As it is the season of giving, I just gave myself a present, I already have “My Way with a Camera: Adventures and Lessons of a Career in Photography” by Victor, I saw “Naff Off! for £3.00 and had to have it.
Nostalgia isn’t as good as it used to be, I remember reading Victors column in the Amateur Photographer Magazine back in the late 1970s & early 80s, along with Ron Spillman.
Oh and Merry Christmas
I like good value for money, however it was bought home to me that different manufacturers have a different idea about it. Both items were about the same price, however I can’t help but think the watch is considerably better value. I mean £70 for a small bit of plastic that I could have ordered a copy of from China for about 7 quid. Anyway the reason for the both is that I broke my work watch on a job in the week & lost my lens hood.
Time to match the new lens to the camera bodies, so fire up the FoCal. It is once you are used to the software quite simple to use, even easier if you have a camera that supports fully automatic AF micro Adjustment. Set up your target, hook up the camera to the computer and away you go.
After you have done a series of photographs at different levels of adjustment the software calculates what the final adjustment should be (on Canon if you are adjusting zoom you repeat the process for the Wide & Telephoto end).
The software is capable of a number of tests, including calculating what is the best performing aperture.
Whilst I enjoy the 11-24mm F4 immensely, at nearly 2 kilos it is a bit of a lump to lug around all day when you don’t need to shoot so wide. So it was time to upgrade a 17-40mm F4 L that I had knocking about to the latest 16-35mm F2.8L mkIII. And what an upgrade it is, just need to dial in all the AF Micro Adjustments and we are good to go. I use Reikan FoCal to calibrate, it is disappointing that Canon do not support the full automatic calibration process which would substantially reduce the amount of faffing about, but hey-ho.
Big job at the weekend, so sensor & lens cleaning time, probably an hour or two, with 3 sensors & 10 lenses, but it has been a little while, including some shoots in very dusty environments.
Having bought into the Lexar Workflow CF Card Reader a year or so ago, I decided to go the whole hog with a Workflow Hub as well, to help speed up the ingesting process after shooting an afternoon of football over maybe three or 4 CF Cards.
I must need my head testing, as the last two Lexar card readers have proven pretty crap, one the hinged cover broke after about 3 uses & the other failed in pretty short order.
After a few years of being dragged around football grounds, it was time to re-wrap the lens hood for my 400mm, will also have to do some of my Peli Cases & Lighting boxes.
Next week I am shooting some firework displays and I want to be able to have two cameras on a tripod one on a wide & another on a not so wide, however all of the remotes that I own don’t support keeping the shutter open in “Bulb” mode so I am going to make a work around, all in it will probably cost a ‘tenner’ but it will enable me to synch the two cameras. Some of the parts have arrived from RS Components, just waiting on a couple of 3.5mm sockets to finish it.
[Update] All finished and working as it should. I could have installed an LED and an On/Off switch but that would have added some additional bulk & weight.
Finished Remote Trigger
Canon EF 8mm-15mm F4L
Having invested relatively recently in a very wide piece of glass in the Canon 11-24mm, I decided that as I was enjoying it so much that I would add another wide to the kit bag, very nearly the widest that I have ever owned in fact. The last real fisheye lens that I had was a Canon FD 7.5mm F5.6 back in the 1980s, I don’t think I used it more than a couple of times before recycling it. So the latest addition is an 8-15mm F4L. which will probably be used a few times a year, but I have a few ideas for it, including a fireworks display that I am commissioned to shoot in the next 10 days or so.
Whilst working today a couple of packages arrived, including an absolute bargain from Ebay, an Canon ST-E3-RT for remote control of the 600EX-RT flashguns. Absolutely mint & fully functioning for not much more than pocket change.
So today was mostly spent shooting some impressively quick hardware including Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Ferraris, Audi R8s & a brisk Ford Focus RS
Time to replace some old 580EXII flashes with some newer 600RTs, I don’t use flash very often, if I can help it, preferring to use my studio lights whenever possible, but sometimes it has to be done, so the 580 will be retired (or stuck on ebay).
Having had a Manfrotto 055 since about 1981 with the standard 115 Junior 3D head, I felt that it was time to upgrade, I don’t use tripods very often, primarily because the 058 TriAut that I purchased in 2001, is fooking heavy and because the 055 had the horrible 115 head. Anyway doing an interior shoot recently reminded me just how bad the 115 Junior head was, so I have replaced it with a MH804.
The Manfrotto 058 will likely as not remain mostly at home during shoots, but the new head means that the 055 will live in the boot of the car.
Initial thoughts on the MH804 is wow, that is so much better, but then it didn’t have to do much to be an improvement, not as solid as the MH229 that my other ‘pod has, but very definitely an upgrade.
Interesting shoot today up in Essex, for a company that supplied a lot of the fixtures & fittings for an indoor crazy golf course. Huge variation in light levels so needed several images composited to give a wide enough range from shadows to highlights.
This week was different with jobs in Littlehampton & Portsmouth & then finish work on a new graphic for the Guildford City FC bar. The only problem was that the largest Guildford City crest that I obtain was only 1000 pixels high and needed to be resized to fit the new graphic which is 1300mm x 1000mm, at which point it was full of jaggies (artifacts caused by compression & resizing). So lots of work to get rid of the artifacts & then off to the printers to be printed on 3mm PVC with a matt laminate.
So the good news is that I collected it today from the printers and it is ready to go up on the front of the bar. Looks good. Hopefully get installed tomorrow.
Just the one job on Saturday & a day of rest!
Photographing the Surrey Cricket Club’s testimonial event at Weybridge for Jade Dernbach.
Last weekend saw the end of Guildford City’s FA Cup run with a 1-2 loss to AFC Vardeanians..
More football this weekend & a Surrey Cricket testimonial to cover.
Down at the Non-League section of the football pyramid, the FA Cup starts very early in the season, Guildford City’s 2nd game of the season was an FA Cup game against Tooting Bec FC. After some poor FA Cup games in recent seasons City have got through to the Preliminary Round after beating Tooting Bec 3-2.
Needless to say, there were some happy players come the final whistle.
Endurance Lawn Mower racing to finish the day.
First up Brentford v Birmingham in the first game of the season.
In the final preseason game Godalming Town v Guildford City in the Bill Kyte Memorial Cup. Guildford won 3-0, unfortunately I won’t be able to shoot the first game of the season as I will be covering the Brentford v Birmingham game
A hard disk is on it’s way out, it has become very sluggish & occasionally refuses to write, no major drama though, even if it is holding the 2016 to current archive of images. I have ordered its replacement and installed it, now just the process of repopulating the archive from one of its back ups which will take 24 hours.
Remember if you only have a single back up, you don’t have a back plan. Mine is relatively simple I have:
Two hard disks for the Archive installed in my MacPro (which are identical & kept so using “Sync Folders Pro”. I also have two external hard disks which are mirrors of the Archive. This is for the on-line (or current stuff) most of the older images are backed up on disks that are no longer in my MacPro but can easily be accessed via a Disk Caddy.
My work flow is that recent images (and stuff currently being worked on are saved to two SSD that are on an Angel Wings X2) and when finished are then transferred to the Archive.
So hopefully I should be covered in the event of a catastrophic equipment failure be able to access the entire archive.
Four goals scored, could have been more.
Nice weather so I spent a couple of hours at the seaside, even got me a stick of rock, but couldn’t find a “kiss me quick” hat!
Need a cold one after a long day in the sunshine that ended with a pre-season football match.
Pre-Season football for Guildford City, seems to get earlier each season. Also needed to do head shots for club website (no lights or backdrop, just straight heads). 16 done in 4 minutes!
This evening was spent kerbside for the Guildford Town Cycle Race….
I spent a couple of days in a field shooting with Nikon kit for a client, I have been a Canon user since 1980 and I love the ergonomics. Nikon couldn’t spell ergonomics back in the day yet alone implement it in their designs. Nikon pro kit was always heavy & brick shaped. However they have come a long way, but their definition of ergonomics leaves me baffled. I can live with lenses that focus the wrong way to infinity & dials that do strange things in strange locations. Give me my 1Dx bodies any day. Anyway Nikon’s flaws aside two days of shooting done & I am grateful for a supply of P20 Sun Cream.
It could only be in England, that someone would come up with the idea of racing garden equipment.
15/06/2019 From Paul Burgman/Press-Photos.com. Wings & Wheels, Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey. Solo Hawker Hurricane display
A dull overcast day with 100% cloud cover most of the day & rain for the rest of it, made for a dull set of photographs, so I thought I had better stick some filters into the process.
Day two wasn’t an awful lot better & I bailed at lunch time.
Was tipped off about the Hells Angels “Ride Out” last weekend, so trundled out to Hand Cross, for about 0930hrs, having been told that the “Ride Out” would leave Pease Pottage at 1000hrs. I was informed that there would be more than 750 riders. However as the time dragged on, I was told that it would be 1100hrs, then 1300hrs and then eventually they left at 1400hrs.
There was a private event the night before with something like 3,000 Bikers from all over the world in attendance, to celebrate 50 years of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in the UK.
Instead of 750+ there were just over 100, as the Police had insisted that the people who organised it had the riders breathalysed prior to leaving, they had obviously had a bit of a session on the Friday night as many were still over the limit and didn’t take part. So bit of a damp squib.
Been messing about again, seeing as there was nothing in the diary.
Decided that it was time to go, super-wide, had a 14mm F2.8L & a 15mm F2.8, but after reading the reviews available decided that I really should have a Canon EF11-24mm F4L in the bag. Got an acceptable price for the 14mm from MPB and a 16-35mm F2.8L and went for it. Damned it is a heavy piece of glass, but feels nicely balanced on a 1Dx, would probably feel a little strange on a 5D or similar without a vertical grip.
I have to say that I am really very impressed with the quality on the test shots that I have done so far.
I just received a near metre long mouse mat, it is a revelation. Why the hell I played around with a 10×8 mouse mat for the last 25 years I have no idea. It covers quite a lot of the desktop, and means that the Magic Keyboard doesn’t slide and the mouse works everywhere on the desk top. Don’t think about it, just buy one.
It’s arrived, Yay…Hopefully that will be the last acquisition for a while. I decided to bite the bullet & buy the lens that I have been hankering for since the announcement of its release.
The Canon 11-24mm F4L is certainly Canons widest linear corrected zoom lens. It is quite a weighty piece of glass. It is nice to use however the lens cap is a bit of a pain, because of the size of it, it will not fit in a pocket easily so I picked up a Lee Filters fabric cap.
New gadget for times when the ceiling is too high or too dark, will see how it goes over the next few days.
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.
OK so an update is in order, originally charged nearly a month ago, the keyboard is at 89% and the mouse 22%, quite impressed.
I was shooting at football yesterday and noticed that the lens mount felt loose, with the 70-200mm on the camera, carried on shooting as I had no alternative with me, and in a couple of frames there was a definite alignment issue. As you can see in the image below, muzzy top right and bottom left.
Got home later that day & checked, and all four of the lens mount screws were loose, not just a little bit loose either. I usually remove and reinstall them with some thread-lock when I buy the lens, but I appear to have missed this lens. So tightened them all back up & then thread-locked each one in turn. Whilst was at it I checked all of my other glass, without finding a problem, which is good news, as they are all transported and used in the same manner.
SO if you haven’t recently checked any screws that you can access are done up correctly, now is the time to do it.
Not too shabby, considering it has taken 512,000 photographs in it’s life-time & still on the original shutter. Hope I am not tempting fate, but the camera still sounds and works as well as it’s much less used siblings, one with 90,000 frames & the other with 109,000
Guildford City went to top of the league Sutton Common Rovers yesterday, after 28 minutes they were drawing 1-1, but down to 10 men. They went on to win 4-3.
It has been quite a while since I have printed photographs, most are shipped electronically, however as Guildford City have an end of season bash coming up, it seemed like a good idea to print some off for the players. Hadn’t thought that it would mean 22 A4 prints though. Anyhoo all done now.
It’s always nice to be thanked for doing a job, today I received 12 of these from a client, thank you very much.
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.
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.
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.
What a great location for a job, the Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge.
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!
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 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.
