Been Busy Lately

I haven’t been writing in this blog for a while now. It is not that I don’t want to. No, scratch that: I really didn’t want to write anything else after finishing the thesis!!

However, now I am feeling in a much better mood and I want to tell you how it all went…

I submitted the thesis back in November, after that we spent some nice holidays in Paris. It was a well deserved holiday for all the family and a great opportunity to take some pictures in that beautiful city.

While in Paris I got an email saying that my Viva (the Thesis defence) was going to be on 28th Jan! Obviously January was a blur full of excitement and finally the Viva date arrived.

The week previous to the Viva was the worst ever, I was really scared but the examiners were actually very nice on the day and after two hours I ran away with only minor scratches. After a week or so I submitted the minor corrections, these were approved, I printed the final copies, submitted them in beautiful black covers and Bob’s your uncle! wait for the certificate to be made…

… and yesterday…

 

… To be continued.

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Firework Season is Back in Town

With the wind, the rain and the cold also come the Gluhwhein, the merry songs, and the FIREWORKS!!! So be ready with your camera to capture the moment, in this post I’ll try to help you get the best results.

I took the image above during last year’s Switch-On in Manchester. I’ve received many nice comments and lots of views, here I tell you how to get something similar.

Find a Good Spot

Every year I see lots of people trying to get to the very front, what’s the point? If what you really want is to get good firework pictures then you want to be farther away. You really need to give some space between you and the fireworks so you can catch’em.

Carry a Tripod

I know, I know, I also hate lugging stuff around. However this is a time where the tripod is your friend. You will need long exposures to get the fireworks and give them time to spread-out in your frame so, don’t be lazy for once ;¬)

Get a Wide-Angle Lens

If you are using a DSLR get a wide-angle (10mm), you really need a lot of space to make the fireworks fit on your frame. If you are using a P&S or a compact camera then don’t worry, your lens is already wide enough.

Avoid Touching the Camera

Chances are that it will be dark enough and the movement you generate while pressing the trigger (even when using the tripod) will be unnoticeable. However, it is best if you are using a cable or ratio trigger (if you have a DSLR), or just set your camera on the timer. Even P&S now have an option for a 2sec delay, that will do.

Long Exposure and Aperture

As I said above, you need to give time to the fireworks to explode and spread in your frame, so you need to work with long exposures. How long? to be honest it is trial and error. For  the image above I used 4 seconds. You also want to get a good depth of field. I won’t get into details but try to increase the number in the aperture as much as you can without getting ridiculously long exposures (you don’t normally want to get above 10secs).

Remember the long exposure will give you a better chance to capture the fireworks. But the longer it gets the more fireworks will get cramped in your frame so it is a matter of taste and it will depend on how big the area is and the firework programme.

A Starting Point

If you like the image above and you will be facing similar conditions, then this are all the settings I used. They could be a good starting point for your first frame :D

Exposure:       4 seconds Aperture:       f/16 Focal length:  10mm ISO speed:      200

Now go out and shoot and don’t forget to share with me your results. I hope you find this helpful.

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Beneath Murky Waters...

She made a run for the alleyways near the canal in a desperate attempt to lose him. She had no clue on his intentions but had no plans of finding out, not with the news she read this morning – “Sixth victim of the Jackal found in a dumpster” – suddenly the idea of walking back home with the obnoxious Johnny from the office didn’t sound too bad.

Amanda was kicking herself for not driving to the club tonight; drinking and driving seemed like an excellent idea at that moment. Wearing those high heels was not helping either – she was proud of her legs and those heels were the perfect final touch, so much for that now! She stopped a moment to listen … nothing … “where’s everyone?”… no sound! … “maybe I lost him!”… two more steps… damn clacking noise! … a shadow!! … silence.

Amanda was nowhere to be seen, only a couple of rain-washed blood drops that went unseen by the inspectors searching the alleyways…

I know, I know terrible story! that's why I'm a photographer and not a writer. However the pictures I want to show today made me think in criminal novels and wanted to give it a shot. Obviously it's more difficult than I thought ;¬)

With TV shows like "Life on Mars" shot in my adoptive city - Manchester - I always considered the canal banks like something mysterious and full of stories. Despite being renovated now I cannot stop thinking it could have been a good place to hide something or err someone...

"“What the hell does that fish mean?” ... "It's a Sicilian message. It means means that Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes"”

Last year I had the chance to take some pictures when the water level dropped in the canal for some reason and this is what I found. No skulls or anything like that though ;¬) only rubbish.

see more images after the jump >>
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Can this be considered urban art?






Let me know what you think!!


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Disseminate your work!

the world is full of beautiful things
Originally uploaded by bitrot

As a photographer and especially as an amateur photographer you need other people to admire your work. Obviously, it's not any different from the other arts. A musician or an actor need a stage and live for the applause (an some money is never bad to calm the nerves either).

So as an amateur photographer a good way of reaching a bit farther than the web is to design a book (which as something tangible it's great). There are different tools and one of them is Blurb. There you will find many options to organise and pair up your photos in an interesting way to make it appealing to the reader/viewer.

If the big guns of Photography Web 2.0 style like Joe Mcnally, David Hobby, Chase Jarvis etc. continously promote each other why not to blow the trumpet for a good friend!! My friend Mark has gone for his second (or third actually) book that you can get here...

The book looks pretty good and it is full of interesting and eye catching stuff to prove us that "The world is full of beautiful things" (and I can tell you that being stood up by a model is not one of them, sorry still a bit sour).


I don't know, maybe one day I will go for my own book as well. It's only that sometimes I don't think I have material interesting enough, need to be more selfconfident ;)

Till next time, today it is sunny again! A great day for football and I will be supporting Man Utd tonight from the Old Trafford!! Go Devils!!
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A little bit of sun and...

Here in Manchester:

- People hurry to the closer terrace to have some drinks. Today when I was coming back from the Uni, I noticed a rumbling all around me coming from people gathered and chattering in those terraces. I still can hear people at the Rain Bar across the street enjoying some good time (its now half past nine).

- The girl's skirts suddenly lose an inch or two. I have to say I've never seen such long legs or such short mini-skirts. Hurray!! I also have to say that one can see mini-skirts, cleavages and open-back dresses all year round. This girls are crazy I'm telling ya!

- People start wearing sandals, short trousers and sleeveless shirts.

And all of this happens while it's barely above 10C and I still can see my breath while walking (and not for the spiced curry I ate earlier).

On other things... I've found that I just can't stop writing!! but sadly not PhD related stuff but more silly things for the new blog. I hope I can keep the enthusiasm even though nobody is gonna read all this. I'm also feeling attracted to the idea of using more Spanish in the blog...

More to come...
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