The final three from yesterday’s shooting. Intention was to get a range of looks/vibes, and I think it worked. All of the ones which made the cut were shot with Rachel’s old 50mm f/1.4 manual lens (at, IIRC, f/1.4 for the ’soft’ and ‘moody’ shots and I think f/2 for ‘thuggish’). Shallow depth of field really was a winner for these. If flat buying goes well, that 85mm f/1.4 (or at least f/1.8) may well have to be mine. Other two below in embiggening clickable form.
Lessons learned this time out:
- Cropping afterwards is fine and all, but better to try to do it when composing the shot.
- If there’s a chance you’ll be converting to b/w, remember to notice what textures are going to form points of interest first.
- Evening really is a good time to be shooting either with the sun directly on the subject, or directly behind them. Win!
- I really could do with contact lenses for maximum viewfinder ability when focusing manually; lost a string of half a dozen shots because the lens wasn’t quite focused right.
The final four from yesterday’s shooting. Few others were great but too blurry to my fussy eyes – teensy tiny camera shake, just enough to be noticeable except shrunk down to sub-750px. Other final three below in teensy form.
The grand shooting portraits of everyone I know project got underway today, sans a new tripod. Results up tomorrow. In the meantime, for my benefit more than anything else, some thoughts:
- Remember background. If it’s interesting without intruding, fine. If it’s pretty dull or has a single obtrusive feature, you’re better off with a blank screen backdrop if possible. (Today: side wall of a chimney breast, more brightly lit than back wall. Not quite an issue, but close enough to remind me.)
- Can’t tell if talking quite so much while shooting is such a good idea. Upside, good range of natural expressions. Downside, blur and lot of mid-word expressions so a lot of wasted shots. OTOH, it’s not like that’s not already par for the course.
- My grasp of simple lighting seems to be pretty solid. Win!
- Sub-1/100sec, use a tripod if possible. Lose spontaneity, but had a few of what would’ve been good shots spoilt by camera shake at 1/50sec, plus noise shooting at (IIRC) ISO 640.
- On the same note, probably best not to drink coffee immediately before beginning.
- Still yearning for an f/2-ish 85mm or 100mm lens. And/or a go at medium format…
- Why in bastarding hell haven’t I been using Bridge all this time?
Since when did you give two shits about Iran? Really? I mean, yes, the demonstrations are a big deal, for reasons I’m pretty sure not everyone grasps, but frankly the self-righteous “solidarity with our brothers in democracy” shite being peddled by so many otherwise sane and rational people is fucking nauseating. I didn’t notice a mass “green your avatar” campaign in 2005 when there were well-known accusations of vote-rigging in favour of Ahmadinejad. I didn’t see everyone and their fucking dog coming out to condemn the clearly corrupt system in every other election in the country because the Guardian Council (which, incidentally, makes for a fantastic supervillain group name) personally decide who’s allowed to stand and who’s not and which therefore generally don’t allow in anyone who might want to, oooh, get rid of the Guardian Council and leader-for-life Khameni.
No, but now CNN are waving the green fucking flag suddenly we’re all one with the struggle to help the oppressed masses rise up and overthrow someone who might – and might not – actually have won fairly, or not, in support of someone who none of you fucking know a thing about other than “he’s the other one”, who’s really likely to be no practical difference to Ahmadinejad (with the possible exception of not being a Holocaust denier) and who in any case is just a figurehead beneath Khameni. If the opposition parties got their most fervent wish and a rerun of the election, it wouldn’t lead to the downfall of the Guardian Council. That would require another revolution, and that ain’t happening yet.
Paint your Twitter avatar green and pat yourself on the back, you revolutionary soldier of liberty, you. And then carry on doing the absolutely fuck all you were doing before this all kicked off.
(Most of you. Some of you were doing things before, I’m sure, and for some of you, none of what I’m about to say will equally apply.)
I don’t remember a similar vox-pop movement against Musharraf when he was president of Pakistan. (Because Musharraf was, of course, our friend across the Afghan border, and it doesn’t do to cause trouble.) I don’t remember one for every other despot kicked from power in the past few years.
I don’t see you people throwing your weight behind revolutionary, anti-dictatorial or democratic movements in Burma, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Russia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (where somewhere in the region of 1,500 people continue to die every day as a result of the ongoing civil war and rampant human rights abuses), North Korea, Syria, Libya, Sudan or any one of a dozen others I could name.
Because they’re not on TV right now and they don’t have a nice flag you can drape round your shoulders like a replica fucking football shirt and then go back to scratching your arse, happy in the knowledge that you are, spiritually, there in solidarity with your fellow freedom-lovers and that your good deed for the day is done. Well fucking done.
The first song Aidan’s managed to learn all the way through, recorded live in concert at the bakery round the corner.
I'm John, though much like Bruce Wayne I also have a shadowy alter-ego with a far more flamboyant career. While "Sean Cregan" may not have quite the same ring to it as "Batman", I'm less frequently attacked by angry dogs, so it all balances out. I write books for a living, take photos, and I'm a single dad with a little boy.
The Nameless Horror is a nickname I somehow acquired, and this is my tumblelog - a kind of endless brain orgasm whose glistening globules of pearlescent wisdom are too long for Twitter and too short or silly for anything official. I can be reached via email at namelesshorror [at] gmail.com.
Recently On Twitter...
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