Monday, 1 August 2011

Patrick?!

Patrick?! by Nigel Thurgood
Patrick?!, a photo by Nigel Thurgood on Flickr.

Spongebob squarepants mate got lost. Dont worry, I tossed him back!

This is a placeholder for cafetogs.co.uk 52, the theme is F/8 though its early in the week and Im off to Colchester zoo yet, so I Might find something equally or indeed more interesting at F/8.

I had been climbing the rocks of the sea defence for this picture at Sea Palling. Got a few nasty scratches so for the amount of displeasure this wee starfish endured whilst I rattled a few quick shots off before placing him back on his rock by the water, I certainly felt some pain too!

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Learning photography

So, Im learning... By practising and following the advise Im getting at Cafetogs uk photography forum My photography is slowly getting better.


I keep plying my evolving photography skills around Norwich City and have started producing images such as:




Which I'm very happy with! I need to invest in a Macro lens now though, as the CafeTogs lot have been showing me some fantastic images gained from them!


I spent yesterday walking around walking around The Fabulous Rosary Cemetery in Norwich city. The cemetery has some interesting History. It was the first Cemetery in the UK to to allow burials of all faiths and even those with no religion. It was unheard of then to have mixed religions and even those with no faith buried in the same sacred ground.
Thomas Drummond established the cemetery in 1819. Being as radical as it was at the time it wasnt an instant hit, and sadly the first person to be buried there was his wife in 1821!


The cemetery eventually got rolling and has some important folk buried in there. Its reported that 1,850 people have been buried there since 1821.


But, enough of that, unfortunately my day there was a bust, the heavens wasnt smiling in me with it being a dank and overcast day, not only that but I had forgotten to pack my 18-55mm lens leaving me without any scene shots if the grounds. So I decided to go with my Nifty fifty lens and I had fun and learnt some things from the day, so alls not lost.




Until nest time. I bid thee goodbye.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Photography woes

As a rank amateur 'tog who's been tinkering for 6 months or so on a Canon EOS 20D I picked up off a friend. I dont seem to be progressing at a rate I had planned to. Its quite frustrating trying to nail the right perfect frame.

I've read the books and online tutorials, but it doesnt seem to come together when I'm out there with my camera!
My first attempt was along a lovely river out the back of mine. I was innitially pleased but soon realised that my subjects were unninteresting. So, I went to a local broad, and tried there. I had a better subject there, but not understanding how apertures and shutter speeds work, my attempts were very boring.




Though with some hints and tips from a Gent thats now running www.cafetogs.co.uk I soon ended up with a rather more interesting  crop:




From there I took pictures of my dog and anything else that found its way in the view finder, but with little success. I then headed out to a local trackday, and managed to pretty much forget everything I had learned about shutter speeds for most of the day, D'oh







Finally remembering the importance of shutter speeds and action led to:


Which actually, looking at it now needs an tighter crop, but hey, that mean im learning, right?

Ive been taking plenty of pics of my dog Bella with little luck. The best I have managed so far is on a day she had been chasing her ball over the field and was sitting rather tired:


Also, tried my hand at a bit of twitching:




Im back to Snetterton race track Tuesday June 7th, so stay tuned.

If your interested in more of my photos, would like to know more about me, you can find me at:
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eclectic1982/
&
CafeTogs http://www.cafetogs.co.uk/ where I regularly join meets with other 'togs.