November 6, 2011 by cat
Since September I have been volunteering at The Lowry. Its such a wonderful place to be and the people are always so cheerful that I’m really starting to feel creative (photographically) again.
With the night’s drawing in (note these photos were taken between 4:50pm and 4:55pm) I thought I’d look to the evening lighting at The Lowry and around Media City UK.
Just a few for now – was in a rush to get to a birthday party and had no tripod!
Category Lighting Experiments, Lowry | Tags: | No Comments
November 6, 2010 by cat
Happy birthday to android! 3 today!
Category Equipment, Knitting, Portraits, Samsung Mob!ler | Tags: | No Comments
February 28, 2010 by cat
This week I ended up in the studio on recommendation of one of my tutor. To get comfortable about going into the studio before taking other people in there for a project I’m currently doing for my degree.
I was given the choice of two cameras, a Fuji 6×9 (which I used in first year) and a Mamiya RB67. I thought I’d play with something I’d yet to have time with so chose the Mamiya with a 120 back.
The exercise started with me shooting a film with my eyes closed.
By the end of the exercise I had my eyes open and trying to pose – you would not believe how hard I find it to pose in front of a camera!
The lighting was setup in this way so that it would not distract from the simplicity of the photographs themselves.
The aim of the session was to get me to look at simple lighting akin to David Bailey, Sally Man and Richard Avedon to try to open up the possibilities of a series of portraits I’m currently shooting. I may have more from this set (I’ve got photographs of two other people too and if they will let me post them I’ll share them with you lot!).
Category Lighting Experiments, New Cameras, Portraits, Self-Portraits, University | Tags: | No Comments
September 18, 2009 by cat
Just after dinner this evening Apollo came in from the cold. Thankfully I had some chicken leftover and he was quite happy to pose for the chicken.
Apollo (aged 4 years 3 months)
Category Animals, Equipment, Lighting Experiments, Portraits | Tags: | No Comments
September 17, 2009 by cat
In recent weeks I realised that I had no up to date photographs of the cats. Recently we got some “Yongnuo” CTR-301P Wireless Flash Trigger, which frankly they are the best set of triggers I’ve had my hands on.
So I’ve been playing with the new triggers and off camera flash. At the moment I’m only playing with a single flash gun (although I can up to a second thanks to the Vivitar 285HV working happily with the triggers).
In no particular order
Hannah (aged 12 years)
Hathor (aged 6 years)
Henery (aged 8 years)
Seti (aged 6 years)
Squeaker (aged 4 years)
Walnut (aged 16 months)
That’s all the cats, bar Apollo (aged 4 years) who hasn’t been around to photograph for a few days. I’ll be getting a photograph of him as soon as I possibly can.
Each of these photographs was taken in the cat’s favoured place. Hannah being in bed, Seti near my dad in the living room, Walnut on the stairs, Henery on top of the fridge, Hathor under the bed and Squeaker at the top of the stairs (well he likes to hide..). So I hope you like them.
Category Animals, Equipment, Lighting Experiments, Portraits | Tags: | No Comments
February 25, 2009 by cat
On the 28th January we were broken into. Sadly, my laptop, Wii and 360 were taken. They also tried to take the film scanner, but left it without a power supply. They have also damaged the TV amp.
This does however mean that I’ve lost about 6 months worth of work. Everything I’ve done since about August (except certain shoots that have been printed off-site) is gone. This also includes my Project 365 which I was about 8 weeks from concluding!
In the past month we have replaced the scanner power pack, my laptop, the kitchen window and we’re in the process of sorting the other stolen things. Project 365 will restart on March 16th – my 21st birthday!
Also got a back-up solution being tested atm. Now time to get on.
Category APNA, Blog Maintenance, Competitions, Equipment, Event, Fine Art, Press, Project 365, Projects | Tags: | 1 Comment
January 7, 2009 by cat
So a few months ago my Epson R340 gave up the ghost. The yellow print head clogged and the paper feeder claimed it was blocked when part way through a print. Epson customer services told me that it was going to be more cost effective to get a new printer rather than to repair this one, they offered me an all-in-one unit that didn’t really do photos, but at a reduced price.
At this point we gave it up for dead and started looking at new ones. Of course, to go with the Epson V700 we purchased earlier in the year we wanted to stay with Epson and I wanted access to larger scale prints at a reasonable price.
That’s where the Epson R1800 stepped in. Only to find that the ones that were still being sold were going fast and it would soon be easier to get replacement compatible cartridges for the new model R1900. Sadly that meant that it was going to cost about the same as the scanner and we simply couldn’t get it then.
Yesterday (6th Jan) Orange Tentacle bought the Epson R1900 from Parks. It takes up almost the whole desk it is on leaving enough space for the Epson V700 and the in and out post trays.
The print quality is wonderful once the print heads are fully charged (took about 3 prints to get the heads charged with ink). Comes with colour profiles for Photoshop and glossy prints that you can see reflections in!
Category Equipment | Tags: | No Comments
September 26, 2008 by cat
Canon EOS 50E
“Canon EOS 50E (film body) with BP-50 battery pack. Bought for £50 from Cash Converters on September 19th 2008. Lens 50mm f/1.8 (auto-focus, plastic fantastic) bought last year sometime.” Caption from gallery
Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 and Canon 85mm f1.8
Both beautiful lenses – really fallen for the Sigma, lets pray it doesn’t do what the last one did!
You can see the test/sample images I’ve take with the Sigma and Canon. The EOS 50E test images will happen next week when I have chance to develop the rolls!
Category New Cameras | Tags: | No Comments
September 26, 2008 by cat
This week I started back at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am officially a second year! With that means that my student loan has come through.
Do you know what that means boys and girls?? Shopping time! I’ve bought myself two new lenses – Canon 85mm f1.8 USM and the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6. I also bought a new camera body, Canon EOS 50E, one beautiful film body! Yes, a automagic film body, but it works nicely along side the digital body. Sadly, I haven’t been able to get the lithium batteries that the 50E requires, but I do have the battery pack to go with it which takes AA batteries instead! Not to forget about the ordered things that have still to come though the mail – sensor cleaner, filters for the lenses (don’t forget to get your UV filters to protect the front element!) and a few other odds and sods for the camera bag.
This does, however, mean that my dear Epson R340 printer is being dicky. The yellow printing head is clogged and has been quite rapidly not printing things right for a couple of weeks. Kian is working his technical genius on it to help me out (I really don’t want to buy another printer for another 6months or so – when this one hits 3years old I was planning on replacing it…). Annoyingly, Epson feel that it is time to replace my printer and offer no way of repairing it – only replacing with an all-in-one unit (further down the scale then the R340, but *slightly* cheaper!).
Things that are happening at uni – part of our education this term is that we must enter 2 photographic awards/competitions/contests, one of them being the Nikon Discovery Awards. There are a few people that don’t like the idea, but I’m not too sure that their reasons are that logical – the work, if chosen by our tutors, *might* have a chance of winning a place at an exhibition and having their work printed and publicised by Nikon and the British Journal of Photography. As it is, the brief for it is so broad that I don’t feel restricted by it in anyway! Its getting us ready for next term where we *must* put on a public exhibition. So, on top of the Nikon Discovery Awards I need to choose another photographic competition to enter before Christmas. Got a couple in mind.
Still debating going to the fencing competition this weekend – its the Manchester Cadet. I’ve not been around the fencing scene since last December – got the next lenses and camera I want to try out. We Shall See.
Category New Cameras, Projects, University | Tags: | No Comments
September 19, 2008 by cat
I wasn’t much in the mood for arranging my face today so I thought I’d try an idea that’s been bouncing around my head for a few days – a blurred, backlit portrait.
Take:
Canon 10D
Vivitar 285HV
Stofen
Cable release
PC Sync cable
tripod
lighting stand
and a blank piece of wall
Mix together in an appropriate way. Camera pointing at subject, flash (on 1/2 power) with stofen behind subject at shoulder height. Subject, in this case, holding the cable release. Auto-focus off and focused at the very minimum.
The only post-processing done – added a vignette, image size and saved as jpg!
Category Fine Art, Lighting Experiments, Portraits, Self-Portraits | Tags: | No Comments