Quick Candids at Bristol Docks

It was a bright sunny Sunday afternoon. My wife & I went to the docks at Bristol. I can always find something to shoot there and haven't done much street photography lately. I normally shoot street candids with either my 17-70mm Sigma zoom or if the light is poor, I'll use my Canon 50mm. This time I thought maybe I should try my large white Canon 70-200mm lens.



For reasons unknown to me, I'm usually unnoticed when shooting candids and I thought that the big white lens on my Canon 40D with it's attached vertical grip would make me stand out like a sore thumb. Gladly, I was once again unnoticed and captured a handful of pics before having to retreat from the sun's glare (I forgot to pack the sun cream).

Anyway, here are the highlights. The cyclist at the end was one of a group that were performing tricks around the buildings. I arrived & got a couple of shots before security moved them on. As always with urban pics, I process them in B&W unless there's a reason for colour & I think the 1st qualifies. :)

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Water Iris and Depth of Field

Down at the lake on a sunny bank holiday Monday with no plans as to what I was going to shoot I spotted these iris flowers that bees were busying themselves around.

Keeping the depth of field as shallow as possible to eliminate background distractions I used a Nikkor-S.C 50mm F1.4 at F4 for the 1st pic. The next 3 where taken with a Pentacon 135mm F2.8 (the Bokeh Monster) with a 20mm extension tube to reduce the working distance a little and also shot at F4. Camera again was the Canon 40D

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Shooting Ducks (and other birds)

A peaceful Sunday afternoon at the lakes.

Canon 40D with Tair 300mm attached. I've a love/hate relationship with this lens :D

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Spring is Here

Finally some lighter nights and some sunshine.

The images were all shot around 8pm within a mile of my home, using a Tair 300mm mounted on a Canon 40D.

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Bristol Strobist Group Inaugural Shoot

This was the 1st shoot by the newly formed `Bristol Strobists'. It was shot at Bristol Docks on evening of the 13th of May. Eight Photographers and seven models gathered for was was to be a busy couple of hours. Here are a few snippets but more will be found on my website in their full glory.

First is Paul. The light was pretty bad so I upped the ISO to 200 and slowed the shutter to 1/60 to expose for what was left of the the ambient light. A flash on a lightstand positioned at camera left was set on quarter power which allowed me to use an aperture of F5.6.

Appearing again is Ross. We spotted this boarding with some `art work' on it. The ambient light was pretty much gone which was not an issue. This is simply lit using a single flash at a harsh angle again from camera left which has caused the interesting shadow. Camera settings: 100 iso F5 @ 1/200.

A quick change of cotume and now Paul has become the Mighty Boosh :)

This was quite tricky to get right and could be improved by adding shoot-thru umbrellas but time was running out. This time 2 flashes were used; both on half power set back further on either side of the camera at about 60 degrees. Camera settings were 100iso, F5 @ 1/250.

Last and by no means least was Stephanie. I used one flash on half power at 30 degrees camera right and a second flash also at half power at around 60 degrees camera left, but set further back to provide fill light and expose the bench. Camera settings were 100iso, F6.3 @ 1/250.

If you're in or near the Bristol (UK) area and wish to join our small group of strobists, then contact me for details. We're also on Facebook so search for Bristol Strobists.

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Quick Decision Modelling Photo Shoot

Mid saturday afternoon with nothing planned and I was sat at the PC chatting on Facebook to Ross about trying to organise a shoot with him Many future dates came up, but it was all getting very complex, so I said are you free now? He was, so got himself ready to come over and I frantically started charging batteries for flashes and triggers.

We headed out over the fields. I armed myself with my 40D and Sigma lens along with a couple of flash guns, light stand and radio triggers for a `Strobist' style shoot.

A few snippets below (click to enlarge) but more at: http://www.ms-imaging.co.uk/gallery/8163896_49Eo9

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May Day at Iron Acton

Each year Iron Acton celebrates May Day, but for one reason or another, this was my 1st visit even though it's only one and a half miles from home. In true bank holiday tradition the weather wasn't great. I stayed a couple of hours before fearing for the health of my equipment and calling it a day.

I did manage to catch a few highlights including the young maypole dancers and catch a few stalls. I spent much time admiring the steam engines, owls and avoiding the rides with screaming children :).

This owl was un-phased with all the comotion, but refused to pose for me.

The sheep was part of the `Pat a Pet' stall which featured rabbits, guinea pigs, various birds and probably many other anaimals that were lost in a sea of eager children.

And this fellow just happened to catch my eye.

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A quick stroll with a bagfull of lenses

Picking our moments with the English weather, myself and fellow photographer Mark Lovell (http://mlovell-imaging.co.uk/) headed out to stretch along the river severn that neither of us were familiar with. I took along only manual focus lenses in M42 mount and used them on my Canon 40D with and M42>EOS adapter. The lenses were 24mm Ensinor, 35-85mm Vivitar Series 1, 90mm Tamron and finally my Zeiss 135mm. The Tamron wasn't used but the other 3 were and the best of each lens is below. Click the images for bigger sizes

First out of the bag was the Vivitar 35-85mm. A vario focal lens from around 1980. Its constant F2.8 aperture means it weighs a fair bit. It has good image quality at all focal lengths and all apertures. Bokeh is great from 50mm-85mm, but the bokeh at 35mm is not to eveyone's taste.

Vivitar Series 1 at 35mm @F11




Some young sheep seemed to be posing for the camera, so I pulled out the longer 135mm Zeiss. This lens is the sharpest prime I have. Image-wise I cannot fault this lens, it just does everything I want it to do. My only gripe is that the focus is stiffer than I like.

Zeiss 135mm @5.6


Last but by no means least is the Ensinor 24mm F2.8 Macro. I know little about this lens and discovered it by accident. If you have any info on it please email me as many internet searches have led nowhere. I had originally bought a Tokina 24mm lens but it really did nothing for me. I spotted this Ensinor and decided to give it a try and was suitably impressed. It's main use will be on my Pentax Spotmatic SPii.

Ensinor 24mm @F11 with circular polariser


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A walk with a cheap 400mm prime lens

A day off work and some sunny weather was the excuse I needed to get out and take some photos.

I used my Canon 40D with an Osawa 400mm F5.6 lens. The lens has a Nikon mount, manual focus and manual aperture. I paid the princely sum of £33 for it last year in mint condition. It's not a bad lens for the price. It's sharp, with decent bokeh and it is extremely light making it comfortable to handhold for long periods. It does suffer a bit with CA in high contrast conditions when used wide open, but this is easily fixed with photoshop or other editing software.

Click the images for bigger samples:




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