B&W.......


A wicker lamp shade provided plenty of inspiration mid beer, this one like so many of the others has been faffed with pulling out the red whilst using the PS monochrome setting gives an overall Ikea poster feel to it.

ISO 1600 - F6.3 - 1/13 Sec Shutter

I need the countryside or a Nuclear Holiday which ever comes first.....

He's a cockney Geeza....

Yet again experiencing with people and lighting my good friend Edwardo....
A high ISO gave some good grain and the Overhead light's threw shadows in both the back and foreground.

ISO 1600 - F5.6 - 1/8 Sec Shutter

Pictures of faces the film Noir way ...

Now I have to be honest and say that at this point of my very earlier photographical career Portraits do now set my soul on fire... But seen as I haven't found my own "style" yet it would be wrong to dismiss portraits etc Until I have tried them out ... For a number of years.

ISO800 - F4.5 - 1/10 Sec Shutter

I also added some noise and grain then vignetted the frame of the face to draw focus. I think I will call this picture patience of a saint, this is mainly due to me annoying the subject (www.stickpinny.co.uk).

Can anyone say g-ottle of gear ?

Yet again a quick beer after work led to a night of it, The older I get the less control I seems to have (don't read into that). The below picture was taken in colour and covert with an infra red filter and adapting with the channel mixer.


For some reason the black and White added more drama than the original picture

 

Fortune favours a prepared mind.......

sadly I missed the guardian comp this week as I got stuck in work the brief was affection....


here's my entry..

  

A comp is great for me as it gets my head thinking about shots and images I usually wouldn't !!