Right OK, so last night (29 April) there we had a storm, quite a lot of thunder and lightning. However, I was busy putting the finishing touches to a couple of cakes I'd baked. I got quite excited watching lightning forks through the trees at the behind the garden through the kitchen window. By the time I got round to setting up the camera in the loft skylight the storm had passed.
Gutted.
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Saturday 25 April 2009
Clouds, glorious clouds!
I used to love watching clouds go by when I was kid; who didn't?
Just been stuck inside all day and looking out of my skylight only to see the wonderful fluffy cumulus clouds float past the sun, set off by a rich blue sky. I thought I'd keep this moment and shot 3 exposures which I then used for tone mapped HDR, which I keep meaning to explain. I will later, I promise. Anyway, the HDR in this photo really brings out the depth and texture of the clouds, I think without this treatment the photo would look a little flat.
Oh by the way, in case you haven't heard of the "Cloud Appreciation Society" the link is here:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
Just been stuck inside all day and looking out of my skylight only to see the wonderful fluffy cumulus clouds float past the sun, set off by a rich blue sky. I thought I'd keep this moment and shot 3 exposures which I then used for tone mapped HDR, which I keep meaning to explain. I will later, I promise. Anyway, the HDR in this photo really brings out the depth and texture of the clouds, I think without this treatment the photo would look a little flat.
Oh by the way, in case you haven't heard of the "Cloud Appreciation Society" the link is here:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
Falcon in Birmingham
So all week I've been hearing from people that the Falcon has been pretty active lately and has chicks now.
A couple of Peregrine Falcons have been nesting around Birmingham for a number of years now. A friend, (also an ex bird watcher) mentioned to me a couple of years ago that they nested on the Birmingham BT tower as it was so high. We used to work together on the 8th floor of our building and at time we'd catch them diving at the pigeons.
Anyway, it appears they also have a nest in the University of Birmingham's Chamberlin Clock Tower. Last night I finally had some time to get my camera out and try and get a shot or two. I saw it flying around and setup the camera and tripod. As soon as it was all setup, it was out of sight for the night and back safely in the Clock tower.
Anyway, I'll keep trying, but for now I'll leave you with a HDR (high dynamic range, more of this another day) of Aston Webb sunset (inc poppy) and a different angle of the clock tower:
A couple of Peregrine Falcons have been nesting around Birmingham for a number of years now. A friend, (also an ex bird watcher) mentioned to me a couple of years ago that they nested on the Birmingham BT tower as it was so high. We used to work together on the 8th floor of our building and at time we'd catch them diving at the pigeons.
Anyway, it appears they also have a nest in the University of Birmingham's Chamberlin Clock Tower. Last night I finally had some time to get my camera out and try and get a shot or two. I saw it flying around and setup the camera and tripod. As soon as it was all setup, it was out of sight for the night and back safely in the Clock tower.
Anyway, I'll keep trying, but for now I'll leave you with a HDR (high dynamic range, more of this another day) of Aston Webb sunset (inc poppy) and a different angle of the clock tower:
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Lakeside Round 2
Went over to the lake agian last night, gave H the camera, she did pretty well considering she's never really taken photos before. We got a bit delayed so got there about an hour before sunset and managed to catch it just as it was setting.
I'm sure she was getting bored of it, but I was explaining crop sensors, lenses (wide/telephoto) and a little about composition.
Anyway, take a look at my Flickr gallery for the days shots.
Monday 13 April 2009
Lakeside photos
Went out to the lake on Sunday morning for a walk and managed to get a few shots of s0me ducks in flight; more of these in ny Flickr album.
It's so difficult getting the lens to focus on the someinthg moving so quickly. Maybe it would be easier getting some L glass; Canon's top of range L series of lenses with faster focussing and superior image quality. Thing is they're not cheap (at least a couple of grand) so generaly they're reserved for people who are serious about their photography or people who want to make a proper living out of it.
That's not saying that you can't make a living out of photography without an L series lens or lens of equal quality, it's just that they're built with better optics, mechanics and are usually more durable; ready for photographers shooting in extreme and demanding environments.
Why do I always have to pick expensive hobbies???
Thursday 9 April 2009
Compact Flash cards and Camera Buffer Canon 40D
"Which compact flash card should I buy?"
"Is a faster compact flash card any better?"
These are some of the questions regularly asked on photography forums regarding compact flash (CF) cards and Digital SLR cameras. Although answers are varied, most generally come back with a definitive yes, followed with links to tables and charts.
The lost card
I've been looking at this for a while now, well since I lost one of my CF cards. I bought two 4GB Sandisk Extreme III cards last year at a stupidly low price of about £16 each (RRP ~£30-£40). I can't remember where from now though :o(
The question
My question is basically whether I need to spend more money on a fast CF card or can I make do with slower cheaper ones (still branded though).
Why do you need a fast card?
Thing is that I tend to do some action photography every now and then, wildlife (birds etc) and some sports. I tend to find that my buffer fills up and I have a wait a little while before I can take photos again. Confused?
What am I on about?
Ok let me explain a little. DSLR cameras use memory cards to save photos. However, between the time you press the shutter button and the photo being saved onto the memory card, it is stored (temporarily) on the camera's internal memory (buffer). The only problem is that the buffer on the camera is limited in size. So when this fills up the camera more less stops taking photos and waits for the photos to move from the buffer to the CF card. If you're shooting something that can't wait for this (can be upto a minute) then it can be a problem.
In my case I have a camera that can shoot at upto 6.5fps. If you're trying to take a photo of a bird in flight, a racing car whizzing past, or maybe taking photos at a footy match, you'll find that you might miss the action shot sometimes. Well the more photos you're able to take consecutively within a second the more likely you are to get that brilliant shot.
I've put together a quick diagram to explain it, probably not the best in the world, but hey if it works.
NB Before I go into the specifics of the test, I need to point out something, which most of you are probably aware of anyway but just in case.... Sandisk have among their range of CF cards two models named Extreme III and Extreme IV. At some point in their life cycle Sandisk upgraded the transfer speeds on the cards, so in essence there are two cards currently available in shops. The newer faster cards have 30MB/s and 45MB/s on the label, respectively.
Anyway.... The tests (and in no way was this controlled under lab conditions) which I conducted a couple of days ago.
The equipment:
Results:
So it seems like I don't really need to spend more on a card that doesn't make a difference.
EDIT
Ok so I've been thinking about why there's a difference in speed between faster cards, even though only slight. The only thing I can think of is the bus on the CF card. [Here's where I try and remember to my system architechture lectures from about 10years ago]. If the card can handle a throughput higher than the camera, then the camera will carry on sending the data while the cards bus keeps taking in and processing it.
For example if you have a thin pipe which then widens for a section before it connects to a tank. Water will carry on streaming into the wider section leaving while at the same time pouring into the tank. I'll investigate this further, but if there's anyone out there that can correct me or add more information then please do.
As you can see in the table above the Sandisk Extreme IV seems to be half the speed as th Extreme III, not really sure what's going on with that.
"Is a faster compact flash card any better?"
These are some of the questions regularly asked on photography forums regarding compact flash (CF) cards and Digital SLR cameras. Although answers are varied, most generally come back with a definitive yes, followed with links to tables and charts.
The lost card
I've been looking at this for a while now, well since I lost one of my CF cards. I bought two 4GB Sandisk Extreme III cards last year at a stupidly low price of about £16 each (RRP ~£30-£40). I can't remember where from now though :o(
The question
My question is basically whether I need to spend more money on a fast CF card or can I make do with slower cheaper ones (still branded though).
Why do you need a fast card?
Thing is that I tend to do some action photography every now and then, wildlife (birds etc) and some sports. I tend to find that my buffer fills up and I have a wait a little while before I can take photos again. Confused?
What am I on about?
Ok let me explain a little. DSLR cameras use memory cards to save photos. However, between the time you press the shutter button and the photo being saved onto the memory card, it is stored (temporarily) on the camera's internal memory (buffer). The only problem is that the buffer on the camera is limited in size. So when this fills up the camera more less stops taking photos and waits for the photos to move from the buffer to the CF card. If you're shooting something that can't wait for this (can be upto a minute) then it can be a problem.
In my case I have a camera that can shoot at upto 6.5fps. If you're trying to take a photo of a bird in flight, a racing car whizzing past, or maybe taking photos at a footy match, you'll find that you might miss the action shot sometimes. Well the more photos you're able to take consecutively within a second the more likely you are to get that brilliant shot.
I've put together a quick diagram to explain it, probably not the best in the world, but hey if it works.
NB Before I go into the specifics of the test, I need to point out something, which most of you are probably aware of anyway but just in case.... Sandisk have among their range of CF cards two models named Extreme III and Extreme IV. At some point in their life cycle Sandisk upgraded the transfer speeds on the cards, so in essence there are two cards currently available in shops. The newer faster cards have 30MB/s and 45MB/s on the label, respectively.
Anyway.... The tests (and in no way was this controlled under lab conditions) which I conducted a couple of days ago.
The equipment:
- Canon 40D + battery grip (flashed with the latest firmware as of April 2009).
- Sigma 150mm macro lens
- Shutter 1/8000,
- Aperture f2.8,
- ISO100,
- drive in high burst mode.
- I shot at a dark wall, the image was fairly black without an detail.
- Focus was set to manual.
Results:
- Dane-Elec 2GB (??MB/s) = 52sec
- Sandisk Extreme III 4GB (30MB/s) = 15sec
- Lexar Premium 80X 2GB (12MB/s) = 17sec
- Sandisk Extreme IV (45MB/s) = 30sec
What this basically shows is that the slower Lexar card transfers data at more less the same speed as my Sandisk. Of course this only applies to my camera, the Canon 40D.
So it seems like I don't really need to spend more on a card that doesn't make a difference.
EDIT
Ok so I've been thinking about why there's a difference in speed between faster cards, even though only slight. The only thing I can think of is the bus on the CF card. [Here's where I try and remember to my system architechture lectures from about 10years ago]. If the card can handle a throughput higher than the camera, then the camera will carry on sending the data while the cards bus keeps taking in and processing it.
For example if you have a thin pipe which then widens for a section before it connects to a tank. Water will carry on streaming into the wider section leaving while at the same time pouring into the tank. I'll investigate this further, but if there's anyone out there that can correct me or add more information then please do.
As you can see in the table above the Sandisk Extreme IV seems to be half the speed as th Extreme III, not really sure what's going on with that.
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Flickr Gallery update
Ok, so I've found a Flickr widget that lets me RSS my gallery for latest photos. Although I want it to randomly show my photos from my photo stream with a black background. Am I asking for too much? There doesn't seem to be any CSS for me to alter and I the html doesn't give me much to do either.
My Flickr Gallery
Ok so I've been trying to figure out how to show my Flickr gallery on my blog. I tried a couple gadgets from the Blogger list, most of them didn't seem to work or were general links to Flickr, not my gallery.
So I've found this one, as you can see at the bottom of the page. It's not quite what I'm after, as all I want to do is stream my photo's along the bottom of the blog, and not show my whole account. If anyone out there know's how to do it, please let me know.
So I've found this one, as you can see at the bottom of the page. It's not quite what I'm after, as all I want to do is stream my photo's along the bottom of the blog, and not show my whole account. If anyone out there know's how to do it, please let me know.
Here goes...
Well it's Wednesday night and I've decided to create a blog for all things photography. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be posting here, but most likely photo's I've taken and general rants about my photography experiences.
Here goes....
Here goes....
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