Paris with my Girl

For Christmas my amazing girlfriend Shelley bought me and her a trip to Paris for two days, spending one of the days in Disneyland and the other exploring the city. Here are my favourite photographs from the trip, some have been messed with on Photoshop. Let me know what you think and if you like the album. All the photographs were shot on my Canon 60D with just the kit lenses. 

Shelley on the Carousel in Disneyland

Me and Shelley in a Disney shop

Shelley

Shelley Disneyland Paris

Shelley Disneyland Paris

Shelley with the Arch de Triumph

Arch de Triumph

Shelley with the Eiffel Tower

Me and Shelley

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower reflection

Eiffel Tower

Santa at the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower Pigeons

Eiffel Tower

Paris Cars

Shelley on the Bridge of Locks

Shelley on the Bridge of Locks

Paris Worker

Paris

Shelley dropping a statue

Beggar of Notre-dame 

Shelley on a Paris Bridge

Inside-out building Paris (The Pompidou)

Saint-Merri church Paris

Paris HDR

Hotel view, MR Bed City Torcy, Paris

Muffin Shelley's cat

Here is an unedited (longish) video of our trip shot on my Canon 60D with a Rode video-mic Pro attached. I will be making a shorter edit eventually.

Comments appreciated and take care of yourselves,

Chris

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. 

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 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 

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.

Modern Technology and Movie Plots

....Directors have no problem getting an audience to believe in ghosts, vampires, succubi, extraterrestrials, poltergeists, gremlins, wizards, giant worms, latter-day dinosaurs or rustic werewolves who seem to have unlimited access to steroids; all that is deemed perfectly logical and believable. But it is impossible to get anyone to believe that a character in a horror film or thriller would not be armed with the technology needed to foil the depredations of his rampaging, bloodthirsty stepfather. This is the impasse to which technology has brought us.

I read this in an article about how modern technology has affected the plot structure of films and thought it was quite interesting. How so many films would not have the same affect on it's audience if set in today's technologically advanced world. I was impressed with one persons response to the article:    

Taxi Driver,

Rather than mope around his flat bored and lonely Travis would either become an obsessive facebook stalker or use the internet to reach out to likeminded individuals.. in fact that would make a good film in my opinion! the resultant bloodbath would be awesome.. thats if Travis could be bothered to leave his flat rather than getting bogged down in internet porn or spending his days arguing with people on youtube.

Travis Bickle, send friend request?

Can anyone think of any other good examples?

Thanks for reading, Chris.

Lenses For My Phone Camera!

Whilst browsing the web three or so weeks back I came across these beauties, two detachable glass lenses for your phone camera. One fish-eye lens and one combo macro and wide angle lens, needless to say I ordered them right away. I just thought they were the coolest things ever and I still do after receiving them through the post yesterday. My Nokia N8 is an amazing camera phone which I had already used a lot but now with these two bad-boys on my key ring at all times along with my 'Big Six' six-hole blues harp I've got unlimited entertainment in my pocket every time I leave my house.

Camera Phone Lenses

Here are some photographs I took with my phone yesterday, all manipulation and effects have also been done on the phone itself. They are all untouched with my computer. 

Macro photograph of condensation and guacamole on a plastic lid. 

Macro image of a crossbow bolt tip

Lomo effect of a Bee and flowers

More lomo

Fish-eye 

Fish-eye

Part of my keyring (macro)

Ten pound note (macro)

Sweet wrapper (macro)

Dashboard texture (macro)

Ten pound note (macro)

Ten pound note (macro)

Fish-eye flowers

Had to sneak a self portrait in

Shelley's hamster (Fish-eye)

Shelley's eye (macro)

Shelley's cat 'Socks' (fish-eye)

Fish-eye paw

Socks a.k.a. Skraghead (fish-eye)

I'm really happy with my lenses and I think my first day of using them was a successful one as there are some good photos in there, let me know what you think and take it easy, Chris.