A trip to Wells

In an attempt to burn off some of the Christmas calories, we went to Wells-next-the-Sea on the Norfolk coast a couple of days ago.  It was dull, grey and gloomy, and the rain set in during the afternoon.  Nevertheless we had a great time on the beach, throwing a frisbee for the dog and photographing the beach huts.

I've never tried photographing the beach huts with a fisheye lens before, but the results are rather interesting.  Of course, there's always the possibility of a stray dog and frisbee finding their way into the shot, but that's just an occupational hazard...

I also took my newly converted IR camera with me, and rather liked the false colour images produced simply by correcting the white balance.  Something akin to a cross between split toning and hand colouring...

The final shot shows my daughter, Frances, taking a picture of something interesting on the beach - a cockle shell, by the look of it.  Perhaps she'll post it on her blog at some point?

Fisheye Skies

East Anglia is justifiably famous for its big, open skies, but it's actually quite difficult to photograph them.  While walking Amber early on Sunday morning, I pointed my fisheye lens towards the heavens to see what happened!

The poppy field in the first image was absolutely stunning, but the position of the sun meant that it was impossible to  photograph it without including my own shadow.

While in a "self portrait" mood, I was rather taken by the reflection in my car window at the end of the walk.

Thank heavens for Live View...

The Lowry Outlet Mall

When it started to rain (this is Manchester, after all) Frances and I ducked inside the Lowry Outlet Mall to have a look around.  Not many people there, but there was a Costa which produced a Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee (TM). 

I just love the distortion of the 15mm lens, and the low-light capabilities of the 5D mean that hand-holding in this kind of environment is eminently possible.  I expected to be accosted by a burly Mancunian security guard, but nobody seemed to mind one iota that I was taking pictures...

Salford Quays

Life has been a bit hectic at home recently, which is why I haven't done much in the way of photography.  This wasn't helped by the fact that my super-duper new fisheye lens didn't work properly, so had to be sent back to be repaired - twice.  I finally got it back about a week ago, so when I found I had to collect my daughter from Manchester at the weekend, I decided to give it it burn in Salford Quays.

Unusually for Manchester the sun was shining - for a short while anyway.  After the overcrowded, grimy back streets of Rusholme, Salford Quays felt very different indeed.

True to form the sun went behind a cloud, and then the whole sky went grey.  Even in the dull light, though, the area was pretty impressive.  I didn't go into the Lowry Centre itself, as my daughter was intent on finding something to eat in the "Lowry Outlet Mall", pictured above right.

We'll be going back to Manchester in July for graduation day, and I fully intend to jump on a tram and visit Salford Quays again.  Assuming it's not raining, of course...

Taste the Difference

Very dull and grey today, so not much incentive to get out and about with my new toy.  Since I had some shopping to do at lunchtime, I took it with me to Sainsbury's.  I'm not sure what their attitude would have been if they discovered I was photographing Coke bottles, Easter eggs and asparagus...

I took a few outside as well, as I'm still very much learning what works (and what doesn't) with this new lens.

Interestingly, exactly the same combination as Ann's (5DmkII and 15mm fisheye) shows an indentical fault: namely the dreaded "Err01", which is a communication failure between the lens and the camera body.  I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a software problem.  This kind of thing would never have happened in FD days...

New Toy

Ok, so I lied about the "saving up" bit.  I went to Focus on Imaging yesterday and bought myself a B-grade 15mm fisheye lens with about a 25% saving.  More than that, I still have all my appendages after taking it home and owning up!  There hasn't been much chance to try it yet, but I went out into the car park at work for about 20 minutes at lunchtime - this is the result.

It's certainly a strange place to work...

Having fun at Kew

A small bunch of intrepid photographers braved the weather on Sunday to visit Kew Gardens.  It was grey and wet, but this didn't really matter as the prime reason for the trip was to see the orchids in the Princess of Wales conservatory.  Being inspired by Paula's lupins, rather than take some "straight" shots of the flowers, I thought I'd have a go at something a bit more creative.  The plan was to take foregrounds and backgrounds separately, but I rather like some of the backgrounds as abstracts in their own right.

Similarly, I preferred the dreamy close-ups of the white orchids compared to a more factual record.

Suitably fortified by tea and cake, I wandered around outside the glass houses as it had just about stopped raining.  By now I was having fun with this panning and zooming malarkey, so decided to continue in the same vein.  First target was a bed of crocuses under a tree...

...and then a couple of the glass houses themselves.

By this point I was enjoying myself far too much to do any "real" photography, so Ann very kindly lent me her 15mm fisheye lens.  As with many of the items I've borrowed from her, it was ever so difficult to give it back.  Huge fun, and I can see myself saving up for one at some point.