Ye Olde British Pub

I went to the most wonderful old pub on Sunday, old is an understatement, its over 900 years old in fact, just imagine the Normans probably stopped off here for a quick pint after battle. King Charles II hid here in 1651 during the civil war, he was on his way to France where his mother came from. Being part French, he was into mistresses (literally), he acknowledged seven of them who bore fourteen children between them. Given his position I seriously doubt he stopped at seven though. It's interesting to note that both Princess Di and Camilla are direct decendents of Charles' illegitimate sons. For the American readers, Charles II was the king who kicked the Dutch our of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York after his brother.

Enough history, this is probably one of the most wonderful pubs I've ever been to, excellent beer, excellent food and wine, friendly staff and tucked deep in the country surrounded by walks.


Details: The Royal Standard of England, Beaconsfield, UK
27/11/05, 13:53
Canon 20D, ISO-1600, RAW
1/15 secs @ f4.0
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
Hand held

Finally this was taken just after lunch, the sun sets shortly after 4pm so there was very little light, add to that the fact that I had two boys running around and third in a push-chair covered in mud and I think it was a remarkably good photo.

Details: Forty Green, Beaconsfield, UK
27/11/05, 15:56
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
0.8 secs @ f2.8
20-35 2.8L @ 25mm
Hand held against a tree

The light off the trees

It's been a quiet week as far as photography goes, having taken Monday and Tuesday off I had a busy week fitting the usualy 5 days work into 3. I'm sure that's not the way vacation is supposed to work but it always appears that way, where did I go wrong?
Anyway, it's been a rather good week weather-wise, still cold but still dry. I took this one while walking back from having taken the children to school, the silver birch trees are exceptionally bright in the morning sun, in fact so bright it was pretty much impossible to correctly expose them with anything else in the shot so I decided to take a closer look. I use Ansel Adams zone system when I take photographs, I put the highlights into zone 8, leaving a little room for tone in the highlights.


Details: Wolepole park, Ealing, UK
25/11/05, 09:17
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/500 secs @ f8.0
28-70 2.8L @ 60mm
Hand held

The London Eye

At long last I finally made it up the London Eye. Being a Londoner it's always easier to leave it to another day but today was the day. The boys are off school for two days while they move classrooms around (rebuilding work) so not being a weekend, less tourists around and reasonably good weather I decided to try it out. If I'd known my latent weekend cold would come on full force during the trip I probably wouldn't have made it but sniffing and sneezing aside, it was a great day and I highly recommend it.

The view from the eye wasn't perfect, rather misty, it's still rather cold in London and the morning fog takes time to clear so there wasn't a huge amount of photogenic subjects at the top, that being said it was a fantastic view all the same.

These photographs were taken within about 100m of the Eye...

Just walking up to the London Eye from the new Golden Jubilee bridge.

Details: South Bank, nr. The London Eye, UK
21/11/05, 14:23
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/250 secs @ f7.1
28-70 2.8L @ 39mm
Hand held

Part of the way up the London Eye, you can see the mist on the horizon.

Details: The London Eye, UK
21/11/05, 15:05
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/250 secs @ f8.0
28-70 2.8L @ 28mm
Hand held

Dali's "Melting Clock" statue, there's a Dali exhibition next door to the London Eye

Details: South Bank, nr. The London Eye, UK
21/11/05, 15:36
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/160 secs @ f6.3
28-70 2.8L @ 34mm
Hand held

The classic postcard shot of the Houses of Parliament, I have a few of these but I liked the jet trail on this one, the white trail contrasts the colours of the setting sun.

Details: South Bank, nr. The London Eye, UK
21/11/05, 15:39
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/160 secs @ f6.3
28-70 2.8L @ 34mm
Hand held

A frosty start to the day

For about a week now we've woken up to frost, this isn't unusual in south east England in November but a week of frost is not so common especially this early in November. The meteorological office has forcast a harsh winter this year so this looks like the start of it.

I took these late in the morning after taking my boys to French school (they go on Saturday mornings).


Details: Walpole Park, Ealing, UK
19/11/05, 11:00
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/60 secs @ f3.2
28-70 2.8L @ 50mm
Hand held


Details: Walpole Park, Ealing, UK
19/11/05, 11:13
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/100 secs @ f4.0
28-70 2.8L @ 37mm
Hand held

Just in case you're interested these photographs are all taken at 8 mega-pixels, that's 3504 X 2336, this is the full size zoom of the above photograph. I can't upload the originals because they'd use up too much space, if anyone's interested though I can provide them in full glory.

Moon and Mars

A whole week and nothing to post! I had to take one of my older "classic" 35mm cameras into Canon to repair this week and I decided to leave my new 20D for a spot of cleaning. I started this blog with the intention of posting from my new 20D and not "old" photographs from my earler 1n and 1nRS so I essentially had nothing to post without my trusty 20D.

This week has been fantastic weather, frosty at night and bright and sunny during the day, not the best weather to be without a camera. As soon as I got it back on Friday evening I nipped out go grab a shot of the moon and Mars, both very bright at the moment. So, today's post is just that, a shot of the moon and a shot of Mars, nothing by astonomical standards but not bad I thought for camera lenses. Both were taken with my 300mm 2.8L with a 2X tele-converter making the effective focal length 600mm (f5.6).


Details: Home, South Ealing, UK
18/11/05, 21:48
Canon 20D, ISO-3200, RAW
1/2000 sec @ f11
300 2.8L with 2X converter (effective 600mm f5.6)
Hand held

Mars at about magnitude -2.0 about 70m km (45m miles) from Earth

Details: Home, South Ealing, UK
18/11/05, 21:48
Canon 20D, ISO-3200, RAW
1/2000 sec @ f11
300 2.8L with 2X converter (effective 600mm f5.6)
Hand held

It's my birthday!

Another year and I'm now 41, yicks! The boys woke me up at 8am and spent about an hour bouncing around on my bed telling me it was my birthday. It's lovely waking up with the boys but not at 8am on a Sunday, at least I didn't have a hangover.

Three photos for you today. The sun was out most of the day and I has seen a shot the previous day that I wanted to get in sunlight. This is a small memorial kept by the local scouts, being rememberence Sunday there are "fresh" poppies. I rather over exposed this which, with digital, is about the worse thing you can do. I didn't have a huge choice though, I took some test shots and then this one, the problem is that the sun suddenly came out about 5 seconds into the 30 second shot.


Details: Lammas Park, London, UK
13/11/05, 14:46
Canon 20D, ISO-400, RAW
30 seconds @ f2.8
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm + Hoya 72R (infrared filter)
Tripod

Same scene in "normal" light

As above but at 1/160th @ f6.3 and no filter

The next is a little strange. I moved to Ealing about 3 years ago, we live wonderfully close to two parks (Lammas and Walpole), for London it's nice to have so many birds, squirrels and foxes but there is one thing I did not expect. West London is slowly being over run by wild parrots, they are a ell of a lot prettier than pigeons for sure by they make a hell of a noise and when my children don't wake me up the parrots do, either way its a lot of squawking!
Over the years I've mentioned these parrots to many people and many simply don't believe we have parrots in Ealing. So, here they are, the first photo is a siluet of about half a dozen of them against the rising moon.

Details: Lammas Park, London, UK
13/11/05, 15:53
Canon 20D, ISO-400, RAW
1/1000 sec @ f5.6
300mm 2.8L
Hand held

The second is a "close up" of one in a tree. I say "close up" but it was a good 10-12m (30-35') away, I had a 300mm lens. I used a fill-in flash to pick him out from the background sky. They seem to like eating the seed pods of this tree, sadly I've no idea what it is but if I find out I'll edit this post.
For those that want to know more about this "parrot" in fact it's called a "ring-necked Parakeet", there's more on the RSPB web site.

Details: Lammas Park, London, UK
13/11/05, 15:59
Canon 20D, ISO-400, RAW
1/60 sec @ f5.6
300mm 2.8L
Hand held

Sunset on London Underground

Sorry, the classic sunset. I took this at Parsons Green tube station on the way to a family birthday party at Wimbledon. It was the light on the rails that caught my eye rather than the sunset itself. I under exposed to reduce the detail in the shadows.

Details: Parsons Green, London, UK
12/11/05, 15:44
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
1/640th @ f9.0
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
Hand held

Infrared photography - attempt 1

I was hoping for a little sunshine this afternoon to try out my new infrared filter. The best we got today was about 10 minutes of sun spread into 10 second intervals over about 4 hours. Still determined I set out in the cool, blustery autumn weather to at least try a few shots. One huge advantage digital has over "classic" photography is that you get to see the results in seconds and can correct for exposure. Infrared photography is where this comes into its own, there is just no way to work out what the correct exposure should be. Firstly you see absolutely nothing through the view-finder with the filter on and then the camera tells you you should be using something totally different (usually about 5 stops to dark). With a bit of experimentation I managed to get the right setting, it was about 30-45 minutes before sunset and about 95% cloudy with a strong wind. I used 100ASA a 72R filter and 3 minutes at F2.8, this is what I got...


Details: Lammas Park, Ealing, UK
11/11/05, 15:37
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
100 secs @ f2.8 (1 minute, 40 seconds)
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm + Hoya 72R (infrared filter)
Tripod

Here's the above in "normal" light...

As above but 1/80th secs @ f4.5 (no filter)


Details: Lammas Park, Ealing, UK
11/11/05, 16:00
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
180 secs @ f2.8 (3 minutes!)
20-35 2.8L @ 24mm + Hoya 72R (infrared filter)
Tripod

Here's the above in "normal" light...

As above but 1/10th secs @ f2.8 (no filter)

Long time, no blog

It seems like ages but in fact it's only been a few day. The weather's been on and off since the weekend and I've just been too busy with work to nip out and take photographs. Yesterday my infrared filter (Hoya R72) finally arrived from Hong Kong, I bought it on eBay for about $140, a 77mm filter costs nearly $300 in the shops. I was inspired by a number of postings from people who had tried infrared photography with digital cameras. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to try it out due to work but I did grab a quick snap out of my office window and I can tell you, it's definitely infrared and you're going to see some interesting posts on or after the weekend (assuming it's sunny).

So, just to add a few photos I've got two for you today, both of them a few weeks old now. The first was taken on holiday in Tuscany in August, like a few others here it's been adjusted.


The original...


The second I took a few weeks ago in the park with my boys, the youngest, Pierre, took a fancy to a sweet little girl (Eva) who was about the same age. Eventually we had to split them up and I caught this as they "said goodbye".

400 year old terrorism

Four hundred years ago (5th Nov 1605) Guido Fawkes was caught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament with dozens of barrels of gunpowder, who said terrorism was a new thing? He wasn’t alone, he was part of a group, the gunpowder plot and as with today’s acts of terrorism he too was considered a religious extremist, he was Christian, the English monarchy was and still is Protestant, good old Henry VIII saw to that. To this day though Guy Fawkes is known as "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honourable intentions."

In the lighter side Bonfire Night as it’s also known is a great evening for children, for weeks leading up to the 5th you can hear cracks and explosions all over the UK, Friday (4th), Saturday and even this evening (6th) I can hear rockets going off every few minutes and the curtains flash from behind. I was once lucky enough to fly into London from somewhere on a clear Bonfire Night, the view of millions of fireworks as far as the eye could see was only second the stunning aurora (Northern Lights).

These aren’t exactly note-worthy photographs but it’s my weekend’s work as far as photographs go. I took most of the shots at about 2 seconds hand-held, you don’t really need a tripod for this sort of thing. I hope you like them, I’ve made them slightly smaller because they’re not really what I call serious photographs, you can click on them for a slightly larger version.


Details: Ealing Cricket Ground, UK
05/11/05, 20:08
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
2 secs @ f5.6
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
hand held


Details: Ealing Cricket Ground, UK
05/11/05, 20:09
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
2 secs @ f5.6
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
hand held


Details: Ealing Cricket Ground, UK
05/11/05, 20:11
Canon 20D, ISO-100, RAW
2 secs @ f5.6
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
hand held

Late night in Time Square

Another evening in New York, we started a little later this time and wondered down to Soho to find something good to eat. Sadly we found one of the most unauthentic Thai meals I've ever eaten (on Spring St.), it was OK but like the waiters, not very Thai.
I stopped off at Time Square to take a few photos before wondering back to my hotel. I know New York probably was well as London, I lived in the US for over a year and have been back and forth almost monthly for well over a decade.

New York is a special city and there are things that I think of as being uniquely New Yorkesque, one of my favourites is the steam rising out of the streets in the winter, it's not quite winter yet but there's steam all the same. This was on 45th St. and Broadway. I had to step up to 400 ASA again to avoid flash or camera shake.

Details: 45th and Broadway, NY, USA
01/11/05, 23:48
Canon 20D, ISO-400, RAW
1/30 secs @ f5.6
20-35 2.8L @ 20mm
hand held

New York - jetlagged

So, a new week and I'm in New York for a spot of work. I had a great flight over with Virgin in Upper Class, the only way to fly. I checked in at about 1am on Monday morning and got a full 4 hours sleep. After an 11 hour day, a quick meal (at least 50% beer) I finally had a little time to use my trusty 20D. Given it was 9:30pm locally my body was somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30am (due to the recent clock change).
Sadly I didn't bring my tripod so I had to knock the ASA up to 400 to get these shots without camera-shake, something I don't really like doing having spent decades with PAN-F and Velvia (25 and 40 ASA).

My hotel is right next to Grand Central Station, one of the most spectacular buildings in this great city. I've messed around with this one using my new PhotoShop CS2, this should appeal to the American viewers.

Details: Grand Central Station, NY, USA
31/10/05, 21:24
Canon 20D, ISO-400, RAW
1/15 secs @ f2.8
20-35 2.8L @ 29mm
hand held

The original...