Dave Frost Photography

“Woody” and his mate used to live in the Leylandi trees at the back of the garden. Last year however, the trees went and he was forced to move next door but one.
Don’t think he bears a grudge though as he often drops in to say hello and aggravate the dogs.

Quite tricky to get a shot off as he moves about quickly – it’s also very gloomy out there at this time of the year.
Was pleased with this attempt, especially as the patio doors haven’t been cleaned for weeks. The Sigma 70-300 is definitelty out performing the old Tamron in pretty much every area at the moment.

Two words that no matter what, always make me smile like a naughty schoolboy. Absolutely no idea why, but it just does. As the old lens died whilst attempting a moon shot, I thought I’d test the new one on the same subject. I have to say that I’ve been impressed with the image quality of this sub £100 lens for the football photos with little or no chromatic abberation which was sometimes a problem with the Tamron.

Was quite pleased with the result of the moon as well – Detail is pretty good for a cheapy lens, and unless you’re pixel peeping it’s generally an acceptable image. This is a pretty heavy crop (not quite 100%) of the full photo, and as had a contrast boost and a little unsharp mask added prior to uploading.

Shutter speed was 1/320 @ f8.0 and you can see a bigger version here on my flickr stream

Not sure why, but seem to have become slightly obsessive about reflections recently. Haven’t touched the camera for over a week and cabin fever has not irreversibly set in. Been meaning to hve a crack at these things since the storm in a teacup shot (see my Flickr stream) to try and capture some clouds etc. reflected in the water. for the last two weeks the skies have been a monotonous grey, so as the sun attempted to shine this afternoon I felt obliged to have a go at this.
Regrettably, my cd tray only had this knackered old thing in (it’s got more scratches than a cat’s scratching post) and I didn’t get the tripod out, but went OK from a test perspective.

For those that care, this was taken hand-held, with the Canon 50mm f1.8 plus 36mm kenko extension tube.

I’ve seen quite a few shots recently involving playing cards and motion blur so though I’d have a go myself having borrowed a rather nice Manfrotto Tripod from a friend. I didn’t realise how hard this is to do by yourself !! – For those interested, the Flash was bounced off of the ceiling, and the exposure was metered for the ambient light minus around 1 stop.
Multiple test shots gave me a resultant shutter speed of 1/5 @ f6.3 which captured the movement of the cards quite nicely when I was able to get the timing right. Keeping an eye on the timer, and making sure the cards are within the frame was rather tricky, and I only ended up with two usable shots from 20 or so attempts

Sadly, my living room is too small to not have included the wall in the shot. I already had to clone out a bit of sofa behind me. This for me, makes this shot pretty much just below average, but at least it’s good practice. I thought about trying to remove the wall by copying or cloning in more floor, but my PS skills fall way too short to even attempt it.

Added to the list of shots to re-try properly at some point this year.

With the Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro lens that arrived this week.  Purchased as an emergency replacement for the trusty Tamron, which has developed a rather irritating fault beyond economical repair.  Still in two minds as to whether to flog it on ebay for spares or repair (along with all my now useless filters for it or take it apart to see how they’re all put together.

Unfortunately, the skies have been perpetually grey.  That and the usual heavy work load has meant that although I’ve had this lens all week, I’ve yet to actually take any photos with it to see how it performs.  I did manage a couple of shots through the office window into the gloominess and have noted that the chromatic abberation (or lack of) with this lens is quite impressive.  It was always a bit of an issue with the Tamron.  Nothing too terrible but a nuisance to correct in post processing.  As for sharpness, I’ll have to wait for a better day.

Today’s shot is one of those test ones.  There’s a green washing line running diagonally across the frame (rendered almost invisible thanks to the far focus and Depth of Field), and it was hand held with a shutter speed of 1/200 @ f5.6 and focal length of 300mm.