Fuji X10 in Rajasthan

Cow, a photo by kimey on Flickr.

Recently returned from a trip to India where I went for a different approach. I usually take my SLR with a couple of lenses but this time trimmed down to only a 50mm and my X10. Found the X10 an excellent camera to complement the SLR and began by using it almost exclusively. Because of the X10s compact size my confidence in street photography increased and I found myself going for shots I’d possibly have shyed away from in the past. This improved confidence even started to be present when using my SLR and through using the x10 I started to really enjoy shooting with both cameras.
One thing I did notice was how warm the X10 became in the Rajasthan heat. Granted this should be expected in 40+ degrees but there was a significant difference between the X10 and the Canon SLR. Wonder if anyone else has noticed this?

See more images from India on my flickr stream and also more street specific stuff on tumblr.

Original post on Fujixseries.com

Walking the High Line

Found Jonathan Flemmings work through the freshly pressed section of the updated iOS version of the WordPress app. His images have a great quality, really love the colour and light.

Fuji X100 | 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 This weekend we spent an entire morning walking along the beautifully designed High Line, an elevated park that runs through the west side of Manhattan. Arriving at the park's Ganesvoort street entrance, I was very happy to see dramatic morning light sweeping across town. The High Line was once an elevated rail system, supporting freight trains that ran cargo between warehouses and processing facilities in Ma … Read More

via Jonathan Fleming's Blog

Cumberland sausage

cumberland sausage, a photo by David Ellison on Flickr.

Came across David Ellison’s work through the BJP iPad app where they were showcasing his project on Cumberland wrestlers. I checked out more of his work on flickr and this set caught my eye. A really nice little project with an abstract quality that envokes hunger on a Sat morning.

iMediaShare

I’ve had my Playstation 3 for a few months now but so far only used it for gaming. By chance I’d left my PC switched on in the office whilst trying to play a video file from a USB drive on the PS3, I noticed that the PC was showing up as a media server on the PS3 home screen. I was able to stream movies, music and pictures from the PC, quite useful.

This discovery (which wouldn’t be new if I actually read manuals )lead me to thinking if the PS3 could be used as the Apple TV is to stream images and video from iOS devices to my main TV. I already use an Airport express to stream music to my stereo which is fantastic.

After a very quick search on the internet I found out about iMediaShare for the iPhone, a neat app that lets the PS3 (and many other networked devices) view your iPhone as a media server. You can then display, Photo, Video and Music content on your TV through the PS3. The reviews of the app are varied, I found the viewing of photos hosted on the iPhone to be excellent and the software worked seamlessly. Video was very laggy with some videos not even playing which is a shame but for a free app (the paid version is ad free) I can’t complain too much. There is an Android version of the app available, I wonder if this performs better than the iOS.

Overall I’ve found this to be a useful app, not as seamless as I presume Apple TV is but pretty good for someone not wanting to spend the extra cash if they already have a PS3. As a photographer I think this will be great for sharing images from my devices to a number of people without having to huddle round an iPhone or iPad and of course is should also work with anyone elses PS3 such as at friends’ houses.

Sylights Lighting Diagram Editor

I saw a post on twitter by @diyphotography that pointed me in the direction of Sylights lighting diagram editor/creator and it’s iPhone and iPad apps. I have been using studio lighting with my students for the past year with good results but I have found that I have got to be very much on hand to direct students on their setup even after initial direction, leaving me less time to aid other students.

Sylights turned out to be extremely straight forward and simple to use on both iPad and on the iPhones smaller screen, online use even easier. You are able to add images of the different lights, backgrounds, reflectors etc and create notes and setup information to be read alongside. I have produced diagrams for three of the basic portrait setups we use in class and added extra notes before laminating and storing with the lights. Hopefully this will give some students more independence in their work and perhaps some will even start using Sylights when they create their own setups.

unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to upload my own diagrams from the iPad to the online gallery so I have used the above example from nch1976, click image to be taken to page.

Bowens Studio 500

Jon, originally uploaded by kimey.

We had been thinking about upgrading our lighting setup at work and as we had budget left to be spent by April we went for the Bowens 500 system (inc free remote trigger) This setup was reccomended by one of the local collages so we thought it might be good for our students to use the same. I have some time over the half term break to test them out and so far have found them to be really simple to use. I will be on the lookout for a studio lighting course this year to hopefully take myself and my students beyond the basics.

Pinhole photography course

Attended a really good course on pinhole photography today run by photographer Justin Quinell.

Hoped to come away with some good ideas to use with my new GCSE students and wasn’t disappointed. Created a camera out of a beer can which produced the images shown despite poor conditions and sent away with the task of making a six month exposure. Can’t wait to see the results.

GeoSetter

I have been loving using my new iPhone 4 especially the camera and video apps. Its great how the images you take are tagged with GPS information and when uploaded into various software (Flickr, Picassa) they instantly appear on a map showing where they are taken.
If only my DSLR could do the same… but wait it can. After a bit of trial and error and reseach I have now started to combine the GPS info from my iPhone with the images taken with my Canon, all you need are two free pieces of software.

1. Motion X GPS – Lite (the free version)
http://news.motionx.com/category/motionx-gps/

2. GeoSetter
http://www.geosetter.de/en

Ensure the clock on your iPhone and camera are set to the same time and date.
When setting out on a walk or photoshoot switch on Motion X on your iPhone and tell it to record a track, leave this running in the background. At the end of the session, save the track and email it to yourself.

Transfer your photos to a folder on your computer and save the tracklog you emailed in to the same place. Open up GeoSetter and locate your folder. After a twaeking a few options you can then match up the times on the images to the times on the tracklog and save GPS coordinates to your EXIF data. You are shown your images and tracklog instantly on a map.

You can then openyour favourite image editing software and carry on as normal. Now when you upload to Flickr and such like your images are automatically placed on the map.

Before finding this software I tried quite a number of others (including one in Portuguese) and this is by far the best I’ve found. It took a couple of goes to get some of the settings exactly as I wanted them but now it is running well.

Greg Schmigel iPhone photography

as he walked into the beauty of the sunlight, originally uploaded by Just What I See – Greg Schmigel.

Just got myself my first real phone with a camera, iPhone 4. It’s great generally but I was actually quite suprised at the image quality of the camera.
After some surfing around on blogs about the iPhone I stumbled across the work of this guy, Greg Schmigel. The images he manages to capture with his 3Gs are excellent, a real inspiration.

Persona

Moses Diptych, originally uploaded by J Trav.

Found this via Petapixel on Twitter. A really interesting piece of documentary photography looking at how the things we carry with us represent part of our personality.