A thread with photos and things.

[mrk]

I took a friend over to the Isle of Wight this weekend and we spent a day shooting at Osborne House in continuation of my bridal dress shoot project that started early last year. What an amazing place, being in the very room Queen Victoria used as he living room sipping tea and even her bedroom currently off limits to public!

Anyway, pics, Mandy has never done anything like this before, but was really fun!

Hair & Make-up done by the amazing ladies at Georgina Chambers MUA:

The events management helped out throughout the day, they were supremely awesome:

One of the alcove bits below the house:

Closer with the 85mm 1.4:

The flower garden in front is quite vast and impressive:

Back in with the 85mm:

Dress change for some ideas on the private beach:

Veil in the wind on the beach!

Said beach (phone pic):

The double sided staircase on the side of the garden is really nice, reminds me of somewhere in Greece/Italy (phone pic):

DSLR version:

Weird faces:

 

[mrk]

Thanks! No doubt I'll be back there again for different ideas

The next big project is astro photography on the other side of the island where there's zero light pollution. Hopefully end of July time, stay tuned.

 

[mrk]

Thread's dead baby, threads dead

Jokes, it's been an eventful weekend. First, documented friend and fellow ocuker's wedding at The Reid Rooms in Essex, a truly beautiful venue:

I used the 35mm 1.4 L II for most shots along with the 85mm 1.4 EX, but also used Pete's Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art for a good portion of the day (some of those shots below) and was very impressed with the optics and AF accuracy.

The CA/PF and AF speed wasn't quite up there with the 35mm L, but given it's less than half the price, it's a superb bit of glass. Very heavy too which I really like. I think if I don't get a 105mm I will probably re-add a 50mm to my range as I did use it quite a bit. I think the highlight area resolution and detail pickup is stronger on the 35 L, I can tell there's more resolving power there, but I can forgive the differences based on the price difference.

I also decided not to use flash all day relying on capturing instead the true atmosphere of the venue.

Too much confetti

Just right...

And the following day caught up with a close friend who has been happy to do some portraiture

 

[mrk]

Before / After



I always underexpose -1 in the viewfinder light meter and meter read lock off a midtone if there's too strong backlighting using the FEL button This way shadows and highlights lend themselves really well to recovery/boosting.

I have also found the quality highly depends on the lens. The 35mm 1.4 LII is absolutely the best for resolution and quality of dynamic range. The 85mm 1.4 EX is not far behind and the 50mm 1.4 DG Art is nearly on par with the Canon 35 just falling slightly shy of highlight range in bokeh but it;s not big enough a difference to worry.

 

[mrk]

What do you do when you try to pose a bride in a traditional way (one hand on hip etc...) to start with and she says "I've never put my hands on hips before so this feels weird!" -Try something different!







And after all was done, fun times

 

[mrk]

Winchester Cathedral:



That was f/1.4, the resolution of the Canon 35 II is just excellent. Kept it wide open as I wanted the candles in the foreground edges falling under bokeh and lead in to the centre.

1:1

 

[mrk]

Back in May 2019 I was street photographing around Old Portsmouth with a friend and spotted a fisherman unloading his catches of the day, so I walked down to the jetty to ask for a portrait. He joked about how students are always asking to take his photo

Well it's taken a while but finally I popped over and gave Mose an Aluminium print of said photo to go on his wall alongside the other paintings and art people have gifted him over the years.

Was amazing to see him so mobile and active in his 70s, still fishing in his boat and with an upper hand over the other local fisherman as he's more skilled having been fishing for over 40 years after leaving a career in engineering and working for himself as a fisherman.

Also met his wife too and had a brilliant cup of tea over a lengthy conversation with both about all things and hearing some stories of the local area from decades gone by.

Amazing how he's also connected to various people I know, small world and great to see that in his 70s, still fully able and fishing happily in his boat!

I've been told that he will catch some fish for me as thanks!

This is what street photography means to me. It's not just capturing scenes as a bystander/observer, but also connecting to your subject and hopefully reconnecting in the future and sharing experiences with the wider community

 

[mrk]

I have been a fan of Rembrandt lighting for many years but never really dedicated time to perfecting it for my own style of portraits until more recently. A friend has been modelling for me in most of my projects so naturally Rembrandt was tried recently with natural light coming in through some French doors.

Much harder to control massive amounts of natural light only but it's certainly doable!

This is one of the shots which reached Flickr's Explore:


Mandy - Rembrandt style by Robbie Khan, on Flickr

And one using a single speedlite with honeycomb grid for focused bounce off a wall: