Dave Frost Photography - Canvey Island » Canvey Island

Apparently it’s officially my Day in Meerkovo !!

Dave Frost — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:54:30 +0000

Annoying as the adverts are they do tend to stick in your head, so on receipt of me Annual renewal notice for my house insurance I thought I’d at least have a look.
I wouldn’t normally have bothered, but this year my renewal premium had increased some 100%. Admittedly I had a claim last year when some wanker smashed the downstairs window of the house, but 100% increase – I think not.
Ran my details through the Meerkat people and the cheapest quote available was around the same price as last year – With the same insurer (WTF ????). Rang them this morning, and just on the strength of a phone call they miraculously managed to knock off £500 (why not quote the ‘best’ price in the first place – Tossers).
Still not impressed, that one’s now marked as not renewed and the Meerkat people got a few more clicks on their website. I’m happy. Fully insured at the same price as last year (under £700) and a stuffed Meerkat is on it’s way to my house.

The Ultimate Diet

Dave Frost — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:45:22 +0000

OK, had 20 minutes to kill and couldn’t think of anything constructive to do. Not that often I get an empty house and ponce again I failed to capitalise on it. One day I might grow up a bit !!

Trapped

Dave Frost — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:50:59 +0000

It’s a bit early in the year for negative thoughts !!! – Not really sure why I did this, but stumbled across an online Photoshop Tutorial and thought I’d have a crack at it. Was a lot more difficult than the 4 step tutorial suggested to try and make the final image look less like a cut and paste job than I ended up with. Image processing remains a bit of a sticking point for me, and I despair that I’ll ever really be able to do it without butchering the original file. So, for now (and this is the closest I’m likely to get to a new years resolution) I think I’ll have to stick with trying to get things ‘right’ in camera and keep the processing to a minimum.

This isn’t the tutorial I used (in fact I wish I’d found this one before) but if anyone else fancies a crack at it there’s a useful step by step you can find simply by clicking this link clicking here

the xmas Nifty 50 Challenge……

Dave Frost — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:56:07 +0000

I set myself a challenge this Christmas of only using the Nifty Fifty (Canon 50mm F1.8) prime lens. I thought it’d make me think harder about composition and framing as well as lighting. I’m not sure whether it was down to the unwillingness of my models, too much to eat or more likely too much wine but as challenges go, the end results weren’t that spectacular. Plenty of snaps for the family albums and the kids scrapbooks, resplendent with accompanying memories but precious few ‘real’ photographs.

And for something a little different…….

And so to bed

Dave Frost — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:01:37 +0000

Unlike the previous post which prompted a plethora of verbose musings I think this image should just be left without comment. It’s all about the light.

Shades of Summer

Dave Frost — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:17:11 +0000

Looking out of the window today, summer seems like so long ago. Yet only on Saturday the pool was open, the sun was out and summer was very much on the scene.

Blue Moon

Dave Frost — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:55:47 +0000

Well, strictly speaking the moons the same colour as it always is, but instead of beingh dark and night timey, I took this during the day during a rare patch of blue sky.

Hand-held, 200mm – What can I say. Definitely saving up for a 1.4 converter for this lens !!

Great British Summer (or looks like rain dear)

Dave Frost — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:38:13 +0000

The newly formed team got together for their first friendly this weekend, playing against their older peers at the club.
True to form, the Great British Summer is truly upon us and although the sun was shining the clouds looked more than a little ominous….

Tricky Alf murders another pair of white socks………

Dave Frost — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:31:46 +0000

Took a hell of a lot longer to stitch these than I thought it would and by no means a proper job. Learnt a few hard lessons on the way to the end result here, the most important of which would be – DON’T MOVE THE CAMERA AT ALL when shooting with this in mind.
Also learnt a lot about masking and layers in Photoshop so not all a total loss. Will be replacing this one with a more considered and better edit as soon as I have a few hours spare !!!

Needless to say that come the finish the socks were consigned to the dustbin

Bees – Not just about the honey……

Dave Frost — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:37:47 +0000

Right,
Whoever invented the phrases “the bees knees” and “make a bee-line for” was on drugs at the time. Bees knees are pretty damn ugly, and the little bastards rarely fly in straight line, or anywhere predictable come to think of it. Spent 20 minutes aiming the 70-200 at a ratherpleasant bush, swarming with bees. Unfortunately, none of them were where I was aiming. Had plenty of macro shots of the bush,, the leaves and the flowers but hardly any bees in focus (including this one).
This needs to be re-visited with a flash, a tripod and a lot more patience. Who would have thought that bees would be so hard to shoot……

and finally a reasonably sharp one !!!