People

 

Nepal

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

There are so many things I love about travelling but it’s the interaction with the local people I find most rewarding of all. Nepal is renowned for the friendliness of its people and they didn’t disappoint. Walking around with a camera, no matter how inconspicuous you try to be, will always guarantee some sort of engagement with a curious native, especially if you’re caught taking their photo. The interaction this tends to generate is quite often priceless. I’ve been incredibly lucky to meet some truly amazing and fascinating people in this way.

Generally I like to try and take candid shots of people in their everyday environment. However, if you’ve travelled in Asia you’ll know this isn’t always possible. It’s fairly common to find yourself surrounded by people all wanting to see themselves on the LCD screen. The kids in this image were no exception.

sam_0143w23

I don’t remember the name of the village where these images were taken. In fact I’m not sure I ever knew the name as it wasn’t in the guidebook, but it was obvious not many tourists passed through. Well, this was my assumption as there wasn’t a guesthouse or shop, and for the fact that I seemed to be the centre of attention. I can quite honestly say that by doing absolutely nothing of any interest whatsoever, I’ve never been so interesting to so many people!

It was a fantastic rough and tumble little place. I must have spent a couple of hours wandering around, soaking up the relaxed atmosphere. If there had been a guesthouse I would have stayed for a night at least. It was so refreshing not to encounter another westerner. I did manage to capture some natural shots before I left the village. I applied a water colour filter in Photoshop to this photo. The effect complemented the colours and textures really well and added another dimension to the image.

sam_0162web22

Snow!

Monday, January 25th, 2010

st550-0031

The rumour is that the snow is coming back! I really hope so because it was such great fun last time. Obviously Christmas is a fun time for everyone and being a student away from home it is great to go back and enjoy that time with my family. However my friends and I have been snowed under in more ways than one. The Christmas period is often the worst in terms of work, deadlines and revision and interspersed with the festivities were very healthy dollops of work. So the snow was a welcome relief. I didn’t get as much time to play in it as I would have liked however, if it makes a return appearance I shall be out and about straight away!

st550-0011

The shots in this post show just how cold it got! The canal was completely frozen over and didn’t move for almost a week, and the post box had icicles forming on it!

paddysnowdrinks-137

The last two shots were taken when I went to the golf course near my house with my brother and sister. The first one is of my little brother getting some very impressive air on the golf course and the second is a shot of my sister just before she crashed!

paddysnowdrinks-133

Feeling Photographically Challenged?

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

Make a short film instead…

Untitled

Seasons Greetings

Thursday, December 24th, 2009
This year will be the first time in 10 years that my partner Andy and I will have Christmas alone. Usually, we spend Christmas with family, but this year, we thought we would have a nice and quiet one. So Andy is certainly the best present for me this year!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

xmas

 Shot with GX-20 dSLR and a glass or two of Christmas cheer

The Magical Art of Sak Yant

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

tatoo1

Buddhist monk Hlwong Pi Phaew sits on the veranda of his quarters at Wat Bang Phra, a temple approximately 50km outside Bangkok, Thailand. He sits cross-legged on a cushion, with a long silver tattooing needle in his right hand. The monk wears saffron robes over biceps, back and chest covered in magical Sanskrit text. Large dragons coil around both of his lower legs. He is half way through tattooing a large, geometric grid of Sak Yant, ancient protective tattoos, on the middle of a man’s back, whilst three comrades pull their friend’s skin tight from three different angles.

The monk smoothly, silently and precisely pricks away at the man’s flesh with his two-pronged spear, only stopping to occasionally dip the points into a pot of ink, made from secret magical ingredients, supposedly including cobra venom.

HP Phaew, who prefers to work outdoors, is one of the most respected of all the monks in the temple and also one that retains the strict traditions of the art. Like all of the tattooist he will only make marks above the waist, and his designs all come with specific spells, chants, symbolism and meaning. The wearer has to abide by a set of rules in order to retain the magic of the tattoo, although all Sak Yant will lose their power over time.

Why I like photography

Friday, December 11th, 2009

The thing I love about photography is the fact that it can be creative. It is not just the practice of capturing the world around us as it is, although that is a valuable part of it, but it is also the opportunity to create images from scratch. This is partially one of the reasons I enjoy self portraits by people. Often, the photographer will have thought about exactly what they want in the photo, creating an image in this way allows you to include or exclude whatever you want. This photo is inspired by some quotes in some of my favourite plays.

dead-st550-0092

 The first Under a Blue Sky by David Eldridge “his sightless blue eyes still shone in the sun” and Angels in America by Tony Kushner “A baby…who stares up at us with big mirror eyes and who does not know who we are.” These two quotations really stuck in my mind, the idea of sightless eyes gazing at the sky. I wanted to create an image which showed this idea of looking but not seeing and death, the final view before the end. I knew I wanted it to be a dark photo, not one with sun and I also wanted it to contain a contrast, so I wore my normal clothes as I felt this image of me, as I look day to day would contrast with the idea of death. Finally I knew I wanted two shots, one distanced to show the idea of loneliness and abandonment and one close up to show the eyes.

dead-st550-0042 

Taking the photos was actually easier than I imagined. I set up my tripod and stuck the ST550 to it, I was surprised that it had been designed to fit to a tripod, as many of my other compacts weren’t. I then set the camera to timer with the front screen on so that i could see myself. Usually I don’t use the front screen, as I’m behind the camera, and having it on while taking a photo of someone else distracts them. However in this case I found it really useful, I managed to get the shot a lot quicker than I do with my SLR camera, as I could see what I was doing rather than guessing my position or facial expression.

Overall I think in the case of self portraits the ST550’s front screen is a great idea, it made taking the photo I wanted much quicker and easier, and meant I could get in out of the rain!

CHILD LIKE

Friday, December 4th, 2009

CHILD LIKE

And so it was, having to try out the ST550’s child setting, I was kind of struggling for a subject. My son is 14 and he deemed himself as being far too mature to participate in this experiment. No matter how childish and immature I rate myself, I hate being the ‘wrong’ side of a camera so that ruled me out. My last hope was my nephew.

Ahhh yes, young Mikey. At 2 years of age an ideal candidate, this was gonna be a cinch, or at least it should have been. Trying to get a 2 year old to stay still long enough to get a blur free image should in theory not present a problem, more so when you consider the smiling clown that animates away on the front of the ST550 to help hold their interest. Well I hate to admit defeat, but after somewhere in the region of 20 shots, young Mikey decided that on this occasion running around with teddy was way to much fun to help me out in my hour of need.

With the clock ticking away I was thinking I had no chance of uploading anything using this very inventive setting, when a very recent trip to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne came to my rescue. I had arranged a shoot on the island with a group of friends, whom despite being no teenagers are always up for a hoot and now I seized my oppourtunity. They are all aware that I carry the compact with me on every shoot, for those just incase oppourtunities and when I called for a group shot, this bunch of non camera shy, wannabe models were only to happy to oblige.

Out with the 550 and a quick tap on the touch screen to select the required mode and I was ready. I have to say that despite my reservations, this group of mature people were reduced to laughing Hyenas as the clown’s face done his thing and kept the gaze of his captive audience. A questions and answers session was to follow and these folks were genuinely impressed with the child mode this little compact has. My family has never increased this quick as I now have 9 more kids to add to my album.

kindest regards to you all, Steve

Can a 9 year old be trusted with an ST550?

Friday, November 20th, 2009

My little girl embarked on an adventure  of a lifetime, but before she left I handed her my very much loved ST550, I wanted to find out if it was just me or was this little puppy as intuitive as I thought. Being a technofile, I’d pretty much worked my way around the settings after 10 minutes, but I didn’t tell her anything about the settings. Mwah ha ha.

Off she went and here is her story and pictures!

euro-disney110

Hi, I’m Amira and I went to Euro Disney for my birthday on a very fast train, I couldn’t believe the station was so close to Euro Disney, helpful people carried our bags to the hotel while we carried on straight into the Toon Toy park. It looked so realistic just like the telly. We went on a spinning car ride with Lightning McQueen and Tigger was right next to us, making a wheeeeeee sound, when Tigger asked for it to go faster Nannie was enjoying it so much she had tears of fun in her eyes.

Getting away from the baddies

Getting away from the baddies

We had a new camera to try out, it was easy to use and I like that was able to get the screen on the front to work. My first picture was a bit blurry, but after that I got the hang of things and really started to enjoy taking pictures. I worked out quickly how to check if the pictures I took were blurry or not.

When we were in the Phantom House ride I let my mummy take the pictures because I was worried that I might drop the camera when frightening things happened, first a spiders web appeared, then it got larger and larger and the train we were in went right through the yucky sticky web, with the spider still in it! Skeletons kept appearing from the walls , going “woooaaaah” our ghost train rocked from side to side, I cuddled grandad, closed my eyes and put my hood over my eyes.

Scarey Ghost Train

After a skeleton tipped a bucket of spiders over us we thought the scary ride was over, the ghost train went down a big dip making my tummy tickle my tonsils. We tried lots of rides on the first day and laughed at all the fun we had over dinner in the Hotel. Tigger came up to the table, I was excited to see him from my Winnie the Pooh books which are my favourite. I was even more excited about the next day and even dreamt of Winnie when I finally fell asleep.
When I woke up, I ate yummy Pain Au Chocolate for breakfast. Later I watched as Mummy, Grandpa and Auntie Danella went on Space Mountain, after the ride Grandpa felt really ill and looked pale, he went back to the hotel for a lie down and mummy couldn’t stop laughing. The rest of us went to the Parade which was amazing, the floats were colourful and all my favourite Disney character were taking part in the parade

euro-disney054

Indiana Jones was just like the movie, Auntie Dan was very brave she was the only one who went on the ride, we were relieved that we didn’t have to go on it to and cried with laughter. Thunder Mountain had boats that went on the water, it was perfect. On Friday we went to the stunt show, it was amazing there was a shootout and stunt men fell from the highest roof , one stuntman even caught on fire but the flames were put out by a fireman, everyone cheered like mad.

This was by far the most entertaining holiday I’ve ever been on and I would thoroughly recommend it to other children as it really does bring the family together, with laughter entertainment, surprises and a few scares.

Thank you for reading my first ever blog.

Amira

Gimpl Reigns in London

Monday, November 16th, 2009

The spectacle that is the LG Freeze event set up on the banks of the Thames, with the formidable Battersea Power Station forming an impressive background.

Sequence of 3rd placed rider

Shot with GX20, Manual Mode, shutter speed 180, F9, ISO 100. Using Sigma 18 - 50mm Lens, and an ND Grad filter, managed to get up on the judges gantry for some eye level shots

The onslope action lifted the 15,000 spectators, all craning skywards to glimpse their snowboarding heroes in action;  Ben Kilner, Nate Kern,  Jamie Nicolls and Jack Shackleton were sent out to defend our nations pride against the World’s best. Back in the dark days when Skiing was the only wintersport, Eddie the Eagle flew the flag for us and we applauded and cheered mediocraty.

Jack Shackleton UK

Shot with GX20, Manual Mode, shutter speed 180, F9, ISO 100. Using Sigma 18 - 50mm Lens, and an ND Grad filter, managed to get up on the judges gantry for some eye level shots

Thankfully those day are banished to history with a vengeance, as a host of talented British snowboarders nurtured through the Brits Snowtour, climb up the World Rankings and look set to light up the Olympics in Vancouver in little more than two months time.

This competition, the UK leg of the FIS World Cup Big Air is a qualifier for the Olympics, so the stakes were high for all the UK riders entering with lofty olympic aspirations. The Brits didn’t disappoint, Nate Kern for a while looked like he would make it to the final, with a super-massive first round air, the Scandinavians sensing an upset, went all out in the second round, with experience and weight of numbers the Norwegians, Swedes and Finnish riders came good in round two. Stefan Gimpl, winner of the Nokia Air and Style 3 years running, an Austrian legend, launched his challenge for the crown early, with an unbeaten first round air.

Stefan Gimpl's Qualifying jump

Shot with GX 20, Manual setting, F9, 1/180sec, ISO 100, Tamron 70 - 300mm telezoom lens

In Heat 2, Jamie Nicolls UK stepped up to the plate, this young man made his World Cup debut last year but was disappointed and frankly lucky to be alive when his small frame, despite flatlining it from the top of the drop in, didn’t have the mass to propel him beyond the dreaded knuckle of death. Since then, Jamie has been gorging himself on whole chickens, buffalo steaks and little people - let’s not kid ourselves, launching yourself hard and fast into the sky to land 30 m away is not easy, to do it with grace and style takes practice, lots and lots of practice.
Jamie (UK) stomping a 720
Drop in time, with the introduction by Ed Leigh and a massive cheer echoing up the ramp, Jamie went high and true, spinning and grabbing a 720 for a mid table score, first round safe air out of the way Jamie went one better in round two landing a grabbed backside 900 to claim 27th place, his ascent as a professional snowboarder continues, meanwhile his compatriat Ben Kilner another young gun who at 19, has a little more experience, demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with.
Ben Kilner Inverted at Freeze
A first round air that had the crowd cheering in disbeleif as he threw down a huge stylish 900, that left him rubbing shoulders with the top riders, if followed up with a clean safe air, a place in the final awaits (Ben Kilner clean fresh air, are you kidding !!?) ”Death or Glory Kilner” went inverted  and just failed to stick his landing 14th place and the highest placed among the Brits was his consolation. good work Ben.
Gian Luca powers to 2nd place

Shot with GX20, Manual Mode, shutter speed 180, F9, ISO 100. Using Sigma 18 - 50mm Lens, Pentax TTR power pack and AF58 flash operated remotely,

As the light went down the big boys came out to play, the  format for the final was simple: 10 riders, each have 3 jumps and the best 2 count. Roope Tonteri FIN with a double backflip, then Ulrik Badertschaer NOR with a 1260 looked like early candidates for the podium, but in competition format Gimpl, the chirpy and dimunitive Austrian, is unstoppable and landed the best trick of the contest in round two. Gian Luca Cavigelli of Switzerland and Domen Bizjak, Slovenia’s finest, pushed Stefan close, but the crowd’s favourite and birthday boy took a well deserved win in the London leg of the World Cup big air series. Congratulations Stefan.

Austrian raid is successfull

Shot with GX20, Manual Mode, shutter speed 180, F9, ISO 100. Using Sigma 18 - 50mm Lens, and an ND Grad filter, Pentax TTR power pack and Pentax AF58 flash gun operated remotely

Geneva Unconventional

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Geneva

I have just taken a short trip to visit my friends in Geneva. I am lucky
that I live (and also work) at Manchester airport and that my friend
lives near Geneva airport.
With the flight only taking 2 hours, the journey from door to door is
3 hours (well, four and a half, if you include the checking in).

I always struggle with myself when I go away on holiday - what lens do I
take? The 50mm? The 10-20mm wide angle? The 18-55? The 55-200mm
telephoto? ALL OF THEM? Agh.
As much as I love my dSLR (and I do), sometimes having a choice can be a
curse. I spend so much time in planning a ‘great shot’ that I mess it up
as I ponder which lens I should use, by which time, the opportunity has
passed me by. Also, with luggage restrictions (one piece of hand luggage
per person), I couldn’t take my camerabag
anyhow)

So, I decide to do something a little unconventional for me - I left the
dSLR at home. I took the new, and quite fabulous Samsung ST1000 instead.
That way, I would have to work with what I have got. And it did exactly
what I wanted it to.

I am still a little unused to using a compact camera - I always want to
hold it up to my eye for the viewfinder. However, with the very clear
and large screen, I was confident at what I saw is what I took.

Geneva is not the prettiest of cities, and certainly not indicative of
what Switzerland is like. But, I find it to be friendly (especially my
friends who live there, naturally). Unfortunately, it is also very
expensive - and with wealth comes incredible people… My city,
Manchester is very working class and has some of the poorest areas in
the UK. Geneva, on the other hand is the complete opposite. I was
fascinated by the wealth and exuberance of people - I have never seen so
many Porsche’s, fur coats, face lifts etc.

This was just a very quick street photo of a woman who I noticed - I
love the way that she stood out in her blue cardigan against the
charcoal grey of the buildings and the conservative dress of the other
people. As I didn’t have much chance to read the manual of the camera, I
just set the camera to automatic and literally shot from the hip.
But I couldn’t have hope for a better photo - she is crisp and in focus
and the people behind have motion blur. This is also straight from the
camera too, which is helpful and gives it a more honest and ‘raw’ feel
to it (for me anyhow).

The camera does have a wealth of features - Bluetooth (so you can send
to a phone or your Mac/PC), Wifi - you can even email your photos from
your camera to friends or even Flickr or another photo hosting site (if
you are in a wifi zone) and best of all GPS so the location is displayed
in your EXIF data. This can also be displayed on Flickr.
This is something to be mindful of - for holidays, it’s a good idea, but
remember if you take a photo at home, it can display where you live.

I was thankful that the camera can shoot video too, from small web size
videos and full scale HDTV. I did use this function while I was away to
capture some moments and was very pleased with the results.

I will read the manual when I have time, I really want to see what else
this camera can do.