Caylee Studio Shoot

This is one of our latest studio shoots. We used a plain white background and some spray cans to produce Caylee's background, which was done to match the colours that she would be wearing. Working with children always proves a challenge, but we still still managed to get the images that we wanted amongst the tears and tantrums.

Change

Hi,

Just a quick note to let you know that we have changed. Nolan Photography is now called Serenity Eye. You can now check out our new website at www.serenityeye.com

Please let us know what you think.

Kabul from above.

 About a week ago I was on a tasking doing some filming about pilots in Afghanistan, as part of this there was the opportunity for a flight in a MI-17 out to the ranges on the outskirts of Kabul. The flight went out over the city and once again I had my Nikon D700 with, this it was locked and loaded with a Nikons new 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 lens.

The flight over the city gave me the chance to to see the vastness of the Afghan capital and the range of the lens enabled me to shot great wide shots and close up shots too. Plus the f3.5-5.6 range of the lens did not effect my shots in any way duw to how bright the condition are out here during the day.

In was nice to see the beautiful side to Afghanistan.in both a man made and natural capacity.

A day at 1.8

I was recently tasked as part of the camera team to cover the graduation of the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP) at the Regional Training Centre (South West), which was a filming task throughout the day. But as usual I had my Nikon D700 with me with a old 50mm F1.8, so I decided to make it 1.8 day.

Shooting everything at 1.8 proved interesting for my exposure, as during the day out here it is very bright. Even on iso 100 I still had an exposure of 1/8000th at f1.8. So I shot in NEF to help me, knowing that you can bring back a certain amount of the highlights back in Adobe Raw Convertor.

It was nice using an old manual lens on a modern camera and having to use manual focus again was a welcome change, especially knowing that if the shot isn't sharp its not the cameras fault.

 I was recently out shooting some moon rising images. When I was finished I turned to go and noticed a large ammount of traffic moving past. So I tried some panning shots with the D3s when I notice a multitude of coloured lights in the background of the shots which had blurred into abstract patterns. I then focused on the just lights themselves with the use of a long shutter speed and moving the camera during the exporsure to create obscure and interesting patterns.


Here are the results.

In post production, I used vibrance and saturation to help bring out the colours of the lights. Then for a couple I used hue to adjust some of the images to a different colour.

High Speed Filming

A little while back I was looking through www.stuckincustoms.com where there was a video clip that had a section of slow motion in it. There were a lot of comments asking how he did this, he said it was done using a Casio Exilim fc100.
Since seeing it I have been keeping an eye out for one. I got my hands on one a few weeks ago. It is a small compact camera with a HD video capability and a high speed video capability. The camera gives you 3 high speed options 210 frames per second at 480 x 360, 420 fps at 224 x 168 and 1000 fps 224 x 64.

So below is just a few clips showing the different frame rates, firstly there is some classic water filled balloon shots and then a couple of shots of the beach.

I have been looking for somewhere to get a hi speed camera with a higher resolution, but when searching the web, the sites I have come across never have prices on, you contact them and they don't get back to you.So if anybody knows anywhere, please let me know.

A303 Sunset

As a photographer one of the biggest obstacles we can come up against when going out to take pictures or purchasing new kit is the other half. Generally this is because they don’t understand the passion you have for taking pictures. You will probably notice how geeky the talk can get when a few photographers get together. Thankfully for me, my obstacle is a lot smaller than most, I’m not saying I don’t have a better half I do. But like me she is a photographer too, so when can just geek it up together. So when I get a call as she is driving to see her parents saying get your ass to the A303 where it overlooks Yeovil and Mere, there is a really low mist with the sunset, so in the car I jumped.

I pulled over when I found the best point that overlooked the mist, which was a high vantage point. I decided to shoot a panoramic, using a tripod I shot 8 shots to over the ground I want in my final shot.

The sun was slowly setting, which was changing the colour of the sky. So once I had shot my panoramic I moved across the field to the lone tree to shot some silhouettes. 

There were a few different tree sporadically dotted about which I used. When out shooting I always try and used different lenses and compositional techniques to shoot the same subject.

One of the other things to try in changing the white balance on your camera and see the difference it has on your pictures. 

After I was done and headed on my way home I passed one of the many laybys on the A303, this particular one has a farmer building right next to it. Quite often I would see a bird of prey sat on the roof of this building. Tonight was a little different, there were 3. Pulling into the layby and grabbing my 70-200 with a x2 on I walking quietly towards the farmer house. One had already gone leaving 2 left, as I lifted my camera the 2^nd one lifted. I managed to rattle of one shot.

So it just goes to show what you can get from spontaneously jumping in the car and heading out to take some shots (even if I was given a little push).