These two photographs were taken on Southport beach looking towards the pier at sunset. They were both shot using the D300 & 18-200mm VR lens (I remembered to switch image stabilisation off whilst on the tripod this time!). As far as post-processing is concerned, I've just installed the Mogrify & Photomatix plugins for Lightroom. The former gives you the ability to add frames and has vastly superior watermarking abilities to Lightroom, and as I use Photomatix as a standalone application often the latter plugin means that I can export an HDR series straight from Lightroom into the Photomatix application without having to export the files to Windows first. Both real time savers, and free  _thumb.jpg)
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Went to see my old DJ'ing spar playing out last weekend. He has a residency at a bar in Manchester and still kicks it on a regular basis. I've been invited to do a set over Christmas and I enjoyed myself so much, that I may even have to dig a few ol' tunes from the garage and dust off a record box or two. Anyway back to the matter in hand, these were shot with the D3 and the 18-200 lens with the flash off camera. For the top one, the flash was placed low down to the left of the decks. For the shot below, the flash was held to Marv's right by our good friend Rich. (He made a great light stand!) _thumb.jpg)
Myself and some of the other guys I was recently at night school with spent a couple of hours wandering around Piccadilly and the Northern Quarter the other weekend. I won't flannel you with excuses, save to say that my head really wasn't quite in the place I needed it to be to do this, but I reckon I got some half decent shots nonetheless. These are 2 of my faves. The rest are on Flickr. 
 Finally managed to get some processing done at last. Thought I'd plough through a couple of dusk and dawn shoots I did in Accrington last month. Shot with D300 and used Nik's fantastic Silver Efex Pro. 
Just a quick post for today. The wife and kids have gone out and I'm off to the gym shortly followed by the football. The season has started again.... at last!! Anyway, I saw this link titled "60 Incredible Aerial Photos You Must See" in the show notes for the PhotoNetCast podcast Episode 9 which is some fantastic aerial photography from Yann Arthus Bertrand. There are some stunning images on this page and these are definitely a must see. Totally amazed, I then I did a bit of googling on the photographer and found his own site (Click here). This is a truly outstanding project he's been running - he's amazed over half a million aerial photographs taken in some 100 countries! There's a whole host of environmental information on there and some other photography projects he's been working on (which are also worth a view). I was totally overwhelmed by the content of this site - it has to be seen to be believed. There's also another site of his (link here) where there are 2000 aerial wallpapers to download complete with descriptive captions.... FOR FREE! Truly an inspiration! Already googling helicopter hire...
 Crikey, what a week! What with the wedding last weekend, my trip to London this week, and the family holiday which starts tomorrow, its all been a bit manic! 
The trip to London revolved around a visit to the Tate Modern to see the "Street & Studio" Exhibition. The trip was worth it for this alone - a tremendous show featuring work from artists ranging from Charles Negres to Philip-Lorca diCorcia and from Brassai to James van der Zee. While I do like a lot of studio work, my heart is really with the street stuff, and trust me there is some fantastic work on show. I was especially taken with Cindy Sherman's Bus Riders series from the 70's in which she photographs herself in a series of portraits recalled from characters she has seen on buses. She makes no attempt to hide that these are staged studio shots, as she has left the shutter release cable evident in each image. Very imaginative work indeed. I didn't buy the accompanying book as I couldn't be fagged carrying it around all afternoon with me, but as soon as I return from my hols, its going straight into my cart.  Whilst in London, I took the opportunity to get as much street and urban landscape photography in as possible - which basically consisted of two 12 hour days! Despite a run in with security and the press office on Canary Wharf (they wanted £200/hour so as I could just get my camera out of its bag), spending the "golden hour" on Wednesday morning getting lost on the tube, getting seriously blistered feet and sunburnt, I had a whale of a time! I filled 2 and a bit 8GB memory cards and I've only just got round to going through them (I've really gotta get my hit rate up - plan to use film again for my next project so as to discipline myself a bit more). I'd post more details of my trip, but I'm quite literally nodding off as I type. Maybe tomorrow if I get the time...  I've been using a trial of Lightroom 2 to process the London and wedding shots, to see if I can really justify the $99 upgrade fee (still quite pissed at this!), and I'm really impressed. The dual monitor functionality, I find is marvelous and makes life a great deal easier. I'm also seriously digging the Adjustment Brush which also improves processing time. It has crashed once on 2 separate XP machines, and there also appear to be some difficulties launching into Photoshop, but its a thumbs up so far. Slightly off topic, del.icio.us have relaunched a new and improved service - see delicious.com/fabfilippini And to finish off the week a few links for you:-
1) Came across this site in Prospect Magazine - guerillaphotography.co.uk. I quite like the concept of this kinda thing, though don't know if I would have the balls to venture into some of the places myself.
2) This week in photography - twipphoto.com - a great podcast and great site.
3) And finally, the Aperture Nature Photography workshops have just been announced, but wait for it, they're invite only..."This is a year-long adventure and TWIP audience members will have the opportunity to enter a contest that might win them more than $2500 worth of prizes and an all-expenses paid trip to one of these parks." Read more here. Can't type any more, zzzzzzzzzz........
Brief post today. Computer equipment is all overheating (its topping 100F in office again), so I'm struggling to process shots from the wedding. It was a great success and I'm pleased with my results. Off to London for 36 hours shooting tomorrow, so I ain't gonna get the rest processed until later in the week. Going to see the Street & Studio exhibition at the Tate Modern, and roam the streets  . Not got any themes in mind just yet, time for that later, but really looking forward to it!
Off topic: My Ipod (5th Gen) video not so long ago decided it wasn't going to play any more video podcasts, which I've found quite annoying as I watch Photoshop User TV & Matt Kloskowski's Lightroom podcasts on there. Just tried a complete reset and resync but that hasn't worked either. I reckon its probably an Apple update that's killed it, but unfortunately no more time to investigate. Had planned on loading it up for the train journey down, will have to do withouth. Apple Grrrrrrr
Now don't get me wrong, I love the warm sunny weather, but its topping 32 degrees in my office at the moment, and not only is it causing my Belkin 4 port USB hubs a bit of grief it's also playing havoc with my brain. So if this post goes a bit wayward, blame the weather!
My prints from SmugMug arrived this morning, and I'm really pleased. The quality of print is fantastic, and considering they've come from Atlanta, 7 days really isn't bad going at all. I think that's finally sold it for me, and I'll be moving my galleries over pronto.
Another trip into Manchester this morning, and I now reckon I have sufficient new stuff to update the calendar. Will be spending the rest of this afternoon and Monday morning prepping them, and then will get them sent off to the printers. Hopefully they'll have everything done by the time I get back from my hols.
I paid a visit to the chaps at Pro Film Direct on my way back to the ranch. I've got my first wedding tomorrow (ok it's my brother in law, but hey I wanna do it right don't I?) and I wanted to quiz them about off-camera flash set ups. I've seen Scott Kelby and others mention the Westcott setups amongst other kit, but it's all based State-side and shipping that kinda gear all the way over here won't be cheap. Calumet seem to be really quite pricey on the lower end stuff, but Rick at PFD came up trumps. As usual a quick visit to PFD never happens... we had a brew, played with a D700 (their first stock D700 arrived whilst I was there), and then got down to business with lighting. I've rented a Manfrotto light stand, a Bowens silver & white dual purpose umbrella and an umbrella adapter to mount the speedlight and pop the brollie through, all for the meagre price of 20 sovs. Rick and Steve even gave me a quick demo inside the store and outside in the sun. I also managed to get an ND10,000 77mm filter for an absolute song. I've been after one of these for a while - it'll knock off 13stops!! They really are a tremendous bunch there, and if you're ever in need of any kit, film or digital, used or new, try them first - 0161 273 3003 - Unit 1 Cariocca Business Park, Hellidai Close, Manchester. M12 4AH.
Made it into Manchester yesterday evening in order to try and get some more shots for the calendar as it looked to be a nice evening. Was a bit miffed when just as I was parking, the sun decided it would disappear behind some clouds only to reappear for about 5 minutes before it decided to set. I grabbed a few of the town hall (which I've yet to process), but all in all it was a bit of a wasted trip. Ho hum. 
I had a late start this morning, again, as I had to run some errands and do a spot of re-cycling (I wish they'd take plastic and cardboard from our doorstep along with the paper and cans that they already do). I remembered from a while ago, that there was a rusty burnt out old Ford Ka near the re-cycling centre, so I thought I'd investigate it again. Foolishly, I had shorts and trainers on! The car was about 1/4 mile down a very overgrown wet path riddled with nettles. I made it through pretty much unscathed, though it did take me a while. But when I got there, the car was pretty much engulfed by vegetation. I got a few frames off, and then headed back the same way.... slowly! Don't really feel that I got anything great though. The above is what I found when I got there! I'm trialling the Nik Software Silver Efex Pro and I thought I'd process this with it - interesting & pleasing results. It's not cheap, but from everything I've read about it, it's well worth the $$. We'll see.... TTFN
Well you just wouldn't Adam & Eve it - for the first time in what feels like weeks the forecast last night for this morning was one of dry and bright, not warm but who cares! No rain and no grey skies! So I was up at half 3, out the door by 4 and in Manchester by half 4 - 30 minutes before sunrise. I shot for about 4-5 hours pausing briefly for a black coffee and a croissant in Starbucks with all |