Andrew Beattie's 2011 Photo shoot thread.

Gaffer · 9 Mar 2011 at 06:18

In response to Raymond Lin's lament at the lack of photo threads, I'm going to start one for my own photos. Primarily links to my blog.

This year started with an extended trip to Kuwait over Christmas and the new year:

http://tug.com/blog/2011/20110105_Kuwait_Christmas/

when I did some heavy processing:

Gaffer · 9 Mar 2011 at 06:31

We went to Kuwait at Christmas to plan an event in Feb:

http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110302_Kuwait/

I tried some hand-held tilt and shift with my new 24mm TS-E to align the plane of focus with our friend's banner:

I did some portrait work. The best ones were of the women but I don't get to share those. I set up a makeshift natural light studio. Doorway to brightness of the desert to the right of the subject. Large sheet of white polystyrene to their left to reflect in some fill. Deep darkness of the lined tent for an out of focus dark backdrop.

And of course, lots of huge kites from round the world:

Gaffer · 9 Mar 2011 at 06:38

Next weekend, I get to shoot photos of the Calcutta cup from the touchline at Twickenham. I figure it might be embarrassing to turn up at the 6 Nations having never taken any rugby photos, so I wander down to treat a local game as practice run at using the techniques that I'll need in Twickers. Shot in JPG. Manual exposure.

http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110305_Maidenhead_Rugby/

OG · 9 Mar 2011 at 09:33

Looking good, love the second picture in your first post.. can't really work out what those strands are though?
Lovely rugby shots as well, teeny tiny bit jealous of you going off to Twickenham; I'm sure we will all appreciate a big old thread about how it went when you get the time

Gaffer · 9 Mar 2011 at 19:18

Owen256 said:
Looking good, love the second picture in your first post.. can't really work out what those strands are though?

Banners, held up by kites. Probably 40m high.

Andrew

Gaffer · 9 Mar 2011 at 19:23

An impromptu tour of London with our friends Edris to show him the sites and take some "I've been to London" pictures.

http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110307_Edris_London/

Andrew

Gaffer · 12 Mar 2011 at 21:29

Some last minute practice at shooting rugby. Selected and processed within 60 minutes of the final whistle.

http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110312_Henley_Rugby/

Air tackle:

Some silly stuff:

Gaffer · 13 Mar 2011 at 23:16

Calcutta Cup

Today was the big day. The Calcutta Cup:

Fox on the pitch during the national anthem:

The Scot on the receiving end of this laft the field on a stretcher, with a neck brace:

So the Scots tried to pull their shorts down:

mhk1058 · 13 Mar 2011 at 23:38

Where was all the light from for the last photo with the bus at this link
http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110307_Edris_London/
From the shadows it wasn't on camera?

Good shots from Twickenham, do you shoot professionally, you obvioulsy had a pass? From the angle, I was up in the stand behind you.

DB_SamX · 13 Mar 2011 at 23:46

Your friend looks like a gentle giant, Andrew. Fun photographs (London). Like the rugby shots too, although that fox one is oddly my favourite. Did all the togs have their lenses pointed at it?

Gaffer · 14 Mar 2011 at 05:49

mhk1058 said:
Where was all the light from for the last photo with the bus at this link
http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110307_Edris_London/
From the shadows it wasn't on camera?

It was shot in the "available dark" provided by the rather poor street lighting on the bridge. From the EXIF:

Lens: EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

Image Date: 2011-03-06 19:26:06 (no TZ)

Focal Length: 22.0mm

Aperture: f/2.8

Exposure Time: 0.040 s (1/25)

ISO equiv: 1600

mhk1058 said:
Good shots from Twickenham, do you shoot professionally, you obvioulsy had a pass? From the angle, I was up in the stand behind you.

Strictly amateur. I won a pass courtesy of Marc Aspland of The Times. I forgot to add the link to my blog: http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110313_Calcutta_Cup/

Andrew

Gaffer · 14 Mar 2011 at 06:02

DB_SamX said:
Your friend looks like a gentle giant, Andrew. Fun photographs (London). Like the rugby shots too, although that fox one is oddly my favourite. Did all the togs have their lenses pointed at it?

Indeed, Edreis is great fun.

When the fox appeared on the pitch, the crowd roared, despite the fact that some poor girl was busy singing the national anthem, so no-one missed it. I was very close but Marc got a better picture. The army (who had just repelled from the canopy) were flying alternate English and Scottish flags all round the pitch and he framed the fox between two flags.

The poor fox must have been terrified. First being stuck in the middle of all these people, then the roar when it breaks into a clearing, then absolute silence (for Japan) while in the middle of the pitch. It did manage to escape before the game started, out one of the corner exits.

Andrew

SteveOBHave · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:19

Gaffer said:
An impromptu tour of London with our friends Edris to show him the sites and take some "I've been to London" pictures.

Excellent shot - go a LOL from me - he's one of my favorite London street performers. Great face

Gaffer · 20 Mar 2011 at 20:25

A pleasant Saturday afternoon, down by the river. Thames Valley Park at the end of the A329M, next to Oracle and Microsoft.

Rest of blog here: http://www.tug.com/blog/2011/20110320_TVP/

Andrew

DB_SamX · 20 Mar 2011 at 22:42

These are stunning Andrew. Very sharp and great detail. Did you crop much and did it take many takes to get those 2?

Gaffer · 21 Mar 2011 at 06:31

DB_SamX said:
These are stunning Andrew. Very sharp and great detail. Did you crop much?

Here it is in Lightroom:

it is cropped 1:4.1 for printing. I might go to 1:2

DB_SamX said:
did it take many takes to get those 2?

That question is laugh out loud funny.

This is a wild swan. They take off and land when it suits them. I was talking to someone when I heard it start flapping. I had the 200 f/2 on the camera and grabbed the opportunity.

Here are the pictures in the sequence:

I binned the ones taken after it had passed. Somehow, my trigger finger seems to think that taking more pictures after the event will make up for lack of anticipation before the event...

Andrew

3dcandy · 21 Mar 2011 at 07:21

AGBO Rally at Weston Park yesterday....grabbed a few nice photo's still got 800+ to sort through :-(

Weather could have been better.....

Gaffer · 21 Mar 2011 at 08:05

3dcandy said:
AGBO Rally at Weston Park yesterday....grabbed a few nice photo's still got 800+ to sort through

Were you looking for this button?

3dcandy · 21 Mar 2011 at 08:16

Gaffer said:
Were you looking for this button?

Possibly....thought I'd share my new 2011 photoshoot with everyone, including thee! Wasn't a hijack, just a "I see what you're doing and it was exactly what I was thinking" type of response.