Last weekend the family trooped off to the coast - the cove to be more accurate, at Lulworth in Dorset. It's an absolutely beautiful location and the weather was fantastic. We met up with a bunch of my wife Sam's colleagues, many of which are keen photographers.
Gathering in the car park I looked at all the cameras around me and decided to rebel. There wasn't a longer focal length than 24mm on display, so I swapped the 24-70 f/2.8 on my D700 for another good landscape lens - the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8.
What do you mean, I hear you ask? My logic was firstly that I didn't want to come away with the same...
Read more...
It was the big smoke for me this week - up to London for the Budget announcement. There's always an early start on Budget day so it meant a late train and overnight stay. My favourite place to stay for business is at the County Hall Premier Inn. Okay, a Premier Inn isn't that remarkable but it's five minutes walk from Waterloo and right next to the London Eye on the south bank.
Read more...
In my youth I loved scale models; now I've gone and bought some scales. I'm chuffed to bits with them though - £5 on Ebay! I suspect they have graced a market stall or sweet shop in the past, my requirements are altogether more photographic.
I'd set out looking for some baby scales, but they all look either too clinical or featureless. They're a bit more than a fiver too. Classic kitchen scales are plentiful, but not suitable for my idea - see below.
Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8 at 35mm, 1/25 at f/8
I ended up dismantling most of our fireplace to create the background for the shot. In my head this...
Read more...
Nikon D700, 50mm f/1.4, 1/30 at f/1.4
I just thought I'd post the aftermath of my challenge at the weekend. As I managed to get my month old son covered in soot (no, not up the chimneys yet, it was a steam engine - honest) it meant a bath was running almost as we walked in the door. A little later Tom was lying gazing out into the twilight and I had a f/1.4 lens on the camera. Available light - fantastic.
Nikon D700, 50mm f/1.4, 1/30 at f/1.4
The narrow depth of field shooting at f/1.4 is something else - check out the shot above. I was aiming to get the eye closest to the lens in focus, and even...
Read more...
Several years ago I worked in the web hosting industry, and witnessed first hand the scramble to get hold of premium domain names. These days you can buy a domain for next to nothing - in the beginning they were over £100 a year. Last year it was reported that all four and five letter words in the English language were now registered as domain names. The resale market bucks the recession as well, with domains like toys.com and sex.com selling for millions.
Social media has hit the big time in the last couple of years. First Facebook, and now Twitter are being used by hundreds of thousands of users....
Read more...
