Ho Ho Hogmany!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!  

It's funny sometimes; growing up in Scotland and then living in England, it's easy to forget how differently we all speak!  The number of people I have had to explain to this week what Hogmany is, is hilarious!! (Even as I type, my computers telling me it doesn't even exist!)  It's not only that, I've lived in England for 5 years and this is the first time anyone has taken note of me saying it...haha thanks guys, nice to know you're all listening! ;)  But I did have a fabulous Christmas at home and  Hogmany was brought in with a family I was very close to growing up, and don't get to spend any time with now I live so far away, it was smashing!! ;)

I didn't actually manage to get any college work done over Christmas though, as I was just so busy all the time...it's hard being the centre of attention when you go home! (Haha..yeah right!!)  But I'm on a serious guilt trip now, I really have to start cracking the whip!!  

I did however manage to get my nieces to sit still long enough on the 2nd, to do a little photo shoot of them; the excitement of the portable studio going up in the living room was enough get my 3 year old niece ecstatic, but that quickly ran out after 7 minutes!!  Here's what I did manage to get however!

I shot these freehand as, surprise surprise...I still don't have a tripod for my Canon!  

Unfortunately the shutterspeed wasn't quick enough so they're not all of the best quality.  I always feel under pressure when doing any studio work, so my work often suffers as a consequence of me not taking the time to set up correctly...I always think I have,  and I'm later proved wrong! I need to remember that I am still only a student and so it's ok to take my time as I'm still learning, and I'm not expected to know everything...yet!! 

Roisin

Experimenting with Exposure

Recently at college we have been given a series of exercises to capture some images, the first of which being exposure.  Our lecturer showed us some images that had been captured in RAW and each image had been under exposed by up to 2 stops.  The images were very dark and I couldn't really discern a lot from the them, then with some quick editing and they were perfect; the tones, colours, highlights and shadows.

I quite often capture images of under exposed sunsets, but I'm typically doing this for the silhouettes.  I would normally discard any images that have been under exposed, but now I know that they can still be saved.

Here's some images I took the other day in the glowing late afternoon sun...what beautiful weather we have had lately, perfect for getting out and inspired again! :)

 The first image was under exposed by -2 stops, and as you can see it's really dark.  Here is what I did in RAW editing, I then opened levels and adjusted the light to get the bottom result. 

The next image was shot using a UV filter and under exposed by -1 stop.  

 I did the same edits for this picture too, without having to use the recovery as the uv filter had already done the job of toning the sky correctly.

The next image was over exposed by 1 stop and pointed in the direction of the sun.  I wanted to get it as washed out as I could to see how much I could still recover...I'm very happy with this result too!

Here's the editing I did to achieve this...

I like to what extent I can now edit and correct images that I would normally deem useless, I'll definitely be using this editing a lot more in the future!

Roisin

Why does the internet hate me so much?

So I have been shockingly bad at keeping up my blogs this month...but I swear , it's not my fault!!

My blasted internet has been the bane of my life these past few weeks, but of course it works fine when I'm at college or work; which prompted my internet provider to suggest a change of lifestyle, in which I stay in during the day and switch college to night classes! :)  

Anyone who knows me, knows fine well I have not evolved well with technology, so you could imagine my panic when he starts telling me to change the filters... I thought, 'we're not dismantling a Dyson here!!'  But in the end he sent me a new router and all is as good as knew now!  If you don't count the fact that my laptop has clearly got the lurgy, but we'll ignore that for as long as possible!! :)

Even though my internet is working again, and I can easily post all the wonderful pictures I have taken lately...I don't really have any!  Trying to find the inspiration to get out and take at least a few photographs has been hard recently, between working full time and moving, I'm struggling to even stay awake let alone pick up the camera and take photos.  I need to be in the right frame of mind to be able to go out and take pictures, otherwise it just feels like a chore and I don't achieve anything...and I haven't recently!  I need to be much more motivated and committed, and find the time to get out and enjoy it again, cause I do love it!!

Here are a few sunsets I took recently but haven't had the time to share...

 

Roisin

Rainbow Roses

I popped into my local flower shop the other day and couldn't believe my eyes...roses the colour of the rainbow!  I'm not sure how anyone was able to achieved this, and nobody in the florist knew either, therefore I am assuming they have somehow been injected with food colourings.

Unfortunately by the time I got there, they where on their way out already, so not the freshest bunch, but I had to take advantage of such strange and beautiful flowers, so I asked the florist if I could still buy them and I got a whole bunch for £2!!

I hope you like them as much as I do! :)

These images were shot in my home studio with my Canon EOS 40D

Roisin x

Juicy Salif Collection

These were all taken using my home studio kit and my Lumix FZ150 on a tripod.  

The light is just a wee light that sits in the corner of my living room and changes colour, I thought the Salif (ok, the lemon squeezer!) would look great illuminated in all those vibrant colour, and low and behold... I was right! :)

Welcome to my first Ever Blog!

Well here goes...my first ever blog post!  I'm not going to lie, the prospect of doing this has been extremely daunting, as I'm not in the slightest bit technically minded and fall out with my computer on a daily basis.  But as we live in an ever growing world of  endless social media, it's about time I jump on the band wagon and bare myself to the good people of the internet!

I have just started my second year studying an HND in Photography, I know what you must be thinking... 'a photographer who doesn't understand technology?'  but hopefully my images will convince you otherwise!

I'll start with some images I have taken in the past, to give you a sense of who I am and the kind of Photography I am drawn to.
I hope you like them! :)
 

I took this shot at a dare devil show about 2 years ago.  I knew he was going to be coming into shot performing yet another masterful trick, so I positioned the frame exactly where I wanted it and under exposed the image so that I would get the perfect silhouette.

I always thought this image would make a perfect wedding invitation.
If I had to name my images, I suppose I would call this one..

'Nature's True Love'

It always makes me smile when I see it! :)

I'm passionate about nature photography, I'll stand all day in a field (provided the suns out) and wait for the perfect opportunity to present itself, in this case it did.










These Images were all shot on my Lumix FZ150

Roisin x