Whoops....

Wow left this way too long to update :( The weather's been really rubbish here for what feels like months now (I guess that's what you get for living in the wonderful UK!). Anyway these pictures are actually a bit of a cheat because I took them a few months ago but I'm just not getting anything worthy of going up at the moment. It sort of defeats the point of the blog but hopefully I should get a few tonight at a friend's party so should update in the next couple of days.

Quick shot looking up at a tree growing up through an overpass in Vienna (amazing city well worth a trip), maybe would've been better with a wider angle but I don't have anything wider than my 18-55. ISO 200, 18mm, f/10, 1/400 sec.

Tree in overpass

This is a photo of the sunset over some common land near my house. It was actually taken when we had that volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajokullin (how would you even attempt to say that?!) in Iceland that shut down flights across Europe. We got some really nice sunsets from the ash cloud although I'm not sure this image really show it off to it's best. Anyway, ISO 200, 55mm, f/11, 1/500 sec.

Sunset over Mynydd Illytydd

Finally a shot during all the snow we had in the UK. Not much to say about this one, I quite like the deep blue of the sky and the contrast with the red berries. ISO 200, 40mm, f/5, 1/800 sec.

Snow berries

Rubbish weather so this is all I've got for ya

The weather here (Wales) is awful at the moment and I really can't be bothered to go out in it so not taken any pics for a couple of days. Going to have a real push to get some done next week so watch this space.

Been having a bit of a play with some different techniques recently so I've got some examples of long and slow shutter speeds this week. The fast shutter speed shots of coffee/milk were taken with my trusty D40 (I've got my eye on what's coming as a replacement for the D300s at the moment) and SB900. The slow speed shots are with the little infra-red remote you can get for the D40. Just stick the camera in bulb mode then it's one click to open the shutter and one to close.

Anyway, here are the photographs:

Ok, kicking off with a fast shutter speed capture of milk falling into coffee. This was done with my speedlight in it's little stand on top of a book to the left of the shot through a beauty dish, the camera in my right hand and dripping milk in with my left hand. Taken at: ISO 200, 55mm, f/36, 1/500 sec.

High speed milk into coffee

 This was one of my first experiments with light painting using my camera remote and a small torch we had in the house and taken in my back garden. It's so hard to draw without being able to see what you've done! Hopefully with a bit more practice I'll be able to create a more compelling image. ISO 200, 18mm, f/8, 24 sec.

Experimenting with light painting

 Finally a long exposure of the pole star. I think this would be a more interesting image with some foreground or something to give it scale and ground it. It was soooo cold outside though so I only managed a few shots before I had to get back in my car and warm up a bit. I was encouraged by these early shots so I think I'll try and do some more stuff like this in the future. ISO 200, 18mm, f/4, 790 secs (just over 13 mins).

Long exposure of pole star