Smidgeshots - 6 - Photoshop

Well, it's happened; I've discovered the power of photoshop. I've a long way to go yet, but here is an example of what happens you let me play around with editing software. Enjoy.*

*I by no means think these are the best snaps I will ever take, in fact I'd like to look back on these in a year and cringe. Onwards and upwards!

Bridge

Upped the contrast in this one to show those extra dark blacks. Also, the slow shutter speed makes the water look loverly and misty, don't you think?

Candlelight 

Reducing the lightness and again playing with contrast brought out the flare in what was otherwise a boring photo.

Landscape

Not the biggest fan of landscapes, but here I played with exposure levels to get those dark clouds in at the top.

Purple Grace

The heading says it all, really. Upped the saturation and what not, it helped that the lighting down the alley was already purple...

Bridge 2 

Again a high contrast to get those darks under the bridge, helping the bright lights atop stand out.

Street Phone

Here I added a filter; film grain. It's a little like cheating, but the effect is pretty cool. I heightened the highlights too, making it really effective. Nice, no?

Smidgeshots - 5 - Ancestors 2

I guess I'm being all sentimental and shit, but I wanted to put these pictures up as much to have them stored somewhere for the future as for anything else...

Kelsie 

Such a cutie... I love the middle shot where she's looking right at the camera with this coy smile. She knows what's happening, that she's in the limelight. I think she's gonna grow to be a real diva.

Martin

This sums up my nephew like no other photo. You can't see it but he's playing a toy guitar and it's making quite a ruckus. Here he is just soaking in the melody, enjoying the sounds like it's nutritious.

Smidgeshots - 4 - Ancestors

Ancestors

A very simple blog today... My grandparents visited from England and I took a series of photos for memories and for art. Here is, from left to right, my grandmother, grandfather and finally my own mother, arranged here in an attempt to edit in photoshop. not bad for a start, not a bad photo either...

Smidgeshots - 3 - Man and Nature

As I walked along the river bank and down the side alley I began to notice how close nature can be in an urban world. The following are a series of photos I took which reflect the concept of Man and Nature, our entanglement, our need. Where is one, the other hides.

Man's Leaf

The shamrock, the symbol of Ireland, greenery, nature; here broken, tilted and rusting. Like an actual leaf in the midst of autumn, the sign shows how time has beaten it down, torn its gleam and left it dangling from its branch. This image perfectly reflects how Man often sees itself as above Nature, as somehow superior. We build houses against wind, farms against hunger, and yet our attempts to subvert nature are foiled time and again. We are no more above nature than that sign is a leaf, and the fence a tree.

Through the Glass

Maybe he walked home post-argument with the misses, maybe it was a sunny day by the river and he slipped, maybe a friend's joke went too far and a brawl ensued. Whatever the reason, a shard a glass, a beer top, lodged itself in the ground and, despite everything, a shoot grew in the most unlikely of places. This is a simple reminder, like the vines on the side of a wall or the weeds from the cracks in the pavement, that Nature is always just below the surface, struggling to undo Man's Great Works.

A Barbed Bud

 

Here, as ever, Nature shows how triumphant its gradual growth model is over our staticism. The wire is slowly being engulfed by the branches, and while the line is tipped with barbs, the branch is tipped with buds. The buds will grow anew while the barbs will rust. Nature triumphant, Man inglorious.

The Imperfect

Yet, let us not be fooled, for nature too has its dark side, its poisons, its spikes. And, remember, while this leaf will die and move on, the picture, Man's picture, will remain immortal. So long as the cloud doesn't disperse...

Smidgeshots - 2 - Further Test

This week's Smidgeshots are all a little artsy-fartsy. I've sort-of gotten the hang of most of the features and I've worked out what goes with what (ie, if you're up the shutter speed you better keep the aperture low and have good lighting, otherwise you get stupid pictures of blackness! [the reverse is also true; a slow shutter speed with a low aperture will give a big'ol picture of whiteness.]) So, here's my playing with shutters speed, lens movement and good old fashioned black and white. Enjoy!

Let's Play!

I was in a bar, watching a bit of live music and, as these things go, I needed to use the facilities. Inside, two men came out of the only available cubicle suspiciously sniffing and rubbing their faces - eep! -  Naturally, when I left and saw them and some bald-headed, giant-armed, wild-eyed friends playing a friendly game of pool, I asked if I could take a few shots!

I really like what's happening in this photo. I'm getting to grips with depth of field, and obviously the monochrome adds to the feeling of film noir style game being played. You can picture the, er, gentlemen, smoking fine Cubans and plotting takeovers in the background... or maybe that's just me. Either way, this is going in my Favourites album.

Walking... Into the Future!

Ok, I'll be straight with you, this isn't a good photo, but it is an artistic photo. Agreed? I was waiting for a bus and happened to have my camera with me (then again, I rarely go anywhere without it!) so I started to fiddle with the settings. I realised if I used a slow shutter speed (in this case a quarter of a second) and moved the lens ever so slightly as the camera took the picture that I could distort the image. Half an hour and a missed bus later, I caught this. Who the man is, I've no idea. I hope he doesn't mind being the protagonist. If he does, well, too bad; this photo is just too cool to give up.

Let's Drink!

Plain and simple, a little bit of DoF, a little bit of fun and a little bit of alcohol. I used to draw these faces on my dad's bulmers bottles and anytime a friend gets one I feel compelled to reenact a moment from my childhood. Not the best picture in the world, but it is one of the most nostalgic.

Smidgeshots - 1 -Test

So I bought a DSLR - that's Digital Single Lens Reflector - and I've been testing it out. This blog is designed to highlight some of my favourite snaps - or Smidgeshots! - and hopefully track my progress as I go. There are more snaps on my facebook and even more on my imgur and more again on my desktop, but this'll be a one stop shop to see what I've been up to and listen to me ramble for a while. Enjoy!

Fire!

This is a snap I took at the Cronin House, way out in the shticks of Cork. (Hopefully, as the weather improves, whenever that will be, I'll be able to take some nice ones of the countryside out there.) Fire is annoying to capture on camera and it took me a while to get the exposure right. I set the shutter speed to four seconds and balanced the camera on the chair arm, that way reducing the shake (I don't have a tripod yet, which is on my list of things to buy!) What I like most here is how you can really see the flames 'licking.' I've always loved sitting in front of an open fire and watching the flames rise, so I guess it makes sense that I would enjoy taking photos of it just as much.

Shandon Bells.

Shandon is a fairly dodge area of Cork, but it's home nonetheless. Like anywhere, Shandon has its good and bad bits. Here's a snap I took on a frolic around a few night ago. I love the yellow light of the lamps which bathes everything, giving it all an eerie glow. I think I framed the shot nicely with the pillars lining the streets mirrored by the lamps, eventually elevating into the tower itself. This was actually pretty hard to take as there are so many overhead lines criss crossing that got in the way. I had to lie on the ground at one point to get an angle without getting too many of the lines in!

Water!

This one I took when playing with quick shutter speeds. I spent a whole day capturing all things liquid. I even braced the outdoors to get a good one of a drain pipe spilling droplets. However, this is probably my favourite. I love how the water clings to itself - apparently because of the water tension - and I love how the background is slightly blurred, making the pipe and the water all the more prominent. Expect much more of this kind of photography from me in the future, 'till then, adios.