I should have been doing the Trans-Penine this weekend, but due to work and money troubles, I've had to give it a miss. To make up for it I did quite a few miles over the weekend and discovered the joys of The Cheshire Cycleway. There are literally hundreds of miles of trails, bridle-ways and hidden country lanes, literally minutes from my doorstep. On both Saturday & Sunday, I packed my panniers and set off into the great unknown - well nearly unknown. . . I went to places I'd previously only visited by car. I found some tiny villages and Hamlets that look like they haven't changed in hundreds of years. For some unexplained reason I didn't photograph anything Yesterday. I DID take a few photos on Saturday, of the (almost finished) Dream at Sutton Manor again, but that was about it. Today I had a lie in. My thighs have turned to steel and I think I had a bit of sunstroke. My head is beginning to look like a Malteser. . . When I finally surfaced at about eleven, the only cycling I did was to ASDA for the weekly shop. This is another excuse to get myself a decent set of panniers. The things I've got now can barely hold a loaf, without crushing it. I made myself a sandwich and I watched BASQUIAT the movie by Julian Schnabel. I suddenly had the urge to paint again. So I've just spent the last hour creating yet another masterpiece. :)
Hard times are here and I've got to make a bit of quick cash. So I'm selling my Sigma 12-24 Wide angle Zoom. It's on ebay until next Sunday. Click on the image below if you want to take a look.
I forced myself to go out yesterday. I went into Liverpool with the intention of finding somewhere that sells "Liverpool The Souvenir" The book that I had my photo published in. I gave my copy away as a Christmas present. None of the bookshops in town had even heard of it. I took a stroll down to the Liverpool 08 shop and they told me that "Supernews" (the Newsagent around the corner) had it.. So off I went, and sure enough. There it was, on the shelf. I bought the last two copies. I then decided that I should take some photo's for my new photoblog and I took a stroll to the waterfront via Dale Street. I noticed that the newsagent next to Sayers had a load of copies of "Liverpool The Souvenir". It seems that The Daily post has just supplied it's distributors with the book. I think they've missed an opportunity here. Surely distributing a book through a BOOKSHOP makes more sense than selling it via a newsagent???
When i enquired at Waterstone's, they told me that they had FIFTY on back order and that loads of people had asked for it, but they couldn't get hold of it. Anyway rant over. I went to the Pier Head to take a look at the new canal link. I went there briefly before Christmas, without a camera, and the changes are amazing. The canal link is virtually finished and does add something to the waterfront. But, if you haven't been to the Pier Head for a while I think you'll be amazed. From certain angles the place is unrecognisable. As you can see in the picture on the right. The Three Graces were lit up by the low winter sun and i was sorry that I hadn't brought my 40D and 10mm, because my G10 just wasn't wide enough even though it has the equivalent of a 28mm lens. I took a few shots and moved on to Albert Dock.
While I was there, there was terrible accident, an old lady had fallen into Canning Dock. The water must have been almost freezing. Although about 20 emergency vehicles arrived they didn't seem in too much of a hurry to get her out. She died later in hospital. I moved on to LiverpoolONE. The new Chavasse Park is virtually complete. It is terraced and climbs 30 or 40 feet up to the top level of Liverpool ONE where the restaurants and bars are situated. There was a jazz band playing outside one of the bars and there were a couple of remnants from the Christmas German Market still trading. (A chocolate fountain and a Bratwurst stand. The light was excellent, as the sun had just gone down. It was tripod time. But, of course, I didn't have one with me. Besides - the whole point of me getting the G10 was to make it less of a chore to take photo's. I don't want to be carrying a ton of equipment around with me all of the time. It's a camera that I'll be carrying with me everywhere. When I got home last night, I had a look through the photo's and I was surprised at the sharpness and amount of detail in them. Yeah I know the camera is 14.7 MP which is amazing for a compact. But the sensor is tiny in comparison to a DSLR. The fact that it shoots in RAW mode, really swung it when I was choosing this camera. You have all the control of a DSLR in a camera only half the size. I love it. I also revamped my new site. I redesigned the logo and tweaked a few things. After all I did build it on the spare of the moment on New Years Eve, and it did look a bit crap. Anyway here it is. It'll probably change again before to long. Anyway that's it for now. I'm starving and I need to go to ASDA to get some breakfast stuff.
My life is a bit boring. . . Well OK it's very boring. Everybody else seems to have a cool existence doing exciting stuff and going to exciting places. All i seem to do is; Go to work; come home to eat and sleep, go back to work, go to ASDA, go to work, go to bed . . . you get the picture.
Anyway, here's a little rundown of what things have happened to me in the past four weeks or so. OK when I say happened to me, what I really mean is things that have happened. . . and I just happened to witness them. Most of the exciting stuff doesn't really involve me.
This next bit did involve me, I was actually there. I was invited to a Secret Gig a few weeks ago by Stephen Langstaff. It was in The Mocha Lounge in Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool. It was a great little acoustic gig, Just Ste and his Drummer Ste who used to drum for Mesemenie (one of many great Liverpool bands that just faded away, when they should have really went somewhere). Mr Langstaff was great, as usual, performing most of the old favourites and a few new tracks. It was like a mini MTV unplugged session, without the TV cameras. Linzi took a few photo's. The light was pretty bad and got worse when they turned out the lights. . . Ever the perfectionist Linzi has decided that all her photo's from that night are not worth looking at and to date she has only shown me one frame. The night ended with me meeting up with a few people from work at The News Bar and then a Kebab.
The following evening Sense of Sound were through to the final six in Last Choir Standing on BBC1. Being totally unbiased :) I can honestley say that SOS were the best choir on the night. The other fve choirs performed to backing tracks and did dance routines. Only Men Aloud (Who incidentally won the competition last night) Actually performed a routine that I could only describe as a Black and White Minstrels number. It measured Gorgonzola on the cheese-o-meter! Sense of Sound performed "Smiley Faces" by Gnarls Barkley.
They were the only choir to perform completely a-Capella. They were that good that it actually sounded like there was a backing track. (Maybe that was the problem). At the end of the show. It went to phone votes. I voted about 100 times for SOS but at the end of the show Sense of Sound and Revelation had both got the LOWEST amount of votes and had to go into a sing off on the next show, the following night. OK with a bit of TV magic the show was recorded straight after the Saturday night show and the judges made a decision based on one song. SOS performed Gabriel by Lamb and Revelation did Lovely Day by Bill Withers, again with a backing track. Judge who's best yourself. Here's the vids.
Jo phoned me at about a quarter to eleven to tell me that they had been knocked out. I lost all interest in the competition after this. It was definitely a fix. Even last night's fnal was a farce. Ysgol Glanaethwy out-performed Only Men Aloud by a mile but OMA won. When they performed their B&W minstrel act as a closing for the show. "Don't Rain on My Parade". . . Sparkly silver ticker tape rain fell onto them. Seems the BBC already knew they would win and had it waiting in the studio ceiling.
Back to my boring life. . . Work has been a bit weird. I've gone from being a hands on , manual worker, running a Spray Drier, to an office waller. spending 8 hours a day doing Excel stuff which I've had to teach myself seeing as the training matrix is a bit of a farce. Anyway I'm back on the drier for the next few weeks.
Another exciting (not) thing that happened was my Huey Pro decided to stop working. So off I went to Apogaeum in Warrington to return it. True to form It worked perfectly in the iMac they plugged it in to. So off home I went and yep, it's still working.
Last weekend was The Mathew Street Festival. This is the first time I've been ever. I'm ususally away in Scotland or Wales up a mountain, on my bike. But this year I haven't been out on my bike at all. So I decided to go and see, what I have been missing. Sunday was great. I can't believe it was so well organised. I wandered between the stages with Dave D and Gill, Neil, Wardy and Claire gradually getting drunker and more sunburned on my head. Highlights of Sunday were Kappa on the Superlambanana Stage and Chas & Dave on the Tunnel Stage. I danced like a dirty Cockney while making dirty Cockney noises, all of which I can't spell otherwise I'd have written them here. We ended up in the Metro Bar. By this time everything was becoming a blur. Somehow I woke up at the right station on the train home. I was in bed by half nine. At about 1 in the morning I was wide awake. My sunburned head, had given me sunstroke. Hot and Cold sweats and the shivers in the middle of the night is not fun. Especially when you have got to be up at 7 the next day. I took a couple of Nurofen and drank a couple of pints of water and went back to bed. By 7 I was feeling great and it was back to the station and on the train to do it all again. I took it easy on Monday I drank only Lucosade and water and put factor 30 sunblock on my poor head. My legs were killing me from all that Dirty Cockney Dancin' the day before. Amy Wynehouse and God Save The Queen were fantastic. Finally we went down to the Water Street Stage to see Vogue a Madonna tribute act. She got changed about 20 times in 45 mins wearing every madonna outfit you could imagine, from the pointy tits thing to a little pink swimsuit. And that was it. End of the festival. Liverpool town centre was full of drunks and heaps of rubbish and amazingly I didn't see one fight or anyone unconscious on the floor. :) I had one of those moments when I thought I recognised someone in the street and then thought it wasn't him, so didn't say hello. then I thought that it was him and felt guilty for ignoring him. This happens to me a lot. i really should wear my glasses more often. Claire decided that we were going to the Metro again, She said she had noticed a poster announcing that, Kappa were going to be playing there when we were in there the night before, or she had dreamt it. . . She was right. Kappa made me deaf! My ears were still ringing the next day. I think The Mathew Street Festival is on my list of to do's every August bank Holiday from now on.
This weekend I've done nowt. I'm totally skint and I still haven't paid my mortgage. I definitely need to start selling stuff. Anyone want a print or a painting?
Yesterday was an historic occasion! I actually took some advice and got out ant took some photo's. I got a text off Jo, asking me to come down to Liverpool ONE and take some photographs of Sense of Sound. They're trying to get as many people as possible, to vote for them in Last Choir Standing, next week. They were amazing, as usual and the crowd really took a shine to them. Later on when SOS had gone off to perform at the Brouhaha festival. I could hear various bods suddenly breaking into "Cry Me A River" :)
Then I went on a little walk around town and took a few more shots.
By the time I got home, last night, I was in photographer mode:) I spent most of the evening editing shots and uploading them to Flickr.
I don't do that many "People" shots so I was pleasantly surprised that most of my "Sense of Sound" shot's turned out so well. I could really get into this photography lark. . . . Pete Carr, LOOK OUT! :)
My sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.6 zoom wasn't wide or fast enough for me :). So I've invested in a Canon 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 , which is both; faster and wider. Lookout for a large number of superwide shots appearing on my photoblog. So if anyone wants to make me a sensible offer, for the Sigma. Please do. It'll be on ebay at the end of the month.
I've finally got round to doing a photo page. It's going to be a photo blog, not a gallery. I'll post new photos as and when I can. If you want to see more of my photography, take a look at my
I'm also getting a bit bored with the layout of this site. So I'm thinking of doing another complete overhaul. It has been nearly 9 weeks since the last re-design after all!
Seeing as the weather is crap and I seem to be working constant nights, at the moment. I haven't been able to get out and take as many photo's as I would like. I've always liked the look of HDR photographs and have done some in the past, by just fiddling about with Adobe Lightroom. But I've never really took the time to learn the techniques and do it properly.
So ...Yesterday I downloaded the latest version of Photomatix and set about learning how to use it. First port of call was Pete Carr's website, for a refresher. He is the master of HDR photography, after all. Hang on? The last time I read his tutorial, it seemed like a really complicated process. But, reading it again, I found it was a really simple technique. Your computer does all the complicated stuff. All you have to do is the arty stuff. You can make a HDR image from one exposure (preferably a RAW file as it contains a lot more data than a JPG) but to get the, High Dynamic Range, to give it it's full name, you need to start with at least 3 exposures or more.
The Boat shot above is a single exposure and heavily "tweaked" in Lightroom. I wanted to take some multi-exposures and do it properly in Photomatix. But it was pissing down and I didn't want to get my new Canon 40D wet :( . Well the rain stopped... eventually! It was about 8pm on Sunday night, and I drove around a bit looking for suitable subjects. First stop was Burtonwood Airfield. I parked up and left the van. The sky was clearing and the sun was just going down. I set my camera to bracket three shots. The first was 2 stops under exposed, The second was correct and The third was 2 stops over exposed. I turned and snapped the van. . .That was it really. I drove about a bit and ended up at Runcorn to photograph the bridge. I waited and waited and the lights on the bridge never came on.
Luckily for me, there was somebody there with the same idea. We had a little chat about photography, but by 10 pm the lights had still not come on. So i went to MacDonalds, for a Big Mac and went home. I had a little twiddle with Photomatix when I got in. But seeing as I had crap photo's to begin with I wasn't expecting anything. I was surprised at the results. Well Photomatix certainly works. Even if this Photographer(?) doesen't. I know I've got a lot more to learn and I need to take some time off work and do some proper photography. When I do, I know I'll start using HDR for everything :) . Next things on the shopping list are a decent tripod and head and a cable release with timer and multi exposure capabilities.
I found a new Mac Reseller in Warrington today. Apogaeum is a nice little shop, you'd swear you were in a proper Apple Store. So no more driving to The Trafford Centre for my little Apple fix. I can just take a stroll into town instead. While i was there I noticed they stocked the Pantone Huey and Huey Pro colour correction devices. What these little gadgets do, is correct your computer monitor's colour profile. Basically they make your monitor show colours as they should be. I had a bit of spare cash burning a hole in my pocket and i left the store with a Huey Pro. I usually calibrate my Mac by eye, using the display adjustment tools, in System Preferences. And I thought I was doing a good job, until i let Huey do his stuff. You can switch between your previous profile and your new Huey profile with the click of a mouse button. Scary stuff, my profile was way off. Far too blue. The upshot is, if you do a lot of photo editing and you want your prints to look like they do, on your monitor. You're going to have to make sure your monitor is calibrated. The best feature is the built in ambient light sensor. Huey is constantly monitoring the room's ambient light and adjusting the monitor to compensate for any changes, on the fly. So, if the sun comes out and the room lights up, your monitor will adjust itself accordingly. Very cool indeed. Looking through some photos, that I thought had been taken with the wrong white balance. I was surprised to see, that they looked pleasingly perfect.
I've just been building a new website for my mate Jo. She's a photographer who specialises in portraits and casting shots. She works almost exclusively in Black & White and her work is really good. So if you need a portrait or casting shot. You know where to go.
Me, Ste and John went to The Carling Academy, last night to see them on their comeback tour. What a night. They were supported by AMSTERDAM who were very good indeed. The Gig was opened by Mark Morriss from The Bluetones, but we missed some of his set cos we were in the pub. The gig was in the little room on the first floor, We had a really good spec, 12 feet from the bar and 6 feet from the stage. Everyone was invited to The Cavern for an after show do. But Ste and John had their sensible heads on and decided it was time to go home. So We Did:( !!!
Today I found out that they did an acoustic set in The Cavern. I'm gutted!
But in hindsight, it's a good job I didn't go. I was in work at 6am this morning. I probably wouldn't have made it. Here's a couple of drunken phone pics
This is Beach Lawn in Crosby. It's a row of Victorian villas that were built overlooking the Mersey estuary. The one slightly off centre, to the right, with the arched attic window was once owned by Thomas Henry Ismay, 1837-1899. He was the owner of The White Star Line. Sadly the villa's have lost a lot of their Victorian elegance.
I took this at Crosby a couple of weeks back. This is the first image I have processed using the HDR method.
I think it came out quite well. I purposely didn't bring out the detail in the foreground as it was very noisy. Although it is a HDR I processed it from one exposure. First I opened The RAW in Lightroom and saved it as three separate files. Each at a different exposure. -2 stops, normal exposure and +2 stops. then I imported all three files into Photomatix and fiddled about until i got this. Far easier than it sounds and all in my first attempt.
I've been sifting through some old photo's from last year, and I found this one. I thought I'd give it the B&W treatment and I think it's turned out rather good. The work was made by Mark DeGraffenried at a studio 4,000 miles away in Utah, and donated by the Mormon Church. An eight foot high statue was cast to mark the 85,000 people who passed through the port of Liverpool from 1851 heading for a new life in America. The sculpture features a family group with a child stepping forward to symbolise the migration.
How weird is this? The top photo in this pair was taken by me on the 18th of Feb at 17.55. The photo Below was taken by my friend Linzi on 19th of Feb at 17.40.
We haven't seen each-other for yonks and didn't know either of us had been taking photos at the Albert Dock. I didn't post any photo's on here until the 21st and i emailed her to tell her about my new site. She spotted the similarities on Saturday and sent me her photo for comparison. Apart from her's being far sharper and having better colours than mine, they are almost identical.
I went to The Albert Dock yesterday, to see Pete Carr's exhibition of photographs - Port of Culture.
If you follow his Photoblog "Vanilla Days" you'll know his work. He's had photo's published in magazines and newspapers.
He is one of the few photographers who use HDR (High Dynamic Range.) That's the method where you combine 3 or more images, all exposed for different areas of the final photo. Basically you use all the correctly exposed bits of each photo, to make the final photo which contains amazing detail in every area. Highlights, Midtones and shadows all contain amazing detail. HDR images have an . . .erm . . . other worldly look about them. You'll know what I mean when you look at them.
I decided to go down to The Albert Dock today, and take some photo's. There have been some spectacular sunsets over the past week, so I decided I should make the most of the sunny weather and test out my new lens, aswell. Typically, I left it a bit late and arrived , just as the sun was dropping below the horizon as I sat in a traffic jam on The Strand. Still, i got a few good shots. It was bloody freezing but I took a flask of coffee and that help keep the cold out when I went back to the van to get my tripod when it got to dark to shoot hand-held.
I was bored, this afternoon so i decided to buy myself a new lens for my 400D.
Last year I gave my 70-300mm Sigma to Lloyd and i've been without a telephoto since.
So I decided I'd get myself a replacement. I picked the new Canon EFS 55-250mm IS (Image Stabiliser). I'll stick a few shots here, when I get a chance to use it. Maybe tomorrow . . .
