Under the spotlight (Natural History)

Under the spotlight (Natural History), originally uploaded by jimbrett_uk.

This is a test some blog text goes here blah blah

Still Object

I have a little boy who is 4 years old and he has so many toys its not true. Quite alot of them bought by me as an excuse to play :). Anyway, one of his more nostalgic toys is a Slinky but, its not just any old Slinky its a plastic multi colored Slinky. Its colours are so bright and vivid I thought I would see if I could capture them for an abstract type picture.

Now ive had ago at still life before and never had much success, mainly I think to a lack of decent lighting and poor composition (what else is there). So today I decided to think about how I was going get setup to light and pose the slinky.

Reflection or Shadow

Well I have decided to use one of the shots from the Ford garagae fair (see earlier blog) as my reflection shot.

What i think about the shot:

I love this shot for its bizarre almost hallucagenic qualities, it looks just like something from the Magic Roundabout.
I feel the exposure is good, with very strong colours, good highlights and shadows. The reflection is nice with some detail - although not that exciting I admit.
I think the circle of the light and the circle of the flower balance each other out and are juxtaposition.
I do prefer bright colourful images and for me this would make a great poster :)

Technical details
EXIF data
I shot this on using a 70-300mm basic cheap Canon lense, nothing special. Pretty close to the subject id say about 6 feet and zoomed in as per the data. I focused on the detail in the refelection/edge of the light.

Photoshop modification
The bottom right hand corner had the edge of the wheel arch in, so cloned it out. Also removed some dust from the cars paintwork (on the car not the lense or sensor) and remove a small amount of myself that was caught in the reflection :)

Sat down today and worked through my essay for module one. Chose my favourite photographer at the moment Sean T McHugh who's website can be found here: www.cambridgeincolour.com

Got together some of his shots and put down my thoughts on what i liked and disliked (not much).

I also started to think about various ideas for the 10 photo styles so far.
TBC

Well we popped out to the local Ford "super garage" today as they had an open day with a fair for the kids (for free). We took out little boy down to have ago on the rides etc. I grabbed my camera and 70-300 lense in the hope I might get one decent shot from some happy snapping. The weather was very windy and changeable which made life difficult and what with a little boy who never likes cameras!

So, I practiced a few movement/motion shots on the rides to see what results i could get, but nothing special. I also took some shots of him, and some close ups of the rides with reflections, and result! I think i have my first module 1 photo "Reflection or shadow". Exposed well and very colorfull, just needed some photoshop touch ups to get rid of some dirt on the car.

My coursework arrived this morning at 6.30am - ouch!

I got a nice surprise when opening up the pack to find a load of free goodies most of which i was planning to buy including: a portaflash 5 in 1 reflector, a grey card, a pack of photo paper and a folding flash bracket. I had a quick look at the Jessops website (the were provided as free gifts from jessops and fuji) and they add up to nearly £70 so well pleased - oh and 10% discount card for jessops :)

Ive had a quick read through the literature which bascially consist of a course (technical) and module book and a welcome letter.

Module 1 consists of taking 10 photos (at least 2 in color and 2 in black and white) fo the following subjects:

• Night time outdoors
  
• Scene from your local environment
  
• Natural history
  
• A building
  
• Reflection or shadow
  
• Indoor low light subject
  
• Social gathering
  
• Person in his/her own environment
  
• Still object
  
• Motion
  

This unit is not marked but used to allow the tutor to asses you starting standard for the course.

You are also asked to submit 500 words explaning who your favourite photographer is and why you admire their work, accompanied by examples of their work.

Welcome everyone to my Amateur Photography Diploma course blog. As its name suggests this is going to be a blog about me and my progress through the photography course ran by Amateur Photographer magazine.

Im a (very) amateur photographer looking to expand my skills in photography. A few years ago whilst at university with a Canon EOS 1000FN film camera, I joined a club but never really got to grips with it, being frustrated by the lack of control with film and not being able to develop it.

I dropped photography for a while until, back in 2003 when my wife bought me a new Canon EOS D60 one of the first digital SLR cameras with 6.3 MP sensor and fully compatible with my (few) lenses I had for the 1000FN.



I took a variety of photo's but what with a new baby on the scene never really got the full use out of the camera that i should have.



Anyway, my little boy is now 4 years old and im currently working away from home, which gives me more spare time in the evenings than normal. So i started to pick up photography again. I browsed through a few magazines and checked out the latest cameras to find the new EOS 5D ! COOL! a full frame 12.8MP D-SLR from the EOS range. To cut a long story short my good lady wife treated me (again) to an early birthday and christmas pressie and ive got the photography bug again.



I wanted to find some way of improving my somewhat lacking skills, so I contacted the local camera club to find they were full and had a waiting list! doh! Then one evening browsing through AP magazine I came across an advert for their courses. I hit the website to find out more details and found a fairly active forum of students. It looked just what i was looking for, a correspondance course i could do in my own time, with a dedicated tutor blah blah.

So I signed up and awaited for my student pack to arrive through the post.