Welcome to 2017 !!!

I have decided to maintain a photography blog this year.. regular drops of behind the scenes on travel, equipment, processing, weather (I'm British after all).
Hopefully it will be an interesting read feel free to leave comments :)

Have an adventurous and creative 2017 !!

'Shooting Pheasants' - 7th Jan 2017

So on my way to work there is a stretch of lane with fields either side and there are always pheasants in the fields or perched on the lovely dry stone walls.

Sadly, pheasants like most animals and people have a sixth sense as to when you have a camera with you or not ;)
So for the last week I have been making a few extra trips down the lane with my windows open, camera poised and ready to go!

My earlier attempts in the week were highly successful with some lovely compositions, but when I returned home to check my images I found they were all front focussing ??

Then I realised that in my trial of the WFT-E7 unit i needed to update the firmware on the camera and in doing so lost all the AF micro adjustment calibration for my lenses.. doh!

So a day of cleaning my lenses and camera gear followed by AF micro adjustment calibration on all the lenses.
Basically the simple way to do this is to set a hardback book on a table propped up at 45deg.Then drape a rule or tape measure vertically on the book.
Set up the camera on a tripod centrally to the book ideally on a nice round number like 100mm for the central AF point.
then you simply take an image with maximum aperture so you get a ice shallow DoF. review the image and see where it actually focussed and then using the inbuilt micro adjustment week the settings for each lens until the 100mm is bang in focus with an even fall off either side.

So neither of these images are worthy of the portfolio, but they are at least now in focus!! I'll keep returning as the lighting looks good and hopefully they will decide to play one day and pose a little more.

'Picture Framing' - 13th Jan 2017

So.. along with the photography in the last year I have started doing my own picture framing.
I attended an evening school to learn the basics and trial some equipment before purchasing my own and practicing with framing for myself, friends and family. I have recently decided that my framing is good enough to warrant some upgraded equipment so that I can achieve a truly professional finish.
So i have purchased myself a Keencut Ultimat Futura 48" mount cutter and also a Morso F guillotine. I already had an older Keencut Laser and whilst good it did require quite a lot of time spent calibrating it and keeping it true. The Morso will be replacing my existing Logan Pro-saw mitre saw and my Axminster hand guillotine.. whilst I'm able to achieve a great finish with the existing equipment the Morso will be so much quicker to use and will be a joy to use creating less dust and mess in the house.
I already have a logan pro underpinner which works well inserting the v staples to the glued frames. I could invest in a Cassesse also but the wait for gluing doesn't really bother me and the finish is just as good if not better with my existing equipment.