Dawn patrol, originally uploaded by Mr_Chips.

Up before the dawn to walk through the African bush. Senses alert for the sights sounds and smells. As the sun rises, the birds begin to sing and there are coughs and calls from the larger animals taking night refuge.
Keep a good lookout.

I went to the Lakes to train a DoE gold group. So spent four days walking and camping. Although the time was taken up looking after a group I took my camera and used it at every opportunity.
The light was brilliant with no rain. There were some excellent moody cloud times and we were up early to catch the morning light.
I shall post some more when I have time on the flickr site.

Digital photograhy books, originally uploaded by Mr_Chips.

Just been reading these two books by Catherine Jamieson. I especially enjoyed ‘Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting’ also by Sean McCormick with many photographs by Istoica.com
Lots of aspects are covered form posing and composing through to lighting and equipment. There is a good mix of detail and inspiration which makes for a readable and browse-friendly book.
The lighting covers the use of natural light, flash and all the accessories from barndoors, snoots and umbrellas. I particularly liked the section on using candles to create an informal atmosphere.
Post-production techniques are covered and editing those red eyes and white teeth are a couple of examples. The tricky thing is that now I am inspired its not easy to find people willing to pose! I heartily recommend both books.

This is a composite of several images taken using a 75-300mm canon lens, tripod and cable release. Still rather grainy and noisy images and very difficult to get the focus right. The preview on the Canon 350D is hopeless for being able to see if it is sharp and even the exposure is difficult to see on the small screen.

This is a new type of printer that is about the size of a portable hard drive and prints onto special paper a bit like a polaroid. The photos are business card size and you can connect it using PictBridge.

Looks just the job for travelling where you want to give people a picture to encourage them to sit for portraits.

I visited this photography exhibition at South Molton’s, Craft Gallery in North Devon. A delightful series of black and white photographs of rural life in North Devon and landscape from the 1970′s to 1990′s recorded for the Beaford Archive.

An excellent example of social documentary including atmospheric pictures of milk churns, cider production, a doctor visiting an elderly patient, a moonlit street in one of the villages, a primary school walking in a crocodile through the streets.
This example is the Farmyard, Broomham, Devon, England, 1996.

Its cold out here, originally uploaded by Mr_Chips.

It snowed all Thursday but because of work my photography was severely hampered. By the time I managed to get out into the wilderness it had all but gone.

This was what was left by the weekend.
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