A cold, cold day!

Today was freezing, and by that I mean PROPER cold. Our office was taking a while to warm up so I thought i'd grab the camera out of the bag and take a quick snap of my colleague Dan. He was pretty miserable as always and I think this comes across in the photo!

Some more Gritty processing.

I've been practising this Gritty processing technique for the past few days and I think I'm getting better at it. I'm going to be exploring some different types of photography over the next few weeks as I intend to do a 365 next year. 

Anyway here are my 2 latest offerings. I know the one of the girl is overly smoothed but I was just trying to show her how to achieve the effect :)

Upgraded MBP = New programs.

On Friday my mac book blew it's hard drive! After throwing a paddy my old man and a few friends pointed me towards some companies to replace them. On Saturday evening I had a new 500gb hard drive and a version of snow leopard. I got this all up and running on Sunday which meant I was able to install photoshop and lightroom. After making sure everything was working I searched about on-line for some processing techniques and came across this - http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1094

After taking a quick snap with the help of the old man I got too it and came out with this.

Obviously it's nothing special as it was just the basics. There is some major haloing which needs sorting but I'll definitely be using the technique in the future!

The ultimate portable studio.

I came across this whilst scouring the internet recently and thought I'd post about it as I think it's a fantastic idea.

Not all of us have the luxury of access to a studio at all time. Be it a space in a pro studio or a large wood cabin in the garden so this could be the next best thing for the budding photographer! 

- http://www.ips-studio.com/ 

Taken from the Website - "The I.P.S. is an inflatable alternative to mid-afternoon sun, partially cloudy days (which can cause a white balance and exposure nightmare), and battling moderate weather elements.  It is intended to be another tool in the toolbox.  It was essential that is be compact and, most importantly, affordable.  It inflates in 3-4 minutes and deflates in 4-5 minutes.  Once rolled up it measures about 40" x 18" x 18" and weighs a mere 40 lbs.  Fully inflated it measures 15 feet wide x 20 feet long by 12 feet high."

Bokeh?!?!!

I went to a friends house last night to pick up a 550ex flash. Whilst I was there he let me have a go on some of his gear. He's rocking a 85mm 1.2 which is an absolutely AMAZING lens. The DOF on the thing is out of this world.

Here's a quick shot of him in his room taken with the 1000d. No PP or anything and it's slightly out of focus.

 

I'd really, really like to own something like this in the future and who knows... maybe I will.

Also whilst I was there we discussed my possible purchase of a 40d so I may be rocking a new camera in the new year :)