Archive for the 'Photography' Category

What Stormtroopers do on Their Day Off

When you are bored and have some time, see what Stormtroopers get up to in their free time

What Stormtroopers do on Their Day Off | WildAmmo.com

Fantastic photos – makes me wish I had some stormtrooper action figures to try the same with

Time-lapse tilt-shift photography

I had never thought of combining time-lapse photography (making a video by taking lots of photos and turning them into a sped up video, similar to stop-motion) with a tilt-shift lens (a very expensive and custom lens normally used to correct odd perspective problems but also has the effect of a narrow depth of field if you want it that makes the scene look like it is a macro photo when it is really a very wide angle shot)

The video below is just incredible!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Hampshire Country Parks

A few weeks ago we decided to back to Manor Farm Country Park to enjoy the surprisingly sunny Sunday. Naturally the camera came with me (click on photo for a larger version)

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And last weekend we went to Itchen Valley Country park, which is also very close to Southampton, and I got some nice photos of bluebells as well as some butterflies that were kind enough to let me get really close to them. The rest of photos from Itchen Valley Country Park are in my flickr set

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Cactus photos

Recently I decided that I should have another go at some macro shots of the cactuses that are sat on my window sill. The photos below were taken with one or two speedlights with a sheet of A4 paper to diffuse the light and wireless triggers (ironically called Cactus triggers) to fire them.

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Cactus up Close

Car photos

On the weekend a few photographers from work got together to have a go at trying some car shots. We turned up with cars and cameras and started off with some shots by mounting the tripod onto the frame of the car

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Because of engine vibrations in the sports-car we decided to try the shots with the engine off, and the car just coasting fairy slowly. The shots from the side of the car weren’t bad, however the ones form the front did not have a slow enough shutter speed for the slow movement. Side-shots seem to work better as we had the car turning atight corner, so got some blur out of the rotation.

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We then had a go at some panning shots, where someone drove the car past us and we took photos. Pretty much all my early ones were a bit rubbish.

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I found it really tricky to do any shots closer to the car, and think I would have done better with a longer lens and being further back. If you are not in the centre of the arc the car is doing round you then you find the nose and/or tail of the car blurs quite easily when you are close

We also tried some tracking shots, where we were in the boot of a car, with the subject car following close behind – tip: don’t use a diesel as your lead car!


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Jail for photographing police?

What the ?!?

Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

British Journal of Photography – Jail for photographing police?

I can’t believe what I am reading! – This is ridiculous!

I understand that taking photos of sensitive buildings could be considered a security risk, and that places like airports already have restricted rights for taking photos, but the police and public places?

This is a serious problem for professional, particularly press, photographers but also amateur photographers. It won’t be long before you have to get any public photos approved by the government, and then we really will have an Orwellian Big Brother watching over us.