Finally I have some photo galleries to share and like a good London bus, 3 come along at once.

Hopefully you aren't scared of spiders as the first gallery contains some night shots of some spiders.

Next up are some bees. I managed to get pretty close to them as they enjoyed the nector from the lavender. They seem especially keen on the lavender.



Last, but not least are some shots from a recent trip to Felixstowe. Not much colour at the English coastal town so I thought I would give some black and white ago. You can see all the galleries here.

Tags: Felixstowe, bees, Spiders

Finally I have my last two galleries of 2008 up on my site. One is my night photography course I did a few week ago and the second if from Welney. Not much else to say really. You can see the course ones here and the Welney ones here. I hope you all have a great Christmas and hopefully I will get out shooting early in the new year. I really would like to find some birds of prey to shoot.

Tags: Welney, night course

After getting home from the night course at 1am, it was another day out with the camera. For my Mum’s 70th birthday she has organised a bus trip to Welney for her best friends. I had never been before, but what a wonderful place. They have some great hides to take photos of the wildfowl that lives there. I have some wonderful shots that I will get up over Christmas. Below are a couple of my favourites. The bottom was taken at 1600 iso as it was getting very dark, but I really like the way it came out anyway.

Tags: Wildlife

Last night I went on my Nigel Wilson night photography course. It was really great and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving those night shots. Nigel gives you a 20 minute overview of what you are trying to achieve and how to achieve it. You then go out and shoot whatever you like. You work at your own pace and Nigel flits around the group and helps you out as needed. Nigel is a really nice bloke and no question is to simple for him.

We had a lovely cold, crisp and cloudless night. Maybe a bit of cloud might have been good, but you take what you have. The course started at 7.30pm and finished at 10.30pm, but you are welcome to keep going afterwards. Below are 2 of my favourites I took last night. Hopefully I will get the gallery up soon, but it sounds like a Christmas project.

Tags: night shots

Next weekend I have a night photography course that my wife, Tami, bought me for my birthday. I am really looking forward to it. As long as it is dry. I don’t mind it being cold, but wet is not going to be good. I hope to learn a lot and have some decent photos to post here in the near future. I promise I will post them quicker than the last lot

I also hope to do some HDR as well. I am really looking forward to trying that out and seeing what I can produce.

Tags: Course

Finally I got around to sorting out the pictures I took at the Paradise Safari Park way back in July! I am really proud of them. It is a shame the bars got in the way, but as you will see, maybe with some of the cats I should be happy they were there. I am really happy with the tigers and the leopard ones in particular. You can click here to see the gallery.

We had to make a run for it at the end of the day because of a downpour. I would really love to go back and take some more.

Tags: Safari, animals

Yesterday my wife and I went off to Paradise Wildlife Park near Broxbourne. I had seen sign to it before, but had never been for a visit. What a great place. I was very surprised. We took tons of photos and I hope to have mine up soon. Below are a couple of my favourites as a taster. The one of the cheetah has come out like a night shot, totally by accident, but I think it looks really good and could have been taken on a night drive.

Tags: Wildlife, Safari, Paradise Wildlife Park

At the end of March my boss (Richard) and I went to San Francisco for an Ironport CAB event. While we were there we had a bit of time to do the tourist stuff. I have finally managed to get my first gallery up. This gallery is our trip to Angel Island. We got the Alcatraz Cruise from Pier 33. It took us for a brief trip around Alcatraz Island and then to Angel Island. We would get off at Alcatraz on our way back. That gallery will be up soon.

Updated: All the galleries are now up. You see can them here.

Tags: San Francisco

At last I can call myself a pro photographer. Something made me check my iStockphoto stats and I had sold a photo. It is the one above. I never thought that a cricket one would be my first sale. Not a huge market, I am sure. This has made my weekend. I don't suppose this will open the floodgates, but at least I have sold one.

I now have to decide how to spend that 70p/$1.40. Well done to Jason on a great delivery.

I submitted two more photos to iStockphoto this week and both were accepted. That makes it three on the trot. It is my most successful upload run. I really like this one. It is a picture of rain drops on my windscreen. I turned it black and white and this was the result. Hopefully someone will find it who wants a texture and buy it. I have nine photos now in my portfolio. You can see them here.

Last week I drove into the office and took the opportunity to take in my camera and tripod. I had been wanting to take night shots of London for a long time. I am lucky that I can get access to the roof. I have to say I am not a great fan of heights, but their is plenty of space up there to put the tripod and not be too close to the edge

I used my 18-55mm that came with the 400d. I used manual mode and used the exposure that the camera said was correct. Some of them I set the shutter speed to be faster than the camera wanted, but they still came out fine. Once I had taken the pictures I wanted I decided to have a play. I set a long shutter speed and slowly moved the zoom with the shutter open. I got some trippy stuff.

Hope you like them. You can see them in the 2008 gallery.

Tags: night shots, London

I woke up this morning with an email from iStockphoto. They had accepted this picture I took around the farm just before Christmas. I am especially pleased this one got accepted as it wasn't planned. I was wandering around and saw these two guys walking their dog. I thought the fog really set it off nicely and it looked wintery. It is probably the first photo that I have taken on the spur of the moments that actually captured the scene the way I wanted. You can see it at iStock here.

I have a few more to upload from that day, but I was interested to see if this one would be accepted. Sometimes the ones I think are really good don't pass the quality control.

Tags: iStockPhoto

I managed to get one more shoot in before the end of the year. It was frosty and very foggy on the farm and I wanted to try and capture that. I think I did that. All these were taken with my macro lens. During my stroll around I found the bulls wintering in the barn. I really like those, but the foggy landscapes are my favourite.

I have really enjoyed my photography this year. I don't think I have done too bad for a newbie. Hopefully some even better stuff next year.

Tags: Frost, Winter, Farm Animals

My wife and I decided we would go to Cromer to take some photos while we had a week off. The night before Tami said she wanted me to have my Christmas present so I could use it on the shoot. It was a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM. I now have lenses that cover both ends of the spectrum. The macro at one end and the Canon EF70-300mm f4.5-5.6 DO IS USM at the other. This is the first macro lens I have ever had and it is superb. You can see some of the macro photos I took at Cromer here, and some practise shots here.

I really like this one. As you can see it has a very short depth of field and gives you lovely bokeh. In fact with this lens it is almost impossible not get it. I still love taking sports shots, but now I like to get up close and really capture the finer details of this world. Below is the the third picture I took that day and it was almost the best, but it just shows what you can do with this lens.

I am really looking forward to a heavy frost or some due so I can go out and find some cob webs. If you are after a macro lens I can't recommend this one highly enough. The only thing I had to get used to was the fact I had to move. I have never had a lens that is a fixed length.

Tags: Lenses, Canon, Christmas Present

At last I have got around to redesigning my picture galleries. They were getting a bit of a pain to upload each time I updated them. Rapidweaver made me upload all of them each time. I have now changed the design to break them up a bit and I think the index also looks a lot better.

Feel free to take a look and leave any comments. Hope you like the new design.

Tags: Redesign

I was driving to Stevenage yesterday and I saw a deer in a field. Damn, I thought, I don't have my camera with me. Two hours later on my return the whole herd was there. I raced home, got my camera. They had moved by the time I was back, but I was lucky enough to get some shots. I walked quietly over the hill and got a bit closer. They are very skittish so you can't get too close. I was lucky to get what I did.

I heard this the other day. You always miss 100% of the shots you don't take. That is so true. Always take your camera with you. You never know what you might see when you are out and about.

You can see the rest of what I got here.

Tags: Wildlife, deer, Countryside

I had just got out my car and when I noticed some mushrooms on the floor between all the leaves. Luckily I had my camera with me and I decided to try and take some shots. I was really pleased with the way they came out.

One lesson that keeps going through my head is, don't just shoot standing up. I got down flat and took these shots. I have also submitted them to iStockphoto. Lets see what they think of them. I was beginning to lose faith in my photography skills, but whatever happens I really like these ones.

Tags: Mushrooms, Autumn, Leaves

During the last full moon I decided I would try and take some photos. I thought it would be pretty simple, but no. As you can see in this gallery it isn't as easy as I thought. I assumed I should set the exposure with a long shutter speed and I would be ok. As you can see, even with a shutter speed of 2 seconds it can go wrong. In some of them I have 3 moons. It amazed me how far the moon moved in that short period of time.

It looks like I have a lot to learn about taking pictures of the moon. I must give it another try soon.

Tags: moon, night

Last month, my wife and I went off to the Bennington Chill Festival. We went along because we wanted to capture the colour of the event. I was really happy with the pictures I took. You can see the whole gallery here. Below though are a couple of my favourites. I am really pleased with the dragon fly considering it is highly cropped and not taken with a macro lens.

Tags: Chilli, Festival

I have had my first set of pictures vetted and it is mixed results. One picture was not suitable for stock, and another one had poor lighting. I have emailed support to see if they can give me some more pointers as to why the lighting is poor. One picture did get excepted so I am happy with that. You can see what was accepted and what wasn't here.

Update

I have had another picture accepted. It is the graffiti one. I am very happy about this as this was my favourite. If you want to see my portfolio on iStockphoto, do an advanced search, and look for my member name, bazcurtis.

The photo above was taken at one of our training evenings. I took it for my cricket club's website. Luckily for me, Andrew Emms took 5 wickets in 10 balls over the weekend. This not only meant it made the front page of the Reed Cricket Club website, but it will be printed in this weeks Royston Crow. My first published picture. I am looking forward to seeing it in print with my name underneath it.

I have just uploaded my first 5 picture to be approved for sale. You can see them in my picture gallery.

I woke up this morning to an email from iStockphoto. It was the result of my application to be a contributor.

Thank you for showing us your work and welcome to iStockphoto as a contributing member.

I have been accepted. The next job is to upload some photos and see if they will be accepted for sale. I didn't have time tonight, but hopefully tomorrow. I am very excited about this. I can't wait to see if anyone actually downloads one on my photos.

I have finally got all my pictures key-worded. It took much longer than I wanted, but I suppose that is the problem of having 150 to do I have now uploaded my 3 best. iStock tell me it will take up to 2 weeks to be reviewed. I think the odds are 70/30 in my favour, but we will see. I don't think my key-wording was very good, and I am not sure if you can be rejected for that. I think what I put was ok, it might not be enough to be found in a search.

I don't want to make a living out of this, but I would be proud if I actually sold something. I have some great cricket shots that I would like to submit, but I will need a model release. I am sure that will make some of my players happy to think they are models. You can see my cricket photos over on the Reed CC website.

I have being wondering if I am good enough to get my photos accepted for stock photography. No way do I think I can make a living out of it, but it would be nice to know that my pictures will pass the approval process that iStockphoto has. It would mean I have decent composition and can take a picture that can be used professionally.

I have read the iStock FAQs, and the rules that you have to abide by. I have passed the short exam that they give you. I just need to upload my 3 test photos. If they are accepted, I can then resubmit them for sale approval.

I just need to keyword them in Aperture and I will be ready to go. Fingers crossed.

Last Friday I did my first photo shoot. Actually, it was a walk along the Thames. I started at Westminster and walked all the way to Wapping. I tried to look out for different things that caught my eye and not the run of the mill tourist shots that are so easy to take around London.

I wanted to see if I could find some shots that I could put up on iStockphoto. I think I have pictures that will make it through the vetting process, but we will see. I have them in Aperture and I just need to do some post production on them, then they will be ready to upload.

I will blog about how I get on. You can see the pictures I thought weren't going to make it in my picture gallery section.

After all the years of using a Canon camera I have always used the point and shoot modes. Today I used the screen above on the camera for the first time. I was following the tips in, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. He gets straight to it and gets you into manual mode. He tells you to select a shady area of the garden (I used a darkish room), pick a subject to shoot. Set your camera to manual mode and stand about 6-8 feet away. Set you aperture to f/5.6 and then set the shutter speed until you get the correct exposure.

This is the bit that threw me. I never knew what that was, and how the camera was going to tell me when I was correct. In fact, it is the top arrow in the middle of the picture above. As you adjust the shutter speed the lower arrow moves back or forth. Once you have the two arrows matched up, that is the correct exposure. How simple is that?

Bryan says, manual mode is simple. I thought that was just a seasoned pro speaking with years of experience, but from this first basic step maybe it is true. I will soon find out as I work through the rest of the book.

I was getting very frustrated that I was shooting jpegs on my new 400d. This was because I didn't understand how to use the manual modes. The 400d doesn't support raw in the point and shoot modes.

I had heard a lot about, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I finally got around to opening it today. Within the first 20 pages I had shot in manual mode. I shot indoors in very low light, and without a flash. I got a decent exposure. OK, I had camera shake, but with a tripod it would have been fine. The picture wasn't dark. In the point and shoot mode the flash would have come on.

I found a slightly lighter part of the room and the pictures were perfect. I have much more to read in this book, but I am excited about it already. I feel like I have a chance at being a proper photographer

I have been reading, Aperture 1.5 - Professionally Manage Digital Photographs, so I can learn how to use this great application. I thought it might be hard going, but I have to say that this book is really easy to read and a lot of fun. I made a conscious effort to do every part from import to correction. I thought I knew about import, but even in that first chapter I learnt something. I would highly recommend this book if you want to learn Aperture.

My Canon 400d has finally arrived. It came with an 18-55 and a 55-200 lens. It is much smaller than I thought, but luckily it came with a battery grip as well. That makes it a lovely size to hold. I am still finishing my Aperture book, so I haven't downloaded my first pictures yet.

I went to Imperial War Museum at Duxford today and took some pictures of the great planes they have there. Once I have downloaded them and picked some good ones, I will post them in a web gallery. Hope to blog more about the camera soon. I really must learn to use the camera in manual mode so I can shoot in raw. All the photos I took today are jpegs.

Today I ordered my new camera. It is going to be a Canon 400D.




I am very excited about it. It is my first new camera since I got my Canon EOS 100 way back in the early 90s. I haven't really touched a camera for a long time, but my wife as started a photography business, SlidingFrames Photography and her photos have inspired me to start taking photographs again. Mine will be nothing like hers, despite the fact I love black and white as well. I will be taking a lot more sport shots.

It also give me the incentive to learn Apple's Aperture. I have been watching her use it, but I wanted to learn more and having my own photos to tweak will make that easier and more interesting. Unfortunately the 400d is out of stock for 2 weeks so I won't get to use it for awhile, but I can't wait. I will blog about my experience with my first DSLR, being able to shoot without having to worry about film, and not having to wait for the pictures to come back from the developers. Also, what has to be done to a digital image to make it look good and how Aperture helps in that process.