Slave flash info

A little bit of info on the small slave flash unit that I brought in today to college:

Shackerstone Festival 2010

A simple text message of Eric, asking if I was interested in going to the Shackerstone Festival on Sunday, where I would see the Red Arrows, lead to a very good day out with more to see (and photograph) than I though.

With no work for a while this event would be the first time this year that I had seen the Red Arrows, who had been forced to cancel many of their engagements following an accident earlier in the year.

So after Duncan and Eric picked me up, then Suzy and Steve, the five of us headed for the festival.

Below are some of the photographs from the day:

 

Eric with his roller	Letting off steam
A classic	Remember the Italian Job ?
Piston Rings Youth MC
Balanced	Multi Rider
The Stallions of Substance
Rising to the occasion	Hi Ho Silver (ish)
Staging a sit in	“It’s good night from her and …..”
Nuneaton Dog Handlers Club
“Things I do for a Bonio !”	“What have I told you …. if you fall down …”

 

                                                Forget Superman !

 

The RAF Red Arrows

Arrival	Fly By
Diamond 9	Red Arrow Break
Syncro Pair	Red Arrow Split

All in all I took …. er ….. a few pictures more than normal !

A very good day out with good friends.

See you all Thursday night.

Victorian Redcoats

Another visit to Tutbury Castle, but this time it was in the Victorian period, featuring the Redcoats of the 80th Regiment.  Where the Burton Photographic Society had an exhibition, which I wanted to support, so after plenty of Beecham’s Venos, and running everyone about, I managed to leave the house to do something that I wanted to do.

The first thing that I saw when I got to the castle was how few people had turned up, obviously the heavy rain in the morning had put many people off.

After taking some photographs, and bumping into some friends; Suzy, Steve and Ralph, I went into the exhibition, where I saw Ruth, Lu, and more of the BPS team.  Looking at some of the photographs on display I could see that Suzy has been had at work, like many of the others, I even saw a photograph of Midland Joinery Works Limited !, where I worked for about twelve years !

 

Below are some of my photographs from the day:

 

An early photographer, possibly the founder member of the Photographic Society

 

First things first …….. Tea’s Up !

 

Drill Practice  (no Black & Decker here !!)

 

Move It !

 

Getting Close

 

Right Lads, shoot the photographers

 

Thanks for coming today

 

A good day out, now back to the Venos !

New part-time prospectus is out !

Just a short note to say that the part-time prospectus is out, and features a familiar face on page 29 !

In days of old, when knights were bold

(and combs weren’t invented)

A busy weekend, but I made some time for myself and visited Ashby Castle, for a change.

Here are some of my photographs:

And one for the ladies, women’s lib !

I only said “joust a minute” !!

I could not find any leading lines, but

I did find a Ruler !! ;-)))

The Roaches

The Burton Photographic Society had a visit to the Roaches, a beautiful area near Leek, on Saturday 25th July, and Steve, Suzy, Eric and myself joined them for a ‘little walk’.

After picking up the team, Steve took us to the Priory Centre at Stretton where we met some of the others from the Society. After waiting for any others to join us we headed for the Roaches.

Julian was our guide and he took us up to see some amazing views from the Roaches, and then down to see a hidden church.

Below are some of my images from the day:

There are some characters you see on your travels

“What noise Eric ?, just move back a little more !”

Then it was a case of going from the highs of the Roaches, to the lows of Lud Church:

Thanks again to the team for another good day out with some good friends !

Course Review and Closure

Again I have enjoyed another photographic course at the college, working with a good team of people, having a few laughs along the way and learning new ideas, culminating with my final grades which are shown below.

This time I have been working in the photographic studio at the Burton College, which is very different to what I am used to, working on two projects one product photography and the other portrait photography.  I found both projects very interesting, and in particular with the portrait photography where I photographed the other photographers on the course, I enjoyed the challenges and I hope that sometime in the future, when some of my friends become more well known they can look back at my portraits of them.

With the receipt of my certificate for this course with the following results:

Module	Code	Grade
Photography	306	Distinction
Presentation	211	Credit

this closes this course.

Many thanks to Steve Davies (Mr Steve), Jim, Steve Bright, Suzy, Eric, Ruth, Rebecca, Pippa and Joe for all their support on this course.

See you on the next course !

Patter of tiny paws

or Paws for thought

Well, after loosing our precious Becky last year, which devastated us and many people we know, and many who we did not, we visited a farm yesterday and one extra came back !

 

Meet Enya

Ok, she sleeps a lot !

She has been introduced to these odd shaped boxes that sometimes flash, and she will be my new model for Pet Photography, as long as she keeps them sharp puppy teeth to herself !

We will never forget our beautiful Becky xx

Photoshop-ed Too Far

In today’s world of digital photography, the old saying “the camera does not lie” might be true, but it is what happens after the photograph is taken that can really make a photograph tell a lie.

Whilst there are many good reasons to correct elements of a photograph, like remove a distraction, correct the levels and remove a colour cast, there are some people who take the art of digital image manipulation too far, for one reason or another.

In an article in Newsweek magazine, people complained that up to 95% of images of top celebrities have been manipulated, in some way.

In this first example, the retoucher has gone too far on the model, and this has resulted in a very long, unnatural looking, neck:

The next example is from the Los Angeles Times from March 2003

In this example, entitled Soldier in Basra, elements from two photographs were used to create one:

Original photos

Published photo

Here the photographer Brian Walski was fired from his position at the Los Angeles Times after it was discovered that two news photographs of a gun-toting soldier had been combined to create a more intense photo. When later asked why he had digitally manipulated the photo and risked his career Brian replied: "I knew what I was doing. It looked good. It looked better than what I had, and I said 'wow.'"

Another example features Condoleezza Rice, in the USA Today website in October 2005:

Original Photo

Published photo

An Associate Press photo that appeared on the USA Today website showed then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with unusually menacing eyes, a result of too much retouching, where the whites of the eyes have been too strongly whitened. Some questioned whether the effect had been created deliberately as it was difficult to easily replicate. The offending photo was quickly removed and replaced with a version much closer to the original and an apology from the paper's photo editor.

Finally, in the magazine photograph, do you spot something wrong (or familiar) ?

Here people from one area of the crowd have been copied and flipped horizontally, to make the crowd even larger. Closer examination may find more duplicating !

The moral of the story is to use Photoshop (or whatever program you use) carefully. Don’t mis-represent someone or something.

Always remember you can use Photoshop to make you look better on facebook, for someone to look at, but if they see you for real,

Photoshop cannot help you !