Spalding

Time is precious.

Any chance to use a camera and shoot some pics i want to take it.

Any excuse.

Ive purchased a 6D to replace my back up body as it was becoming a bit long in the tooth for me. The 6D is supposed to be a low light monster. Let me tell you it certainly focuses well in a dark room. I need to compare my 5d and 6d and see which really does perform better.

So 2 full frame camera's and 2 Fujifilm cameras for weddings. Its a good job I've got a big bag.

Im still not ready to leave Canon fully. Every time i put a big camera in my hand it feels so right. Big camera, big lens, big smile. Quit those dirty thoughts!!!

T
he fuji's are great for the candid moments, where you want to capture people having fun, when you don't want them to notice you. With Fuji's you can blend in. They're less intimidating.

But throw on a 70-200 on a full frame body and the images just have... something.

So. It turned up the other morning and in the constant challenge mode that I'm in, instead of throwing on one of my nice lenses, i chose to put on an old lens that i realistically paid about £2 for with a film body attached. 

The Helios 44-2 58mm, has a good write up by people who use it for swirly bokeh portraits and other images. 

'Swirly Bokeh' google it.

I just put it on because its small and i can use the depth of field scale on barrel to estimate focus for street photography. Ive not really shot street photography with a 'big' camera before, its always with a small Fuji. A new challenge.

Image quality from the 6D is nothing to worry about.

The 44-2 however suffers terribly from soft corners, so don't go putting the subject in the corner of the frame as you may/will be disappointed.

Spalding was the location for this Street photography outing. Not my favourite place in the world, though i have a great fondness for a night out there.

Much like my local jaunt of Wisbech, Saplding also has a huge eastern european population. Beer cans a plenty then.

There's alleys and claustrophobic streets, empty shop fronts and a general grey feeling to the place. Perfect for me then.

Look closely at your surroundings and you might find interest

Taking Doug home

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

How do you tell someone something so life changing?

I sat him down, made sure he was comfortable and came out with it;

"Doug, im not your real dad. And Laura, she's not your real mum"

"your parents were too young and had 6 other children to look after"
"they sold you to us"

"no" "no" "its not like that'

"Doug"

"your a dog"

"it happens all the time"

He barked a bit, chased his tail, wee'd in the garden and then he was happy agin.

Not so bad after all, i thought it was going to scar him for life.

We took Doug to meet his real parents; Willow and Bubba. Both of Jug breed.

I wonder if a dog knows after 6 months of being part that the dog thats just walked through the door is their son or the 2 dog's in front are their parents?

It was a great half hour spent, watching the 3 dog's run around the garden, chasing each other. it made for some great comical images.

and the chase was on

He'd only been there a few minutes and already they were giving him a grilling

Willow loves to cool off in the water

Lol, what does this look like?

Extreme close up

Face off

Another grilling from his dad

I grew up with dogs around me; German Shepherds, i'd previously never been a small dog person but having a small dog is great, you can take them anywhere and everywhere because they take up no room.

However don't go thinking that a small dog has no personality, Doug is a legend! He's randy, stubborn, intelligent, loyal, smelly; he's always passing wind, energetic, he's a real ladies man.
This actually sounds like someone i know!?

To the greatest dog ever..........Big Doug!

Now I've got to go hoover the car because he's malting and there's hair everywhere.

The hotel; there's no life in the dark

My 2nd trip into the hotel with my friend Stuart was just as good as the 1st, its great to explore with someone else who's armed with their camera. Its good to bounce ideas off of each other and too help each other where needed.

It was another 2 hours spent walking around showing the sights that I had already seen. This time already armed with the layout in my mind, I knew of different rooms I wanted to revisit to get shots i hadn't before.

The abundance of dead flies in the rooms upstairs is immense.

Would you want to stay in this room?

Empty corridor

 

 

Joke's on you.

 

Visiting a hotel but not staying because its cold, damp and abandoned

I love exploring, I love urban exploring, I love urbex.

So, I wont say where this place is because I don't wish for it to be ruined anymore than it already has.

This building is big, loads of bedrooms and loads of public rooms, such as a ball room, bars and dining rooms. There's stair cases, long corridors and dark basements. Smashed windows cause doors to bang and wind to blow through gaps, water flows randomly through pipes and somewhere a toilet flushes when we're the 'only' ones there.

This place is really starting to have seen better days, its sliding in to disrepair extremely fast now. Water has leaked and has rotted through floor ceilings and floor boards. I would hate to think how much it would cost to do up if it was to be modernised and re-opened.

Ive visited 3 times now with different people; the 1st with Laura, I really can't believe I got her to have an explore. The 2nd was with Stuart and the 3rd was Josh and Abi, I wont mention who enjoyed this the most out of the two of them.

The 1st time I visited I was armed with my 5D and Sigma 17-35mm, the lens is old and like the majority of lenses, even expensive ones, is flawed but for a cheep bit of full frame wide angle it does the job. I should really get a more expensive lens but until ive used this lens more than the 3 times ive used it now I wont bother, plus for the price I paid ill soon get my money back. Plus I think its a case of finding the optimum focal length and aperture and so far ive not put the effort in with it.

The shots below are all form my 1st visit, ill post shots from the 2nd visit in my next post.

I didn't

Manicure time

Now that's what gone off milk looks like

If Carlsberg made door knobs

Keep on exploring.

Shooting in the walks, Kings Lynn, with Taj

I text Taj saying I was going to the Walks in Kings Lynn to take some shots. He was supposed to bring his camera too but he forgot......oh well, that gave me something to take photos of; Him.

Before I met Taj I had 10 minutes or so of time to myself so I strolled around and got one of my favourite shots that ive taken recently.

This guy was walking about 10 steps ahead of me and then sat down on empty bench listening to his tunes with his legs crossed. I see Taj arrive as I walked behind this guy on the bench and gave him the shush signal. I new I couldn't be long and mess round with trial and error of exposure settings, I decided on my exposure and took the shot.

24-105L, 70mm, F5.6, 1/80, ISO160

I love the posts sticking up on the left of the image balanced by the guy on the right.

Maybe I should of tapped him on the shoulder and said "alright mate, I just took a picture of the back of your head".

But I didn't.

So Taj and I went over to the red mount to make the most of the textured bricks and doors as backgrounds.

As always, these days, my Sigma 70-200 was the lens of choice and I also attached a Nissin di866ii flash for some fill light in the shadows and catch light in the eyes.



70-200, 91mm, F5, 1/100, ISO250

Ever the cool dude

70-200, 70mm, F5, 1/200, ISO800

70-200, F5, 1/640, ISO1250

My favourite shot of Taj, I like the grain added by choosing a higher ISO, the tilt (gotta love them tilts) and the pose, although Taj did complain that it wasn't comfortable.

70-200, F5, 1/200, ISO400

70-200, F5, 1/200, ISO400

70-200, F5, 1/80, ISO160

Ive had an idea for a little project of frame filling face portraits, here's my first.