New tech. New ideas and building site progress photography

I currently have an ongoing project.

Since April 2017, I have traveled every two weeks to a building site, ten minutes from where I live, to document the progress of the construction. 

Using the architects own plans, I was able to see the best vantage points to show the progress in the best way. I was delighted when a couple who live in an apartment overlooking the site offered to let me use their balcony whenever I am there. 

On my very first visit, I took many general photos. Back home, I produced JPG's and superimposed my Canon 5d MKII's focusing points over the image. I transferred these images to my Samsung tablet so that when I am onsite, I can see exactly where my camera should be pointing.

My reason for taking as many images as possible on my first visit is because I have learned from past experience that eventually, there will be objects such as walls etc which will block your view or even pop up where you originally were standing!

My other "constant" is the lens and body combination. I use a 5d MKII fitted with an EF 16-35mm zoom. All the images I make are taken at the wide end. With this method, I can ensure uniformity in my results.

"So where are the new ideas mentioned in the headline"? I hear you ask. Last year I won a Samsung Gear 360 camera in an online competition. This is a golf ball sized device that has a lens on the front and on the back.

The two lenses' f.o.v* overlap with each other and some clever software stitches them together. This results in 360 degree images or videos that you can view and move around in, on your PC or smartphone.

The Samsung gear 360 camera

And here are some of the resulting images.

You can see more of my 360 images on the wonderful Kuula website.

The Samsung gear 360 is compatible with the Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy S6 smart devices. You can however use it without a smartphone.

Every six months, I put together a series of still images to make a "stop motion" type movie using the free and very capable Microsoft Movie Maker programme. Here is the latest version.

That's the beauty of photography. There's always something new and exciting to discover. Whether it's a new camera or lens or even just a reworking of an old technique. Our hobby / Passion is always well fed.

Thanks for reading.





*f.o.v field of view

Quickie

Last week a client asked me to do some product shots that he needed in a hurry for a promotional campaign. He has ten pairs of sunglasses to photograph with the country flags on the lenses for each land competing in the forthcoming football world cup. Time was of the essence so I decided to shoot them in my front room.

 The products

Another friend recently asked for advice on using a Somikon "Studio Box"  which she'd recently purchased so I used the sunglasses as a test so that I could show here the results that can be obtained from this piece of equipment.

I set up the studio box on a table in my sitting room and placed the glasses on the bottom. Using my Canon 5d MKII with a 50mm lens and my Benbo tripod.

To prevent my constantly bending over to look through the viewfinder, I attached my camera to my Samsung Galaxy tablet using the free DSLRdashboard software which is available from the Google Play store. This software shows me the captured image and I can zoom in and out to check focus etc. The software also has the option to save the images onto the device itself or just on the memory card.

I started at nine o'clock and with the help of the software and a big display, I was able to move various reflectors and light blockers around until I had an image that the client wanted.

 1st set-up. Too many reflections

The set-up I ended up using.

Another piece of equipment that I put to use were my Phottix Odin wireless flash triggers. These are quite simply, fantastic flash triggering devices. As they are wireless, they can fire the flash around corners and out of line of sight. With more than 2500 exposures I have not had one single misfire. You can also control the individual flash compensation by thirds of a stop. 

Glamour photographer Michael Zelbel also uses these triggers and have uploaded an interesting video about them. 

With the help of all these time saving devices I was able to get a good setup which I mailed to the client. He gave me the OK and I then photographed the next nine pairs.

After converting the CR2 RAW files into high resolution JPG's, I uploaded them to a website where I can apply clipping to make the background pure white.

Total time for the job was four and a half hours.

Here's one of the finished images.

Thanks for reading.

Three different ways of using an image.

I was at Zürich airport last weekend to say goodbye to a family member.

I neglected to take a camera with me as I thought it would be a quick goodbye at the airport and then back home. 

I was mistaken.

There is an observation deck open to the public which costs only Fr 5 and affords the visitor some splendid photo opportunities so we decided to take a look.

After seeing all the aircraft taking off from such a great vantage point, I decided to take a few snaps. 

First off I used the panorama function on my Samsung Galaxy S3 to take in a wide area of the apron.

This is the view I got with five images.

Press the play button and you can use your mouse to "move around" in the image.

I then went to the other end of the observation deck and watched the larger aircraft taking off.

It was a very sunny day and I could hardly see the screen on my phone even when it was shielded by my hand. I found myself having to use reference points to guess when the aeroplane would be visible. With that in mind, I decided to use the "burstmode" on the Galaxy to make sure that I would get the 'plane in view ( the so called spray and pray method so beloved of many sports photographers ). On the Samsung Galaxy this is activated simply by holding your finger on the release button. I was making around twenty images in a few seconds.

Burst sequence on the Galaxy S3

When I got home, I had the idea of making an animated Gif of this sequence.

A quick search online led me to this website which makes free gifs using images that you upload. I simply resized all the images I needed then uploaded them. In seconds I was presented with an animated gif of the Swiss aeroplane taking off.

Animated gif, courtesy of Gifmaker.me

One of the images I decided, would make a great desktop background, so I loaded it into Snapseed. After lightening the shadows a bit and increasing the saturation a touch, I was ready to use this image on my PC.

 My new PC background

I did take several other images that day but they will have to wait for another post.

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

DMD Pano app for iOS and Android

I'm having fun at the moment shooting and uploading panoramic images taken with the Dermandar App.

The App allows you to take either a wide panorama or a 360 degree image which can then be either viewed on the phone or uploaded to their website.

 I uploaded this one that I took in Engelberg.

Here's a link to some of the panoramas I've made so far.
 
It's a fun tool and very simple to use. There's a free version and a paid for one. At the moment, I'm testing the free version.

Thanks for reading.

Snapseed

I was up early this morning in a place that I hadn't previously visited. After I had parked my car, I noticed an old factory building which I knew I had to photograph.

Unfortunately I was only carrying my mobile phone with me ( a Samsung Galaxy S3 ) but I decided anyway to get a visual record of the building. The image I captured was very blue as the sun was only just beginning to rise. 

 Straight out of the phone

When I got home, I didn't even bother to open the image on my PC. Instead I opened it in a mobile phone App called Snapseed. This is a wonderful programme that allows an image to be almost endlessly manipulated. The user can alter the white balance, sharpness and saturation etc. Also available are different effects such as B&W, grunge and sepia (amongst others ) 

For the finished image, I used the settings to darken the sky behind the building, Crop the car out on the left, lighten the building itself, add just a touch of vignetting and grain, convert it to monochrome and add a funky frame. 

 After the Snapseed treatment

I like this particular programme / App so much that I have the paid for version on my PC and the free versions on my iPad and my phone.

At the time of writing, the App was still available from its makers Nik Software for free download on the Google Play store.

Thanks for reading.

DIY telephoto

Supertelephoto on your smart-phone

I was recently thinking about upgrading some of my lenses. This made me think about what I photograph the most. 

Looking through the images that I've been making for the last year or two led me to one conclusion: I don't really need anything long. My most used lens seems to be the excellent 17 - 40 F4L zoom from Canon. After that, it's the 28 - 135 IS zoom which rarely gets used beyond about 70mm.

My last lens acquisition was the Canon EF 50mm f1.4. I absolutely love this piece of glass. It's small, fast and very sharp. It's now my de facto "carry around" lens. Ideal for everything from portraits* to copy work.

In my cupboard I have a 300 mm f4L and the 70 - 200mm f4L. I cannot remember the last time I used the 300mm. The 70 - 200 last came into service at the Streetparade in Zürich in 2011*

Also on my "least used" list is my 24mm f2.8 and my Russian Zenitar 16mm Fisheye which last saw service in 2010*.

I think that the reason I don't use these last two lenses is that A: I only rarely need a fisheye effect and B: The 24 mm focal length is covered by my 17 - 40.

There have been the (very) rare occasions when I've been out and wanted to photograph something in the distance. When this situation occurs I normally have either my Canon G9 or my Samsung Galaxy phone nearby. The Canon is OK as long as I don't use the digital zoom (which I've permanently disabled)

So what can you do if you are out and about with only a pair of binoculars and your (camera enabled) smart-phone and you need to take a telephoto image?

I was looking at the accessories on sale for mobile phones last week and noticed a telephoto attachment available. I wondered what would happen if I tried to shoot through binoculars?

I dug out of my closet, an old pair of 10 x 25 binoculars and made my way to the kitchen. The view from said kitchen is ideal for testing lenses as there is lots to point your optics at.

Using just the standard setting on my Samsung Galaxy III I pointed it at a farmhouse where I knew that there was a Ronald MacDonald statue.

Hardly visible on this shot 

but the  clown is more or less 

in the centre of the image

Then I used the digital zoom to take another picture.

He's just coming into view 

I then reverted back to standard mode for the lens and held the lens against the eye piece of the binoculars and got this shot.

As you can see there is a lot of vignetting but this was due solely to the fact that it's damn near impossible to hold a camera together with a pair of heavy binoculars and press the shutter at the same time. I'd recommend a tripod or some sort of stabilising device.

The handymen amongst you may be able to come up with some sort of bracket that aligns perfectly.

Here's another example of the binocular effect that I took in Basel.

Normal field of view

Shot through binoculars

Of course if money is no object and you really need a telephoto, I can recommend this little beauty.

Canon 800mm f5.6 Fr 17.600

Not expensive / powerful enough? Well how about this? It is a 5200mm f14 lens in Canon fit. It has a lenscap the size of a dustbin lid and was sold on Ebay for $55000. It weighs in at 220lbs (99kg)

You can read more about it here

* As seen here

Thanks for reading

UK 2012 - Busman's Holiday - Top of Penshaw

I've just returned from six days in the UK. The trip was a present for my birthday and I went to see my mum's new house for the first time and to work through a "bucket list" of images that I'd been thinking about for some time.

My visit coincided with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

This is my take on the Jubilee celebrations.

 Taken in a "greasy spoon"

Highlight of my trip however was a trip to the top of the Earl of Durham's Memorial, known locally as Penshaw Monument. 

From Wikipedia:

On Easter Monday, 1926 a 15-year-old boy, Temperley Arthur Scott, fell to his death from the top of Penshaw Monument. The boy was with three friends and 20 other people when the accident happened. They had got to the roof through the spiral staircase situated within one of the pillars. Witnesses said that the boys went round the roof walkway twice before deciding to make a third circuit. However, Scott fell trying to avoid the other visitors by passing around an open end where there was no protecting wall. Afterwards the spiral staircase to the roof was closed and remained so until a special opening on 29th August 2011, when the public were granted access to the spiral staircase and views from the top of the Monument. This was an initial test to see if it was popular enough to open again for future one-off days. The National Trust did not take bookings, the public simply turned up on the day. It was so popular (over 2000 people), not all those who turned up got to go to the top of the Monument.

I was excited when I heard this as I'd always harboured a desire to go to the top.

I emailed the Trust and was told that the time slot I would like was OK and off I went.

The Monument itself is a folly and is a half-sized replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens The Doric tetrastyle monument is 30 metres (98 ft) long, 16 metres (52 ft) wide and 20 metres (66 ft) high. The columns are each 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in diameter. It was designed by John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Sunderland, based on the Doric order.

I arrived with plenty of time together with my a good friend Michael who also expressed a wish to get to the top. Due to very windy weather, and it being the Queen's Jubilee, there weren't many visitors. Each visitor must wear an LED headlight to help with navigating the narrow staircase and must leave all bags down below. There are 75 steps to the top and I'd recommend holding cameras close to your body or else they'll be banging off the walls.

 

 The steel doorway and the narrow staircase 

The trip to the top is well worth it, especially if the weather is good. It was very windy when we were at the top (as can be heard on the video below), but this had the effect of making the air a lot clearer with no haze etc. I shot all my pics using the EOS 5d MKII and my workhorse 17 - 40.

75 stairs later...

 Great views of the English countryside

 The narrow walkway

Happy photographer

Panoramic view. Three images stitched together. Lens set at 35mm

After about a half an hour at the top We descended again and I took the following view whilst lying on my back. The lens was zoomed right out to 17mm.

My final shot was this one as we were walking back down the hill.

As mentioned earlier. here's a quick video I took at the top. You can hear how windy it was!

Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment.

Tom

Online Inspiration

I've been reading the writings of some of my favourite blogging photographers recently. It's always nice to see what's going on with other people whose work and (more importantly) photography I'm interested in.

Often, I get inspired, sometimes I get a laugh and often, I learn something new.

One such blog is from County Cork based documentary photographer Roger Overall.

As Roger explains: documentary photography is simply telling a story through a series of images. Normally, words aren't needed as the images should speak for themselves. Roger illustrates this perfectly with the following series on his blog entitled "The power of more".

He also gives step by step commentary about his shooting style and his reasons for liking some images over the others in his "anatomy of a wedding" series. Here's a beautiful series of pictures captured by Roger at one of his weddings.

You can visit his blog here.

Roger also produces, in co-operation with *two other Irish professional photographers, a podcast which I listen to regularly. You can hear (and download it) here. It's a quite informal podcast and you get the feeling that it's a bunch of mates just having a chat about the photographic world.

Why am I mentioning all this? Well as I said at the beginning, I visit for several reasons. Chief amongst them is that I can be inspired.

 

During my travels in the past few years, I've often seen something interesting to photograph, but because of tight schedules or having to be somewhere in a hurry, I wasn't able to stop and investigate further. Luckily I always made a note or took a snap with my mobile phone to aid me in remembering where I was.

I was recently laid off and now want to add more exciting things to my portfolio apart from architecture and product shots etc.

My personal project therefore, is to revisit these places and photograph / investigate them further.

After reading this post from Roger I've set myself some photographic goals. Just to "keep my hand in" as it were.

I'll keep you informed.

* the other two photographers contributing to the podcast are Neil McShane and Peter Cox

Silk purses from sow's ears

Sometimes you expect something quite different from what you get when working as a photographer.

Sometimes the client will only allow me (because of security reasons perhaps), a limited time on the premises or maybe I'll only be allowed to photograph an office complex from the inside before it gets finished and the workers move in.

This was the case last April went I drove for one and a half hours to photograph a new office complex. We had been trying for a long time to get permission and finally it had arrived. I was to photograph the new work areas and was told that everything was "more or less ready" and that there was only a few hours to complete the job.

The building looked magnificent from the outside but unfortunately I couldn't photograph it because it was raining very heavily.

No sign of the rain stopping

I met with the architect and went to the building with him. The lifts didn't work so I should have realised that maybe all was not going to be well. I asked him which offices were finished and had our lighting systems installed. He hesitated.

"Well which ones are nearly finished" I asked.

"Maybe on the third floor" He replied.

We tried that particular floor and it was like a building site. There were holes, rubble, boxes and tape everywhere.

The architect made a quick telephone call to the construction foreman and asked where we might find a finished office space.

The sixth floor......................... perhaps.

So up to the sixth floor it was. Me, The architect, a Hasselblad camera case, my rucksack with EOS gear and two tripods. Thank goodness I don't use extra lighting.

I looked around on the sixth floor but and was at first disillusioned with what I saw. Holes everywhere , floor tiles missing and generally lots of rubbish consistent with this being a building site.

Leaving my gear (and the architect) behind, I set off alone to find somewhere that may be usable. I certainly wasn't going to admit defeat and go back to the office empty handed. Finally. One floor above I found a place where the mess wasn't too bad. I took a couple of reference pictures with my mobile phone.

At least the lights were working

For the next hour or so, we tidied up. I put floor panels back, wiped dust off wooden surfaces, swept the carpet and generally did as much as I could so that there wouldn't be too much to do afterwards in Photoshop.

Before and after the clean up (and Photoshop)

All the before images taken with a Samsung Galaxy

A similar problem occurred earlier this month when I was taking pictures in the french part of Switzerland. The company I work for had delivered lots of lights to the Beaulieu Halls in Lausanne. Again this was a work in progress but as I generally only go to that part of the World about once a year, I don't like to go back empty handed so I look at all possibilities.

Our guide (one of the workmen) told me that there were lots of lights installed in the children's area downstairs.

"it's a massive hall with lots of inflatable castles for the children to play on" he said.

"How many is "lots?" I asked"

"About twenty-five or so" he replied.

"And the lights are all working?" I countered.

"Yes" he replied. "Everything is working"

Sounded great. A massive hall, lighting that worked and time to work with because it was our last job of the day.

Except.

Except that NONE of the bouncy castles were inflated.

Going to be one of those jobs

After an initial disappointment I decided to work with what I had. The deflated castles, would, I decided add a splash of colour to the images.

Here I tried to fill some of the frame

with colour

More colour and a centre of interest

for the picture

So despite my initial misgivings, all it normally takes is a quick pause for thought plus (sometimes) some cleaning up and there you have it. A usable image.

Thanks for reading.

Tom

Garage doors

Saw these colourful garage doors whilst over the border in Germany yesterday.
Picture snapped with my Samsung Galaxy.

Earning and shooting bread...

Interesting problem last week.

The company I work for has developed a range of LED lights which can be adjusted to complement various products from meat to designer textiles.

There's a setting for meat to bring out the succulent bloodiness of fresh produce on a butcher's counter to accents to subtly highlight delicate fabrics on a mannequin in a shop window. The lights can also be dimmed without losing colour.

Anyway, I digress.

We discovered at the last minute that there wasn't a suitable image of bread that we could use. I solved this by going to the bread department of a shop where the lights are already installed and working successfully.

The baker in charge gave me a selection of products to play with and I arranged them on a wooden palette. I set the EOS 5d on my Benbo and shot the buns in a vertical orientation because I knew from studying the layout that this would be ideal. My 28 - 135 zoom allowed me to crop tightly and fill the frame as envisaged by our art department.

The setup recorded with my Samsung Galaxy

That finished, I returned and they are now, as I write this, being incorporated into a brochure.

 Close-up. Again taken with the Galaxy

 That's it for now. My next assignment is to shoot some meat and a range of designer lights.

By the way. If you want to know more about these LED lights, my company has produced a microsite where all your questions will be answered. You'll find it here.

Thanks for reading.

Photography in the evening

T'was a full day of photography yesterday.

I spent the morning photographing a new lighting set up at Zaugg AG, a large construction company based in Rohrbach.

The afternoon and evening were spent about 10 kilometers (six miles) away surprisingly enough, in a another construction firm also with new premises by the name of Koenig.

Of particular importance to us was the exterior lighting provided by the company for whom I work, Regent lighting.

Dusk is the best time to photograph "night time" images as you sill get detail in the sky. Unfortunately, you only have about 20 minutes to a half an hour before it gets completely black and featureless.

Luckily, darkness is coming earlier as we draw towards the end of the year and that meant that dusk (or Dämmerung as it's called in German) is earlier. I took some twilight photos for Regent earlier this year and had to wait until a quarter to ten for it to start to get dark. Last night I began at a quarter to eight.

Luckily I have a standard exposure which I use for twilight shots. I set the exposure to 2.5 seconds at f10 and bracket one and a half f/stops each side. Then I combine all three later into a HDR which I DON'T (most of the time) Tone-Map.

Here's a picture I took of my EOS 5 on the tripod. I used my new Samsung Galaxy phone to test it^s night time capabilities.

 Taken with the Samsung Galaxy

This image however is the finished HDR picture.

Taken at 20:04 in the evening

 That's it for now. Have a great weekend.

Tom