Nadia & Nathan - Wedding

The best way I can describe this Wedding I shot was that it was a very relaxed day...

Both Bride and Groom were so easy going it's unreal, and Nathan was cracking me up during the Wedding. Especially when the reminder on his phone went off which says "Wedding Day" lol... Like any Bride will let her Groom forget his Wedding Day lol...

Also, I just loved how when they were saying their vows, Nathan even found a moment to crack a joke even at that point... lol...

Nadia was also a joy to shoot. Catching her in those candid moments was a pleasure, as you can just see within her face she was extremely happy.

Unfortunately the weather was not the best and that it had rained that day, although thankfully it wasn't raining during the wedding. But as it rained, the ground was wet, and Nadia's heels were digging straight through the ground, making it very difficult and dangerous to have many Portraits outside in the Reception Venue Garden (The Chateau).

I had a quick sweep around the venue and found a fairly large window... The light was diffused by the clouds, so it was very difficult to do a completely blacked out silohuette, but I feel this actually worked out better. With the soft Rim Light around their outline, and a touch of fill light, probably reflecting off the wall behind me, gave their faces a touch of light which made them recognisable.

As with every event, I try to capture even the little details... The Bucks Fizz and the way the glasses were laid out called out to me... it's also because I do enjoy a good drink and the Bucks Fizz just looked even more appealing to me to shoot lol...

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Brighton Pier

As plans fell through last Sunday, and it was sucha sunny day, I could not bare the idea of wasting that day indoors... I decided to head out somewhere and enjoy the sunshine... Called a good friend of mine, and we both were indecisive about which park to goto, but as soon as she suggested Brighton Pier (even though it took 2hrs to get there), it felt like the right thing to do lol...

Almost got ripped off stupidly by NCP Brighton's Car Park at £4 per hour! Luckily she caught that lol... Drove around the corner and found parking which was 5-10min further walk, but was £4 for 9hrs!

Don't know about everyone else, but I'd rather walk that 5-10min and pay that! £4 per hour is ridiculous!

I decided to test out what it would be like shooting like a tourist, as next week I will be a tourist shooting around HK and Thailand... Couldn't decide what gear I would need, so I brought all of it... Stupid mistake...

Ended up carrying 5 lenses and a flash gun with me... and then I only ended up using the one lense... trusted old Nifty-Fifty...

The 50mm is well-known throughout the Photography world as an essential Prime lens... it sees the world as your eye sees the world, allbeit with a restricted field of view... but you find no distortion in the corners, and everything appears as your eyes would see them...

It's also a very fast lens, opening up to f/1.4, which can create a very shallow depth of field, however on a bright sunny day, creating a shallow depth of field with a wide opening like that was next to impossible. Even at ISO100 and 1/8000sec shutter, I was still over exposing by over a stop of light... I had to close it down to around f/2.5... which would probably be best anyway as it'll help for a sharper image...

As we walked toward the Pier, it was a completely different feel to London. London is so rushed, distant and cold. Brighton everyone was walking around, taking their time, and you get a sense of community there... One section you would have people stunt biking, another break dancing, another Basketball etc... All enjoying their own craft, and bonding together... You do get a really good vibe being there...

I decided to shoot the bikers, as what I saw them do was almost completely new to me... other than 1 clip I saw on YouTube, I haven't really seen Bikers perform stunts like this, it was very impressive... Some of the jumps I saw them do I couldn't make with my own two feet, let alone with a Bike inbetween my legs...

(Nikon D7000 + 50mm f/1.4 @ ISO100, 1/4000sec, f/2.5)

I thought this was a great capture. The 1/4000sec truly froze the moment of this biker mid-air in a jump... To me, this looks epic...

With the editing, I decided to give it a very warm slightly desaturated feel... I wanted it to represent the feel for weather, and give it a sense of a good moment in time... Therefore I desaturated the image a bit to give it a slight Vintage feel... Adding a tint of blue in the Shadows...

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Kew Gardens

I shot at Kew Gardens last week during my week off work...

I had shot at Hampton Court Palace a few days beforehand and got some good flower shots, so I thought to myself, there's only one place that could top that... and that's Kew Gardens! However! I think I went at the wrong time of year or something... There was a mild moist breeze in the air and the flowers didn't look like they were full of life, nor were there many flowers around! Peak Summer time I'll go back for more...

Can't decide if whether I like the pictures from Hampton Court Palace more because I shot them first, or whether they are just better images...

With these shots I don't have to do too much to them, nor is there any hurry as they're for myself...

But they definitely do need to be colour corrected...

Before owning a DSLR, I would just shoot and upload to facebook or email to friends and not think nothing of it... But now I own a DSLR, and taking Photography a lot more seriously, I realise I cannot put out an image from my camera without colour correcting... as the images do come out of a DSLR really flat...

I am shooting RAW, so the camera isn't doing any processing within the camera... So with each image, I have to go through them and process them through Lightroom...

(Nikon D7000 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO100, 1/640sec)

As you can see the image seems fairly flat in terms of colour... properly exposed shot with no blown out highlights... but the colours just seem washed out and flat...

(Nikon D7000 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO100, 1/640sec)

(Lightroom w/Contrast, Black, Colour Saturation)

I literally increased the black levels and contrast... and then added some colour saturation with the greens and a hint of yellow.

It makes the image pop off the screen so much more...

As a Photographer, I would love to shoot more... but recently I've found I spend more time at my computer either trying to network, promote, learn, and edit... 



New Experiences...

Today was an interesting day to say the least...

I began my morning casually browsing the net, sorta like Window shopping... then I found a 70-200 Nikon for £100 cheaper than the RRP... Called up Jessops to see if they would price match, and because I'm a regular customer at my local store, he agreed to price match for me on the condition that I take the insurance... Which works out, as I got the lens, and now if I drop it within 3yrs, instant replacement... So I can be a bit more wreckless when handling it... although knowing me, I won't be... I'll still be uber careful... But it's a better deal than the online store as the online store, the Warranty was with them, not with Nikon as I found out it was a US Model and that means Nikon UK wouldn't honour the Warranty...

So new lens for me! Quick test shots, and it impresses with it's Uber sharpness... I will be putting it through it's paces tomorrow as I'm shooting at Kew Gardens... I will of course be focusing on Macro... but I'll do some random shots, hopefully capturing some Street Photography style shots...

Later on in the evening I had a Photography meet with some Street Photographers... I had no idea what to expect, the only thing I was certain of, was that I would at least get some Nando's in me...

Eric Kim, a well-known Street Photographer organised a dinner to bring together some of London's Streettogs... I decided to attend as Street Photography is not something I have ever attempted before... Thought it would be good to learn a bit more about it and to see why other Photographers get involved in this...

Met some talented Photographers, and it was just great to really feel a sense of passion from them... Everyone I spoke to really seems into what they do, and all have their own styles...

One Photographer had some work on his iPad and showed me some of his shots... saw some amazing shots... truly capture emotions...

One of the reasons why I enjoy doing Wedding Photography as it's an opportunity to catch some really nice natural smiles... But to capture people in their day-to-day lives, unawares that they're being photographed is not something I am yet comfortable doing... but the results are simply staggering as you get to capture a more diverse range of emotions...

Another Photographer, Iesha Small, had a very interesting take on Photography... Something I had not considered before, but once described, the concept has really stuck with me... She told me that she loves to shoot people reading...

My instant reaction was that I thought it was easier, because they're not paying attention to you shooting, they're paying attention to their book... But then I started to imagine what that image could look like in my head and then found an urge to go and seek out some people with their noses in a book... So I can really see why that would be a great image...

I did also get to speak to the man himself, Eric Kim... Only having found out his existence a few days beforehand through a DigitalRevTV Episodes, or technically, AnalogueRevTV... It was only by chance I hit the "Like" on his facebook fanpage and found out about this dinner.

Glad I did... Not knowing much about him, but seeing the turnout of the dinner itself, it does just go to show how much of an impact this man has had on many photographers... his work was highly spoken of throughout the group, and when you meet him, he seems like a genuinely nice guy... always having a smile on his face, and was open and friendly to talk to anyone...

I will be following his work now... and hopefully I will get a chance to explore this genre of Photography myself...

I did try to do some Street Photography after... and I saw a couple holding each other, sitting on a bench, looking out toward Big Ben... Equipped with my 50mm f1.4, I kept my distance, took a shot from behind, and with them in their loving pose sitting on a bench, on the bottom third of the image toward the right side, and then Big Ben on the upper third to the top right... Composition wise, I thought was nice, and it was of them sharing a moment looking over at Big Ben...

I genuinely thought it was a nice image and went upto them to ask for their Email address as I thought they would like it... Little did I know, I just simply upset them and they aggressively asked me to delete it... So! I gave up for today and decided to go back to shooting inadament objects... lol

(Nikon D7000 + 50mm f1.4 @ f1.4, ISO1600, 1/60sec)

Composition wise, I could've been a bit more careful, although it was just a quick shot... Thought I'd use the Barclay's Bikes with the leading lines and depth of field... It's a concept I saw from another Photographers shot, but I thought I'd give it a go myself with a bit more of a shallow depth of field...

Whilst driving home I also saw a bridge with some amazing lights. I forgot the location, but I know how to get there! lol

Dynamic Range is an issue with todays cameras... hopefully with time they'll improve on it more...

(Nikon D7000 + 14-24mm f2.8 @ f11, ISO100, 2sec)

Here you see the Bridge is still a bit over-exposed, but everything else is under exposed.

(Nikon D7000 + 14-24mm f2.8 @ f11, ISO100, 10sec)

Now you see everything exposed correctly, but the Bridge has been blown out completely...

(HDR)

Never having really tried HDR, I thought I'd try to merge the two shots and here is a better balance... although I think I would need to go back one day and re-take shots and have 3 exposures... as the bridge lights were over exposed in both shots...

HDR is something I will get right one day! and also Street Photography...

But today... with a new lens, meeting new people, attempted Street Photography, and attempted HDR... today was definitely a day of new experiences...

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FLCKR, TUMBLR, 500px, DEVIANTART will come soon... 







Hampton Court Palace

It was just a regular Sunday morning for me when I woke up, undecided on what I was going to do in the day, looking out the window seeing a sunny nice day... I just wanted to get out of the house and be out in the nice weather... Received a phone call from a good friend, saying she was in Hampton Court Palace preparing for a school trip... so I decided to join her as I had always intended on going to Hampton Court Palace to shoot...

Most the stuff I shoot for my own personal use has generally always been night shots. Long-Exposures needing a tripod, and with the dim lighting and use of a tripod, I feel like it's become second nature to me... I can look at a night shot and see what I'm going to attain from an image...

Day time shooting for me was a big change as it's something I haven't done in a while.

Obtaining the correct exposure on the subjects is easy... but what I forgot about is the immense dynamic range issues I would have to deal with.

Properly exposed landmarks, tree's etc... and then I'd have a completely blown out sky!

(Nikon D7000 + 14-24mm f2.8 @ 14mm, ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/400sec)

(Right side has been blown out beyond recovery)

With the lack of a tripod, I couldn't bracket the shots to then later do some post-processing to remedy that issue I was having... But nonetheless, I still managed to get some good shots... (if you ignore the people standing around lol)

Might start looking into using Filters to help balance out the Sky's... or maybe start doing more Bracketed shots for HDR Post-Processing. Ideally I'd need a tripod, but I suppose these shots can be hand held...

The shots I mainly wanted to do were of the flowers... I purchased a Macro lens, mainly for the purpose of shooting details at a Wedding, such as the Rings, Jewellery etc... not so much for myself as a hobby... but I thought I should give this lens a bit more use so I set out to do Macro shots of flowers... and I'm actually really pleased with the results...

I'm so pleased with this shot that I decided to have it as my Wallpaper on my iPhone... Nothing more manly than a pretty flower on my phone!

(Nikon D7000 + 105mm f/2.8 Micro @ ISO100, 105mm, f/5.0, 1/160sec)

The colours, to me, look amazing. The Bokeh (Blurry background) looks amazing with these colours, and I like how the gradual change occurs. The Central flower is the main point of focus and then the flowers gradually fall back step by step with the Depth of Field.

I do intend on doing more, as I love how the colours of the flowers compliment the Bokeh in these images.

Next stop! Kew Gardens!

So glad my week off work has really nice weather...

iPhone Blogging

I figured that there would be an app for Blogging... As the iPhone ads say "there's an app for that"...

Seems like there's an app for everything!

I got an eBay app also which is dangerous... I'm starring at some Radio Triggers!

I been optically trigger my off-camera flashes via Nikon's CLS System... The problem with that is, it adds a touch of fill light to your images... Convenient to change settings on the back of the camera though...

I had to burn out on Photoshop the extra fill light... I wanna get as much as I can right in camera... Saves time later...

First Blog!

I decided to start Blogging as I have thoughts and ideas regarding Photography that I would like to share...

Hopefully anyone who reads or follows these Blogs will find something useful, or interesting. Worst case scenario, I would like to think it helped you kill a few minutes of your day if you were really bored.

With time the Blog site will gain shape, and I'll be updating it regularly with pictures from recenty shoots, gear reviews, and various ideas I might have.

I may even attempt at doing a video version of these reviews and getting in front of the camera to do some YouTube stuff! :S

First Blog I thought I should keep short and sweet... but I hope you choose to follow these, as I would like to think it's an entertaining read in some way or another...

Leo

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