30 Seconds to Work
Posted on December 15th, 2008 by Ben
Playing with stop motion, one image every ten seconds, compressed a 45 minute drive into 30 seconds.
Playing with stop motion, one image every ten seconds, compressed a 45 minute drive into 30 seconds.
Another shoot at the weekend, this time courtesy of the Royal Victoria Country Park who I don’t really think knew knew what thy’d let themselves in for when nearly two dozen photographers and models descended on their museum in the old chapel.
Working around the displays and utilising a number of “found items” as props, the smell of burning ozone filled the air as flashes popped left and right. The day was nothing short of a success and the quality of the images produced using portable battery powered equipment continues to astound me. I’ll blog through a couple of my favourite shots form the other photographers who attended but for now, here are my favourite shots of the day.
So, the Southern Strobist group had a little get together at the old Tudor House Museum on Southampton at the end of October and I went along to see how they do things down there 
From memory, there were some eight models, ten or twelve photographers and dozens of wondrous locations in the museum, which is closed for renovation so we had the run of the place. It’s a pity the weather wasn’t cooperating and put paid to several outdoor opportunities in the gardens.
Not generally being much of a people shooter, I was pleased to find that I was getting some nice shots. Maybe I really can do this after all!
Well, I’ve spent a few days house/dog-sitting for a friend, so thought I’d use his dog for a model, here are some of my favourite shots.
So last week we were having a gear related discussion over at one of the Strobist groups on Flickr and it seems that UK high street photographic chain Jessops is once more in the process of killing off one of its low cost gear selling web stores.
Late last year Tecno fell victim, with customers finding themselves directed straight to the Jessops site, and now Cameras2U seems to be going in the same direction, beginning by limiting the product lists to just refurbished lenses and bodies. Ordinarily I wouldn’t object to a little consolidation within a company’s portfolio, especially when other arms also sell much the same stock, but in this case we’ll be left with a massive price hike. For example, the Portaflash LS2 lightstand, while bulky and aluminium, cost under a tenner at Tecno, last year and was retailing at Cameras2U for the princely sum of £9.49. Fear not, intrepid reader, for Jessops will still sell you the same item from their main store - for £35.95!
For the short term, you can still find the products you want at Cameras2U by using the search function, and they’re still honouring orders for those products. You just can’t browse to them off the front page.
If Jessops are hoping that limiting Cameras2U will push people to order from their main site, they’re going to be sadly mistaken. Given the overheads inherent in Jessops being a bricks and mortar store, a minor price increase is to be expected, but 350% is taking it too far - go on Jessops, pull the other one, it’s got bells on!
UPDATE: I’ve just been made aware (and have verified) that C2U have increased the price on the LS2 stand to £39.99 - slightly higher than the Jessops prices. Looks like that’s one more decent supplier gone.
Links:
www.moo.com have a new product… full sized business cards.
Being inordinately pleased with the moo minis I purchased last year, I thought an update with more recent shots was in order, and I prefer to keep full sized cards in my wallet rather than the minis.
As I glanced out of the window I saw the sun just dropping behind the roofline… so I grabbed the camera.
Very little post on these, just a crop. I was shooting through a small open window so limited in framing choices.
While I was on vacation last month we took a couple of days up to Charlottesville, VA and visited Monticello, the home of US president Thomas Jefferson. It’s a beautiful part of the world and I can see the attraction of the sight, the views are tremendous.
While I didn’t take many shots inside the house itself, I took a few outside, primarily of the stunning tulips in the flower gardens around the house. Here are a few of my favourite shots, post processing.
