A Brick Wall

As you barrel along in life sometimes you hit a wall, sometimes you hit it so hard something breaks. Sometimes, you don't even know it happened until someone tells you. Hopefully you're listening.  

 Taken whilst doing a contortionist act on stairs directly in front of the wall using the 16-80 at 30mm 1/160th sec f4.5 iso 200 Taken approximately here.

A Story

"It was a long tiring trip but I finally made it. The weather was very cold and the snow was blowing when I left, the train got held up several times by snow drifts. It's much warmer here. I look forward to your arrival, until then, keep well and be safe."
I made that up. I originally wanted to take a photo of Peter's pocket watch. When I started I thought I should try make the background more interesting. I got out some old travel documents my Mom kept when she was young. I thought they suited the theme as schedules were so important to the railroad an accurate well made watch was essential. As I took the photos I thought it would be fun to make a story around the photo. I settled on what maybe could have been on the back of the postcard because this is a blog and well, I don't have the patience to be a writer. 

For this I used the 50mm macro 1/4sec f8 iso 800. Light was from North facing balcony window and was taken about here (green arrow not "A"). 

Forbidding Light

Keep out! Razor wire conveys that message very well. Too me it's nasty stuff. I wanted to capture that feeling when I saw it running along the roof. I spotted the big tangle of wire at the end and knew I had what I needed to get it.   

 The lens was the 16-80 at 80mm 1/500th sec at f9 iso 200. The photo was taken here.

Fab Fourever

Nicola and I went to a great show last night. We saw the Beatles tribute band Fab Fourever. What a nice coincidence it was on George Harrisons birthday. Also nice they did their encore with "Birthday" dedicated to Nicola who recently celebrated her birthday. 

I used the venerable beercan 70-210 at 210mm 1/125th sec f4 iso 3200.

Prepared Or Not, Get The Shot

"OH no!" I thought when I saw this. I had contemplated bringing my telephoto but chose not to because of the weight. I was faced with a choice, go home and mope or use what I had and work out the rest later. The longest lens I had was my 100 macro so I put it on. Hey, better than nothing, right? We were lucky he had just started and the thing he was taking off was pretty stubborn so we had lots of time. I shot as I walked along getting as close as I could. Dar was smart and brought her telephoto so she was able to get in close without moving around too much. I still had to crop a lot to bring him in and this was as close as I dared.

 The lens was the 100 macro 1/320th sec f2.8 iso 200.  The photo was shot here. 


I did a fair amount of processing. First, as I said, the photo is heavily cropped. I love the sparks so I made 2 layers. I desaturated the top layer draining the colour right out. I over saturated the bottom layer to make the sparks brighter. Then I did a lot of selective masking to bring the brighter sparks through. It was picky work but fun and I think worth what I got.

Let's Be Casual

Today Dar and I got to do our photowalk in New West. It was a great day. We got to look in on a studio and talk to the owner Mark. It was an interesting visit to say the least. We went for lunch where Dar treated me to a birthday treat. And, we even took some photos! All round very productive I think. Thought I would show a photo of Dar taking a moment to enjoy the work she had done thus far. 

 I used the 16-80 at 80mm 1/160th sec f4.5 iso 200  This photo was taken here

An Outtake

Taken the same day as the previous post we wanted to get some shots with Peters duster, hat, and pocket watch. What we were looking for was him having the watch out looking at the camera with a serious look. I was setting up trying to get the light right so took some test shots. This one the light happened to be about right and he was admiring the watch. It turned out to be one of my favourites. Of course, I had to give it that old time sepia look.

 I used the 50mm 1/125th sec f5.6 iso 100.  One flash left front through an umbrella and one flash directly behind facing forward.