Macro Photography Artwork Attempt and Monkey

Through Photoshop I decided to create an image from an interesting  photograph I took using macro tubes with my Canon 60D.

Original Image 

Piece created on Photoshop

 And here is my first attempt at photographing my pet Pygmy Marmosets whilst using macro tubes, can't wait to try again when there is more light.

Pygmy Marmoset (macro tube

Let me know what you think, cheers

Chris

Canon 60D Macro Tubes

A couple of weeks back I bought a set of macro tubes for my 60D from Amazon at a ridiculously low price. Paying so little I really didn't expect much but I've fallen in love with this cheap and simple addition to my kit. The general principle behind macro tubes is, by moving the lens further away from the camera's sensor you can greatly reduce the minimum focal distance capable by that lens. The tubes fit to my camera easily and support both my kit lenses with no problems, it goes with out saying just be careful with heavier lenses. When shooting with tubes you need quite a lot of light to work with but handheld shots are attainable outside on a sunny day or with the help of additional lights when shooting indoors. For interior shots though I would certainly recommend a tripod and a shutter release button (also available for a few quid on Amazon) for best results. 

The biggest challenge when using macro tubes is getting your point of interest in focus as your depth of field range is reduced to literally a centimetre of miniature sharpness. I know what you're thinking to increase the depth of field can you not just simply close the aperture on the lens? Yeah it does help but unless you have aperture controls on your lens we run into another problem as the macro tube is separating the lens from the camera and every time you disconnect your lens it resets to a wide setting. Through some online research I did discover a way to stop this lens resetting on the 60D by disconnecting the lens whilst holding down the unmarked button (actually Depth Of Field preview button) found just below and to the left of your lens mount. Obviously closing the aperture will mean you need even more light and this is when a tripod becomes a necessity.

Hand held Wasp in the Garden

Hand held Spider in the garden

Hand held Ladybird in the Garden

Tripod and additional light, Shelley's Eye

Tripod and natural light from window, Scratch Card

Tripod and natural light from window, Charm (for Ebay)

Macro Tubes on Amazon

Thanks for checking out my blog and please let me know what you think in a comment. 

Humber Bridge HDR and random Raw photos taken on the Canon 60D

A few HDR photos of the Humber Bridge which is just a couple of miles down the road from me plus a couple of photos edited on Photoshop's Camera Raw program.

Humber Bridge HDR

Humber Bridge HDR

Humber Bridge HDR

Seagull RAW

Me and my bird Shelley's cat Socks

Jamie Gray Music video

Over the weekend just passed I was asked to help out on my first music video. The video is being made by my good friend Tom Lee for a local artist named Jamie Gray. I was given the role of second camera as Tom who is also a keen cinematographer was on first. This really suited me though as it allowed me much more creative freedom through out the shoot, I could look for new and interesting compositions to accompany his shots. I also filmed all of the glide track shots through out the video, which was my first really good practice with this bit of kit.

Friday (11 November 2011)

On Friday we filmed just Jamie on his own in a local music venue called The New Adelphi. This was a dramatic low-key lighting shoot which worked pretty well, lots of silhouettes and moving light sources. I used my glide track to get my favourite shot of the day, Jamie's fingers playing the keys on his keyboard as I tracked along with them, all as Tom waved a portable LED light around in time with the music. 

Me and Tom filming Jamie

Saturday

On Saturday I was directed to a modern warehouse and when I went inside a large room had been converted in to a miniature war ground by set designer Olivia Young. The sort of thing you might expect at an indoor paint balling arena with two improvised barriers at each end and scattered debris throughout. We filmed two teams of four men dressed up as urban soldiers fighting each other with toy weapons and as you can imagine it soon became a hectic shoot. Sticky darts to the face, marbles flying and lots of minor injuries. We got through it all though in good time and with no real harm to equipment or cast. On this day most of the action was set up for the primary camera and it was harder for me to find usable shots, I filmed a lot of handheld footage of the fighting and I did get some nice glide track shots of all the soldiers playing dead at the end.

Me preparing to film some of the soldiers

Improvised barrier and soldiers

Me using my glide track shooter as a shoulder rig

Sunday

On Sunday we filmed the two gangs with some 'real looking' weapons in their individual bases along with lots of running shots from their bases to the battle. All of these shots where filmed either outside or in derelict buildings so we only had natural light and a small portable LED box to work with. Once again I put my glide track to good use with some nice tracking establishing shots of the gangs. The rest of the shoot was me running around like a mad man using my glide track as a shoulder rig. Considering the abundant amount of distractions present we managed to get finished in good time once again, which was a bonus as the sun was slowly becoming less camera shy as the day rolled by. Once again my favourite shot was whilst using my glide track (obviously still surprised at how professional this piece of kit makes your work look). This time tracking forward into the shot as one of the gangs leave their base.

Me and Tom discussing an establishing shot on the glide track  

Me using the glide track as a shoulder rig

  

The weekend as a whole went very successfully and I loved having the opportunity to film something totally different. Each day brought a new set of challenges especially in relation to lighting and camera movements. Best of all I finally got to put all my new equipment to good use and it's all looking like a good investment.

A behind the scenes edit from the shoot made by my long time collaborator and one of the gang members Adam Hill, will be uploaded hopefully by the end of the day so keep coming back to this post if it's not on here yet! Also at some point in the near future I will be compiling a show reel of my own footage from the shoot so keep looking out for that as well as the finished music video itself which I will hopefully be able show you next month.

Update

Behind the scenes video by Adam Hill.

James E. Gray - Chaos Concerto (behind the scenes) from Adam Hill on Vimeo.

Tuna Shake Baby

A few months back I helped work on the short film Tuna Shake Baby written and directed by my friend Adam Hill (contact him here) We've worked on a couple of films together and I plan on working on a lot more with him over the next few years. The film showed to a good reaction at Hull Truck Theatre during it's first screening. Let me know what you think.


Tuna Shake Baby from Nish Hill on Vimeo.

Paranormal Activity 3

At home my girlfriend's never been the best at choosing films, ninety percent of the films she buys or picks end up being disappointing, she falls asleep and I end up stuck watching them through to the end. She's a horror fan and I've always liked a good horror film the difference is she can get drawn in by a gory looking DVD case or a grisly sounding title and it takes a little bit more to rise my interest. Just being gory or having some random loud noises to try and make the audience jump doesn't do much for me. Last night she convinced me to go and watch Paranormal Activity 3, it doesn't usually take me much convincing to go to cinema but in this case I hadn't seen the second film which I thought might effect my understanding of this one. I needn't have worried as there was very little story at all. Obviously as I have not seen the second film and honestly remember very little of the first film in the series I will not review the trilogy and instead look at the film as it's own entity. What can I say? You can change the venue but you cant change my girls luck when it comes to picking films, needless to say I was disappointed and judging by the groans at the end of the film across the cinema, I wasn't the only one. The film starts off slow, moves along slowly, slows down a little, stops for a break, sets off again but then trips over and the credits roll. I may come across as harsh but put it this way, my girls a jumper, when we went to watch Insidious she was flying above or hiding under her seat more time than she was sat on it. That was what I call a good horror film using suspense to create real fear in the viewer. Paranormal Activity just didn't deliver in any way, there were times when she was bored and she jumped only a handful of times at the stock sudden loud noises, I half jumped once, again at a sudden loud noise.

When trying to find something positive to say about the film a few things where OK, I did generally like the male characters in the film and the Bloody Mary scene is the strongest of the whole movie by far but there is just so much wrong with the rest. I may be a little bit more tuned in than the desired Paranormal Activity fan-base but I couldn't believe how easy the end was to predict, not so subtle clues throughout trying to be clever but failing completely. In fact I thought the whole movie was predictable. The Mother character was such an idiot by the second half of the film you just wanted to shake some sense into her, actions with no apparent consequences where a common occurrence which really gets on my nerves.  Maybe it's just me, getting cynical in my not so old age. My 14 year old brother and his friends liked it but then would he have been cool if he had said he hadn't? I guess if you like the other Paranormal films there will be no stopping you but to everyone else who's not sure, save your money and go watch a film worth watching.

Also I was planning on putting a trailer for the film at the end of this review, but pretty much every shot in the trailer was not in the film! What's that all about? I checked twice to make sure I was watching the right trailer on IMDB it's ridiculous, especially as the trailer was more enjoyable than the film.

Let me know what you thought of the film and don't be afraid to disagree with some or all of what I've written, I wont take it to heart.  

Factory - Canon 60D HDR and RAW Photography

The weather wasn't too bad today so I decided to go for a random drive with my camera and tripod sat shotgun. I ended up at a spot we call circles which I hadn't been to in a while. A few years back me and some friends tried to skate around here and it's always been one of those places you could go shooting your air rifle with no bother, made cooler by the post apocalyptic feel of the place. Good times for borderline rebellious kids who where too nice to actually piss anyone off. Anyway here's the first few photos which I've had time to process, probably will add a few more over the next few days.

The Tower

HDR view from the Tower

Partially desaturated HDR view from the Tower

Between the two HDR images which do you prefer? Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Take it easy, Chris

Canon 60D HDR

Really hoped for some better weather today and a nice sunset but it never came. Still went out and captured what I could and here is the finished result. Not so sure about the sky, will have to go out again on a better night and try again. It's all good practice I guess. The more I look at this image the more it seems to portray a statement about pollution, because of this new way of seeing the picture I am warming more to the result.

Interior HDR attempt Canon 60D

First attempt at creating an HDR image indoors, using a window as my main point of interest. Let me know what you think.

Canon 60D HDR 

Canon 60D HDR Attempt

This is my first attempt as making an HDR image, which is basically an image made up of several photos taken at the same time at different exposures to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) I'm fairly impressed with the outcome for a first try and I will certainly be trying this technique again. The picture was taken in my garden using a Canon 60D on a Manfrotto tripod, uploaded and converted using DPP and then edited using Photoshop CS5. Let me know what you think.

My Garden - Canon 60D HDR 

Suzuki Manji

It's been a while since I've posted about my other love, after Shelley, Cinematography and Photography there is the blues harmonica. By no means am I a musician, the world famous Yorkshire blues man Chris Ulliott, yeah in my dreams. But I do love my 10-hole diatonics and I play a mean solo set in my kitchen or in the bath tub. My playing is at least a lot better than my singing, I'm still waiting on that bluesy vocal tone which I hope comes with older age. Anyway lets get to the point of this post, I recently bought a Suzuki Manji for around sixty quid on Amazon. This is the first time I've ever spent so much on a harmonica, usually playing mid-level harps from Hohnor, Lee Oskar and Seydel, and I have to say I am enjoying playing this 'professional' mouth organ. Was it worth the extra money, I don't know, will I buy another? Probably when I can afford one. It's definitely easier to play on the higher notes than the equivalent cheaper models. I bought this harmonica when I was going through a 'Key of D' stage and therefore purchased it in a D and it does sound really nice however looking back maybe a C would have been a better choice. I could be tempted with a different pro-harmonica next and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My Harmonicas

So what's good about the Manji? It's a little bit louder than all of my other harmonicas which is cool. It's also nice to venture into the high notes with more ease than I've ever personally experienced. It looks pretty cool and according to Suzuki it should outlast any other harp so if that's the case then for a pro-harp I guess it's good value for money.

Suzuki Manji

What I don't like so much, bending the second draw doesn't sound as strong as I would have hoped and within just a couple of weeks I've already slightly bent the casing whilst it's been, admittedly unboxed, in my pocket. I presume the open back design creates more volume at the expense of weakening the structure. Also the spacing and size of the holes are slightly different from my other harps so it's taking me a while to play as cleanly as I know I'm capable, practice makes perfect I suppose.  

Bears prefer the Manji

Maybe one day I'll post a video of me playing, not today though as I'm going red just thinking about it. Anyway take care guys, keep on keeping on and remember the wise words of Willie Brown 'If you don't play no harp, you don't get no pussy'.

60D Photo of the day

I recently bought a Canon 60D DSLR camera and thought I might start a series of blog posts showing photographs which I am especially happy about taking. This is a photograph taken of one of my family's many Pygmy Marmosets and I like the composition and layers in the shot. I've messed around with the levels a little bit on Photoshop to make the image more dramatic. 

Pygmy Marmoset

A few weeks after making this post I decided to have another go at the post processing on this picture and here is the result, which I think is an improvement.

Pygmy Marmoset

Last night's film 'S.F.W.'

It was getting late last night and as usual I couldn't sleep so I started my usual ritual of searching through the films showing on my Sky HD box. This night I stumbled across an unusual film called S.F.W.made in 1994. I'd never heard of it before but the synopsis intrigued me so I put it on and stayed awake until the credits rolled, which I guess is a good sign. It's a hard film to explain so I've nicked the plot summary from imdb because I'm lazy like that and my Dinner's ready soon.

 Cliff Spab is a guy who doesn't really care about anything. He gets held hostage at a store for 36 days by terrorists, who demand that the entire thing be broadcast on national television. Cliff ends up taking a bullet for fellow hostage Wendy - making him a national hero. The two are the sole survivors of the ordeal, and soon become prisoners of the media. Cliff escapes it all, only to find himself being pushed further away from Wendy when he needs her most

That's a pretty shit summary to be honest and I could do better if I had more time/motivation but I don't. Anyway the point of this post is that I liked the film and think more people should know about it, presuming that I wasn't the only person who had never heard of it before. It's definitely the kind of film I used to be into a few years back,  a View Askew kind of feel but not as many obvious and crude jokes. It even stars Joey Lauren Adams a Kevin Smith regular. The characters actually seem like real people who I'd quite like to hang out with and the story is pretty cool. This film in my opinion sums up the nineties and questions the ridiculous media obsessions in western popular culture in a way which kept me entertained and made me laugh. I recommend it to everyone, especially those who grew up in the nineties.

Monkeys filmed on my new 60D!

Video shot on N8 phone camera with lenses!

Here's a short video I made from some footage I shot on an Nokia N8 phone in HD using a macro and a fish eye magnetic lens.

Last nights film 'The Loved Ones'

The Loved Ones Film Poster

Verdict - Gory and stylish horror filmed beautifully, story's a little daft but aren't they always. Definitely worth a watch.

The Loved Ones Screenshot

Trailer

Holidays with my N8

This Summer I have been lucky enough to get away to three different countries: Majorca with my Dad, Portugal with my Mum and my favourite Rhodes with my beautiful girlfriend Shelley (link to her blog). This year I decided not to take my usual and now dated fixed lens semi-pro camera (Samsung Pro815) instead opting to just use the camera on my Nokia N8 mobile phone. To most photographers this may sound absurd but trust me the quality of the images from the the 12MP Carl Zeiss lensed phone camera matched those of my old big camera. Obviously I would miss the manual focus ring but overall I decided the disadvantages did not justify lugging my camera about. If the holidays had been more photography related rather than family and romantic it might have been different. A few months back I bought a set of glass lenses for my phone camera which stay with me on my keyring at all times (macro, wide and fish-eye) and I have downloaded a phone application giving me more control over the cameras settings so I do have more manual control than one might expect from a phone camera. An impressive feature of the Nokia N8 is its ability to film in HD with surprisingly good results, to have a camera which catches usable quality footage in one's pocket at all times is a blessing for anyone interested in cinematography. Here are some examples of images and a video taken from the N8 on my holidays.

My Dad Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott

Devilfish on a bike ride

Me and two of my Brothers

One of my nieces

Another niece

Shelley's cat

Me and Shelley

Lizard I caught in Rhodes

Here is a short edit I made from some footage taken in Rhodes

My pet Pygmy Marmosets