Edinburgh Lights

Nikon D70 @ 62mm, 1 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Edit: I'm still alive, but just very busy! I'll try and update the site as soon as possible (29/11/05).

Taken on the same expedition as my last post, but a little further down the street. I took a lot of pictures of this scene, trying to get the traffic right. I originally thought that I would chose a frame with minimal traffic so that it didn't intrude much on the rest of the scene, but I quite like the effect the bus produced.

I didn't realise til I came home that the big wheel couldn't have been working as there's no blur in any of the photos I took. I wonder what it would look like with some motion on the wheel...

Your comments are very much appreciated on this shot.

Glow in the Dark

Nikon D70 @ 27mm, 1.6 sec, f/4, ISO 200
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Although I was starting to feel a cold coming on I thought it'd be a good idea to take some night shots in the freezing weather. The reason I went out actually was because it was really hazy, and the glow from the city's lights were illuminating the sky nicely.

Just PP'd one shot so far and so here it is. Can anyone guess where this is? ;)

Advocate's Close

Nikon D70 @ 52mm, 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Bit slow in updating, but I was away somewhere near Ascot for the weekend, thanks to my firm. I did take my camera, but needless to say I didn't end up taking any pictures. Which means I'll have to go out and take some night shots to fill my posts for the rest of the week!

This one was taken a few weekends ago at the same spot as this one.

Established

Nikon D70 @ mm, sec, f/, ISO
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I took this shot a couple of weekends ago when I was getting my 'autumn shots'. It's actually the same tree as one of my previous posts Complex. I was drawn to the scene because the sun made a very brief appearance and lit up the bright patch of grass in the bottom right hand corner. The original colour shot didn't work very well, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out after converting it to b+w.

Waverly at Night

Nikon D70 @ 60mm, 6 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Went for another one of my wanders around town last night and key-rist was it cold. I've noticed in the last couple of months that I'm much happier with the quality of my shots (not talking about this one...) but I'm taking ages over them - probably about 15 minutes to get one shot of a scene I like. The downside of that is for shots like this one - took ages taking it and still it's only average at best. Too much going on I think.

Hoppin'

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Taken a few weekends ago during one of my weekly wanders. Thought the two chaps on the left handside were rather amusing, hopping down the street.

The Castle

Nikon D70 @ 18mm, 1 sec, f/5, ISO 200
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So I seem to be experiencing some fairly nasty technical problems. All of the pictures I've uploaded to my john.stuwee.org site over the last couple of months have simply disappeared. It happened on Friday, but I just thought that there was something wrong with the hosting as they appeared to come and go at random intervals. But they seem to be completely gone. Not even Stu knows what's wrong with it!

Anyway, my johnwaller.co.uk is still working fine, so I'm just using shots from there for the time being. I had a wander around town today - the weather was nice and I was wanting to get some infra red shots done for a change. I must have been out for a good few hours, but only really stopped to take pictures of 3 different scenes! Not a very productive day to say the least.

This one was taken at the start of my wander - the clouds were pretty strange and so I rushed to find something decent in the foreground. In the end I settled for the castle.

Choice

Nikon D70 @ 25mm, 1/3 sec, f/3.8, ISO 200
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Edit: I seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties at the moment. For some reason all of my recent pictures have simply disappeared from the server - haven't a clue why!!!

Thanks for all your comments on yesterday's image - it's good to know that there's still a few people out there checking out the site :)

This was another one from last night's shoot, this time at the back of the National Galleries. Again, I blended two exposures on this one to bring out, and bring back, some of the detail that would otherwise have been lost. I think this one's growing on me.

Princes Gardens at Night

Nikon @ 27mm, 6 sec, f/3.8, ISO 200
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A few days ago I became the proud owner of a uni-loc tripod thanks to the wonders of ebay. The first thing that you notice about this tripod is that it's BIG. Jesus, it's big. When I finally figured out how to use it, I extended it to it's max height and the damn thing was a couple of inches off the ceiling! Well at least I know that I won't have to buy a new tripod if I suddenly grow a few feet.

So tonight was my first chance at using the bad boy. Did I mention that this thing is big? It's not actually as heavy as I thought it would be, but certainly heavy enough to stop shaking in a strong wind. The shoulder strap helps so that carrying it isn't a complete pain in the jacksie. Anyway, the novel design of this thing is going to let me get a lot of shots I simply wouldn't have been able to get with my £11 amazon piece of crap. For this particular shot I had it stretched over railings (the gardens close at night) and high enough (higher than me) to avoid getting a bollard in the bottom of the frame. My new remote was very useful as well so that I could trigger the shutter from down below. Awesome.

The main shot here was a 6 second exposure, but I selectively blended two other exposures in a few parts of the shot to avoid blown highlights. Pretty pleased with the results, but can't decide whether I prefer it in colour or black and white?

Any preferences? I'll post the b+w as the previous post to let you see the difference better.

Cheers!

Black and White

Nikon D70 @ 27mm, 6 sec, f/3.8, ISO 200
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... and the B+W version of the next shot.

Food, Glorious Food!

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400, SB-800
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The disappointing thing was that it looked a lot better than it tasted - not a great fan of cheesecakes!

Birthday Girl

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200, SB-800
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Sorry for the delay in the updates people, but it's been a busy few days. Been backwards and forwards from Edinburgh to Glasgow the whole weekend, celebrating my lady's 21st.

I rushed back from work on Friday night and headed straight over to Cafe Mao in Glasgow which was an interesting little oriental place in the Merchant city. Then onto the launch of November (used to be October Cafe - how original) where they had a dj mixing dance music with a live saxophonist and a couple of bongo players. And the amazing thing was that it actually sounded pretty awesome. I'd never have thought such a combination would ever have worked!

Went to see Beauty and the Beast (should I really be admitting to this???) at the Playhouse on Saturday and back to Glasgow in the evening for another meal. Then went home for Sunday dinner at the parentals where this shot was taken. It's been a while since I've used my SB-800 but it's shots like this that make it well worth the extortionate money I paid for it. Maybe I'm the only one, but I think the lighting looks great since it's only from one flash bounced off the ceiling.

Anyway, enough chat. I just thought I'd ramble on a little tonight since I've been fairly quiet over the last couple of weeks. I'm glad the autumn city/cemetry shots went down well. Cheers!

North Charlotte Street

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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It's a busy weekend so just a very quick update!

Autumn Stone

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Sometimes it's the simple things in life that gets you going. I always like the challenge of trying to take a boring, everyday scene and seeing if I can present it in a way that makes it a little more interesting. Whether or not I succeed is a totally different matter...

Locked

Nikon D70 @ 18mm, 1/8 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200
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The opportunities at the cemetry were just endless! :)

Complex

Nikon D70 @ 70mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200
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Another one from the weekend. This one is definitely growing on me.

Fallen

Nikon D70 @ 50mm, 1/50 sec, f/4.2, ISO 200
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I suppose these last few cemetry posts are quite fitting with it being hallowe'en!