A nice knock on benefit of buying flowers for my wife is that they give me the chance to photograph them. Best set up is to use a tripod, macro lens and add a backdrop; plain white/black sheet or similar.
I don’t really have the patience to set all this up but enjoy the challenge of trying to create a slightly different photo of a flower, not the ‘standard, face on photographs.
Pictures of Lilly is a song title by The Who
A photograph of baking food ‘hundreds and thousands’.
Up until now I’ve always said that I don’t have a favourite style of photogrpahy. But more and more recently I’ve noticed that my favourite photographs seem to be abstract photographys. Which to me is beginning to make sense. I’ve also mentioned that I often try to take a photograph from a different perspective. Why? Most ‘common’ photographed items (landmarks etc.) are shot from the same spot and look very similar so none of them really stand out from the crowd. So, by photographing from a different perspective makes it more memorable and unique I think.
Or maybe it’s just that I don’t get out to photograph as often as I’d like to so I sometimes end up around my house with my camera looking for things to photograph and think what could make a good photo. Like this container of hundreds and thousands; I lay them out on a flat baking tray and like the result. I think it’d look even more impressive on a large acrylic print on my wall.
Colors and colors are lyrics from the catchy song ‘Colors’ by Hot Chip
A macro photograph of a red rose. My Pentax K-7 camera has in-body stabilization, unlike most other Dslr cameras, which helps for handheld macro/closeup photographs. I’m too lazy to bring my tripod with me, set it up, attach my camera etc.
Your love is like a ramblin’ rose are lyrics taken from the b-side song ‘Ramblin Rose’ by Primal Scream who are BACK with a great new album ‘More Light’
I know it’s February so this is a bit old but here’s a video I created showcasing some of my favourite photographs from 2012.
My two highlights of the year were
1. I shot two weddings last year (some photos included in the video).
2. I was suprised and delighted to have a photograph of a man outside The Crane bar in Galway featured in the L.A. Times Travel section.
Anyway, I hope you had a great 2012 and enjoyed my photographs. Thanks for looking.
Hall Of Fame is a song title from The Script Featuring will.i.am
My wife loves flowers (what woman doesn’t?) and I find roses a great subject for colourful, abstract macro photos. So when I bought her yellow roses recently we both were happy. This macro photograph of beautiful petals of a yellow rose is almost memorising I find. When I bought my macro lens I didn’t intend it use it for floral photography but I found it’s great for colourful photos of petals.
I like the simplicity in floral photos where the entire photos is engulfed with one colour, here the bright yellow rose is like a tunnel. Lilies are my wife’s favourite type of flowers but I’m going to start buying her roses as they’re my favourite type of flowers to photograph; pure red, white or yellow colours.
DISCOUNT OFFER: Simply apply the discount code ‘NSLDGB’ for a 20% discount at the checkout for this, or any other photo that you would like to buy. Click here to view this rose in my online store.
Post title ‘Yellow roses, the color of sunshine’ are lyrics taken from the song Yellow Roses by the one and only Dolly Parton.. Did you know that Dolly Parton even has her own theme park?
Post title is taken from a quote by Morrissey- “I want people who hear us to feel charming and handsome. The disciples we’ve accumulated are incredibly charming people. They don’t spit or gob, they bring flowers.”
Post title is lyrics taken from the song ‘Mellow Yellow’ by Donovan.
Another macro photograph. Just in case you miss it, there’s a fly climbing up the weed. I did get some strange looks from people in cars driving past; me lying in the ditch on the side of the road…..
Post title ‘Watch The Sunrise’ is a song title from American band Big Star. I know it from Belle and Sebastian’s Late Night Tales.
I recently bought a proper macro lens and have been trying it out. It’s funny what’s suddenly interesting when you have a 1:1 macro lens. This is my ‘best fly’ so far (I never thought I’d say that). It was standing still so allowed me to get very close to it. Getting focus right is extremelly difficult, you only have a mm or two in focus when you’re working at 1:1 magnification.
Post title is some lyrics from ‘The Fly’, from ‘Achtung Baby’ album by U2.
A collage of a colourful purple flower, taken with my new macro lens. Macro photography is a lot harder than I thought, it’s a learning curve, especially with focus.
Post title is taken from the song ‘Flowers’ from the album ‘Today’ by the under-rated band ‘Galaxie 500’.
I think that every photogrpaher has a few lenses on their wish list, for me it was a macro and wide angle (10mm) lens. I don’t know how much I’d use either one but have always wanted to play with them and see what they’re like. I’ve read a lot of people saying once they get a wide angle lens it stays on the body most of the time. I’m sure that if/once I get these two lenses there’ll be more that I want (upgrade camera body from K-7 to K-5).
Anyway, I bought a Pentax 100mm f2.8 1:1 macro lens last Friday, on clearance sale in Currys. I’ve played around with it over the weekend and realise that there’s a steep learning curve. So you can expect a swarm of macro photographs in the next few weeks.
All of up until now has been with a non-dedicated macro lens, either a compact camera or one of my other lenses and cropped.
( * macro is a song by Depeche Mode)
It was a quiet, wet dull day in Galway and I was stuck indoors. With nowhere to go and nothing to do I was tidying up the kitchen and was struck by the contrast between the colourful straws (my 4 year old daughter LOVES straws, they make her face light up. Of course she wants the pink ones) and the grey sky outside. So I decided to much around and try to take some happy, colourful photos.
The straws photo was taken with a standard compact camera. Someday I’ll buy a dedicated macro lens for my Pentax dSLR but for now the compact seems to go a good job. I bought extermely cheap extension tubes a while back but had problems with them and never managed to get them to work. I should just throw them out (or beat them to a pulp)…
Ooohhh, what is the malted liquor, what gets you drunker quicker,
What comes in bottles or in cans?
BEER!
An old photo of mine but with a change of Government I thought it’s good time to repost it. Hopefully the cracks in our economy will be fixed. Although I don’t have much faith in Enda Kenny, the man who hid from radio interviews in the last few days before the election. Will the public be wishing Fine Gael out and Finna Fáil back in four years time?
I had an overload of potential titles for this picture:
Wouldn’t it Be Nice?
Money, money, money, it’s a rich mans’ world
Opportunities, let’s make lots of money
All I need
Easy Money
I am just a waterdrop
Fatefully I cannot stop my fall down to earth
Like a tear from heaven sent
I don't know where my way will end
I just fly in the unkown deep in the unkown deep”
Most people hate spiders but don’t mind ladybirds; why? They’re both insects, one just looks pretty…
A quick dash out to the back garden in between the showers. I have been working from home for the past week due to flooding…
