342: The Gateway

Shooting a film in freezing conditions is not always easy. Add low light levels, an inadequate sound recording set-up and a general lack of preparedness, and it becomes what I'd call challenging.
It was fun, though! Didn't finish shooting, of course. Being put off for a warmer weekend, I presume.

Settings: f/14, 1/80, ISO 800, P-FA 50mm. Monochrome and curves adjustments.

331: Winter Street Lights

A quick snap taken from the middle of King Richards Road. Snowy and very cold.
The only significant hint of snowfall shown here is the lower right patch. The snow cover generally cast a lot of ambient reflections around the street, and the scene would have had much less shadow detail without it.

Settings: f/1.4, 1/50, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm. Colour and levels adjustments, crop to 16:9.

324: Teddies

This man cuts an imposing silhouette over the stall. I noticed this immediately as I glanced his way. There was also a stall keeper behind him, but I waited until her body was obscured by his.
I originally converted it to monochrome; but looked back and brought the colour up a little to bring back some of the reds, and I think it seems to have more emotion as an image. A pity about the slightly clipped highlights, but they [only just] don't ruin the image.

Settings: f/2.8, 1/40, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm. Colour and levels adjustments, highlight recovery, slight crop.

323: Amazon

Last night was a foggy one, and I ventured into the cold to grab some shots of buildings and lights in the foggy night air. Only on starting back home did I notice the fair had come to town, and I noticed this dramatic angle of a large ride with a floodlight behind the sign.

Settings: f/8, 6s, ISO 100, DA 14-45 (45mm,) tripod. Levels & colour adjustments, cleanup.

310: Around the Flame

That is a big fire.

Settings: f/2.8, 1/25, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm. White balance and colour adjustments.

309: Fireworks Night

It's the time of year for bulb exposures once more, and I'm at least consistent in turning up to the same fireworks display for the third year running - with the same main intention. The difference this time is that I brought along my 16-45 instead of the 18-55. Favouritism, I know, but wider is more appealing.
The main challenges in this event seem to be anticipating where and how wide the fireworks will burst, and trying to avoid the glow from the massive bonfire on the left.

Ironically, most shots didn't seem to need 16mm wide - if only I was right over the field with the lighting crew. That'll never happen, but maybe next time I'll try to find a radically different spot to shoot from (that doesn't involve stepping out into the forbidden zone.)

Settings: f/10, 3s, ISO 100, DA 16-45 (38mm,) remote release, tripod.

296: Food is Fast

And comes back even faster for some.
Not a slow night by any means - these places on Braunstone Gate were doing plenty of business, with all the people coming to see the last acts of Oxjam Leicester Takeover 2010, get drunk and have a kebab (presumably.)

Settings: f/1.4, 1/250, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm.

285: Gallowtree Gate Greens

Settings: f/1.4, 1/80, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm.

284: Highcross Defocused

Settings: f/1.4, 1/100, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm.

280: Tail Light Clusters

Settings: f/2.5, 1/30, ISO 400, Tamron 24mm Adaptall.

272: Cross the Street

Settings: f/2.8, 1/25, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm, 4x Starburst filter.

270: Patterns On Glass

Settings: f/4, 1.3s, ISO 100, P-FA 50mm.

269: Roundabout

Another blob shot. Previously a 58mm f/2, this time it's the turn of 50mm f/1.4. Very big discs, almost too large; would probably look better on a full-frame 135 sensor, although there would be more peripheral distortions.
Noticing the small hair-like dust mark on the right of centre makes me wonder how there is a slight double image - I had no filter attached to the lens. Strangely, the marks shift in different images, so I presume it's something on the front lens element.

Settings: f/1.4, 1/10, ISO 200, P-FA 50mm.

265: Night Street Discs

Nice images can be taken with a fast lens wide open and focused to the minimum distance.
The old EOS D30 definitely has some dynamic range issues: Highlights blow quite easily, even in RAW. I had to convert the CRW files to DNG using the Adobe DNG converter, otherwise RT wouldn't read the colour settings correctly (totally skewing the white balance, and giving a purplish tint to blown highlights which is near impossible to recover in post-processing.)

Settings: f/2, 1/20, ISO 400, EOS D30, 58mm Helios-44M M42. DNG RAW.

258: Moonglow

...Made A Halo of Your Chimney.

One of those rare situations that I use my infinity-focus M42 adapter. I knew I'd be postprocessing this image quite a bit, as I was certain the camera's JPEG wouldn't look quite as I wanted (even though it was quite faithful.)

Settings: f/5.6, 6s, ISO 200, 135mm Soligor 1:2.8 M42, tripod. No sharpening, noise reduction, luminance curves, rotation, saturation reduction, slight crop; 2 dust spots removed.

117: Spooky Street Lamp

Settings: f/2.8, 1/50, ISO 400, 28mm M42, EOS D30.

005: A Magical World

The predictions came true.
Through the kitchen door I glimpsed a fantastic sight, all dim white and still. What was this alternate realm? I had little idea, but ventured forth boldly nonetheless.
Wearing my warm coat, gloves and hat, I felt the yielding soft crunch of the white ground underfoot. For a moment I was afraid that my feet would keep sinking until I was buried, but the ground was reassuringly solid underneath. The air was silent. Was this a dead world?
I was armed only with my trusty camera, my mismatched [but useful] flash and a cheap tripod to stand it all on. I quickly set it up in what I considered to be a good spot.
As the snowflakes continued to fall around me I tried a simple quick flash exposure on maximum power - not much to be seen save the foreground. Then I tried a long exposure of ten seconds with a burst of flash light, and behold! The image you see before you tonight is the result of a combined effort of a quick flash and a languid smothering of reflected sodium light.
Satisfied that I had accomplished what I ventured out for, I hurriedly collapsed my tripod and returned back to the welcome warmth of the house. Who could know what tomorrow would bring?