Category Archives: accessories
Of Sprats and Mackerels
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Can you spot the mackerel and her sprat? |
Murphy’s Law
Never stop
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f18, 24″ |
Review: gps4cam in action
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Liffey View |
Notice Anything?
Must-Have Photo-Apps for *Proper* Photographers (totally subjective)
Pi(e)ling up the Pounds
Disgusting, bitter tasting, long lingering, much too expensive. That’s humble pie for you. Actually, I get it for free quite often. I am having another slice of it. And you can watch me eat it and gloat: It’s from an ND pie, actually… Yeeeeeeees, I concede defeat. I was wrong. ND filters have a right to exist. And I was rash in pronouncing them unnecessary. I sooo could have done with one yesterday!
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Boats in Dun Laoghaire Harbour |
The table was truly set for me. I was wrong clueless on so many levels, I should really eat a whole photography humble pie. The weather being bright and sunny, I decided to go out to Dun Laoghaire pier and practice a bit. I packed the gear, even brought the 70-300mm lens, and grabbed the tripod on the way out. I lugged the latter all the way to the harbour and onto the pier, telling myself, I would play around with some long exposures of the waves on the rocks.
The first slice of pie: I should have known the weather conditions were far too bright for a play with long exposures! Photography is logical, and here is the theory behind it: It was bright and sunny. In order to get a long exposure, I needed to balance it out with the aperture set at the highest f-stop I could get. But that didn’t do the trick; with f22 I was still at 1/125 of a second, even at ISO 100.
The second slice (and the bitterest tasting, really): The only thing that could’ve given me darker conditions in which to set the shutter speed really slow (apart from some dark clouds), is a bloody ND filter. *arrrrrrgh* And that’s one of the things I ridiculed the other day when I was in ranting mode. So gimme the ND filter, I’ll even wear the anorak!
Slice 3 – What’s the point of lugging a tripod around when you have no need to shoot at slow shutter speed (hence need a steady camera)? The sea was as calm as a millpond. No dramatic waves crashing picturesquely onto rocks. Should’ve checked the wind before I brought out the tripod. Yeah, I looked important, casually carrying my big tripod *haha*, but that was about the only benefit I could get. And only from those not in the know.
I really have to cut down on humble pie-eating. I’ll be non-controversial from now on. And I’ll wear that anorak to hide the humble pie slices, pi(e)ling up!
Put up or Shut up!
Right, I have got to get out of the habit to rant – as much as I enjoyed my “obstinacy week”, last week. But it seems as if I have alienated a portion of my readership at this stage, with my nasty comments about nerd potential and gizmo addiction.
Put up or shut up, Sonja! I went to a photography trade fair yesterday. (Yes, nerd city, and me a citizen of that, of course.) This being Ireland, it was not a fair on the scale of the Photokina. Unfortunately. There were a number of businesses represented which showed their latest products from areas like post-production software, camera equipment or general photography supplies. As usual, the men-women-ratio was rather unfairly divided with about 85% of the visitors carrying a Y-chromosome. Not that I mind that – I was not in search of a hen party, I was there for the photography. But I was slightly put out by what happened to me and my friend and fellow student J___.
Ok, picture these two women ambling through the fair. Me carrying my camera bag, but marky Mark not on show. My blasphemous “I am unimpressed with Nikon”-bag over the shoulder. We are walking around, when this man, wielding a big camera, more or less jumps into our path. “Ladies, would you like a free make-over?” “Ehm, do we need one???” “Please have a free make-over.” “No, isn’t that going to take too long?” “Ah, it’ll only take 20 minutes.” “Ah, we don’t know…” “Please, have a make-over!” And *bang* he pushed J___ behind the stall onto the stool into the make-up artist’s hands. – Doubtful result of the “make-over” aside: Maybe I am overly sensitive here, and/or maybe I am still that feminist shotgun dame of my radical youth, but I felt that we were being labelled as “photographers’ girlfriends – need some entertainment at boring trade fair that they are accompanying hubbies to”. *graaaaaaaaaah* How come your man didn’t ask a man to be made over?
Anyway, we attended a couple of seminars on product photography and portrait lighting that were quite interesting. A good few notes were taken and some things will have to be checked out. So the € 10 entrance fee was not altogether lost.
I am not back-pedalling on what I said last week, but I do have to eat a couple of slices of humble pie, too. I admit, that some gadgets I’ve seen I am actually quite interested in. No, not the ND 10 😛 – but I would actually like to experiment with an infrared filter. If I ever find the time…
The Anorak Potential
Interesting, interesting! My little rant from Monday – PMS-induced as I now know *ggg* – has received more attention (via social networking) than any other post before. Is that what people want? “Controversial” opinions, offensive views, opinionated rants? Ha, I can give you that, no problem. Let’s see if I can cause a controversy with this little gem of personal opinion: photography is for gadget nerds and tech anoraks!
That obviously and totally excludes me, of course. (I haven’t worn an anorak since 1983.) I am happy if I shoot a nice pic. Don’t give me your extra-gadgetry! ND filter for long exposures in daylight? Unnecessary! A normal long exposure will do the same trick, and even take less time. Fish-eye lens? Gimme a break! For the three times in a photographer’s life that you want that, you can just as well use Photoshop to create the effect. It’s cheaper, too. A white balance filter? *deepsigh* come OOOOON! There is a handy little button on your camera for setting the right white balance. Just get into the routine of setting it every time you shoot.
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A nice long exposure, perfectly shot WITHOUT an ND filter! |
Seriously, now – the anorak dimension of photography is frightening! I must point out, however, that the potential for intricate technical discussion usually comes from the anorak-wearing… eh… Y-chromosome-bearing part of the photography crowd. I do not recall ever discussing FEL settings, parallax errors, spherical aberrations and reciprocity laws with my female photographer friends. Don’t get me wrong – I know what all that means (test me!), but I don’t take much of an interest in that. Different ways of operating, eh?
Right, that concludes today’s rant.Waiting now with bated breath whether I have suitably excited some of my readers.
DISCLAIMER: The statements contained in this posting are entirely based on fictitious events. None have been elicited by actual events and/or experiences in the author’s own private life. *phew*