Recent content by pjm1

I have an earlier version and for an occasional use lens it's awesome bang for buck. (Are you talking 120-300?)

Sshhh... I was actually planning a good excuse to get the barbecue going and/or a small bonfire! Making smoke is almost as much fun as photography!

Funnily enough, I quite like the Erdinger alc-free stuff - it's a totally different drink to Erdinger (and, in fact, any beer at all), but I don't find it objectionable. I'd put it into the same category as soda & lime, say - a drink if you can't have a beer, but let's not pretend it is...

Thanks Simon. Cracking idea to replicate something outside. Not sure what could be used as a background to get the light effect... unless we had smoke!! Which is another good idea...

Thanks @TrueLee478 - the shape of the background light is particularly odd. I was just using a monolight with a snoot fitted (ungridded) so not sure why it threw such a strange shape. That's normally my job on the dance floor! Tim / @Phrasemaker - thank you so much for the detailed crit...

Just a bit of fun - messing around with a different light setup. Also encountering the "fun" that is shooting someone wearing glasses! Annoyingly, the shots I took of him without glasses weren't posed as well. Comments on how to improve the setup would be welcome.

Great photo - nice vista as well.

Is that Lodge on the Loch (or whatever it's called now) at Luss?

Just to throw something else into the mix... a second hand Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 D. It's about 2, maybe 3 generations "old" and doesn't have any fancy VR equivalent. However, I picked mine up for less than £600 and it's pretty sharp for a zoom, even at f/2.8 (especially at the centre). It...

Ok, my first entry in this little challenge...

Thanks Simon - super idea. Getting the kids to dress up is easy so I will definitely be trying that out. And easy to throw a light onto the BG to make it dark grey... Stopping our 3 year old from trying to put on makeup is hard enough as it is, so not sure I'll get brownie points from...

And you're absolutely right of course - engagement is what draws the viewer in and is more important than pretty much any other aspect IMHO. I guess I just didn't want the OP to be dissuaded from experimenting (a bit)... It also tends to correlate to what non photographers go "wow" about - it's...

Ok, thanks anyway for looking.

Well Jason, if I'd taken that staircase shot as my first portrait I'd have been bloomin' delighted... and with good reason. For me, you've got a cracking shot there and as others have said, the staircase makes the composition work and provides reason. I'm less of a fan of the second - some...

Love the use of additional light on this. Really nicely balanced for me - clear to anyone who looks closely enough but not "in your face". Really elegant (and a lovely wee one, obviously!)