Lee Greatorex Photo/3D blog

As I'm at work on St. Patricks day thought I'd better go out today while the weather is ok to take some street portraits. I'm still pretty nervous when shooting folks in town (a lot easier to ask when abroad/ on hol I find) so these are more candid with them just looking right at the last second.

These were taken with the now AF fine tuned 85mm and I am happy with the results now with the lens!

85mm 1.8g D7000

New lens arrived a couple of weeks ago! These are a couple of test shots taken at Blarney Castle.

The lens is the 85mm Nikon 1.8G

I bought it for use with portraits mainly but I think it is a great lens for other shots as well. I took it around Blarney Castle on a very cold Saturday. Here are some of the results;

Above: It's funny but I tend to shoot more landscapes with anything but superwide lens'. I think it has a perspective which feels it can be walked in whereas for me superwide can seem a little distorted/trying too hard to emulate the eye rather than the view (personal opinion/taste)

Below: Katy with the D80+50mm 1.8


 

Overall I love it!

 There have been a few minor gripes with the lens however which I think was just a bit of unluck/could happen to any lens but the AF needed tweaking. I didn't realise this as these were literally the first shots taken but as I was zooming in on images to check sharpness I noticed unfortunately where my focus point was it was off by quite a bit.

Checking online I noticed it can be quite common with some lens/camera mixes and I have now got it fine tuned using the simple AF fine tune on the D7000 itself. The next blog post will explain how I did this myself and show some before/after test results.

Now I have it working as well as I can I have a few shoots to do this week then at the weekend I'll take it out and try to shoot some portraits!

Last Monday (4th March) I went to the MacSweeny Photo Trade Show here in Cork. Here's a brief overview of the evening events and my views on them.

First of all this was a charity event, all proceeds went towards Marymount Hospice. More information on this can be found >>here<<.

As I arrived at the event (it was held at Rochestown Park Hotel) I was greeted with a cool gift bag of stuff (Calendar, sweets promo stuff and the like) then straight in to the stalls.

Exhibitors

There were plenty of trade stands there, from photography training to the big named brands (Nikon, Canon, Olympus). Each had something great to look at and get hands on with. Some super tele press lens' as seen below; (these photos from the event weren't taken by me but can be found on the Macsweeny facebook page >>here<<)



It was pretty busy which was great to see. Plenty there to see the presentations on stage by Exhibitors and speakers.

Each of the sales exhibitors had something unique to offer within their areas (some showing off flash triggers, whereas others such as Fujifilm showing off their new X series models).

I was personally impressed with Olympus' presentation which was based around the OM-D EM5. After the brief chat by Olympus' representative they brought on stage well known portrait and fashion photographer Mike Bunn who's work can be found >>here<<. As a photographer talking he gave a unique view on the strengths of the camera and it's unique selling points to an audience of people who maybe already have a DSLR or primary camera.

I asked Mike Bunn about his shooting techniques as his portrait/fashion work is quite unique. Where possible Mike will only use natural light and explained the ability to work around that challenge helped him get jobs when there were restrictions on gear (he mentioned a celebrity shoot in which no camera equipment was allowed and he was the only one who could go in with just the camera alone). 



I was really impressed with the image stabilisation in the low indoor light conditions it was still producing sharp images while shaking the camera. It definitely tempts me (I'd totally get one if I had the cash!). In terms of sales pitches or the exhibitors I think Olympus was the strongest of the evening (all had something good to offer though!)

Presentations from the professionals

After the sales exhibitors finished it was on to the presentations. First was Barry Donnellan, freelance cameraman and director from Cork explaining his conversion and use of DSLRs for freelance video productions. In his examples he showed work for a local distillery as well as footage from a documentary based on a crash at cork airport. The person I went to the show with is in to using DSLRs for filming so gained a lot from the talk which showed the advantages and tips for starting to shoot film with a DSLR. Setup costs for a rig don't seem too much but can vary in price quite a bit.

The main presentation was done by Landscape photographer John Hooton, talking about the techniques used for some shots in his new book Gathering Light on the Dingle Coast. He explained the patience which is needed for landscape photography as well as the dedication needed to get up very early to get the perfect sunrise shots on the (usually very cold) beach. He was very inspirational explaining that if there is an potential shooting opportunity it is worth taking the time to shoot. He'd regularly also go back to locations still trying to get that perfect shot.


I personally prefer the mountain shots taken by John as there were some really unique angles and use of lines to draw the eye in. The photos in the book are incredibly well taken marketable photos which is something I wanted to ask about as this style of landscape photography is becoming increasingly more well known in terms of techniques so how do you keep it unique or a cut above others.

There was a photo competition with the theme of dreams, both winner's photos can be seen on the Macsweeny facebook page linked above. Both are great shots. I'd like to see more local non commercial work shown at these events, even if not for a competition.

In summary

Overall it was a good event. After going to a few UK events it seems like there is more of a community spirit over here however I think there's great room for maybe local clubs to promote there stuff there. I didn't see many younger people there and I think there needs to be more done from a non business side to get younger people in to photo groups. Being in a few myself back in the day coming from a younger view point it can sometimes seem inaccessible and maybe community/club events could be run alongside the trade shows in future.

More information on MacSweeny Photo shop and the event can be found >>here<<

I took my camera out over the Jazz weekend in a hope to take some photos of the various musicians over the famous weekend. However, I've never seen the place so busy! We couldn't even see the acts we were listening to most of the time, sometimes being relegated to the smoking/beer garden.

Still it was a great weekend as always and it didn't stop me taking photos!

D7000 - 35mm 1.8

Some short tips of low light/evening photography:

• Don't be afraid of higher ISOs - modern cameras handle high ISO pretty well, most cameras now will do at least ISO1600 perfectly fine (even 3200 and above are acceptable). When you zoom in with lightroom or another package you're of course going to see noise, don't let this put you off shooting. The noise does add a warmth to some images, and in black and white it works well.
• Use the light available to you - I personally don't tend to carry my flashgun around with me if just going out with a few friends, let the lights in the area you're shooting direct where you take your shots. 
• Steady your shots with the environment - For the cityscape shot it was still relatively low light to get 3 exposures (I was at ISO250 f4) so shutter speeds were slow. For these I just wedged the camera in to the bridge I was stood on to ensure it was steadied. For pub/indoor shots, leaning against a wall or leaning on tables/ bars will help you steady the shot if you hold your camera tightly (see the previous post for steady /low shutter speed camera handling)

A couple of shots in and around the English Market in Cork City.

I wanted to do more practise with indoor and mixed lighting conditions. Most of these I upped the ISO to 800 which is still perfectly usable on the camera. As a note yes you're going to see grain in something like lightroom when fully zoomed in using a slightly higher ISO than usual but the photo as a whole will still be perfectly fine.

35mm 1.8

Please click the title for the full post!

Only just got photoshop back on this PC so I stitched a few shots I took last year together (around august/sept time) at Crosshaven, County Cork. I only had my 50mm with me so I had to rely on stitching about 4-5 images together which can be troublesome but these came out ok.

Just some test shots trying to capture the great sunsets we get here! These are all from my same balcony. Remember you need to go against your light meter and kind of plan for underexposing your image to make sure you get the full colours you see (if you ever wonder why your photos are getting all the colours when shooting sunsets).

Enjoy anyway!

These were taken a few months ago out an about at Cork City Gaol. The full gallery can be found Here