Clearing Up

Well, as I have been abandoned by the rest of the family this evening I thought I would complicate putting away the washing up. This video is partly there to satisfy Harriet's curiosity about the inside of my house.

All the frames were taken by the EOS30D. I did not have to rush back to the camera each time I moved something out of shot because I have a remote release, and an electronic pulse gizmo which work together to give the 30D time lapse capability. It was capturing 1 frame every 5 seconds or so, which I then doubled by copy and paste then renaming the files. I should have remembered to put the camera in small mode and JPG only of course, but I forgot.

The film is a little out of focus because the camera was perched on top of the fridge and I had to have the lens in MF which whilst not usually a problem is in this case because of where the camera was - if one leaves the lens on AF, the gizmo just makes it focus rather than release the shutter.

The animation was put together using a program called Super
I link to the software via a third party site because the owner makes it virtually impossible to download from his web page - possibly the most frustrating website on the web, excluding pr0n pop-ups/unders etc... Why people try to make things difficult for end users I don't know! That, and the unreliability of the downloads from the authors site discourage me from actually donating to the cause, so a bit of an own goal there.

Lighthouse Moon

Lighthouse Moon
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

I had a lot of trouble getting the metering right for this picture. Several shots were exposed right for the lighthouse but, of course, the sky was burnt out.

The solution was remarkably simple.

Behind me was the sky lit by the afterglow of sunset. I Exposed the shot for that, spun round and released the shutter whilst aiming at the lighthouse.

An extreme expose/recompose motion, but remarkably effective - the lighthouse light and moon are both visible, the clouds have detail and the lighthouse itself actually looks red and white.

Well considering it was meant to be foul weather, we got away with wind and wind chill. Ambient temperature was 6C, with wind chill, much less.

Not really...

The weather for photography. Oh well, I hope easter weekend will give me a chance to get some pics done. I may experiment with the timer box - take the camera to portland bill, set up and leave it to take a few pictures - perhaps blind chance will capture dramatic wave action? Somehow I doubt it, but it is worth a try I guess.

I have taken a few very disapointing shots; the concept was good but the ability lacked. AF on a pin head is kind of tricky and MF without a tripod at f1.8 is nearly impossible at 45cm because the DoF is about 2mm.

Oh well... off to do some house work and then offski for the day to do things with the only daughter in the house at the moment.

Tomorrow we need to be in Dorchester in the afternoon, so a damp trip to Thorncombe woods calls, providing it isn't raining.

More later, if I get any pictures.

Harbour

Harbour
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

It seems that this is a 'good' picture. It was a longish exposure on a night when the air was nearly completely still and the tide was extremely high. I have added a border to make up the size, and will take it to get printed at Profolab at 12"x8"... Perhaps I will have to get a frame from somewhere as well if the picture is that good.