Take a picture once a day, whether you need to or not

[Count Nerfedalot]

waitaminnit!  previous post dated November 29 you show a militiaman wearing a short sleeve fatigues IN KIEV UKRAINE IN NOVEMBER???

[IainC]

waitaminnit!  previous post dated November 29 you show a militiaman wearing a short sleeve fatigues IN KIEV UKRAINE IN NOVEMBER???

It's t-shirt weather here at the moment. To be fair, I like the cold and anything over about -7 is t-shirt weather as far as I'm concerned but we've had double-digit temperatures pretty much consistently apart from two days of snow a couple of weeks ago..

[calapine]

Trigger warning: Potato cam









The catholic church presents: Punishment stocking garters as used in women's cloisters. 18th (lower) and mid-18 (middle) century.

Picture is from my trip to the town museum today. The one on top is a brides garter, by the way. With that choice I'd pick marriage any day.

[IainC]

Had a go at portrait photography a couple of weeks ago and just got to editing the pictures. Didn't want to spend any money so the model is a friend and the studio is my lounge. I had an external flash through an umbrella, a lamp in a softbox and a big bank of windows for lighting. I was also experimenting with an old lens I got for cheap - a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. It needed an adaptor ring for my Canon body so there was no autofocus but it had a lovely creamy focus gradient.


Melissa-17 by Iain Compton, on Flickr

If you click through then be aware that some of the photos in that album are NSFW.

I'm in Switzerland at the moment to spend Xmas and NY with the girlfriend's family. We went to an open mike show and I took my camera along for that too.


IMG_2664.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr


IMG_2710.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[calapine]

You have an interesting life.   slighty jealous

Edit:

I had an external flash through an umbrella, a lamp in a softbox and a big bank of windows for lighting. I was also experimenting with an old lens I got for cheap - a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. It needed an adaptor ring for my Canon body so there was no autofocus but it had a lovely creamy focus gradient.

For some reason I read that with Patrick Bateman's voice in my head. I hope Melissa is doing well... 

[Sir T]

never understood why women shave their eyebrows and then draw fake ones on like that. Nice photo though.

[Khaldun]

I like the middle open mike shot.

I really want to get better with portraiture. It's really hard. Lighting is one part of the battle, the other is getting your subject to look the way you want. That part really unsettles me--I feel so nervous about wasting other people's time, etc. I was struck at how soft and surrounding the light in the shots with Melissa seems, Iain--is that on purpose?

[IainC]

I like the middle open mike shot.

I really want to get better with portraiture. It's really hard. Lighting is one part of the battle, the other is getting your subject to look the way you want. That part really unsettles me--I feel so nervous about wasting other people's time, etc. I was struck at how soft and surrounding the light in the shots with Melissa seems, Iain--is that on purpose?

Yeah, I tried to reduce hard shadows as much as possible. That's why I had no direct light that wasn't diffused by something. And I shot in the middle of the afternoon so I'd get some indirect sunlight through the net curtains.

I know what you mean about directing too, I'm reasonably comfortable with the technical parts of photography (although I'm still a noob at lighting), but directing a model is a whole other thing. Luckily Melissa is pretty good at having her photo taken so I just let her swish around and pose as she wanted while I clicked away.

I have an earlier set with her where I did more of the direction and, while there are some nice photos, there are a lot where she doesn't look totally comfortable.

[apocrypha]

Yeah working with a model/subject is the hardest part of portraiture, definitely. It's also where the difference between a professional/experienced model and an amateur/inexperienced shows up the most. Experienced models are a million times easier to work with and can turn the poses and expressions on and off like switches.

The one thing I'd say about your lighting is that there's no separation between your subject & the background. If your key light was closer to her and the ratio of key:fill was higher she'd 'pop' a bit more off the background. Another thing that can work very well is a hair/separation light opposite the key, creating a subtle highlight from behind the subject.

[murdoc]

Please ignore the filtering, I had the wrong setting on the camera and have't edited the .CR2 raw image yet. Pretty happy with it either way.

[apocrypha]

Great shot

[Khaldun]

Perfect moment.

[Stewie]

So I got up early this morning to get some sunrise shots.

Headed out to White Rock beach (Just south of Vancouver, near the Can/US border)

Set up camera on tripod - check
F Stop set - check
Aperture Priority Mode - check
AEB 2 stops - check
Burst shot on - check
cable release plugged in and working- check

Alright lets get some shots!.....   Left lens Image Stabilization on while on tripod :(  I suck

Fortunately I realized and was able to get at least one salvageable shot.

[Khaldun]

Whenever I see it's going to be a foggy morning in winter, I try to force myself to get up at 5am and head out.

[IainC]

I'm in Zürich for NYE.


IMG_3016.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr


IMG_2950.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr


IMG_2960.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[Khaldun]

What's the machine? Brewery?

[IainC]

What's the machine? Brewery?

It's an industrial coffee roaster.

Shot through the window of this shop in the Alt Stadt

IMG_2963.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[Sir T]

Took this photo 5 years ago and it popped back up on my facebook history thing. Still quite proud of it.

[Khaldun]

Really nice scene. Great light.

[Endie]

Taken at the northern end of St Andrew's West Sands on a Lumia while walking the faithless hound:

[Khaldun]

Nice perspective. I love the look of the mist? blowing sand? water?
 

[Endie]

Nice perspective. I love the look of the mist? blowing sand? water?
 

It's blowing sand and it was right at collie eye-level.  It baffles me that a dog can sit there with forty or fifty grains of sand in her eyes and care not a jot.

[IainC]

I was out at Hydropark yesterday. It's a Soviet-era beach resort on an island in the river in Kiev. It's -19°C and snowing fairly hard so the visibility is way down and everything is covered in a deep layer of snow. As you can imagine, the resort isn't doing great business at this time of year (things are still open for some reason however).


Frozen Dnipro 3 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


Hydropark 10 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


Beach Bar 2 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


Frozen Dnipro 4 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


Hydropark 6 by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[apocrypha]

Very nice Endie & Iain! Particularly like the 1st & 4th ones Iain.

[Khaldun]

Love the picture of the guy in "Beach Bar 2".  First shot is wonderfully austere.

[IainC]

Phone picture on my way home last night.


Snowing on Kreshchatyk #ukraine #kievgram #igerskiev #kiev #kyiv #winter #snow #nightphotography #cityscapes #soviet #architecture by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[Lightstalker]

That's a pretty neat shot. 

Cell phones are really pretty capable cameras these days. 

[IainC]

That's a pretty neat shot. 

Cell phones are really pretty capable cameras these days. 

Yeah, I have an LG G4 and I bought it specifically because it has exceptional camera controls. I can adjust a lot of things before I hit the shutter button. Also the Instagram app uses the current camera settings which is handy too.

[Khaldun]

More fog!

[Endie]

These pictures were taken descending from Meall Bhuidhe (pronounced "Meeowl vooyer" and meaning "yellow hill" in Gaelic).  They're phone camera shots and so a bit below par on quality but the scenes are gorgeous enough to make up for some of the technical limitations I imposed on them.  The daylight in Scotland is pretty limited in duration in winter so these were taken during the race to lose as much altitude as possible before dark fell.

The third picture is from earlier in the day but I include it just in case anyone here is a fan of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped".  The route he has David Balfour and Alan Breck take crosses Rannoch Moor, which this hill bounds, detours up to Ben Alder then eventually crosses the slopes of Meall Bhuidhe and drops into Glen Lyon (by which point Balfour is very ill).  The third picture is the view down into Glen Lyon from the very ancient track that leads up from Allt a Mheanbhcruidh, over the Luban Feith a' Mhadaidh and down towards Meggernie Castle and which would have been taken by the characters at this point of the book.

[Khaldun]

Fantastic landscapes. I like the first one especially.

[Endie]

Fantastic landscapes. I like the first one especially.

I couldn't help looking at the first picture of your most recent pair and seeing the Innsmouth pike.

[IainC]

Went to the state aviation museum yesterday. It was snowing pretty hard so I was the only one there. Unfortunately I had to chuck a lot of the photos I took because the driving snow towards the end of my trip was putting spots all over my lens.
Anyhow, here's a broken MiG-25.

Disassembled MiG-25 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


MiG-25 by Iain Compton, on Flickr


MiG-19 and MiG-29 by Iain Compton, on Flickr

[Endie]

I dunno about broken, I reckon most of that would buff out.

I am seriously jealous.

[IainC]

I dunno about broken, I reckon most of that would buff out.

I am seriously jealous.

There are so many amazing photo opportunities here in Kyiv that even locals don't realise because they think 'Oh, rotting Soviet uberjet, nbd..'

I mean look at this, they are storing scrap firewood in the engine nozzles!


MiG-25 by Iain Compton, on Flickr



If any of the regulars here (basically if I internet know you reasonably well) want to come and spend a weekend or so clambering over Cold War hardware or photographing onion domes and Stalinist architecture, then just drop me a line and I'll be happy to show you around.