Naquada

Last night we headed out to Stonehenge to have an after hours tour of the stones, and watch the sunset. Normally Stonehenge is only open for a set amount of time per day, and always closes after sunrise and before sunset.

You also can’t get any nearer to the stones than the rope that surrounds the perimeter of the circle, which is ok, but it limits your views, and certainly stops you appreciating the views out of the circle down the avenue, and just generally the amazing aspects of the stones and the circle itself.

We were lucky to have managed to get on a private tour after hours, that also coincided with the sunset. Armed with my camera a few compact flash cards and multiple batteries we headed off.

The tour itself was great, we had our own guide, who knew a lot about the surrounding area and the history of the stones and site, as an archaeologist he was able to really give details on the area, the history and the stones themselves.

At about 8:45 we headed under the road through to the circle itself, and although we should have only had about an hour, we left the circle much later on. The most amazing part of this was being able to walk straight over the ropes into the circle itself, and have pretty much free rein on walking amongst the enormous standing stones.

Whilst we were in the main circle itself, our guide talked about how the stones were erected and how they related to other monuments in the area, and aspects of the landscape (both man made and natural) around the area.

Stonehenge at anytime of the day is eerie, but even more so at sunset, even with the road noise, Stonehenge is quiet and peaceful, and with only about 15 of us in the circle it was even more so.

We played with some divining rods around the circle, trying to find the lay lines that run through the monument, although with my magical background anything can be made to move in a particular direction, Michelle had a little more luck though.

I’m very pleased with the way the photos came out, and I’m very impressed with the ones I took as silhouettes. I would have liked to have taken a tripod, or even a monopod, but I think they are not allowed within the circle itself for obvious reasons..

Technorati Tags: photography, stonehenge, stone circles, sunsets

Well today is going to be quite nerve wracking.. It’s one of our friends wedding today, and somehow, I’ve managed to become the main photographer. It’s obviously my extensive knowledge of reading books on wedding photography that landed me the part!!

I believe I’m all planned, that is except the weather, although I have found some references to the art of ‘cloud busting’ in some old magic books, that is, the art of being able to disperse clouds at will.. well anything is worth a try!!

I have three lenses with me, the Standard 350D 18-55mm, a borrowed 24-85mm and my 75-300mm, the venue at The New Mill in Eversley looks great, and I have a shoot list ready for rain, or slightly less rain.. I’m working on the bride and groom formals first, then large groups, removing people to take it back down the the bride and groom again. I’m thinking this will ease the loosing auntie Flo in the toilets because she got bored waiting syndrome I’ve always seen at weddings..

My problem is whether to go semi automatic, or manual.. I’m airing on the side of Aperture override, hovering around f11 for the formals and then semi automatic for the non formal shots.. Time will tell I guess!!!

There’s nothing like pressure!!!

Technorati Tags: photography

Today is 24 Hours of Flickr.. What happens around the world in one day? In a word, life.

Flickr is celebrating the global community by running “24 Hours of Flickr” today. A day-long global photo project; On May 5, 2007 in which they are encouraging you to grab your camera and whatever else you need, and chronicle your day in pictures.

The group’s photos will be featured at Flickr events around the world this summer and in a companion book, which will contain a selection of photographs chosen from the group

The “24 hours of Flickr” book will be published by Blurb, and If your photograph is selected for publication in the 24 hours of Flickr book, you will receive a copy

The book itself will be sold at cost (the amount will be available in the near future) with Flickr donating $1 for each book sold to Médecins Sans Frontières up to a total of $10,000 USD.

Join the “24 Hours of Flickr” group to get ready for the big day!

Technorati Tags: 24hoursofflickr, flickr

The government seem to be getting a lot of ePetitions up lately, now some, such as the Helping Hand or the Gold petitions are a bit bogus and obviously just drawing in the crowds, but there’s another one up that looks in a similar vein to the car tax one. I’m predicting some righteous indignation and pitchfork-waving, or worse still.. flashguns at dawn..

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places.

Apparently, although I’ve not seen any legislation yet that there are a number of moves promoting the requirement of ‘ID’ cards to allow photographers to operate in a public place. It is a fundamental right of a UK citizen to use a camera in a public place (except swimming baths, playgrounds and other places you shouldn’t be pointing cameras at people - thanks Jim!), indeed there is no right to privacy when in a public place. These moves have developed from paranoia and only promote suspicion towards genuine people following their hobby or profession.

It sounds very much like a response and formalisation of the experiences that we so frequently hear about - run-ins with security guards, prevented from taking pictures of public places.

There are some obvious questions that spring to mind which cannot be answered without further details of this legislation. If this is true.. is there a restriction on the size/type of camera or lens (i.e. not just “big” dSLR cameras, what about a compact or mobile phone?) What happens to tourists? if you’re in the UK on holiday, and have your camera with you? What punishment could they legally dish out ? deletion of images? Confiscation of equipment? Fine? Imprisonment?!

I guess the thing is that we can’t take the risk.. sign up and pass it on…

Technorati Tags: epetition, government, id cards, photography, public places

I love DaneilN’s Flickr Flight Center set. Daniel says that since attending a lecture by the Chris Buck, he decided to shoot things in a way that he had never done before.Fying out the next day to San Francisco and had no model to shoot after the lecture, he decided to capture himself flying. Over time trying to record every time he traveled by flight at both places of take off; home and the hotel.

His final word on the subject.. “..yes I have broken a bed while jumping. Listen to your parents; they sometimes know what they are talking about.”

Great photos and an amazing Flickr Set..

Meg Pickard has a great entry on her blog about using the Moo MiniCards as fridge magnets..

It’s just a fantastic idea, and really well suited for them (amongst the other uses are bookmarks, house move cards, door stops, and table un-wobblers)..

With a couple of simple supplies, and not a lot of time at all, you can whip up a set of fridge Moognets. The Moo MiniCards are just the right thickness for sticking onto magnetic strips..

As Meg says, “I’m thinking about experimenting some more - perhaps with just food-related designs, or (even better!) individual words, so that I could use it like a giant set of magnetic fridge poetry. That would rock.” there’s a million and one ideas I have of using these magnets…

Meg has a gret and very detailed set of instructions on her blog about making the magnets, as well a a detailed set of photos on Flickr.

This really just makes me appreciate Moo cards even more, sad as that is, but hey… I’m a geek!!!

So they got here safe and sound!! The Moo MiniCards I ordered the other week turned up while I was away in Germany, and they really are just as nice as they looked.

Its also the first time I’ve really seen my photos in glossy professionally printed form, and they look really good. The quality of the card is really great, and they are very tactile, and I think even without Andy Pipers recommendation, I think I’ll be ordering some real soon.

I also love the way that Moo put the photo of us into the pack on top, so we appeared sat in the droplet on the card holder. That little personal touch, whether pure chance or someone at Moo being a little bit caring, is enough for me to be convinced that Moo is a great company, good luck guys (and ladies)

I just have to decide what to put on the backs of the cards, and which photos I want in my first batch!!

Thanks Moo.. love them!!!

Surfing the web this morning and playing with Flickr, I found a note about London-based print geeks MOO. MOO say they have re-invented the the calling card, and recently dreamed up these neat photo cards.

The business card is the single most successful networking tool of all time, predating mobile phones, the internet, and PDAs by some 300 years. Not bad for a bit of paper with your name on it…

In a market worth in the region of $3b a year, The business card has seen little change since it first appeared around the 18th Century. Used primarily for business, but often in social settings as a ‘calling’ or ‘visiting’ card, the business card has largely remained the preserve of the business person.

But business cards are boring. They are dull, uninteresting, and really tell you very little about the person who’s giving it to you..

In an ambitious reinvention, that will address both form and function, MOO has taken the business card back to its roots as a sophisticated social tool for non-business use and have introduced a new, advanced generation of calling card for the networked, mobile and social young communities of today (that’s you by the way..)

These little beauties, called MiniCards, come in sets of 100 and can feature a different photo on each card, as well as contact details, buddy icons, urls or whatever info you want. Full colour both sides, they’re printed on a wonderfully silky card stock that feels great in your hand.

To help spread the word, MOO are giving away 10,000 FREE packs of 10 cards to Flickr pro members, as well as offering free international shipping (a saving of $4.99) on all other orders until the end of September.

Sign into MOO with your Flickr account to get started.

I’m sad.. I ordered mine this morning.. and I’m already busting with excitement…

UPDATE: apparently they are all sold out..!!

The moon has always fascinated me, its one of those things that however long you look at it, always looks different and gives you something new and exciting to see . Depending on the time of year, and where the moon is, it can appear large, or small, white, or this quite mesmerising yellow or sepia colour.

I won’t even try to pretend to be a moon expert, but I know that right now the moon is a full moon at 100% of its visibility. Shortly it will move into its waning gibbous, where the moon starts to become hidden, before entering a new moon, where it is completely darkened. I love full moons, there’s just something very special about them, and I always get a great view this time of year from the back of the house, great for watching the hedgehogs and foxes by.

Today’s been incredibly hot with very little cloud cover, and the clouds haven’t closed in this evening, so I decided to try and get some shots of the moon while the conditions were good. Although last nights moon was a lot better to look at, its tonight that I can’t sleep and needed something to occupy my mind.

I’ve been reading a little about how to take photos of the moon, and its not actually as straight forward as it seems, at least not to me. I followed some of these bits of advise to take this photo.

Taken with my 300mm lens I definitely think I need to get a x2 converter for my Canon 350. The tripod, 300mm and cable release help, but they really fall a little short of getting the sort of photo I’d like. I’ve seen some amazing moon shots, but I think I need to go up to about 600mm to get a decent image, this one really isn’t crisp or large enough to really do justice to just how wonderful the moon can look.

So I think I’ll need to add more camera accessories to that ever growing shopping list of toys..

I love the HDR photos I’ve been taking the last few weeks, and in searching through various Flickr groups I found a nice little technique for mixing time lapse and HDR photography.

There are several ways of recording the passage of time in a photograph, an inherently static form. One is to use a long (or bulb) exposure, keeping the shutter open for a few seconds or minutes. These produce those classic ‘car lights at night‘ type photos. The other is to keep the shutter open, but expose the image periodically with a flash, catching moments in time rather than a constant ‘blur’ of time.

An HDTR image is an image in which multiple frames taken over an arbitrary time interval are blended together. The images in the time-lapse set are merged together by progressively sampling time-adjacent images horizontally or vertically. The difference between an HDTR image and a single-frame long exposure is that the contribution to any region of an HDTR image is primarily from a single image from the time-lapse set, rather than an average of all images.

Depending on how the blending is done, the result is an image in which a strip, row or column, is derived from a specific point in time. If a long exposure frame is a stack of acetates of time, an HDTR is a series of strips of time. The strips can be blended in a variety of ways, generally to limit banding artifacts and produce a smoother time gradient.

I hope to get some of these up within the next few weeks..