16:9

I almost always do portrait photography, for which 3:2 is the best format given the dimensions of a baby's face. Last week I was wandering around Copenhagen and I suddenly became aware of how much better the 16:9 format is for city photography. I ended up spending most of the week switching between the two. It's definitely worth remembering when in a city situation.

TABLETOP PHOTOGRAPHY

I think one of my favourite ages to photograph is around three or four months when you can stick a baby on a tabletop and snap all their wonderful expressions without fear of them crawling out of shot! How cute is this whole session? We get the whole spectrum of Amaia's personality - coy, curious, happy, worried and gentle.

NATURAL LIGHTING

I love to take photos with natural light indoors rather than the harshness of a flash, especially when babies are the subject. Instead of the startled what-was-that-flash? look, you just get a lovely, so-real-you-can-hug-it shot of your very own teeny troll.

WHEN TO EDIT?

Thomas and I often look at Photoshop Disasters. I am often amazed at the quality of the things some news media publish and momentarily consider giving up the day job to become a full-time photo editor. Many people overlook the simplest rules when editing digital photos such as colour blending, duplication, failing to remove all the evidence, the symmetry rule, removing too much, plain stupidity etcetc
I have to say the one they uploaded on my birthday made me smile - how was this picture created and when did it become simpler to go to all this trouble rather than simply taking an actual photo of an air stewardess in front of a plane at your local airport anyway? Does no one ever stop and analyse that?

AUTUMN

I quite like autumn really. From a colour point of view it is the prettiest season... when you are somewhere further south than Glasgow anyway. Until I lived in France I didn't really notice autumn. In the Glasgow of my childhood autumn had always seemed to last just one weekend. The leaves turned brown and were blown off the trees in a gale within 24 hours, 48 at the most. In France I watched in amazement at 20 as autumn (a fairly warm and sunny season) lasted weeks and weeks. Since then I have tried to be more aware of Scottish autumn. You have to start watching out for it the second week in October, with the first weekend in November usually being the optimum photo weekend. This year must have been windier as the trees had already reached week two of November stage when I was in Glasgow today with my camera - bummer. But the colours on the ground were beautiful, even if I had missed the best tree stage. Anna wasn't too sure whether she liked her feet disappearing under the leaves and I think she'd have felt more comfortable kicking them about if she had been wearing boots. The only unfortunate thing about autumn is the inevitability of winter following it.

BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER

This photo marks a changing point in my life. I know that is hard to believe... it looks somewhat off-centre and insignificant. My parents aren't looking their best - mum looks bored at best and dad is verging on South American terrorist, but it was 1975. This is the first photo I was ever allowed to take. Back in those days you only took one film of 24 a year and that was to take in birthdays, Christmas and your fortnight in Whitley Bay! So this was a great privilege! I knew from the moment I first got to hold our Kodak 126 that I wanted to be a photographer!

Today in the garden Pudge asked if he could take his first ever photo. I was apprehensive. Our Sony DSLR is worth considerably more than the old Kodak and the thought of it being dropped on the patio terrified me! But, what if my Pudgeman wanted to be a photographer too? So I made him sit it on the picnic bench and left him to press the button. He is just four after all and I had been seven before being allowed to touch the camera. He definitely enjoyed his experience, taking more than a dozen (6 months olden days quota) photos in the 2 minutes it took me to cross the garden. He pleaded with me to let him keep snapping so maybe we have a wee clone (time to look out the old fuji digital camera, I think!) And the result? Better than mine by a mile, but then again, so is the equipment!

EMBRYO PHOTOGRAPHY

Now here's a job I'd get satisfaction from! Aren't these just stunning?

HDR PHOTOGRAPHY

Being a big flickrer, I have been noticing and admiring HDR photography all over the place for about a year now. The only thing I didn't know was how to do it! I googled it and found all sorts of obscure references to super-imposing photos taken up to 4 stops apart and manipulating them computationally, or conversely manipulating single shots saved as huge raw files rather than the usual jpeg format. Thomas downloaded the software and I was sent into the garden to do an experimental series of shots. Of course, it was pouring with rain all day and we couldn't find the tripod so I wandered around a soggy garden, dragging the green-waste bin as a prop, searching for a break in the clouds. I guess the subject matter didn't matter terribly for the first attempt - we were just trying the software. Now we have achieved the look we can now go on a proper shoot at the weekend. Obviously where the three shot super-imposition method will be great for land or cityscapes, it can't even begin to be considered for an HDR shot of Anna or Léon - they don't even stay still when asleep, so once we've got to grips with super-imposing, we'll try a raw shot or two on the babies in a few weeks time! Can't wait!

A LOST BUG?

 A Scottish grasshopper Originally uploaded by PhylB

Sitting in my garden yesterday in Glasgow I was surprised to hear a sound I more often associate with gardens around Cassis or Antibes. I have only twice heard the sound of a grasshopper in Scotland in my life (once last summer, once yesterday). I looked around to see if the sound was coming from the grass and was even more shocked to see the little lost French bug sitting on the outside window ledge of my coffee room. I was scared to frighten it so shouted to Charlotte to rush in and throw me out the camera. It sat and waited on me taking its photo, instead of jumping off and hiding. And I was more than pleased with the clarity of the result!

DON'T TAKE MY KODACHROME AWAY!

I'm one of the reasons kodachrome finally died this week - I guess I haven't used it in 9 years so it was inevitable but it seems odd to think my kids will grow up in a world where the media actually feels it necessary to explain that old cameras had no way of being connected to a computer and that photography didn't used to be instant. It used to mean waiting days or weeks to see the prints or slides that were then unable to be changed. There was no button for red eye, you couldn't change the unwanted lamppost in the background into a tree and you couldn't chop off the half person at the side of your shot, unless you took a pair of scissors. The upside I suppose is that a childhood will no longer be documented in just 20 grainy or blurred shots but so many more memories will be jogged by the myriad digital snaps on your mum's laptop!

DEMONICALLY UNACCEPTABLE

Am I simply intolerant? I have several programs on my computer that come free of charge and remove red eye at the click of a button. It's particularly bad with pale-eyed people, and given Léon has the palest eyes on the planet, red eye removal tools are simply imperative. Red eye was the thing I hated most about pre-digital photography and the best thing in the post-digital world. Removing the red takes 2 seconds (you have 2 eyes after all).
I get really irate when I see newspapers with red-eye images on the front page. What kind of journalist is happy to write an interesting front page article and then illustrate it with a nasty piece of nonsense with red eyes? It is sloppiness supreme. There is just no excuse for it these days!

BUBBLES!

I don't usually throw flowers at myself as the French would say, but isn't this a brilliant photo? Using a very fast shutter speed, I actually captured this bubble mid-pop - see the upper curve is missing, and soapy water can be seen in droplets hovering above the top. In addition I caught Léon's smile turning to tears as it happened! Cool, no?

STARS

The Last Star Before Dawn...
Originally uploaded by Scott (SA-Photo)

This morning I was up just before dawn. Anna wanted milk, and an uncharacteristically awake Léon wanted a happy hug. The manse has many large bay windows but it also has some veluxes. The combination of a velux onto the clear sky and being miles from the light pollution of the city meant I got to see a mass of stars like I have rarely seen in my life. Breath-taking. I might get up this early every day just to watch day break. I wonder what the best shutter speed and aperture are to capture it...

BEANS

Lots had to grow broad beans as a science project at the end of Primary 3. We planted them in our vegetable patch and they are now ready to eat... or more importantly, they are ready to be the subject of my next art project! :-)

ROSE

I love the smell of roses - roses with a smell that is! I planted a beautiful white rose in my garden and found out, disappointingly, that it had no smell at all :-( This beautiful lilac one Thomas bought me, on the other hand, is deliciously wonderful. It is time someone discovered a way to upload smells along with photos. Isn't my photo of it just beautiful?

PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO

I got a Bounty Voucher from the maternity hospital when I had Anna. Well I got 4 actually - 4 vouchers for free portraits of the baby (with of without siblings) over a 24 month period.
I decided I had better use it last week given the first voucher covered up to the end of the first 6 months and she was 7 months old last Saturday.
You can choose from Pixifoto studios or Portrait Place photographers.
When I had Marcel and Charlotte, I thought these vouchers were wonderful - the photos were superior to anything I could do - they used Hasselblads back then and I had a Minolta SLR.
Now, however, they use DSLRs - I have seen them use both Nikon and Olympus. That is to say, the actual photographic equipment they are using is no longer superior to what I use at home (Sony 350). Given Thomas bought me umbrellas for my 40th, I now also have the start of the lighting package they use too. Ok, I would need a few extra lights - coloured ones, soft and silhouette lighting but I now think the only thing I am lacking is a room without a window and a black and a white backdrop before I could take superior photos. The reason I say that is, I believe these photography companies are now so confident in their equipment, they are no longer employing decent photographers, assuming anyone with that equipment can take a decent enough photo to flog to the average punter. This of course is true, but a sad ambition. The photographer the other day did a fair job with Marcel and Charlotte as they were old enough to be cooperative but the little ones are more difficult to photograph nicely. He was a sweet enough young guy but he was definitely not as good a photographer as I am. He was happy if he got them all looking in the right direction, assuming somehow that a smile would be a bonus rather than a necessity. I don't believe he had an eye for photography, he simply put the kids in half a dozen pre-rehearsed poses - with teddy, with building blocks etc rather than taking ten minutes to get to see the dynamics of the group and working with that, the way I could in the same studio, given I know the dynamics as their mum and can take a decent photo with decent equipment.
It is frustrating not to have my own studio, not only because I could do better photos of my own family, but I believe I could also do better photos commercially.
I just found this photo on flickr... hmmm I am wondering where else I could keep my lawnmower and bikes, if I was to turn my garage into a photographic studio too!

A LITTLE ORANGE GIRL

I've been meaning to play with colorizing for a while - I did some last year but then I forgot how to do it. I got up early this morning - before the kids - because I had hurt my neck so couldn't sleep. Too sore to run about like a headless housework chicken, I decided to go through the GIMP colorization tutorial again - Voilà!

GADGET MANUALS!

oops!
Originally uploaded by PhylB

We bought a new camera the other day - mainly because our Sony 100 was a bit sick, but also because we found a wonderful deal on Hong Kong imports. I took it to the Botanics with me on Tuesday... its first outing. I hadn't read the manual - I suffer from a complete allergy to manuals and usually only ever resort to reading one when the gadget I am attempting to use has caught fire or something similarly fatal.
Léon was standing in front of Kibble palace with a sinister stormy sky at his back. The sun was also at his back. I went to turn the dial to force the flash only to find the new Sony 350 doesn't have the function dial the 100 has. No problems, I was sure I could easily find a setting to compensate for the back light before the beautiful sky changed...
Hmmm maybe I should open that manual after all...

STOP PRESS! BELOVED FAMILY MEMBER SICK!!!!

Oh my God! Our first born DSLR is sick! Yesterday when I turned it on it made an odd shuddering noise, but as the battery was showing red I assumed it simply didn't have the power to operate the auto focus. Tonight I recharged the battery and put it on only to find the wee soul is still shuddering. I therefore assumed it was a lens problem but given it makes the noise even with the lens off, I can only conclude our Sony Alpha is sick and in need of a trip to the DSLR repair shop :-( How will we live without it? What if it is terminally ill???

JASON LEE FLICKR PHOTOGRAPHER

Check out this photographer! Not only are his little girls cute as hell - his photos are so full of imagination. I guarantee a smile! I particularly like his coffee photo. Anyone who has ever lived with little kids will relate to it!