EgoPimp

Open for Business!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:15 +0100

After what feels like an eternity, INSPIRE PHOTOGRAPHIC, Edinburgh, has opened its doors to the public. The refit of the shop took a heck of a long time, and was mostly done by a friend of the family. Awesome bloke whom I am now in serious debt to :)Now that things are settling, I will hopefully get a chance to get out and sort a few landscapes etc. Missing them!!Gary.

Studio and Gallery - the new shop!

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:35 +0100

An *in progress* shot from the new shop I have taken on. I have been renovating the place for a month now, and should be ready to open the doors to the public the first week in November.Here is a BEFORE shot of the viewing area and gallery: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2671/3923124620_615500a82e.jpg

You can blame all this work for the lack of updates here. When finished, I will be back out and about shooting more landscapes :)Gary.

Been Busy!

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:08 +0100

SOOOOOOORY for the MEGA lack of updates!!!In short, I have been uber busy and preoccupied. Long version? I have a lot of free time on my hands, so have decided to open a photographic studio in Edinburgh. About a mile from the city centre, nice shop front, reception, small studio, viewing room, and if I am clever with space, room for a small landscape gallery too.I get the keys tomorrow morning, and then will spend ages getting it all in order and ready to go. As such, you can expect to see a FEW more photos similar to the one posted here, but not too many. I understand the whole High Key studio shot leaves many people cold.With regards to landscapes, I still have some epic plans and will post the results after any trips :)Thanks for the continued support people, seriously appreciated.Gary.

Lotus Elise R at Grangemouth

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:36 +0100

Firstly, apologies for the stay of absence! I have been absolutely snowed, and not been able to get out shooting as much as I would like. Luckily, I have been working on things such as weddings and family portraits, so will be able to show you some of those over the coming days.

About this photo. I went for a drive to have a look around Grangemouth Oil Refinery (planning to try and get a few photos at some point), and felt the sky was decent so decided to shoot my motor against a cool backdrop!

Now the trouble with having this car, it makes it extremely difficult at times to focus on taking photos - I just want to rag it around the backroads. On the plus side, it can often mean I make my destination in time for sunset :)

The other problem with owning this car, everyone thinks your a knob. I get a LOT of shit in town from so many twats, it's insane.

Gary.

Coloursmash!

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:49 +0100

Went to a local haunt of mine, somewhere I have shot before, and this, a shot similar to one I did ages ago. OTT, crazy & extreme white balance, however...ZERO filters for a change.

Honest / Brutal / Lovely / Whatever crit welcome :-). I appreciate many of you will probably wanna puke due to the migraine inducing array of colours

I stood for 2 hours in a field to get this shot. My feet are still frozen.

These photos are a complete cop out, as they are so easy to pull off. A few things you need I find to make it work.

1: A good silhouetted skyline *unless it's a full moon and clearish sky
2: Lots of clouds with breaks in them (helps with the streaks)
3: Quite fast cloud movement
4: Bucket loads of Light Pollution

* full moon and clearish sky = completely different ballgame. It can be harder to get a silhouette, and you will normally get daylike colours if you expose for this length of time. Example: img141.imageshack.us/img141/337/arthursseatlongexposure.jpg

Last night, I actually drove for over an hour around various places I wanted to try, but the sky was crap. It was featureless, quite starry and spits of rain kept hitting the car - so I was worried about the lens getting wet, and the shot being ruined. On the way home, I decided to try one last place, and got lucky I guess.

I setup in the field, and manually focused on the silhouetted skyline, and as I knew the sky was gonna be the star of the show, I wanted to get much more of it that foreground.

Once setup, I started taking exposures at ISO6400, 3200, 1600, and 800. This allowed me to see the various effects without having to wait too long. I wasn't too happy as there was only a smidgen of cloud and lots of stars.
img32.imageshack.us/img32/930/cammostars.jpg

Scenes like that above, whilst they can work for different reasons, are difficult I feel for long exposures. I am not really a huge fan of mega long star trails unless I can get a VERY good foreground too.

I waited about 2 hours in the field overall, and as I was about to leave, the clouds picked up - and luckily, they were coming directly at me, they were full of cracks and features, and I knew I would get a somewhat decent sky. I exposed for 13.5 minutes, and was lucky, as the exposure was just about to blow out.

Once home, I simply played with the white balance, and adjusted the levels.

The combo of light pollution and fast moving clouds is what has caused this, and all without filters - any of us can go out and try it.

Gary.

Purple Rain

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:45 +0100

Got absolutely soaked taking this, the camera was under an insane rain storm, and me, my kit and...well everything, drenched.

The final frame from this Portobello beach viewpoint. Last nights sky, was absolutely epic. I may have wrecked the photo with over the top processing, I tried to get the mood across. What do you think? :)

Gary.

Darkness is Calling

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:51 +0100

No processing other than a slight straighten, a square crop and dust removal.

This is what happens when you take a photo under duress. I was completely rushed to breaking point, I literally had 10 minutes and used it. Under exposed, noisy too (due to long exposure noise reduction being turned off). Despite all that, I am happy with the feeling of darkness. It could have been so much more if I had been able to wait 10 more minutes!

Anyway, honest feedback and crit welcome. If it's too dark, just say! :)

Sunburst

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:14 +0100

Newhaven Lighthouse, Edinburgh. Issues needing resolved? Sky Colour, the Distortion on the tower, the lack of detail in the tower head, the lack of detail in the foreground too. I think I simply need to revisit when conditions are better. Around sunrise with a decent sky, and it will make my job so much easier.

Midnight Twilight

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:47 +0100

Taken on the Outer Hebrides, sometime after midnight. Fantastic location and conditions.Gary.

The Two Bridges

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:06 +0100

OK. This was an absolutely frustrating shot to take. The long and short of it, the Nikon D3 has BORKED / MORE THAN USELESS "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" UNLESS you have the latest firmware. The resulting failure of the noise reduction ended with my photo having probably 1,000+ hot pixels needing dealt with. I have gone over it and attempted to clone as much out as possible, and I have updated the firmware and tested the fix (sorted).The shot? 10 stop B&W filter, 3 stop Lee Soft Grad, custom white balance, lots of vignette and a tonne of contrast.Hope you enjoy! :)Gary.