An owd 'togs blog

Ever wondered what you can photograph with a Digital SLR and 50mm standard lens in the Dark?

Ever wondered how much use the built in flash is on a Digital SLR?

Yes?

Take a look at this little fellow. We found him in the middle of the patio at 21:40 on summer night in South Yorkshire. Now he isn’t the type of creature you meet around here on a regular basis so I thought he was worth a photograph if only to document what he is. Caught on a wide open patio suddenly lit by a bright outside light with our dog and my partner staring at him from on high had me worried that the the little blighter would have legged it by the time I got back. No time for messing with flash guns and lens swaps I grabbed my digital SLR camera with 50mm f1.8 Nikon lens already fitted and got back outside at the double. He was still there so I grabbed a quick record shot from above looking directly down then decided to use the “get on the subjects level approach.

A small reptile found on the Patio and photographed on a DSLR with 50mm Standard lens and built in flash August 2011 Image © Paul David Drabble

Laying down I used Autofocus to focus on the head and edged forward until the lens reached the closest point of focus. The D700 was already set to 640 ISO and Aperture Priority so I popped up the built in flash checked the viewfinder info,1/60 at F4, and fired off a single frame. I expected the little guy scarper but he didn’t. Now worried the the flash and/or stress of the situation may cause him some permanent damage I decided two frames were enough and we left we left him alone in the dark to go about his business.

Shot original in Nikon Electronic Format(NEF)The first Image was interpolated and croped from this original framing August 2011 Images © Paul David Drabble

Photographers Technical Stuff

Camera Nikon D700 with 12.1 mega-pixel full frame CMOS Sensor

Lens Nikon F1.8 “Standard” Lens

Built in Flash

File Format NEF

ISO 640

Shutter 1/60^th of a Second

Apperture F4.0

Aperture Priority

Single Autofocus

The resulting image was still a very small reptile in the centre of a rather large frame so I decided a little cropping and post production interpolation was need. The NEF file was opened on the PC and at this stage I made adjustments to highlights/shadows added a little sharpening and interpolated the image from The D700 best quality of 12.1 Mega-Pixel (4256 X 2832 pixels) to a 25.1 Mega-pixel ( 6144 X 4088 pixels).

Once open the image was cropped, without constrained proportions, resulting in an photograph of approximately 3 X 2 inches at 300 ppi. Wanting a larger end result I interpolated that up in size again. Using Bicubic Smoother setting I made the longest edge 10 inches. That left the final tightly cropped image as a 10 x 6.5 inches 300ppi photograph or 3000 X 1959 pixels.

I may have just over done the size increase but the image was never going to be a “National Geographic” pin sharp, full page, quality picture anyway. Considering the situation and equipment, a 50mm standard lens lit by the pop up camera flash in the dark I don t think is too bad.

If anyone can Identify just what this little guy is I would love to know.

Can any one tell me exactly what he is? please feel free to comment below August 2011 Images © Paul David Drabble

Please comment below

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Something that seems to have become an endangered species in Public Relations photography is booking two jobs in a day. According to the diary it looked like being fairly straightforward with one booking to shoot “behind the scenes” images of the 888.com sponsored Premier League Darts at Sheffield Motorpoint Arena for Sky Preview Magazine, a publication aimed at licensees who use Sky sporting broadcasts to help bring in customers. Suddenly the day before the Darts my phone rings and a second clients needs a job shooting the same day as Skys at this point Murphy’s law will generally kick in dictating that either

The two jobs are at the same time and on the same day.
The two jobs are the same day, aren’t at the same time but they do overlap
The two jobs are the same day, don’t overlap but the distance between locations makes photographing them both impossible.

It looked like number three would kick in. The second job was in Cleethorpes on the east coast, photographing the interior layout of Halletts Lifestyle convenience store and some of their staff who had just won a national award as Blakemore Wholesale/ Lifestyle Retailer of the Year 2010/11. The job was urgent, a plus for me as it meant the client was happy with a morning shoot and booking number two had just become booking number one. I had, for once, given Murphy the slip and had two jobs on the diary.

By 09:45 I had driven the 75 miles to Cleethorpes and was already shooting. By 15:05 I had made it back to the office edited, processed, captioned and distributed the digital files to the client. With just enough time to produce an invoice and grab something to eat it was then off to the Premier League Darts.

One of the countless things I love about being a full time professional News & PR photographer is the variety. Going from shooting the aisles of traditional a seaside corner shop, even if it is the best in the country, to the showmanship and razzmatazz of televised Premier League Darts is nothing if not varied.

The Double Page Spread in the Sky Preview Magazine

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Elbow is not only the bit in the middle of a human arm that allows it to bend. Its not just, as Philip Marlowe said in The Singing Detective “the most sensuous word in the English language; not for its definition, but for how it feels to say it”.

Elbow is the British alternative rock band who have received vast critical acclaim and the respect of major artists like Radiohead, Coldplay, Blur, R.E.M. and U2. The five piece took to the stage at Sheffield Motorpoint Arena on the 5th night of their tour (19 March 2011) the night of “a full moon when its the closest it has been to the earth for 20 years”
Elbow front man, Guy Garvey, informed the packed Motorpoint Arena.

Consisting of Guy Garvey Lead vocalist and lyricist, Mark Potter on guitar, Craig Potter playing keyboards and organ, Pete Turner playing bass guitar and keyboards and Drummer Richard Jupp Elbow have come a long way since they first played together at The Corner Pin pub Stubbins, an industrial village in Lancashire 20 years ago. Asleep in the Back Elbow’s début album was released on V2 in 2001, and won them a Mercury Music Prize nomination and a BRIT Award nomination, performed at Glastonbury in 2002, went on tour in Cuba in 2004, by 2008 they won the the Mercury music prize for the album “Seldom Seen Kid” Supported U2 in 2009.

Now in 2010 Elbow rolled into town on their “Build A Rocket Boys” tour Sheffield Motorpoint Arena. Starting on the Tuesday 15th March at Glasgow’s SECC then moved on to, Newcastle
and Nottingham landing in Sheffield on the full moon

Elbow “Build A Rocket Boys” tour dates
Saturday 19-Sheffield Motorpoint
Sunday 20 – Liverpool, Echo Arena
Tuesday 22 – Birmingham, National Indoor Arena
Wednesday 23 – Cardiff, International
Friday 25 – Manchester, MEN
Sunday 27 – Brighton, Centre NEW DATE
Monday 28 – London, O2
Tuesday 29 – London, O2 EXTRA DATE

Elbow’s support was the Irish band The Villagers. Formed and fronted by Conor O’Brien they look to be on course to reach same successes as Elbow. Last year, 2010, saw the release of their first album “Becoming a Jackal” and their nominations for The Q Awards Breakthrough Artist, The Mercury Music Awards. Becoming a Jackal was also nominated in 2011 for the Choice Music Prize and Irish Album of the year Award of 2010

moon background0647 300x187 Elbow Build A Rocket Boys Tour Sheffield Motorpoint Arena

Last nights Full moon referred to by Elbows Guy Garvey

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Images from day two of the demo outside the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Sheffield. The slide show includes photographs of Patrick Streeter, a Liberal Democrat Party Conference delegate, who decided to gatecrash the beginning of the demo at Devonshire Green. He tried to address the protesters but was escorted away from any potential confrontation by South Yorkshire Police Liaison Officers, at the request of the demo organisers. He was however followed by a sizeable press contingent who were already covering the invited speakers and start of the Demo.

The Liberal Democrat Party Conference came to a close on Sunday within the so called “Ring of Steel. Despite fears of potential trouble the weekend passed of relatively peacefully with only around 5000 demonstrators on the Saturday while on Friday an smaller demo of only around 800 people materialised. One of the final tweets on sunday from South Yorkshire Police read

“syptweet SouthYorkshirePolice
#libdemconf closed. No signs of protest this morning. 1 arrest made throughout. Thank you to all those who kept it peaceful #libdempolicing”

Sheffield District Commander, Chief Superintendent Simon Torr said there had been around 5,000, largely peaceful, protesters in the city centre On Saturday with only one arrest for public disorder.