Damon Hill - a blast from the past

My Borders' College digital photography course is about portraits this week. As my Damon Hill image shows "character" through his eyes it will be part of my handout.
With the silhouetted face (which this damn program will not let me position how I want) it illustrates the broad range of image that might be considered a portrait.

Available Light

Here's the handout from my Border's College course for 22nd March.
Do you have a night scene of which you are particularly proud?
Submit it either as a link via my guestbook or as a comment to this post.
Prize - Wow! My pick of the best will win 25 sheets of A4 Gloss Inkjet paper.

Food Photography

The subject, this week, for my
Border's College course:
"Getting the Most from Your
Digital Camera" is Food.
Breaking eggs, mixing & sifting
flour enabled me to show my
favourite photography - action!

Egg breaker: The slow shutter
speed allows the egg white to
flow as a stream. It is then
caught by the flash.

On yer bike!

For three years nine months I've puffed, panted and pedalled a total of 32,000 miles to the same photographic shop.
Yesterday the boss put the brakes on, nearly a week after my resignation to join a competitor, he decided I should pack my panniers.
Bizarrely, rather than pay me off, in a rather cranky move he wheeled me out to another store in the chain. Giving the chance to tell another raft of employees where I was going and why. Enough is enough, being escorted off the premises, without being sacked, is a bit like going over the bars into a soft bed of nettles. That happened to a mate of mine once, the same day he buckled a wheel and was stung by a bee!
Today I put an end to the situation and saddled up for the sun, figuring that if I have to fork out two weeks wages it'll be better value. My new employers, who have a button on the blog, will move my start date forward.
This photo was taken, by Birmingham Evening Mail in 1978. Back then I didn't record the mileage as Steve Haskey, Gary Barham and I (aged 14) cycled our wee legs out for 24-hours to raise £100. (It's me in the centre)

Canon EOS1D MKIII

The CREAM of Canon could convert a Nikon nut, perhaps........ This new camera announced last week seems to offer a great package, but, at a tremendous price - £3,050.01. What a ridiculous penny why not £2,999.99, it looks better.
* An entirely new 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor — which also features the EOS Integrated Cleaning System
* 10 frames per second shooting with a burst rate up to 110 full-resolution JPEG images or 30 RAW
* 19 user-selectable AF points and 26 additional “assist points”
* Lighter body with enhanced weather resistance
* Dual DIGIC III image processors working in parallel to provide up to 50% less shadow noise and superb image quality
* Large 3-inch LCD monitor with Live View
Plus for me, two neat solutions, not mentioned high up in the specs, which might prove really useful - "Live View Mode" - Live image from sensor can be used via back LCD and Wifi (via WFT-E2). Anyone who has read this blog will know that having just spent more than three grand on a device like this, being able to send pics for free from a wi-fi hotspot would start to put a smile back on my lips.

Laurel Bank Tearooms Broughton Scotland

Tearoom trade is tricky especially on wet winter weekends. When I am well (not now!)Laurel Bank at Broughton on the road from Moffat to Edinburgh is a great stop. On a summer's day it's a nice run out on the bike without going crazy. Now my fellow time-triallists know how I keep my svelte figure. Don't worry there's a photography lesson in the pictures!
Laurel Bank's proprietor is keen on quality: "How can you make a better cup of tea?" he asks, "By buying tea bags that you would be happy to use at home." They cost him three or four times more than bulk catering packs but means that standards are maintained.
Christopher Lambton, the proprietor, must have had a run in with his accountant. He writes : "If you ask an accountant the chances are that he will advise you not to open a tearoom. How can you charge £1.20 for putting a tea bag in a pot?" The answer is above.
But that means ignoring opportunities for increasing margins - a bit like a shop which only sells video cameras above £750 in value. Or does not stock flimsy tripods but only Manfrottos and top range Sliks.
Weirdly though, the shop, that stocks the flimsy tripods, is beginning to cut back on the high margin film (film is only used by 2% of the market says their top man). Leaving the shop that stocks the high value, low margin, digital Hasselblad, to also keep going with film.
If you have read this far identify the two shops through my guestbook (new feature top of the page) to win a roll of film!

£50 is still Fifty Pounds

"I'd like £50s worth of gift vouchers," a customer today asked my colleague Paul.
"No problem, I'll get them for you," he replied.
"How much will that be then????" asked the witless customer.

Perhaps they think we might do a special discount on vouchers now thank god no internet site offers vouchers to spend in our shop. We'd have customer's asking for a price match!

Full Moon

Full Moon: With this title the blog might get some different hits from its
usual! I was asked about technical details, so here goes:

Nikon D100, White Balance: auto, Iso: 400, Shot on Tiff then converted to
Jpeg in Picasa and saved at 100 dpi, Lens 180mm (270mm on APS digital
sensor) + 2x TC 200 converter (540mm). Manfrotto tripod and cable
release.
I digitally zoomed on screen before cropping to 6 x 6 inches, converted to greyscale and applied unsharp mask.

Again the image is for Max's Art project on the moon. I should have taken it earlier in the evening when the moon appeared lower and larger in the sky. It is a miracle to have seen the moon in Peebles nearly every night this week, for once we have been spared the rain and clouds.

1/8th, 1/15th, 1/30th, 1/60th, Shutter Speeds etc

I've had a number of requests for help with shooting moving subjects. One thing that may well not help is an image stabilising lens. Sure you can hand-hold at two shutter speeds lower, but if the subject is moving it might be blurred.
In addition any lens which is IS or VR but does not have a wide maximum aperture will further hinder the ability to set fast shutter speeds - film or digital.

(For those less technical double-click on the image to view it full size)

Caricature

Here's Looking at You Pal: Nilesh Ladwa displays
a caricature drawn during Valeant Pharmaceuticals
"Christmas" party at the Elvetham Hall Hotel,
Hampshire, on Saturday night.