A week in 5 pictures

As I mentioned in my previous post, the past week has been hectic and not conducive to a focus on photography. But I took pictures. And looking back on a selection of 5 of them in this catch up post, a few interesting things jump out at me.

• I love black and white. The more contrasty the better. 
• My wide angle lenses remain favourites, but my new 100mm f2.8 macro is a joy to use.
• The best camera is indeed the one you have with you.

More on these as we go through the pictures...

Underground Nova

EXIF data: Canon EF-S 10-22mm, 17mm, f4, 1/60 of a second, ISO 800

"Underground Nova" was taken on the escalator out of the Waterloo underground station in London. I've taken several shots looking up or down, but hadn't previously thought of using the LCD advertising screens, shadows and the strong diagonals to create an abstract underground pattern. It pays to look around.

The black and white conversion helps accentuate the lines, the pattern formed by the screens and reduce the distracting effect of wall colours and grime.

My favourite toy

EXIF data: Nexus One phone, N/A

This is a simple shot taken as I was bringing back my daughter from her child minder. The evening sun was casting long shadows on the walls and her silhouette was just too defined and interesting not to shoot.

There was a small issue though: I didn't have my camera with me. That is, I didn't have my DSLR. But I had my cell phone. "The best camera is the one that's with you," said Chase Jarvis. Something I always keep in mind.

So I took the picture with my phone. And I'm glad I did. The 5 megapixels camera is up to the job on a bright, sunlit day.

Chinese Shadows

EXIF data: Canon EF-S 10-22mm, 17mm, f4, 1/125 of a second, ISO 200

"Chinese Shadows" is a simple shot. But one where you need to catch the moment. Some days, the sun will reflect just right on the windows on the other side of the street and create soft Chinese shadows from the plants in front of the blinds. The effect lasts a few minutes at most. When you spot something like this, seize the moment and take the shot.

The conversion then accentuated the "parchment" colouration of the shot and added some vignetting but, otherwise, left it pretty much as captured. Not much to distract the viewer in a white blind and a few shadows. :)

The way you look at me

EXIF data: Canon EF 100mm, 800mm, f8, 1/80 of a second, ISO 800

Explosion of colour

EXIF data: Canon EF 100mm, 100mm, f8, 1/250 of a second, ISO 400

The 2 pictures above were shot with my new 100mm lens. I got 2 lenses recently: The Canon 50mm f1.4 and the Canon 100mm f2.8. Both produce superb images, as primes do. But I have to say the 100mm has been spending the most time on my camera. Partially because it opens up the world of macro photography for me. It's a lot of fun to try out this new aspect of photography.

But also because it's a great focal length that I've found versatile enough both for macro close ups and portraits.

It brings its own set of constraints though. You often need to raise the ISO to compensate for the small apertures you have to use to get a depth of field deeper than a few millimetres (I tend to shoot quite close with this lens, taking advantage of its 31cm minimum focusing distance). And it's hard to go high enough on shutter speed to capture sharp plants and insects on a somewhat windy day. It's a good thing the Canon 7D deals effortlessly with 800 iso.

The fact that a fair number of my shots end up in black and white also means I can't wait to use my roll of Ilford in my Canon EOS 30. I finished my roll of colour film yesterday and it's now out for processing. Ah the delicious anguish of waiting to see what you managed to capture. :)

Expect a post on those pictures when I get them next week.

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