My lens buying addiction (LBA) and why it stops now!

I haunt eBay looking for lenses at reasonable prices. I have bought several at great prices over the years since I got my first DSLR.

Many sit, unused, on a shelf. Many have been sold. And, yes, a few were unusable due to fungus, scratches etc.

I use, in no particular order, a Pentax 55-300, a Pentax FA43mm Ltd, a Pentax 50mm manual lens (25 years old and still producing great image quality), the Pentax kit lens 18-55mm (non Weather Resistant version) and until recently, a Tamron 70-300.

I needed (wanted? lusted after?) something wide, something medium, something macro (truly macro, not just close-focusing), something long, all with image quality to die for - well, don't we all?

So I was thinking, which are the most respected lenses in those classes for a Pentax camera? And which , of the ones I selected, were the ones I could afford?

Here is what I came up with:

Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC Lens - wide angle, made for digital with a great reputation (for those examples that work properly!)
Pentax 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL WR - wide to normal, weather resistant. It's the default kit lens, but it is a good lens from f4 up, far superior to other kit lenses out there.
Pentax 50mm F1.7 - a "nifty fifty" normal that is, even after 25 years, one of the top 50mm pentax lenses ever produced.
Pentax 55-300mm F4-5.8 - short telephoto to long(ish) telephoto - a lens that always punches above its weight class.
Sigma 70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro - macro and 105mm equivalent (it's designed for full frame cameras).

I did the maths, took a heart attack at the total price, then logged onto eBay, and in an orgy of selling, made enough money so that I could add just a bit and get the missing lenses from my line-up.

I chose the Sigma 10-20 over the Pentax 12-24 F4 because it was £160 cheaper and scored only marginally less in reviews. I was concerned over the reports of "dud" lenses (not sharp across the lens, back focusing, front focusing etc.), but when I dug into it, I found that the vast majority of reports were years old, and it is a known fact that Sigma are trying much harder these days.

The 18-55 kit lens is weather-resistant, a good lens and a good all-rounder for urban areas (and I already owned it).

The Pentax 50mm is a superb portrait/ normal (75mm equivalent in full frame terms) and produces excellent image quality - and I already owned it.

The Pentax 55-300mm is a great all-round lens when there is plenty of light, and can be a great walk-around lens. It is relatively cheap, being a consumer grade lens, but it does have excellent image quality - and I already owned it.

The Sigma 70mm has, in most peoples opinion, too short a working distance for insect photography, but that's ok, as I don't particularly want to photograph insects - I like flower macros which don't move (and don't bite or sting, either!). it is also a noted portrait lens with superb sharpness and colour rendition. It has review scores marginally better than the closest Pentax equivalent (the DFA 105mm Macro).

All in all, I am pleased with the spread of these lenses, the usefulness of them all, and the image quality of them all.

So my LBA stops now. Really. I mean it. No more!

Here are some macro shots of household items using the Sigma 70mm - and one of a "normal" shot.

For those into setups, here is the setup used to photograph the household objects:

Natural light only, from the window at the left.

A tranquil place

I am currently exploring National Trust for Scotland properties on days when I don't feel like sitting in the house.

One such day was last Friday. We went to Greenbank Gardens where I took a shot of this statue situated in a pond in a delightful walled garden.


(Details: 50mm f8 1/400 iso 100)

There are many more NTS properties I'll be visiting over the next year or so, and if I can find anything that I want to share, I'll put it here.

Meanwhile enjoy this one.

In the shadows...

I was inspired by this article at Lightstalking.com ( one of my "go-to" web-sites for photography related items ) to try some simple low-key setups and shots.

Here is one result:


and while I like this, I think it is just a bit too ethereal.

This one, on the other hand, seems much more natural.


And when I try to analyse why, I come down to the faint shadow of the apple on the ground - that tiny detail just seems to "ground" the apple in reality, where the porcelain doll above just seems to float....

Here is a set-up shot for those who are into that sort of thing.


Yes, it was full daylight and if that puzzles you, can I point you to the aforementioned article ?

Comments are always welcome.

A Community Project

Each year, around the middle of August, the town of Irvine in Ayrshire, Scotland holds a festival known as Marymass.

The Marymass Queen and The Four Marys for 2011 (The Sunday Church Service Procession)


The festival is claimed to have been around since the 12th century, and today it is intimately linked with the Irvin Carters Society which has been around as long as there were incorporated trades in the town.

This year a call was put out for local photographers to document the festival in a project called "Marymass Through the Lens".

I was one of the photographers who responded, and I decided to document as many of the "peripheral" events as well as to try and get some shots of the main parade.

You can see some of the pictures I am submitting for the final project here.

If you would like to see the program for this years events (all finished now) it is here.

This was a fun project, and I enjoyed doing it - hopefully it will continue in the following years as a record of one of Scotlands oldest festivals.

Events that I took pictures at:

Marymass Special Highland Games
Marymass Lawn Bowls Championship
Senior Citizens Folk Concert
The Shows (Fairground rides etc.)
Horse Judging and Parade
Open Chess Tournament (1 of 2 left in Scotland, so I am told!)
The Sunday Church Service Procession
The 10K run (and no, I was not participating!)
The Flower Show

I thoroughly enjoyed donating my time to this worthwhile project, and I will update this blog post as soon as an outcome of all the photographers work is known.

Golfers

In Scotland, we have Golf Courses. They are everywhere. Some are private, some are expensive, some are municipal and a very few are public.
All have one thing in common - passionate, funny, crazy, emotional users. On any day of the week. On every day of the week!
And usually they make very good photography subjects.
I had some spare time yesterday so I thought I would give my camera a scare and take it out of the bag and use it.

I shot about 50 or so pictures and here are three I thought were worth sharing:


When I played golf, I had the uncanny ability to find the only piece of "rough" in a green sea of fairways. These guys just reminded me of that!


And this guy looks like he is trying to send this ball into the middle of next week... (it ended up in the bunker!)


Well, what can I say? Just because I was looking for golfers was no reason not to snap this guy in fighting position!

Yesterday was the first time I had been out for a while, and I once again found that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" - meaning a break now and then can be a good thing!

Thanks for listening.

Seeing things in Black and White

I never tended to do black and white photographs.
I said things like "the world is in colour, why monkey with it?" or "monochrome is monotonous" or any of several other throwaway lines that really meant only one thing - I did not know how to create a black and white photograph that had punch, drama and flair in any measure or combination.
Now I have a clue (yes, a small clue, but a good start!) how to go about doing it - I am not there yet, but my B&W conversions are starting to look interesting, at least to me :-)

So, what changed?

I read this book - which, while interesting, was mainly using Lightroom (which I have never used - yet!) and so was not of immediate use to me - until I came across this blog post by Bob Rockerfeller which ties it all up nicely, and provides the Lightroom to Aperture mappings (where they exist) so you don't have to....

But the key to it all is experimentation. Consider this series of images


Above: The Original

Above: Just sliding the saturation slider all the way left...

Above: using the Red Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Blue Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Green Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Yellow Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Orange Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Low Contrast Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Higher Contrast Preset in Aperture

Above: Using the Highest Contrast Preset in Aperture

Above: After my experimentation...

You don't need me to point out the differences, ( but in case you do look at the white lanterns on the front of the engine, and the metal panel between the buffer stops).

The last one is the one I like best, and although a little dark, it does have detail in all the brightest whites (unfortunately the sky is beyond anything but major surgery in Photoshop) and the hills in the background have appeared, as have details in the houses to the left.

So, from a so-so colour original, I appear to have made an interesting (well, to my mind anyway!) black and white shot, using some of the techniques laid out in the book, translated into an aperture workflow via Bob Rockerfellers site.
It was actually easier than it sounds!

Hope you like it, and if you are encouraged to go have a look at the site selling the book, check out some of the others on sale there - they are cheap ($5), written by some people who really know their stuff and make great lunch time reading.
Bob Rockerfellers blog I am still evaluating, but the information given there seems accurate, helpful and worth at least a little of your time.

As always, comments, suggestions, critiques and emails always appreciated.

A pleasant kind of madness...

I am an aspiring photographer.
Some days I think I could approach world-class. Others, meh!

So today I left the house while it was still dark, rugged up warm against the cold (-5.5C) and proceeded down to the shore, where I set up my tripod and camera and started to wait for the light.
I was about 45 minutes early for sunrise.

So what does one do to pass 45 minutes in the cold?

Simple - one puts in ones earbuds, starts up the 60's classics playlist on the iPhone and dances.

Yes folks, if you hear of a crazy person standing on the shore before dawn, doing an incomprehensible series of movements that might, in some far out place in the world, be construed as dancing, then I was that person.

And you know what? I had a ball!

And I even got this - not world class, but I like it.



As I say, a pleasant kind of madness.

Weekend Shoot

Yesterday I went to a local (man-made) pond where the local model boat club sails their creations. Sometimes it's serious racing, and sometimes it is just for fun.
I got there when most were heading for home and only a few die-hards had boats on the water.
Not to be deterred, I smiled, asked permission to shoot (you don't need to, but it's just manners to do so :-) ) and started.
So, we had moving subjects, unpredictable winds, varying light (intermittent cloud cover), swans, a new lens, and the background(s) were not great.
All the ingredients of a fun shoot ;-)

To see some of what I came up with, I put them here:
http://web.me.com/shanek54/ModelBoats/Photos.html

After about half an hour, I started talking to one guy whose boat wasn't in the water. We chatted about the boat and he was saying he made models for fun and he would bring down his air-craft carrier model one Sunday. It is 8+ feet long! I sure hope I am around that Sunday!

All in all, a pleasant Sunday and I got some practice with my new lens.
For the gearheads, I was using my Pentax K200D with a consumer zoom lens, the Pentax smc DA 55-300 f4-5.8.
Most photos are F7.1, ISO 100 - shutter speed varies. Website photos are low-res jpgs.

As I normally do with personal shoots like this, I make the photos available to anybody in that local club that wants them, with the only proviso being that if they use them for their website or for club promotion, then I get a credit ( © Shane Kelly ).
That's fair, no?

More on Photographic Competitions

I have spoken about Photography competitions before - but only about the local "League" ones. Today, I am going to talk about a competition run by a commercial entity here in Scotland.
The Whitelee Windfarm is currently "planting" huge windmills over the Eaglesham moor, about 20 minutes from central Glasgow. They are owned (apparently) by ScottishPower, and are making all the right environmental noises on their web site. I have no issue with this aspect of their operation.
What I do have issue with is the use of a "photographic competition" that is nothing more than a "picture rights grab".
Whitelee (or ScottishPower) have decided that getting amateurs to submit photographs in the hope of winning a £130 point and shoot camera is the best way to get images that they can then use for publicity purposes.

Nothing wrong with that, you say?
And I might have agreed with you if I had not read the "Terms and Conditions" closely.

Number 13 states:
"All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The entrants must be the sole owner of copyright in all photographs entered and are responsible for obtaining all third party permissions to the taking of the photographs and use of those photographs in accordance with these terms and conditions. In particular, you represent and warrant that consent has been obtained from any clearly identifiable person appearing in any image to the taking of the image and the use of that image in accordance with these terms and conditions. Further, entrants must not have breached any laws when taking their photographs."

So, it needs to be your own work - fair enough. You must have had permission to enter and shoot on the land from which you took the photo, and if there is a recognisable person in the shot, you need a model release. And lastly, the photograph must have been taken lawfully.
Simple for a professional, onerous for an amateur.

Lets look at number 14:
"Entrants must not have offered any of their entries for sale or been paid for any publication of any of their entries. In addition, all images submitted must not have been published elsewhere or have won a prize in any other photographic competition."

So, basically, they are looking for new images that have not been published, even on your own website, or your flickr or facebook page. They want you to go out and get new pictures for them.

Lets see what no 15. says:
"Entrants will retain copyright in the photographs that they submit to the competition. By entering the competition all entrants grant to ScottishPower Renewables a royalty-free worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual right to use, publish, reproduce and exhibit any or all of that entrant's submitted photographs in any media format in any of its publications, websites and/or in any promotional or marketing material and to grant such rights to any third party to do same. This may include, but is not limited to, use of the photographs in accordance with paragraph 12 above. No fees will be payable for any of the above uses or for any of the rights granted by entrants hereunder. Entrants whose photographs are one of the Top Ten also agree to take part in post-competition publicity. While ScottishPower Renewables makes every effort to credit photographers, including in printed reproductions of their work, it cannot guarantee that every use of the photographs will include photographers’ names."


Basically, you give up all rights (except copyright) for any use of the image forever, while ScottishPower go on using it for nothing in any form (even ones not invented yet) - and they can assign the right to use it to third parties (i.e. anyone else they want) - and this not only pertains to the winners, but to all entries. On top of that, the top ten have to help publicise the windfarm, and it is not even guaranteed that you will get a mention!

Let's put this in perspective.
The conditions of this competition would not be accepted by a professional photographer without a substantial fee - the licensing provisions are simply too broad. They negate the use of the image for any other purpose that might earn the professional some income - nobody wants to use an image closely associated with another business.
So Scottish Power have decided it is cheaper (both in terms of publicising their Windfarm, and in getting some images that they can use for any purpose forever) to offer a pitiful "prize" instead of paying out £1000's per image to a professional.

Bottom line? You're legally responsible for everything about the picture - if you are not in the top ten you get nothing, and your pictures could still be used under the conditions stated above. If you are in the Top Ten, but not in the top three, you get a "goodie bag" with unknown contents. What's the bet it contains promotional material for ScottishPower?

If you want to enter the competition under those rules, then go ahead. I think you're crazy, but that's just my opinion.