By Edd Sowden
I quite enjoy travelling. It gives you time to sit and think, or time to catch up on videos or articles you still have to read. This is probably a good thing as I seem to be spending more and more time travelling by train around the country.
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So today I found out I have had my first photo feature in Flickr explore, last time I checked it could be found hovering around the 230th position. Making explore has secretly been one of my personal goals, not so secret any more huh. I always like to have goals which make me push myself to get the best possible results. So now I guess it's time to come up with a new goal, a new challenge, something to keep me pushing harder.
Strobist: SB600 1/8th power, fired bare, triggered using cactus v4. 2.5m from me at 4 o'Clock position.
Tonight I thought I would go out into the sub-zero temperatures and take my clothes off. I know sounds sensible doesn't it. Quite happy with how it came out considering. This was actually the last photo in a set of 50 I took and the only one where I wasn't fully dressed, but I actually prefer it to all the others.
This was my first chance to take a photo using my new light stand that turned up this morning. Hopefully I should be able to pick up an umbrella while in London on Monday and I will have completed my 'budget' single strobe strobist kit.
Strobist: SB600 bare 3 meters to the left, 1/8 power. Triggered with cactus v4.
Meet my friend Edd. He is a bit of a rock star and was very keen to have a photo shoot. Unfortunately he had a bit of a slip when he was younger and now has a slightly crooked face. This didn't stop us breaking out the ohh so up-market black backdrop and playing with a bit of strobist chiaroscuro lighting though.
Strobist: SB600, 1/32 power, 30cm stage left, white reflective sheet 10 cm stage right. Triggered using cactus v4 triggers.
Today I built a snowman, he stands in my garden at about 5 foot tall. He would have been today's photo, and I did take a few of him just incase. Unfortunately, he was hit with the ugly stick at birth and didn't make for an amazing model. This glass, a Christmas present from my brother, on the other hand is just beautiful.
I have done a small amount of photoshopping in this photo to remove a radiator, but hopefully you can't notice that.
Strobist: SB600, 1/16th power, 70mm zoom, 30cm from wall just above and to the left of the glass. Triggerd using cactus v4's.
Today I went up to London to visit the Design Museum with Andy. This is a shot of Andy looking at a selection of items designed by Dieter Rams (who I am informed is a bit of a something when it comes to product design).
The day was quite fun and we even managed to squeeze in a small snowball fight before heading home. Which reminds me, avoid National Rail during times of snow.
Walking home from work today it started snowing. It was what can only be described as a blizzard. So out came my camera to grab some shots of it falling. Taking photos in the snow introduces a number of problems, the biggest of these is snow is really wet.
Unfortunately as it was quite dark when I was walking home there wasn't much available light. This seems to have caused what can only be described as a very noisy photo. Also the white balance was being a little odd, try as I might I couldn't make itself behave, making the whole photo red. I have tried to correct this post production but its still a little yellow for my liking.
Tonight Asha and I went for a drive up to a point which lets you look out over London. On a clear day you can just about make out some of the famous landmarks. Tonight wasn't so clear but this did lend itself to creating a mesmerising orange glow over the capital.
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I tried to get a photo of a sunset today. The problem with that aim though is that sunsets by themselves are inherently dull. If you have ever seen a sunset chances are you know what they all look like. Still what are you to do in this situation? Photograph something else and just use the sunset as a cheap backdrop of course.
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Today I got Asha to push the shutter release to take this photo. We were playing with different colour paper filters over my flash to see what effect they would have. It was lots of fun pretending we were aliens with green faces.
I have also updated my 365 site to now show large size images, which is how most of them look their best.
Strobist: SB600, 1/4 Power, 1 foot to the right fired through a light orange piece of A4 copy paper. Triggered using Cactus v4 triggers.
Happy New Year. So I got a new flash today which means I can once again make use of my Cactus trigger for some strobist fun.
This was taken as Asha and I went for a stroll before seeing new years in together on the sofa in front of Jools Holland. Ohh and if you are wondering why I have titled this shot "Aliens" it's because I can't look at it without thinking the Bokeh is actually Asha's alien antenna.
Strobist info: SB-600 fired bare, 3 meters to the left 1 meter back, triggered with cactus v4 triggers on about 1/16 power.
Today marks 6 years of Asha and I dating. As such we went for our annual dinner for two. I had a great evening and once again realised how lucky I am to have her. She still makes me feel warm and happy everyday just knowing that she is mine.
During the meal the restaurant slowly started to empty out and this tulip just looked so lost and lonely after the couple that were sitting their left.
Its still ok to do Christmas based photos right? Especially if they feature Swiss Chocolate men.
Wanted to go out and get another outdoor shot this evening but found myself coding into the night instead. I ordered myself a new flash gun today so I should be able to get some outdoor strobist shots soon.