AR-Graphics

What's in the Bag The extra odds and ends I find useful 1: Bag Over the years I've used (and abused!) various camera bags. At the moment I am using a top loading Lowprow bag. It's modular design allows me to add and change various pouches and cases as required. There seems to be a current fashion with backpack style bags, but I'm not a fan. Despite their generally large capacity, and load distribution, I don't like the fact it's contents are not readily available and that you usually have to put it down to get inside. Not good on wet, dusty, or dirty ground. 2: Flash Bracket & sync lead As well as a flash and spare batteries, I also carry a flash bracket that allows me to get the flash off and away from the camera yet keep the whole thing relatively compact. There is also a TTL flash lead for the rare occasions I switch the flash from manual. I also attached a Velcro strip to the bracket so I can mount a remote shutter trigger (I really mis...

The Falling Value Of Photographs? Are todays photographs taken for granted? It's been a while since I added to this blog. Other things have required my time and attention and the most recent of these has been the distressing failing of health and eventual passing of my mother. The mental and practical fallout resulting from such an event can be quite overwhelming, but as the practicalities are overcome, interesting insights can sometimes start to become apparent. For me, one such revelation directly related to photography. A collection of memories Among my mothers effects were the photographs she had accumulated through her life, a mixture of family, friends, places, and special times that meant something not only to her but in many cases the others involved. Looking through the collection several things struck me. Overall it was interesting to see the way personal photographs seem to have lost something of their perceived value over the years. There appears, in my ...

Is Facebook messing with your mind? As many people probably know, I'm not a huge fan of Facebook, and whilst this blog is related to that service, it's points can probably be applied to many other social media groups. I spent ages resisting, but finally I decided to join so as to explore the possible benefits it could afford my photography. There is no doubt that there are many and varied rewards to be gained, however there are also some major downsides, that unless understood can have a serious negative effect. After several years of use, I started to recognise some aspects of my using Facebook we're having a disagreeable effect on me. This realisation forced me to re evaluate and change my perception and use of social media. It is a well researched and documented fact that Facebook and other such portals can have a negative effect on people's mental well being. Gaining some objectivity has allowed me to identify how it affects not only me, but some of the o...

The Art of Flight. People who know me know that as well as photography I have a passion for aircraft. It therefore goes without saying that whenever possible I love to combine the two. The golden age Over the years I've been lucky enough to capture performances of some beautiful examples of aeronautical engineering, from the wooden Mosquito, through the EE Lightening, to the spectacular SR71. I can fondly remember the air shows at places like Mildonhall, Alconbury, and even Weathersfield, where the smell of jet fuel mixed with the smell of the burgers specially flown in from America. Sadly with shrinking budgets and growing security concerns, many air shows have become distant memories. Along with less displays, I now have less opportunities to travel to them. Continuing Love However my love of flight has not diminished, and as well as enjoying aircraft in their natural environment, I have always had a fascination with the technical side. So some time ag...

Staying Safe Lots is written and posted regarding model safety, and rightly so. Although the percentage of "dangerous" photographers is small, models need to be aware. There is however another aspect of model safety the rarely seems to get mentioned, and that is the question of a models physical safety whilst being photographed. An accident can happen almost anywhere and at any time, a slip in the bath, tripping over something, hitting your elbow, it happens to all of us. However a model can sometimes find themselves in a situation where there is an increased chance of a mishap and/or the consequences are more dire. A resulting injury can run the extremes of a minor cut or bruise to being fatal. It's hard to track down any sort of statistics on this, however my research did turn up the fact that in 2015 in the US at least 50 people where killed whilst engaged in photography or video, on or near a railway track! For the vast majority of shoots a model will b...

I Have The Power! Anyone who uses a speedlight knows their voracious appetite for batteries. No sooner do you put in a fresh set and start shooting than the recycle time seems to start climbing! It's one of the main reasons I tend to avoid using this lighting if I can. I like to maintain something of a rhythm during a shoot and having the ability to take a coffee break whilst the flash recharges, tends to break the flow. A lot of the time I'm using studio flash, however there are times when that is just not feasible and so I need something that has the portability, without the problems associated with AA batteries. An external battery pack seems an ideal solution and there are commercial versions available. The cheapest just add extra AA batteries, and better versions tend to start getting expensive. So I decided to look into a DIY solution. The Answer My research lead me to the Sealed Lead Acid battery (SLA). These batteries are used in a selection of ite...

Dungeness  Although I regularly shoot my own personal projects, it's not often that I get the chance to just go out with the camera and shoot whatever I come across. So when I had a free day, and my good friend and photographer Kevin Clow suggested we have a day out photographing, I decided a change would do me good. But where to go? Various destinations were considered before Kevin suggested Dungeness. Now I have seen many photographs of Dungeness, (in fact if you follow English photography, you probably can't not have seen pictures of the place!) but I had never been. So it was settled and off we went. For those wondering, Dungeness is on the South-East coast about mid way between Hastings and Dover. Getting there is quite easy as you just go through Beyond to the Back, and it's about 5 miles further on! It is apparently one of the largest areas of shingle in Europe and is quite impressive in it's... er... nothingness! Standing on the beach facing the s...

From Camera to Computer In digital photography before you can do anything with those hard gained photographs you’ve taken, you have to transfer them onto a computer. Whilst this can be done using the camera, it quickly becomes apparent that this is far from ideal. Far easier is to remove the memory card from the camera and should it have a suitable slot, putting straight into the computer. However not all computers have card slots, which is where a card reader comes in. Usually plugging into a USB port, they will accept the common SD and CF cards, and many will also accept a raft of older and less common cards. SD vs CF Cards As mentioned SD, CF, or a combination of both are what are usually found in modern cameras. My cameras use CF cards which is my personal preference anyway. CF have higher practical and theoretical transfer speeds but this is generally negated by other factors. Unless you have a very high spec computer, hard drive, etc you are unlikely to get close to the...

A Slippery Slope In my last blog post I talked about how keeping an eye on the details in a photograph can make all the difference between a passable and a great photo. It's something I try to apply to my work both during the shoot and in the post processing. I also find it hard not to pick up on such things when viewing others images. I can totally understand however photographers just starting out having much on their minds and not noticing the little details. Beyond the subject As I said previously, the background is probably one of the areas most overlooked and something I notice quite regularly are "wonky" pictures. Whilst I believe there are no real set rules in photography and that photographing at an angle can work, I also believe that doing so can often be tricky to pull off and needs to appear intentional. Anything else to me just looks sloppy.  I recently saw a selection of wedding pictures that had been posted and was shocked to see a lot of the ou...

The Devil is in the Detail Passing on the knowledge and experience you've gained can be very helpful. The obvious beneficiary is the receiver, however there is huge potential for the giver to also learn and better understand things. Working and talking with people at earlier stages of the photographic path have enabled me to trace and chart my own journey. It's brought me a clearer view of where I've been, and hopefully how I wish to move ahead. Many times I have recognised myself in what people are doing and thinking as they progress and it's interesting to see if they will come to the same conclusions and realisations that I did or move in a different direction. One thing that recently became apparent to me is the level of detail with which I tend to look at an image. Upon reflection it's something I've automatically done for quite a while. This picture was taken ages ago on a medium format camera using a waste level finder (which will flip the imag...

Presets Good or Bad? It's funny how times change. Back in the days of film, manufacturers spent fortunes on trying to develop films with accurate colour rendition, low grain, and good tonal range. At the same time us photographers would have to deal with the cool blues of Ektachrome or the vibrant greens of Fujichrome, all the time wishing Kodachrome was available at higher than 64 ISO! Today it seems all the rage to bring those "faults" back into the image, and a whole market has arisen to do just that, with a bewildering array of software, apps, plugins and presets. It's fantastic that digital gives us the ability to make such adjustments (even non destructively) to an image, and there is probably some interesting underlying psychological basis as to why we wish to add a seemingly analogue element to the sterile world of digital. However I can't help but feel that there are times when the reasons for their use are somewhat misplaced. I know of ma...

Your Photographic Helper Photographers are always looking for accessories to help their photography. However there is one item that most already have, but possibly overlook. I'm talking about the smartphones and tablets that have become part of our everyday life. Most of these have built in cameras some of which are of a high spec, but in this case we are not looking at the photographic capabilities, or the dozens of apps connected with taking and editing those photos, instead I will look at apps that can help you with your general photography. There are a wealth of apps that are specifically produced with a photographer in mind, or which can be used to help with photography. Every persons requirements are going to be different so I'd encourage you to see what apps are available, will suit you best and be most helpful. For example there are numerous apps that help calculating exposures, depth of field, flash compensation etc. Aft...