Barefoot BlogOur Blog

0

The Joys of Software Updates.....

Yes I broke one of the golden rules of maintaining a healthy system

"Never run a x.0 release of a software product in a production environment"

0

British Firework Championship 2011 - Part II

Finally I have finished the photographs of the British Firework Championships 2011 held in Plymouth on the 16 & 17 August. It's taken much longer that I had hoped to get them done, the portfolio is here.
Sadly we were only able to make it to the night of the 17th, so we only saw three of the six displays.
The companies that took part this year were:-

I took a position closer to the water to get away from the crowds, (to reduce the risk of someone tripping over the tripod) and the fun fair, (to not have to worry about light from the rides). This position also allowed me to compose a more level shot with the harbor, sea and boats in the foreground.
Like all night photography there is a fair amount of experimentation with shutter speed and aperture, and my conclusion is that the type of firework your currently trying to photograph has a big part to play in this calculation. Fireworks with longer visible trail effects, (Chrysanthemum and Palm shells for example), seem to capture better with a longer exposure, while a shorter exposure appeared to better capture the initial explosion of the Peony type of shell. A good depth of focus is needed due to the large radius of the effects.

It was an experience for me, as it was my first real attempt to photograph fireworks, and it was a spur of the moment decision to do so. I would be great to get some comments, tips and pointers from anyone with any experience photographing fireworks.

0

Night Photography

Photography at night can be rewarding and it can also be very frustrating! It involves a lot of experimentation, sleepless nights and tripping over things, (yes, I must remember to pack a flashlight into the kit bag....)
One of the first challenges in our modern world is getting away from light pollution from a whole host of sources, street lights, cars, mobile phones to name a few, as I'm currently living in the Welsh Valleys this isn't too much of an issue for me.

There are a number of items that I've found make the whole process of night photography easier, these are:-

• Tripod.
• Camera with long exposure setting, ideally a bulb setting.
• Cable shutter release.
• Lens with a large aperture, (small f-stop number).
• Watch with a second hand or stopwatch setting.
• Flashlight.

The biggest difference between photography at night and during the day is the length of exposure, this single fact is what make the extra items useful. The tripod, cable shutter release are used to keep the camera steady for the longer exposure times that would result in blurred images if they were not used. The watch makes keeping track of the time of the exposure possible for me, as more often than not I loose count somewhere during the exposure if counting elephants.
The basic process I follow is this:-

Setup the camera and compose the scene.

Set the focus to infinity, I normally take longer distance shots at night, not close ups or middle distance, this is partly as I've found it quite difficult to get good focus, so by going for the longer distance and infinity focus, I avoid this issue.

Set the aperture, I start with an aperture of f5.6, as I find gives a good starting point with not too shallow a depth of field, from here I can experiment.

Exposure length, this is the largest area of experimentation for me, as depending on the light available and what I'm photographing the exposures can vary greatly. For example taking pictures of stars on a night with a small moon, can call for exposures in excess of 30 minutes, while the same shot with a full moon can be less than 5 minutes. The digital camera has made this a lot easier, as results can be seen immediately and adjustments made.

Change the ISO? Another thing that can be changed is the ISO setting , (if available on the camera), I tend to set this to ISO 200 for night photography, the higher the ISO the more grain will be visible in the image, and the shorter the exposure, this gives another avenue and effect to get creative with.

Night photography for me is all about experimentation, starting with a base, and then tweaking the parameters to get a result I like, it make take several nights to get this result, but it is a rewarding experience, that I would recommend to anyone willing to give it a go.

0

Road Trip, Exeter

We took a short break last week to go to seem my Mum, and to get away from some of the day to day worries. Wow I'd forgotten that it doesn't rain every day everywhere, (it's good to get out of the valleys from time to time).

End result, 8 full memory cards of photographs, the next couple of weeks I will be processing, sorting and working on these, (including the shots of the British Firework Championships) I hope to have some previews up here soon, with gallery's to follow.

0

Even small steps are not acceptable

There have been a number of cases in the news lately of pubs and supermarkets refusing to sell alcohol to parents with their kids. The reasons given appear to be a suspicion that the alcohol is being brought for the child, or that it sets a bad example.

So what’s the problem here? Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that there was rioting on the streets, (3,296 people arrested, sadly none of them charged with the crime of rioting), and everyone was up in arms about the lack of society, community and people not taking action against all these things that are wrong with our twenty first century society.

BUT now that people do start trying to take little steps to correct some of these perceived issues and start things moving in the right direction, everyone’s up in arms or just plain furious about that too!! It appears that we have become a very very self centred and selfish crowd that believes that as long as I’m not effected it’s OK, but if it effects me in any way then watch out!

If we are going to change things, then everyone is going to have to be a lot more understanding and tolerant of each other, different views and work together not against each other all the time.

0

Brisish Firework Championships

Lazing in front of the TV I catch the local news, the British Firework Championships are on in Plymouth, having quickly checked there website, (British Firework Championships) we know we can make it before the first of three displays of the final night starts. Excellent, I love a good firework display and haven´t seen one in years.
We jump in the car and get there with plenty of time to park and pick a good spot, I even managed to grab a camera on the way out the door, (which hopefully will end with some photographs in the gallery in the coming weeks), and we are so glad we made the spur of the moment decision to go as three amazing displays follow, congratulations go to MLE Pyrotechnics for a spectacular show that won them the 2011 completion.

0

Insurance - will they pay out?

We have had representatives of the insurance industry on the national news telling us how there policies cover the events of the last few days, which by the way they are treating as riots. Then in the very next breath saying how the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 could help the uninsured or cover shortfalls in pay-outs. It seems to me that the insurance industry trying to have the best of both worlds giving an outward image of being caring and helpful while setting the scene for rejecting claims.

It has however stirred up an argument between the police and insurers as to who should be footing the bill. Which is likely to rage for some time to come well, at least until the claim periods of 14 days under the act and 7 days that a number of insurance companies have given has expired.
Something neither the insurance companies or police have pointed out, is that there is provision in the act for the Secretory of State to vary regulations respecting the time, manner, and conditions under which claims for compensation under this Act are to be made, and all claims not made in accordance with such regulations may be excluded. The Association of British Insurers has written to the Home Secretary requesting that the 14-day deadline be extended to 42.

At the end of the day if the police end up paying out under the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 it will be us the taxpayer that really ends up footing the bill. Either in higher Council Tax/Rates or via reduced services. While the insurance companies laugh all the way to the bank, increasing their premiums, (a figure of 15% is being mentioned), not paying out on their existing policies and starting to excluding riots from future policies, as its now become a ‘known risk’.

It will be interesting to come back to this in three or four months time when all the claims have hopefully been settle and see what happen.