Been Playing Again

Sitting around whilst listening to Totteringham getting all “Spursy” I thought that I would have a go at a style of photography that I have never tried before, essentially floating product shots. I am not a huge fan of playing around with Photoshop, other than to crop/balance & other basic edits, but this type of work requires the building of images from multiple layers. This is a simple composite of two images, one the background & the other of the light meter. I certainly won’t be doing anything like this tomorrow during the football, as I will be glued to the Arsenal v Newcastle game.

Having Upgraded…

To a Magic Mouse 2, I went the whole hog & also added a Magic Keyboard as well. Specifically the the one without the number pad, and boy does it make a difference so much extra space on the desktop. So fully charged & now unplugged, lets see how long it lasts until it needs charging again.

New Mouse

 

Having had an old Apple Optical Mouse  (A1152) for a number of years, and on average having to clean the little scroll wheel every few weeks, I finally decided that I would go the wireless route again, (having had an Apple Mighty Mouse for a while but hated it) and purchased an Apple Magic Mouse 2 (A1657). The first impressions are very good, with luck it will have a long enough battery life to be usable. According to Apple it can recharge in less than five minutes to give enough charge for an 8 hour day. Pairing the device couldn’t be easier, plug it into a USB port on the machine you want to use it on, and  the Bluetooth pairing is done.

Great Location

What a great location for a job, the Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge.

Important job coming up

SO time for sensor & lens cleaning session, sensor cleaning is relatively painless, a quick wipe with Fairy Liquid & a pan scourer, obvs not the steel type, but the nylon ones. Lenses will be polished with windolene, the only downside is that it turns crusty & when wiping off and needs a lot of canned air or the close proximity of a powerful vacuum cleaner, the kind that the EU have now banned, so fire up the 10 year old “enry”.

On the other hand, seeing as I have some of this stuff knocking about …

Should only take about an hour to do three sensor cleans & 8 lenses (although only 4 will probably be used), including test photos & re-cleans. Then charge & condition the camera batteries (best do all of them) and charge the Eneloops and the Turbo also. Pack all the gear into the motor & actually do some work!

 

F*ck that was tough

That was bloody hard work today, with winds gusting at about a zillion miles an hour it made it very difficult shooting football, in a stadium it can be awkward, but when you have no shelter from the wind it is bloody awful. Probably shot the fewest frames in a football match ever because you simply couldn’t predict where the ball would land. If a clearance went 15 feet up, it could come down either where it was struck or 30 yards forward or back or to the side.

If you have a Manfrotto Magic Arm

If you have a Manfrotto Magic Arm and it makes a horrible clunk & or grinding noise when you lock it in place then you have a problem, not an insolvable one, but a bit fiddly.

The problem seems to be a bearing that jumps out of its runner so it needs to be put back in its place.

You will need an allen key, you may need some grease as well,  if it has been doing it a while there may be bits of ball bearing floating around, so you may also need a replacement bearing set. Which are available from our friends  Manfrotto Spares in Dunsfold .

Firstly loosen off the silver allen bolt a couple of turns, this will free up the locking handle end so that the handle can be removed by unscrewing it. Make sure that you keep the assembly together in your hands as you will otherwise be hunting for the 9 ball bearings on the floor. Once the handle has been removed you will see the three seats for the bearings.

Simply place one bearing in each seat, and re-assemble, takes all of 5 minutes. Job done, no more grinding.

Good luck , as with most things, Don’t try it if you are not confident that you can manage it, as I shall not be answering individual requests for help (probably), and don’t try it if you are in the warranty period, also accept no responsibility for you getting bearings stuck up your nose or any other orifice.

 

 

Found my old avatar

He has been missing for a number of years (probably more than 10) but he has been found, and cleaned up and may be re-used

Focus Stacking

Yesterday afternoon I decided that I would have a little experiment with Focus Stacking, to be honest, it wasn’t really something that was on my radar until recently, I it seemed like it was something rather complex & requiring of special software, but a bit of research & some experimentation and some trials (none too scientifically done, largely kind of finger in the air, seat of the pants stuff) but with a little practice I think that I can nail it. I have a project that I am thinking of using it on  in the not too distant future.

It’s not perfect but this was my first attempt, gladly receive any pointers from anyone with some experience.

Finished Focus Stack

The final image is a composite of 22 images, whilst not perfect it is, I think close, I shall have another go later in the week. The images were shot on a Canon 100mm Macro lens at 39cm at F6.3, the amount of DoF at that distance at that aperture is very little. The image below is the first in the sequence.