Frost...

Here is a series of images I took last week in Somerset's cold snap.It now looks as though we will have another heading our way this weekend.Brace yourselves Somerset for another icy blast of Arctic weather! great for getting out with the camera, sledge and snowboard at some point hopefully!

Your first DSLR

A few people and friends have asked recently what camera I would recommend for getting started in digital photography.Generally the first thing to consider at this level is price.Have a figure as a budget.Much better value can be found on-line rather than the high street, auction sites such as e.bay can turn up some great bargains, especially if you are prepared to keep an eye out over the course of a few weeks.I find this also gives you a good idea of a second hand value and helps you to get the kit that represents the best value.Many are imports from Hong Kong, although generally cheaper I would recommend a UK model, foreign models can vary in spec. voltage etc.Make sure you are buying a UK market camera.

I use Pro Spec.Canon EOS equipment myself the much cheaper non- pro range of bodies and lenses are of course significantly cheaper but I find Canon hard to beat so this is what I will focus on here.Of course Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Sony are also in the running, although Nikon & Canon have been at the forefront for many, many years and also have huge ranges of compatible equipment.

Also remember to include in your budget cash essentials like memory cards and editing software-Adobe Photo-shop Elements is a powerful programme and is around £69 and contains 'elements of the full program.The full version is around £600.You will need a camera bag and also things like a flash and a tripod are desirable as your skills improve.These of course can be purchased later on.Of course you will need a PC, laptop or Mac with a fairly decent processor of 1 or preferably 2 GB RAM plus and preferably though not essential a decent size hard drive around 100GB plus would be ideal or an external hard disc.

                         CONSIDERATIONS WHEN RESEARCHING YOUR FIRST DSLR

                                                                        image to follow

• Resolution The all important Mega Pixel count of the camera-usually between 10 and 16 Mega Pixel (mp) at this level  is important as it will give a good print size before the image breaks up or 'pixelates'.It is important to have a good pixel count  but It can be more important how the camera 'processes' a digital file that has an impact on image quality.The higher the quality 'engine' the better the image quality. 
• Glass At this range it is safe to say the lens supplied with any new DSLR is usually a wide angle to portrait 18- to 55mm in focal range and a bit of a 'bottle bottom' of a lens.The glass and plastics are usually cheaply manufactured.Now comes a bit of advice that may be worth consideration-if you could find a 'body only deal'  and find yourself a fixed focal length lens of say a 50mm f 1.8 you will get far superior images especially if you are mostly taking portraits.Of course the fixed lenses are not as versatile as a zoom and would not really be much use for things like landscapes etc-it all depends on what you will be concentrating on.
• more to follow...  
• Sensor  An important consideration on purchasing your new DSLR will be what kind of sensor the camera has.Sensors are the bit of technology that replace traditional film.The sensor sits in the same place roughly as the film would have been but instead of light travelling down the lens and hitting film-it now hits a sensor which is made up of tiny light receptors.These receptors would normally only be able to record monochrome images but have colour filters placed over them which allows penetration of only a particular colour of light.At your initial purchase stage you will need to be aware of 'crop factors' your camera body sensor will apply.This comes down to the actual size or format of your brands sensor.Some are the same size exactly as a piece of 35mm film or 'full frame' but most in the entry level/mid range will have a smaller sensor than full frame.This will affect the focal length of your lens.A crop factor of say 1.5 would make a 100mm lens become the equivalent of a longer 150mm lens on a 35mm camera.The image at the back of the lens does not change-just the amount of the image that is recorded.It is important to be aware of this when buying your camera and lenses.From an amateur point of view it is not all bad news as with a telephoto lens you will have more 'pulling power' which can be useful for wildlife or more candid portraits.It may not be so beneficial if you want to work more at the other end of the focal range for say wide angle shots.14mm would become 21mm at 1.5x.more here  http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/crop-factor.htm.
• Shutter speed,ISO & Aperture.The three elements of an exposure, these three combinations produce an exposure, exposure is controlled in the camera or manually by the cameras light meter.Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter is opened and closed and can vary from minutes or even hours open to many thousandths of a second.ISO is what used to be called film speed and has a bearing on your exposure, low film speeds would be 50ISO and gives little grain or 'noise' and  High1600ISO and above would allow use in lower light situations but at the cost of image clarity with added grain or 'noise' as it is called digitally.Check the ISO range when considering your purchase (some are also expandable),the more extreme the range the more flexible the camera.A new feature on some models is Auto ISO.The more you spend on your equipment the better performance you will get in these areas, allowing you more photographic freedom.Aperture is how far open or closed the iris of the lens is when the shutter button is pressed.This has an effect on exposure as well as 'depth of field' or the amount of space that is in focus or out of focus in an image.Aperture can be used creatively to highlight a subject in sharp focus while throwing all around out of focus, or can be pin sharp right through an image.Their is a lot to learn and it is an infinite subject to learn, however Practise is the key.Good luck and enjoy your Photography.

A little seasonal treat....

...And also the start of a new 'night time' practise project, these projects help greatly when under pressure to get things right for clients and keep my skills sharp.

Alot of work going on at the mo with re-shaping the website.Image sizes for the slide show are causing a few concerns with sizing and loading.Also going to be adding in gallery's, portfolio and a client password protected area to view, 'proof' & order images very shortly after a wedding.

If your reading this Please please please, come ...on-get hitting that facebook like 'button'!! on the mytime facebook page so you appear in the page 'like' box.it will really help, thanks.Also you will be among the first to see how the new site is shaping up, keep up to date with the business and promotional offers-( High end new-born and infant photo portrait service is planned for the new year and friends of this page will be getting preferential treatment, not to mention beautiful images of the highest quality.

A beautiful light moment and a rare feel of summer this August!

 And some nature from a very recent hike up on Exmoor.

.A  little photo shoot at the local park-with some good light and some great models-I love heading out on these little photo shoots with kids, they grow up so quickly-Its lovely to freeze time.These could be photos of your kids-I am always happy to get out with you and take some lovely portrait- shots of your little cherubs,  I will make sure we will bag you some great shots just like these!

(PHOTO TIP) The shot top left and  right are the same image.The image right  is colour balanced, post processed & properly presented.

Professional photographer's use a format called RAW to shoot in-this captures the best tonal range and is the most flexible format of modern day DSLR photography.If you pay professional prices for your photography-your photographer will have the time to make the changes and properly process your images-an amateur or low quality pro.will bypass this process to save time & hence money.'The You get what you pay for' adage is more relevant to this medium than any

for the squeamish, don't look.Oh too late.It's just a harmless' little' spider.Well actually this ones nearer the nine inch mark! Its from India and is called Poecilotheria striata.This is a stock photo for image banks.I have been practising a bit recently with my small items photography-the idea is that these can be used for  advertising images.So expect to see a few more small items.no more spiders though.Promise.

I picked up these tomatoes in the week for a nice salad, I thought they just looked too good to eat, just yet, so had a little photo shoot with them.I used a wide open aperture of f.2.8 and my canon 24-70 f2.8 L  lens, L series canon glass for hair splitting sharpness.The wide open aperture has lent well to the 'creative'shallow depth of field I was after.

Devon Tour,Clovely.

And the final images from my Tour of Devon!You may notice I have a couple of images here that have colour and black and white all in one.This technique is called channel mixing and means some of the colour information is retained on converting a digital image file to mono (black  & white).It's not a technique I  tend not to use allot and I feel it has been over-used especially by wedding photographers.It can be a bit of a cheap trick and in my opinion has little place in modern wedding photography.But there we are, some like it-for me too crass. I thought these two images were deserving & subtle enough.The boat chain just made sense as a great lead in.

Had to include a little bit of Devon here on the blog & finished off these pebble shot's.we shouldn't take pebbles I know due to coastal erosion.I did walk an awful long way before picking these up one at time from various spots along the beach.

Devon Tour,Clovely.

Devon Tour,Clovely.

I have just returned form a lovely little 5 day camping trip around the Somerset and Devon coast, It is a hugely underrated area-but I took in some beautiful places like Porlock and Porlock Weir, Exmoor,Linton & Lynmouth, Croyde,Woolacombe and then onto my final camping ground down near Hartland Point for some fishing,onto Plymouth to visit my cousin and back to Taunton for a business meeting.Phew. Just back (East) from Hartland point is Clovely-what a little gem this place is, I had never been there before-this place is absolutely made for photographers-with some great little still lifes all set up! it was like being on a film set-So I can wholeheartedly recommend a trip there with your camera!!!Click on the pan to see a larger version.

dandilions

These are some images that I took recently, the idea was to explore re-occurring patterns which can work well.I have tried to melt these into the landscape, with some success.

The top and darkest image has quite a funky feel that I was aiming for -kind of 60's inspired... like dudes with afro's in a crowd at Woodstock!(before my time!)