Simon's Photo Blog

Intrigue - Shot Composition

2007-07-06T16:24:00.001-07:00

Intrigue
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

Little everyday objects can often give you that bit of inspiration for a great shot. For example this image and its partner shot:

these two are nick named the espresso shoot, the reason being that both of these were inspired by looking at the espresso cup i was drinking from at the time and, without the espresso cup, would be incomplete, it would look a bit daft having my arm hanging in the air for no reason wouldn't it.

Also, something you shouldn't forget when taking portraits, the background, in this image if the camera had been moved i would have lost the fantastic colours behind me, i would have had the lovely green backdrop of the plants of the beautiful contrast between the wooden support beam and the nature behind me, showing two for of the same product, trees.

and alternative composition could have been on a street,using the pose of the partnered image (which is basically the same pose but inverted), but with a crowd of people around me possibly with an extended shutter time, showing a contrast between hectic city life and the calm of the person just taking a step back and stopping for and taking a couple of minutes to watch the world go by.

Backgrounds are sometimes forgotten when taking a portrait, and while may want your shots to look natural don't be afraid to set-up a couple of photos once in a while with more detail. because as seen in the partner picture, staged shots can look natural as well

disaster area - sheffield

2007-06-27T16:31:00.001-07:00

Livesey Street Bridge Demolished
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

ok a few apologies, for thoose who are looking for my usual type of photos and explanations your not going to be getting them for a while, im afraid i cant tell you when at the moment because even i don't know, it depends what the situation becomes.

secondly you may notice that ALOT of images in my stream at the moment have the same name, this is not an error, this is because i dont have the time to give each a differentiating name, whether it be with a simple number or a completely different name, ive took over 100 images of the recent flooding and its after math in sheffield and simply don thave the time or patience to go through them all and give them seperate names.

Tablets Anyone?

2007-06-10T17:16:00.001-07:00

Tablets Anyone? - 60/365
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

The greatest inventions in the world are results of accidents, as are some of the greatest photos.

Take this shot for example, not much went right when i was doing this image yet it's turned out as something truly great in my opinion.

The focus wasn't on the tablets where i wanted it but i prefere it where it is. while manipulating the image to try some things out in my editing program i accidently negatived the whole shot which added to the image, especially round the eyes.

The addition of the negative filter also give a wonderfull juextopasition to the original image which had a rather innocent feel to it rather then the sinistar edge this shot has.

i don't think i could improve upon this shot if i tried.

External Effects

2007-06-03T05:55:00.001-07:00

Two-faced - Not Me? - 53/365
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

There are a number of ways you can improve a shot by using things that are not connected to the camera, taking a photo through water for example, this is another one of thoose ways.

to get this effect i used a childs toy that you look through which breaks the image into the effect you see here, i held this up to the lens of my camera, pointed it at the mirror which i was standing infront of and then took the shot.

this can be rather hard if like me you dont have really steady hands, i found that forcing the flash to fire caused the image to steady and reduce blur.

ill try and get some photos of the toy up later today.

World In Motion

2007-05-13T09:29:00.001-07:00

Traffic
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

One of the best features on the M627 is the ability to tweak the ISO settings, this allows for an extended exposure of an image providing better quality when use on static items, or when use on motion allows for motion trails.

It's fast becoming a favourite effect of mine prompting me to create my world in motion se t, this set will focus on the world and the movement we see within it everyday.

Most of the images are creating by placing my M627 on ISO100 setting therefore allowing the shutter to stay open for 2 seconds. While this isn't very long when you compare this to some of the camera out there that you can do this effect on but i don't have the surplus cash (or patience for that matter) to buy and use a DSLR camera for this sort of thing. Beside 2 seconds exposure is just enough for what i want so as not to overdo the effect.

There something pretty cool about seeing the trail of a person that is moving or seeing the trail left by the headlights of cars in an image in my opinion so expect to see more of these images appearing within my stream.

Holding the Tripod - Spinning Around - 23/365

2007-05-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

Spinning Around - 23/365
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

A challenge on the 365 days group is to hold the tripod over our head and have it taken a picture, for mine i decided that would set the iso to 400 in order to gain a motion blur, allowing me to get the the swirling effect in the back ground.

This is trickier then it sounds, holding the tripod in just the right position to ensure that your in the shot and also make sure that you dont drop the Tripod lol

this was also a great chance to try fiddling with a couple of settings on my new camera to see what i could achieve with it

School/College Vandelism

2007-04-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

School/College Vandelism
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

walked into college late this morning because of the bus driver deciding to drive past me but now i'm glad that i did, because i walked in late i had to use a different route to my lesson meaning i got to see this.

i'm tipping this was a disgruntled (soon to be ex) student. But this is something i've been saying for years about the college/school.

Hello There - 1/365 days

2007-04-12T15:22:00.001-07:00

Hello There - 1/365
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

ok so ive jumped on the band wagon and started to my own 365 days project where i take aself portrait everyday for a year

i hope its going to be a fun experiance and i hope i make a number of friends along the way

this is the first image for the project and i though it would be a fun idea for me to just pop up somewhere since this is the first one

fairground

2007-04-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

fairground - 1
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

I managed to meet up with an old school friend through someone that i know from my high school/college and we ended up going to the fair thats in Sheffield at the moment so i decided to take a few photos on my phone while they were on a ride that i didn't feel up to (i'd just been on the waltzer three times and my neck was hurting something rotten) so i uploaded a few of them to my account

Apophysis - Inside the Vortex

2007-04-04T11:18:00.001-07:00

Inside the Vortex
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

I recently stumbled across some images made using apophysis and managed to get a download link for the program having messed around for a i came out with three images that i've uploaded onto here, it like what can be done with the program and once you understand which button is to edit the vectors etc then its really easy to use.

apophysis can be downloaded from www.gygrazok.deviantart.com

on that page there are also links to tutorials should you get stuck at all

selective colouring - blue eye

2007-03-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

Blue Eye, selective colouring
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

i've recently been looking around flickr and have been seeing alot of selective colouring images. after trying several tutorials ive found a way to do it myself, by using the magic wand tool in macromedia fireworks to select the colours i wanted to keep, (or the area of colours)

ive then cut this and re pasted it as a separate layer and then changed the first layer to grayscale.

doing so allows you to create striking images such as this one where the blue of the eye is the focus of the picture where as in the original image it does not gain as much attention.

Ive also been advised by Crick3 of TBG to try adjusting the contrast levels on the black and white portion of the image to improve my images which will be the next thing i try and do when i get some more images to try this technique on

Music was my first love -- Turntable Angle 3 - B&W

2007-03-28T16:56:00.001-07:00

Turntable Angle 3 - B&W
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

when i got bored earlier i decided i would do something that i had wanted to try by photographing my turntable to see how the pictures would come out

and i can honestly say with the majourity of the shots i was please with, especially this one, i set my camera to macro setting and this is the results.

im realy proud of this one as it seems to be one best ones ive taken, not only does it look cool when being viewed full size but unlike most photos when its shrunk down to a thumbnail it still works so im pretty chuffed with my self

(people must think im mad) - Fargate Sheffield

2007-03-27T17:22:00.001-07:00

Fargate Sheffield
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

people must think im mad, when im walking around, and it doesnt matter where it is, if i see something i lik it straight to my pocket, and start snapping, like i did here, (but more on that in a minute) but the thing is, it wouldnt be so bad if it was a proper camera i was using because people wouldnt think anything of it, but im using the camera on my k800i phone so i look a little odd.

anyway, i was walking along the top of fargate in sheffield when i remembered all thoose photographs ive seen looking down a scene similar to this one and thought id have ago at doing it myself and this is the result. its for shots like this i wish i had a propera camera where i could controll how long the shuter stays open for so i could do some experimenting to see how it looks with the motion trails of people walking up and down.

never mind though, i did try and do this and afake miniature model but had no luck with the programs i had, but im going to keep trying and if i manage to get it to work then ill post it on here

Simon and chess - oops

2007-03-24T18:15:00.001-07:00

me and chess - oops
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

me and chess were messing round with my auto timer function on my k800 in between songs, after a couple of failed attempts trying to get us in the shot properly we set this one up, only i thought i had forgoten to reset the auto timer,

So still holding the pose and keeping a straight face i say out of the corner of my mouth 'i f*&ked it up' and she burst out laughing, just as it took the photo making this the end result

Spell Checker Poem

2007-03-22T18:06:00.001-07:00

Spell Check Poem
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

ok wow, this image became very popular very quickly, this image has been online less then 12 hours and its allready accumulated 195 view and 6 favourites which is pretty darn good in my book.

now i dont take credit for writing this poem all i take credit for is putting it in microsoft word, running the spell checker on it (knowing full well it will comeup with the complete box straight away) and taking the screen shot.

Should by anychance the person who did write it is rading this thankyou very much as this has been used many times by me to illustrate that just saying use a spell checker does not work, especially if the person that this is being said to is dyslexic.

So why did i choose to upload this, well me and a fellow dyslexic were having a moan about one of our teachers that keeps having a go about spelling and i remembered having come across this poem, so i find it out and show it them, they love it so i decided to upload the poem made into a picture to share with you guys.

Cornwall - St Ives

2007-03-22T06:48:00.001-07:00

St Ives 2
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

been uploading alot of old photos lately, this one is from the summer of 2005 while i was on holiday, this is looking out over the harbor of St Ives, a small active fishing town on the coast of cornwall in the southwest of england.

its a picturesque little place that we allways end uyp visiting every year, there are a few more photos of cornwall in my cornwall set on flickr and ill try and upload more in time as i manage to dig out the original files

Sheffield by Night

2007-03-19T12:16:00.001-07:00

Sheffield by Night 2
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

Ok so a couple of weeks back it was the lunar eclipse where the moon went red, well i tried to take some photos but i wasn't able to get the red of the moon to show up so i gave up and started to take some panoramic shots of Sheffield at night and so this is the result, it was a bit hard to get the lights to line up but i dd manage to get it to do it and i think it creates a rather nice effect, it was taken just outside foxhill from one of the fields and worked better then i had anticipated.

freaky night photography

2007-03-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

freaky
Originally uploaded by simon 78.

okay so lastnight i got a bit bored as i couldnt sleep so i decided to star messing with my phone camera, and this is the result, the picture was taken with th negertive effect of my k800 and the flash on single fire, it pretty strange because it makes me look MUCH older then i am, stoned and the blue of the pillow my head is laid on came out red making it look like blood, so i look like an old, stoned, physcotic mad man.

A nice combination im sure

introduction

2007-03-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

ok ive become a photo holic but got rather miffed wit the fact that i cannot post a blog on flickr for my photos so ive decided to open one up here and see what happens

this will just be explanations about the photos, what there about, where i took them, when etc.

dont know if this qwill work or not but thought id give it a try

simon