Andrew Macpherson

The "Stuck On Earth" iPad App

The Camera Club is heading out in early May (Bank Holiday Weekend) to Bodelwydnn Castle Hotel, North Wales, and there were a couple of spots that are on my “Must See” list for the trip, In particular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct the new World Heritage Site, and Sir Clough William Ellis’ famous Portmeirion Village, background for the cult TV series “The Prisoner,” after that it is simply a case of where the whim takes one… or is it?

Trey Radcliff famous for his HDR style, and “Stuck in Customs” travel photography blog, has had an iPad & Android App built called “Stuck on Earth” which uses Flickr geotagged photos, and various cool aspects of Flickr’s organisation and cataloguing to pick some existing images to find the spots & shots others have shared, and challenge one to do better.  It downloads the photos one picks out as trip markers to the portable device so that the challenge remains with one, even when out of WiFi range, or failing again with mobile data networks.  (BTW go into a trip and the add image interface will let you remove shots)

I haven’t found out how to edit the spelling of a failed search (vs retyping from scratch) but otherwise I’m finding it fairly useful for picking out some potentially interesting spots.

Lens Pro To Go, a US equipment rental company, have thrown down a challenge.

Joint them for a photo-per-week challenge on themes they set.  My photos will accumulate in this flickr set, and the  whole set of entries is in the Lens Pro To Go 52 week challenge.  The exercises are are as hard, or easy as you let them be, so it’s great fun.

Why not join in?

Don’t get me wrong, the guys who do seminars are almost without exception extremely dedicated, skilful instructors who make the most of the teaching oportunity the format affords their students.  Such was the case with Scott Kelby’s “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” tour to Amsterdam.  I really enjoyed it and it also gave me a great chance to revisit a wonderful city.

iPad view from the 7th row

I did enjoy and learn, it was good value for money, but from the 7^th row the screens were fairly poor contrast and one wonders what one missed.  I’m delighted for Scott that there were around 250 attendees paying rapt attention to his training, but I don’t think one gets as much  out of a class as one might from a workshop where one follows along, and emphasises the learning experience by doing. (continue reading…)

David Hobby (Strobist) is running a “Boot Camp” to take people out of their comfort zone in using small flashes to make photos of local significance.  The exercise is as much about interacting with your community as the technicalities of the photographs produced, though to win the associated round prizes, the technicalities have to be good too.

Locally prominent person, Jonathan Forgham

The first exercise was to pick a locally prominent person and take their portrait.  Fortunately Jono Forgham had just been elected chair of the Little Hadham Parish Council, and was in need of one…  2 off camera strobes — one in a softbox to camera right, and a warming low power fill from the left.  The hat needed photoshopped to trim the broken straws round the edge , and a little attention was needed for reflections in his spectacles obscuring his right eye.  Of course the exercise is really about getting things right in camera, but this is balanced by the sitter’s available time…  You can see the Round 1 results HERE some pretty impressive s / dramatic shots.

Round 2 has been a bit more challenging:

 For this assignment, you will be required to photograph a local object — something of significance to your community. As with the first, the most difficult part of the job will be deciding exactly what to shoot — and why

The problem is the plethora of things in the area, going right back yo Roman Empire times:

• Hadhamware Roman Pottery
• The sculptor Henry Moore lived and worked here, and the Henry Moor foundation is a major attraction.
• The local shared Roman/Anglican Church with it’s Henry Moore Stained Glass window
• The Forge Museum with Elizabethan Wall Paintings
• William Morris’ Cottage (Arts and Crafts Movement)
• Nettswell House birthplace of Cecil Rhodes and now the Cecil Rhodes Arts Centre
• United Distillers in Harlow, birthplace of “Bailey’s Irish Creme”
• Local Tomato producers, pioneers in the use of Bio-gas
• Smit-Klein-Beecham pharmaceuticals
• Standard Telephone Laboratories — birthplace of Optical Fibre Communications

(continue reading…)

Three weekends ago, just before I went off for an op, we had a stand at Hatfield Heath Festival to try to raise awareness of the club, and raise some cash for the projector fund.  I havn’t quite got round to writing about it, having been slightly distracted, so it’s time to make amends

Hatfield Heath Public Photoshoot, © 2011 Paul Lambert

Photo given to sitter as 6x4 print

The Saturday session was in direct competition with Bishop’s Stortford Carnival, where we also had a stand, so each event had one of the two print stands, usually used for print competitions

We had a selection of member’s prints for sale, both ones that had been in competition, and some framed or mounted specially for this event.  Mainly though the exercise was to engage potential members, and enthuse them to come along for a trial club evening, and I think we were moderately successful in that.

We were also offering free “Hollywood Look” 4×6 portrait, retouched with “Portrait Professional”  (continue reading…)

Yesterday evening was one of those interesting sessions at the camera club, with lots going on.

Kevin, the chairman, was continuing his occasional talks on Photoshop Elements for beginners,  Dave Woods was doing some HDR demos, with photoshop, Photomatix and HDR Efex (and possibly others), and we had 2 ‘studio’ sessions.

Bill was doing a macro session, and had 2 tabletop setups: a tent and a square area with backdrop and white walls, while I was trying out 3 portrait techniques with interested parties.

For my setup I had:

• 2 Manfrotto Autopoles, with hooks for paper rolls
• Manfrotto expan paper roll supports
• Black paper roll
• 2 x Elinchrom D-Lite2 heads (I would now spend the extra and buy the D-Lite it 2 Studio 2 Go Kit which includes skyport receivers and transmitter but is £500 vs the £300 I paid) [Changed my mind, see later posting]
• Aftermarket 120cm octabank for Elinchrom from E-Bay about £60
• Aftermarket 120cm x 80cm stripbank again E-Bay about £50
• Large reflector
• Triflector

Setting up the autopoles and paper is extremely fast, but assembling the softboxes is slow, even though they have one spreader pocket closed with velcro to make the job easier, the octabank really needs 2 adjacent spreaders set that way, as getting the ends of the final 2-3 spreaders into the flash head ring is murder when everything is under tension from the already placed spokes. (continue reading…)