Nasty Fest!

I was given the opportunity to take photos at Nasty Fest last Saturday - like I would say no! lol

I don't have much experience of gig photography so I was rather nervous! I knew that it was unlikely that I would be able to use a Flash and that the lighting conditions would be less than perfect so I made sure that I did plenty of research first and took the best lenses!

As it turned out, I was able to use flash for most of the bands (having been polite enough to ask the performers) but I didn't expect it to bee too dark to use auto focus! It is alot harder to photograph people moving while having to manually focus - I am getting rather lazy and taking auto focus for granted I think!

Anyhoooooow, I did get some good photos (well, I think they are) but I didn't go with the expectation of being able to do an amazing job as having not worked in the lighting conditions before... I will know what to expect a bit more next time.

Self Written Brief: Portraiture

So the deadline was yesterday and I think I have handed in everything...I would have liked more time on this project as I was quite enjoying it but I will carry on in my own time regardless.

I framed 4 of the photos and displayed them on the wall and all of the others were presented as back up on a portfolio.

I chose these four to demonstrate the different styles and lighting that I had used throughout my project, while still trying to ensure that theimages were strong.

Top Left - Studio Flash Lights

Top Right - Natural Light (Outdoors)

Bottom Left - Studio Flash Lights (more of a fashion style shot)

Bottom Right - Natural Light (Indoors)

Fingers crossed...mark is due towards the end of next week!

Photography Elective: Macro

Well, I have finally decided what to do for my elective and made a decent start on it; Macro & Close Up Photography.

I decided this as the current work I have in this area is minimal so it would help to expand my portfolio. This also has the added bonus that I can do it easily at home with everyday objects around the house, therefore, minimalising any stresses involved such as the wind moving the subjects or the rain stopping me from doing work ourtside...

Here are a few of my images so far;

I partcularly like the liquids as I haven't done anything like this before and not only was it rather amusing to do, it looks really interesting.

The rose I'm very happy with. It is definately an improvement on my previous rose image that can be seen on my website. The new version is so much crisper and the focus is a lot sharper, but I did use a tripod this time!

I also like the screws as I feel there is a good depth to the image, mainly due to the contrast. But I also like the composition - it worked very well having the screws on an angle.

More Portraits: Lucy

Lucy kindly volunteered to model for my portraits project last week so I decided on location would make a nice change and also that it would be rather rude not to considering the weather.

Here are a couple of the pics;

I'm a bit stuck on which I prefer. Also, a few people that have seen them think that she looks quite awkward in her pose in the second image. I think she does a little but I do really like the shot so comments would be appreciated!

Bugs and stuff...

I keep feeling the need to get out at the moment so I went to Tropical World as I haven't been there before and it isn't far to go.

As normal, I had my camera (as you may have noticed I can't go anywhere without it).
I was using my Sigma 24-70 f2.8 EX DG Macro as I haven't really had chance to make an awful lot of use of it yet and I'm still pretty pleased with it despite my reluctance to buy 3rd party lenses.

Fairly happy with the images I took, but the one below of the butterfly could have done with being on f.4 as the top of the wings creep out of focus and the rest of them were too rude to sit still. I like the Bearded Dragon though, I like lizards...was a shame I couldn't find the Iguana!