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Friday, 27 February 2015

Friday Adventures: 27th February in Norwich

Today's Friday adventure was not all about it photography. I went shopping with my mum!

Mandatory selfie!!

As the old saying goes the best camera you have is the camera that is with you.

So while today was not ALL about photography some photography was done! I got this shot in my local shopping mall. Pretty neat. Taken on my iPhone & edited with Snapseed :)

I also treated myself to this Man Ray book. I had a voucher for the store I bought it in, so ended up paying £15 -bargain! I've signed up to do a Portrait Workshop with The Nikon School in a few months time so I thought I should get a bit of research in!

Review: Lomography LC-A+

Today I finally got two rolls of film that had been through the Lomo LC-A+ (that I got for Christmas) developed.

I was going to do a bit of editing but the store didn't scan TIFFs as I requested, they gave me JPEGS ....72dpi... (ALWAYS THE SAME). So here is my selection in it's unedited glory.

Lomo Chrome Purple 100-400 (this film and the LCA+ are available at Lomography Store in both 35mm and 120):

Expired Fujicolour 200

So I am hard pressed to decide what I enjoyed most about shooting these rolls. I love how easy the double exposure feature is with the LC-A+. But the effect of the Lomo Chrome Purple is sensational! I'm also a bit enamoured by the grain on the Fujichrome! I am really looking forward to shooting the next roll I have. Also excited when my turquoise edition is shipped!

With the LC-A+, metering is done by half pressing the shutter. One red light means you're all good. Two means your pictures will end up either under or over exposed. Now every shot I took; I had one red light. But as you'll see from this selection some did still come out exposed incorrectly. This might have been due to the batteries going down. Or maybe just how far away I was in low light! Since the LC-A+ let's you set your ISO, you can always try pushing the ISO up to compensate for the low light.

In any case, happy accidents. I like the gothic feel. And I will be scanning in the negatives to see what I can do to compensate for the exposure.

The LC-A+ is a really great camera to have in your bag for some analogue adventures.

Pros:

Double exposures are a breeze.
Compact, light and robust. Perfect for having with you all the time.
Focusing is straightforward.
Manually select your ISO. Great for when you have ISO variable film (eg Lomo Chrome!)

Cons:

Metering can be a little off at times.
Can't focus close up. 0.4m is the closest you can get.
Vignette a little inconsistent.

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Wex Mondays: Week 8

So I found this twig. It looked pretty neat like an eye watching me. Problem? Originally there was only one eye! I have a basic understanding of layers so I played around then used the clone and heal tools to smooth any hard lines. I am pretty happy with the result. Even though Nick did say it looked like Falkor XD

Obviously not my image - © Warner Bros. Pictures

Here's the original unedited pic for anyone interested!

@JHumphreyPhoto won this week with a stunning horse portrait. Check out the winning photos and leader board on the Wex Blog.

Monday, 23 February 2015

Sunday Outing: 22nd February 2015 Thetford Forest

Went out with our Macro lens' to see what we could see. I wasn't drawn to much visually. But I did get a shot I could work with for my Wex Monday entry.

After that I got inspired by all the dead twigs from the vast array of plant life in Thetford Forest. It got me thinking back to the short series of photos I did with frozen plants. I decided I wanted to do more.

So I put my camera away.

I'll hopefully be working on my "Dead Wood" project at the weekend. Watch this space!

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Wex Week 7

So despite being really please with my long exposure at Sea Palling I still went with this shot. Both pictures really excited me but I went with this one because I'm more experienced with high contrast and less so with long exposure. As I didn't place I thought maybe the other shot would have been a better choice. But who knows that's the joy of the competition!

The winner this week was a brilliant long exposure from Matthew Dartford. Check out his shot and the rest of the leader board on the Wex Blog.

Sunday, 15 February 2015

Sunday Outing: Sea Palling 15th February 2015

Today we ventured out to the cost. While there was no rain the weather was infinitely gloomy. So trusty tripod and filters in hand I experimented with long exposures.

This is the shot I am happy with out of the 12 I took. Did a bit of editing to get it looking presentable. I'm still finding me feet so I don't think I will enter any long exposure into Wex Mondays until I get a bit better at the whole process. Any tips from my readers would be gratefully received.

I also snapped a shot with my iPhone.

Edited on Snapseed. I have briefly tried the new Darkroom by Bergen app but I did miss the selective editing tool I'm accustomed to in Snapseed. I will be having more of a play Darkroom over the next few weeks and plan a review.

Friday, 13 February 2015

Friday Adventures: Friday 13th February Blakeney

Far from being unlucky I had a great morning shooting today (on Friday 13th!) at Blakeney.

On my last trip to Blakeney, I was feeling under pressure and uninspired. I got one good composition that day, which was poor quality so I went out today to have another go at it!

'Leader of the Pack'

I am really happy with this shot. It was well worth the wait in the cold for the right group to stroll on by!

I have two more images to edit but I need to do a little research on how to edit the clouds. They look a bit pap!

I'm feeling a little under the weather so I'll do those later on.

I also snapped this chap on the way to the car.

Taken on iPhone camera and edited in Snapseed.

By the way, you can see all these images on my Flickr page :)