31-08-09: Bale/Cheat/Explaination/Rant

Today's picture is a still from some video I shot earlier. No, it's not still photography as such, but I've been shooting loads of video over the last few days, so I've run out of new real photos. :(

[rant]

We've had a bit of an oddity at work, with a particular job requiring full HD, when we don't have any HD cameras.

Natural solution - Buy one. Answer: The management don't know an f/stop from a tripod, and decide to buy the cheapest camera they can get away with. Which is a handycam. Granted, it's quite a good handycam, a Panasonic HVX-200, but still, it's all fly-by wire with electronic focus and iris rings. Which I don't appreciate.

So, they place their order, only to discover it won't be delivered for several weeks: We need the camera in 3 days' time. Solution: Hire a camera to tide us over; simple. Or not. Without consulting anyone who knows what the camera needs to do, they hired a JVC GY-HD200. Which doesn't shoot full HD. Oops...

It's now my job, (having never worked with HD before) to mash the slightly odd 720P HDV video from the JVC with a lot of other (still to be shot, but 1080P) material from the Panasonic when we get it... Fun.

[/rant]

This is one of my tests to get used to the camera before going on the actual shoot.

(It's worth adding that the actual shoot went very smoothly, and the material looks pretty good, format issues aside)


Click image to view a bigger version

30-08-09: Beauty in Destruction

DVD-R discs are made in layers; a plastic disc, a dye layer, a reflector, a second plastic disc and then the label surface.
Break one open along the seam, pull the two plastic discs apart, and this is the result.
In this case, one side of the disc was snapped right through, which made the two layers peel apart easily.
Click image to view a bigger version

29-08-09: Coot

Click image to view a bigger version

28-08-09: Off into the sunset...

Click image to view a bigger version

27-08-09: Dovedale

Click image to view a bigger version

26-08-09: Tree/Sheep

Click image to view a bigger version

25-08-09: Black Ripples

Click image to view a bigger version

24-08-09: Grinning Pansy

Is it just me, or do these things always seem to have a supercilious grin?

Click image to view a bigger version

23-08-09: Shrivelled

Sliced orange from my miniature orange tree, left to dry out.
Lit with a Canon 430EX in a white diffuser brolly from above/behind
Click image to view a bigger version

22-08-09: White Duck

It's an English cousin of WTD...
Click image to view a bigger version

21-08-09: Pink Cutain

Very unusually for me these days, I used on camera flash to pick out the flowers against the background.
Click image to view a bigger version

20-08-09: Keep low and we may not be noticed...

Click image to view a bigger version

19-08-09: 3 Benches

(Or four if you look carefully :D)
Click image to view a bigger version

18-08-09: Mirrored Chicks

Click image to view a bigger version

17-08-09: Moorhen

Click image to view a bigger version

16-08-09: Killjoys...

Click image to view a bigger version

15-08-09: Celtic Cross

Click image to view a bigger version

14-08-09: The Tree That Grows Sideways...

Click image to view a bigger version

13-08-09:

I'd recommend viewing the bigger version, so you can actually see some detail :)
Made from 14 vertical images with a fairly hefty overlap, stitched in Photoshop's automated stitcher and tidied up by hand.
The reason for the large number of images was to avoid problems with lens distortion and to counter any oddities caused by shooting handheld; I could easily discard every other image and still have a continuous picture.
Click image to view a bigger version

12-08-09: Ilam Church

Click image to view a bigger version

11-08-09: Flow

Dovedale, Derbyshire.
I deliberately didn't adjust the polariser to it's maximum effect for this one, as it would have virtually erased the flow lines which are defined by the reflection of the sky. It's about 1/4 of the way from it's full effect here.
I find it easy to consider something like a polariser as either on or off, forgetting that it's analog - in reality some of the more interesting effects are achieved somewhere between on and off...
Click image to view a bigger version

10-08-09: Outcrop

Click image to view a bigger version

09-08-09: Atmospheric Evening 3/3

Click image to view a bigger version

08-08-09: Atmospheric Evening 2/3

Click image to view a bigger version

07-08-09: Atmospheric Evening 1/3

Click image to view a bigger version

06-08-09: Follow Us

Click image to view a bigger version

05-08-09: Bang 4

Click image to view a bigger version

04-08-09: Bang 3

Click image to view a bigger version

03-08-09: Bang 2

Click image to view a bigger version

02-08-09: Bang 1

Fireworks at Nottingham's riverside festival.

The weather was utterly foul all day, but cleared a bit in the evening so I decided to go down to see the fireworks. It seems I wasn't the only one with this idea, as there didn't seem to be any less people than last year, when the weather was fantastic.
The car park, on a field was just a mud bath. As we were going back to the car, we stopped to give a stuck car a push, and I ended up flat on my face, absolutely plastered!
The tripod and camera body were fairly well muddied too, but much to my relief, the lens escaped unscathed.
Click image to view a bigger version

01-08-09: Strung Out

Click image to view a bigger version