weekly ChrisR's first go at a (digital or film) 52: week 37-42 added (to Reflection)

liking the patterns in the tulip, think it might have been stronger just by itself, push those two in the lower left to one side!! Didnt spot the blue fringe, my mind just accepted it as DOF blur I think, not evident on the top side of the front petals.

dandelion I like too - fascinating things they are. clear, bright, sharp. DOF spot on too.

(y)
 
Thanks for all the comments! I hadn't spotted the fringing on the tulip, but obviously should have done. It was taken with my Fuji X10 rather than a film camera; I'm finding it hard to keep up with film, although I do try to get film shots when I can (and sometimes go back and "fill in" a film version). Chromatic aberation does happen with film lenses, although with the old Pentax primes I'm mostly using it is thankfully rare.

I've played about with the CA sliders in Aperture, and this is the best I could get. I probably should have done some "gardening" to isolate the main subject more (it's cropped as it is), but I can't hold the camera one-handed and still make a shot, and I wouldn't want to break the tulips in someone's front garden!

 
This week was quite a challenge, capturing movement in a still photo! I did play about a bit with movement blur. I tried still camera and moving cars, and also panning on moving cars, but in neither case could I get a satisfactory outcome. At 1/8 to 1/15 cars sometimes almost seemed to disintegrate with the fixed camera, while in panning I sometimes had a sharp rear end and distorted front end. This clearly needs a lot more practice than I was able to give it (but it's part of why I love the 52; I may curse and grumble, but I get to try new stuff).

A visit to North Berwick provided some other subjects. I tried a dog chasing a ball on the sand, but it tended to look too unbalanced or too static. So in the end I tried tempting some gulls with the last remaining chips from my fish supper. Most swooped in from behind, but I managed to get this fellow, and I'm pretty happy. Not very sharp, because he's moving (but look at his feet!), and I'm sad I missed the tip of his wing, but this'll do for Movement for me!



PS: taken with the X10...
 
Hi Chris, You've done your own crit so what can I add... :thinking:

Well - for practising the panning, try cyclists at 1/30th or cars at 1/60th with a shortish lens (equiv of 50mm on a 35mm), from across the street and see how you do. Best of luck. :)
 
Hi Chris, you've given your own crit on movement which is a good thing in itself, all being part of the learning curve (y)
 
Thanks guys, I thought it worth including as I like the dynamic shape of the gull, even though there are even more things wrong with it than I said. I suspect before I'd get a decent shot with those gulls, I'd have given up my whole fish supper!

Thanks for the panning tips, Brian; I was going at 1/8 so not surprising it looked weird!
 
Hi Chris


Movement...yup , you given yourself the crit so can't say a lot . Agree with your comments about learning/trying new stuff....the 52 does that to you :LOL:
 
Vertical: Love the 1st shot, beautiful!

Pattern: Flowers was one of my first though to but never got round to it! Nice detail in the tulip but i think the dandelion does it for me, really like them things!

Movement: On theme and you've said all that needs to be said. Well all need to try new things, good luck with your next go at panning!
 
Thanks Lynne, Andy and Lisa. Is it bad form to write about my own view of the image first? It maybe colours people's views? I was hoping to get the obvious out of the way and see if there were other comments... but perhaps this particular image is too simple for that.
 
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Hi Chris - not all the theme's are going to be easy for all the people, :clap: for taking your camera settings to somewhere new for you, experimentation is the best way to learn.

Sometimes I think posting up a glaring error on a shot first can help prevent everyone going on about it in each post and help to pry more useful comments...

(y) for not blowing the whites on the gull - slower shutter speed will have made the chance of that greater.
 
Hi Chris, I tend to 'self crit' my shots, like Graham says, you know there are faults so save people time (and repetition) and the feeling 'yeh I know'!

You've said it all for movement, shame his face is blurred but the lighting is good considering it's a white subject (y)
 
A little bit of intentional movement in any photo of an animal is hard to get right, you've done a decent job.

Nice one.
 
I've got a couple on film this time. First up, Warwick Castle from under the "new" bridge (taken with the Pentax ME, 50mm f/1,7, on Agfa Precisa 100 ISO transparency film, my first roll!)...



My second shot was my original first choice, a footbridge in Chester that someone else has already shot (but I hadn't seen it when I took mine, honest!):



Same camera, lens, film combination... taken on the "Northwest film meet".
 
One film, one digital this time. On film (Agfa Precisa again), a couple of swans and six baby cygnets!



On the X10, one rather large and ornate grave memorial...



Comments welcomed, thanks.
 
Really rather liking the shot of the castle, real sense of below with the overhanging trees, the darkness of the trees and the water forming a lovely natural "vignette" which focusses the eye onto the castle. Good job getting separation around the castle, without the benefit of an LCD to check your shot.

Under the bridge I feel really needs to be dead central, might have been nicer to have let the boat get fully into the shot too (if I'm to be picky!)

Film really must make it tough for you.

LOve the swan shot, if that were mine I don;t think I could have resisted the temptation to crop out the rightmost swan, and maybe even clone out the two chicks on the right too..... Nicely spotted.

Gravestone is a bit too central, and lack of detail in the sky lets it down a bit for me.

Process should be a nice easy one for you Chris........ (y)
 
Hi Chris
it was me who did the same bridge I took some from that side too but preferred the view from the other side, excellent idea though :LOL:
Prefer the swan pic for size (y)
 
Wow Graham and Allen, that was quick! Thanks for the comments. I thought about a crop for the swans, but I wanted there to be some negative space for her to "move" into. You're absolutely right, the second "Size" photo is too central and the sky is too dull. I did find that theme a bit of a challenge, though!

I was quite pleased with the Warwick bridge one; I did take a few shots in the hope that something would be useful, and I had another couple as backup, plus a somewhat similar digital one, so in the end I felt I had that theme covered. It seems to take me ages to get "into" a theme though; at first I thought both of these were unshootable!
 
I think the composition of the castle through the arch is brilliant. It does appear dark on the outside with what seems to be a blown sky. Maybe with better lighting conditions it would have been a corker. Well spotted.
 
Hi Chris :)

Size - I like the swan image but also think the clipped swan needs cropping out and a more widescreen crop :)

Below - Really like that, tightly framed with the arch and trees (y)

I feel the bridge bottom again needs to be central

Great to see some film shots again though :clap:
 
Thanks Alan and DK. I've had a look at the other shots of Warwick Castle, whether through the bridge or not. The sky was cloudy with reasonable variation in brightness, but you're right about it looking blown in all the under-bridge shots. I think the dynamic range is just too great. In previous attempts at this shot I've had problems with the darker parts under the bridge as well.

DK, I have a shot with the bridge arch more balanced across the frame. In general I don't think it works quite as well, but in particular it doesn't work because the different shooting point meant the tower was absent, leaving nothing but a sligtly crennelated high grey wall! (The banks are generally clothed in nettles and thorns with a few overgrown paths down to platforms for fisherfolk!)

Re the swans, I thought afterwards I should have included all the rightmost swan (the Dad), but cropped tight up to the leftmost cygnet, so they are all walking into the frame. Your idea of a more letterbox crop might work quite well then.

Alternatively, I also took this shot of the family swimming in the pond. Not quite so much else in the frame, so I thought it a little less interesting...



Thanks again for the comments.
 
Hi...sorry its taken me a while to comment. Trying to catch up now

Pattern:liking the dandelion but like colours in tulip

Movement: glad its not just me who has trouble with panning, practice, practice, practice

Below: Like the under the bridge view of Warwick Castle ( thought I recognised it)

Size: agree with others that you should crop out clipped swan on right
 
Thanks Anita (and evryone else). OK, here's a cropped Size, by popular demand...

CS1306PMEC331_zps729b46ec.jpg


[EDIT maybe it'll display this time?]
 
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Hi Chris

Film shooting looks really difficult with lighting such as in the Bridge/Castle shot ...you've still managed really good exposure on the stone work & the greenery though (y)

The Swan shot does look better cropped & how cute are they :love:
 
Thanks Lynne, I was pleased with the castle shot, as I mentioned I tried it last year and it didn't work. Those cygnets are indeed cute!

One of the nice things about film shooting is that you can completely change the "sensor" in your camera... but one of the problems is having the right one since you get 36 shots with each new "sensor"! Plus of course not knowing what you've got for a week or so... but I love it, as well as using these ancient cameras, manual focus, manual exposure, makes you think!
 
Thanks Andy ad Brian!
 
This had me stumped for ages. Then a German company built a house on the corner of our street in 4 days! Quite a process. So here are a couple from that, plus one from the later stages of the life cycle of our orchid flowers. All from the X10 this time:

1) Dropping the front of the house in place:



I particularly liked thatthe installers are all in there taking the shipping protectors off, definitely in-process!

2) First roof panels going on:



3) Orchid flowers dropping:



I had a lot of trouble with this, mainly finding a place around the house with a suitable background (not having a studio).
 
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I'm not sure of this one, although it IS film! I think I'll not declare it on the main thread until the next film comes back (colour transparency that I have not even sent off yet) as I did have a go at some other shots that just might have worked out a bit better.

This is Edinburgh Castle on its great rock:



I had some hopes for a shot of a memorial rock under the Castle that commemorated the support of the people of Scotland for Norwegian aircrew training to fight in WW2. However, what I got back was unreadable and just looked like an amorphous lump. I still don't proplerly have my monochrome eyes in yet!

Taken on Kodak Tmax400 with a Pentax MX...
 
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Thisis a variant of the shot I had hoped for for "Rock", with a touch of added serendipity. I wanted to get a shot of Bass Rock off North Berwick, and as we were walking round the coast, we came across this bridal party having their photo-shoot with the same background in mind:



Shot on Agfa Precisa 100 transparency film with a Pentax ME, probably the 50mm f/1.7 lens.
 
Hi Chris :)

Process - Now that is a process and a 1/2, would have loved top watched that go together :) I prefer the 1st shot out of the two, I like the splash of colour of the mighty crane, and the position of the wall and workers :)

Rock - A couple of great ones there mate !!!! I love the look of the first, looks very old and intimidating towering above like that, by my choice is the wedding shot, a lovely straight horizon, lots of interest in the image, a good foreground with the happy couple, the pools of water, the sailing boats and the 'Rock' with a lighthouse on too - Nice One (y)

Look forward to seeing what comes back from your next film
 
Hi Chris
The two pics for process work for me the Pic of the orchid I am not really keen on the BG
Have to agree with DK about rock the wedding pic for me, the castle pic needs a bit more contrast :thinking: maybe
 
Thanks DK and Allan. I agree with you about the process shots, but I was disappointed not to get a better result with the fading orchid. I tried in 5 different places and that was the best; background remains my biggest problem when trying "studio" type shots!

I'm not sure what went wrong with the film with the Castle shot on it, but it hasn't made me love Tmax on my second try at the film. In that case the problem was probably my inability to expose properly for a dark subject against a bright sky; I think I pulled a lot out of the shadows in Aperture and it shows!

I really liked the Bass Rock/wedding pic immediately when I scanned it, but it too was badly exposed (as was the whole film). I'm currenty working on the theory that the batteries in my Pentax were on their last legs, and hoping that with new batteries the current film will give better results. But that one did work out...
 
Hi chris

Process #1 for me, a bit more going on it , splash's of color from the crane plus the added bonus of dome detail in the sky (y)

Roc....The castle shot I just love , love love....looks really spooky & imposing with just the right balance between below & above the castle.....top shot mister :clap:

Orchids...beautiful flowers & a very delicate color....fwiw I'd have been tempted to crop out the plant pot leaving you with just the flowers against the white bg & leave a little more room to the rhs...plus I might have cropped to just where the plant splits in to 2 branch's ?
 
I really rather like the first process shot Chris, the crane lifting in the house side.... like the framing of the hedge and the trees, the bright red of the crane going up into the frame, the strong triangle of the house and the cables, and the little men in their short trousers putting it into place. Great spot.

Edinburgh castle, atop it's rock I actually think is great. Has a real film look and feel to it (obviously 'cos it is film...) the grain and the 'spots' and lines that with digital we strive to get rid of with superior technology, and then go and try to imitate in PP. :wacky:
 
Thanks Lynne and Graham. Glad you like the house assembly and Castle Rock. Lynne, I had a think about your really tight crop, and found a different shot which I think works quite well:



One thing I'm learning from this is that you guys collectively have a better eye for cropping than I do; I hope I'm picking some of it up! (I didn't do a tight crop because of the dead flowers on the base of the plant, but I think the tigh crop makes the same point more simply without the extra distractions!)

Thanks again
 
Hi Chris, I really like the new crop on the flowers. I'm looking forward to seeing your new shots when the film comes back. I'm curious about shooting film in the modern age... How do you get them into the computer? Is it a normal scanner or something special for photo's? and do you PP them once they are in? if so what's the point?
 
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