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A blog about the experiences / locations connected to my photography. |
It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog, so a catch-up is in order... Due to personal family reasons I left photography alone for a long time from late last year till recently, but my enthusiasm for photography is now back. I have recently upgraded my trusty Nikon D3330 to a D750 and upgraded my old DX lenses to FX. I now have a 24-85mm f3.5-4.5, a 70-200 mm f/2.8 and a 50mm f1.8 prime to play with! The D750 is certainly more advanced and I am still not fully versed with its capabilities, but i’m excited to use my new kit more and to see what I can achieve with it. By the way, I would certainly recommend Wex and eBay for any camera gear you might want. Wex have a large selection of quality second hand lenses and I got a great price from them on my 50mm prime, they have great prices on new stuff too. I also got great prices for my 24-85 and 70-200 through eBay, a massive saving on what they would have cost new. As for my subject matter since I last posted on the blog... this has largely come from family trips to Wales, various National Trust properties and locations in and around Northants. Even my own back garden has given me some nice macro shots, I particularly like the clematis photo that can be seen on my 500px page. I’ve got a few ideas for places i'd like to visit so photos should start appearing more regularly on my pages. As usual these will most likely be based around nature and I will continue to take macro too. It has been my intention to take more portraits, this isn’t something I do very often apart from family snapshots so I will see how that goes. Cheers for now... Harvey
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I was really pleased today to get one of my photo's selected for Editors Choice on 500px.
This is one of the photo's I took of Monique on the Nikon Centenary Meetup day in September. I really appreciate the selection. This has given my page on 500px great extra exposure and the number of likes on the photo have increased a lot already. Thanks so much to Janet Weldon of 500px for the selection. Click here to see the photo on 500px The University of Northampton have shared one of my photos on their instagram page today as a photo of the day.
This is a photo of the National Lift Tower reflecting nicely in the River Nene that was taken in October last year. Nice to get the share and appreciation. Thanks guys. Click here to see the Instagram share
I got a new toy today, a Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro lens.
I'm looking forward to using this and taking some more macro shots. I was lucky enough to attend the Nikon 100th anniversary "Nikon Meetups" event in London on Saturday 9th September.
It was an amazing day with 5 different shoots around London covering different types of photography: 1st Shoot: Macro This took place at the Nikon Centre Of Excellence, Margaret St, Fitzrovia. We were provided with a large floral display to practice our close-up shots. A Nikon school expert advised us on techniques for macro and how the vivid colour setting on the camera would enhance and boost the colour of the flowers. We also had the opportunity to try some macro lenses. We then had the opportunity to photograph some bearded dragons which had been arranged with different lighting setups. These reptiles were ideally suited to macro photography, the detail of the scales and spikes were amazing and gave me some of my best shots from the day. 2nd Shoot: Street We took a walk around the nearby streets of Carnaby and Soho with Leon Neal and Kiran Cox who advised us on camera settings such as auto ISO and locking exposure on a bright subject to enhance shadows in our shots. They also talked about what subject matter make a good street photograph and tips of things to look for. I took a few photos during this session that I like, but more importantly I came away with a better understanding of how to approach street photography. Instagram: @leonnealphoto @kiranbcox www.leonneal.com www.kiranbhamracox.com 3rd Shoot: Action This was one of the most enjoyable shoots of the day. We were advised by Tom Miles on techniques to capture fast paced action. Then we got to witness the skill of parkour experts Daniel Ilabaca, Joe Scandrett and Will Sutton and photograph their unbelievable jumps, flips and somersaults. I love the shots I captured during this session and have had some great reactions to the photo's I have shared. Instagram: @photosmudger @danielilabaca @joescandrett @willsutton www.tmphoto.co.uk 4th Shoot: Cityscape Nikon had hired the roof terraces at the Sea Containers restaurant on the south bank which gave us great views along the Thames and of the city. It was a shame the day was a bit grey but that did give us some dark and foreboding clouds in our cityscape shots. It was a great vantage point with views of many famous landmarks. www.seacontainersrestaurant.com 5th Shoot: Portraiture / Fashion This was a new experience for me having previously only took portrait shots of friends and family. Nikon had hired an amazing apartment in the Little Venice area. Two rooms had been setup for fashion portraiture, one using lighting with softbox and speedlights and the other using natural light from the window and to gain experience using camera settings to compensate for a darker environment. We were joined by models Andrea Scheepers and Monique Sterling who were very professional and posed wonderfully for us. Neil Freeman training manager from the Nikon school gave us advice and instruction on how to use the lighting, camera settings and very importantly not to get in the mirror reflection ourselves! This session also gave me some of my best shots of the day although I was a little disappointed that some of my shots in the darker areas of the second room were a little too grainy for my liking. I put this down to using a high ISO on my D3300 whis has a crop sensor, I would expect a full frame sensor to give better results in such circumstances. I would love to do more photography like this in the future. Instagram: @nikonneiluk @andreascheepers @moniquesterling www.nevsmodels.co.uk/models/andrea-s www.nevsmodels.co.uk/models/monique I had an awesome time during the day and have loads of great photos. It was an experience I will never forget. Thank you so much to Nikon for inviting me and all the Nikon School experts who helped and advised us during the day. I spent the day with a great bunch of like-minded people (the orange group), it was a pleasure to spend the day with you all. And thank you to Nina for looking after us all. Here is a link to a video from Nikon which gives a good flavour of what the day was like: http://bit.ly/2vPHDCJ |
AuthorHusband to Lisa, father to Emily. Amateur hobby photographer when I have the time. Archives
August 2019
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