Photography (1)

[Andrew]

I thought it was only a tradition to bring a picnic hamper to performances of Handel's 'Messiah'. That's what they do up here every year when we perform this piece with the ERCU (Edinburgh Royal Choral Union) in early January...

There is a break half way through and folks enjoy tucking into their sandwiches and soup etc. and wish their friends a happy new year for the first time!

Perhaps Dave will start a new trend by bringing his willow picnic basket to Hayley concerts?

Regards,

Andrew

[roger]

dave said:

*clue* think "lunchtime"

Cheers, Dave

That's a good clue, Dave, but he'll have to "box clever"!

Roger

[postscript]

An excellent picture of the squirrel Steve on the roof of your bird table.

When I come away from this 'hello' session I will have to look at my latest 'quick grab' and see if it is reproducable. It isn't a pretty picture it is one simple taken because it is so extraordinaire which was the reason for taking it. It was of a duck on the apex of a neighbour's roof across the way and we are in the middle of a housing estate!

Peter

[Stuart H]

Hi Peter,

It was me who took the picture - don't worry - I have been confused with Steve for 49 years - well he is an identical twin!.

Thanks for the clue Dave - I hope the security guards believe I have a big appetite!

Stuart

[postscript]

andrew said:

I thought it was only a tradition to bring a picnic hamper to performances of Handel's 'Messiah'. That's what they do up here every year when we perform this piece with the ERCU (Edinburgh Royal Choral Union) in early January...

There is a break half way through and folks enjoy tucking into their sandwiches and soup etc. and wish their friends a happy new year for the first time!

Perhaps Dave will start a new trend by bringing his willow picnic basket to Hayley concerts?

Regards,

Andrew

No, no, no, no, my dear fellow. Glyndebourne is the tradition for hampers and a little place down the road from me where for years we strolling players have put on open-air Shakespeare.

The stands at Gawsworth Hall are probably hired from the same people sofor me, it will be fun seeing someone else do it.

Peter

[postscript]

stuey said:

Thanks Roger,
Taken with my new E500 with a 40-150mm telephoto. Trying to master it before concerts in June! Looking for a book titled 50 ways to hide and disguise a BIG camera!!!!

Any ideas?

Stuart

We seem to be running in parallel.I too hope to make a decision soon regarding electronic camera facility beyond my current 'stick it in your pocket' (which in fact can be very effective in the right light) and to have got in sufficient practice by June!

Peter

[postscript]

stuey said:

Hi Peter,

It was me who took the picture - don't worry - I have been confused with Steve for 49 years - well he is an identical twin!.

Thanks for the clue Dave - I hope the security guards believe I have a big appetite!

Stuart

Apologies Stuart, proving the point I have enough difficulty coping with one web site. Interestingly, one of my nephews has just married one of a pair of identical twins and seeing them separately, esepecially when you are not expecting to meet the other, it can be very confusing.

Peter

[roger]

stuey said:

Hi Peter,

It was me who took the picture - don't worry - I have been confused with Steve for 49 years - well he is an identical twin!.

Stuart

Is he? That's funny - he says you are the identical twin!

Don't worry about it, Peter. If they can't decide between themselves which is the twin, what chance have we got?

Roger

[Dave]

stuey said:

Thanks for the clue Dave - I hope the security guards believe I have a big appetite!

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

My 'container' was a small one. The zoom lens goes in the 'box', loosely wrapped of course. My smallest fixed lens goes on the camera, camera goes into the bag, lens facing down and it's surprising how small they can look when tucked in at the bottom of even a smallish camera bag. It seems to be big telephoto/zoom lenses they are looking for and the guy who searched my bag didn't bat an eyelid. Of course, if you buy a Nikon 70-210 f2.8 zoom it's going to be big, so stick to the standard issue. Mine is an f4/f5.6 and iof course it's smaller than the 35mm equivalent as the 'image collector' is smaller than 35mm film. Most are 2/3rds the size (and focal length) of 35mm equivalents but a few (e.g. Olympus) are half size.

I'm always nervous about changing lenses - if you get dust inside and onto the collector, it's going to stay there (unlike film which presents a pristine surface for each shot) and cleaning them is neither easy nor recommended.

The biggest problems I have are inside the auditorium. Having been challenged while taking a photo from my seat at the NEC, I'm now very cautious and take fewer photos than I did with the old compact camera (but they rarely came out properly). I'm also mindful of the SLR mirror clunk, which is noticeable to those around me except in loud passages of music. I try to take quick, often snatched shots and this means it's hard for the autofocus to and exposure to set correctly; this is made worse, the darker it is. Often, I end up having to use manual settings and initially, that can mean guesswork, with several failed shots. Better that than *everything* being over/under exposed or out of focus. And I never use flash during a performance.

I have to admit, I am still on a steep learning curve with the digital SLR in concert halls; there is so much to learn and the camera is at times running at the limit. By the end of this year, I may have it mastered!

Cheers and good luck with yours,

Dave

[Steve H]

stuey said:

Hi Peter,

It was me who took the picture - don't worry - I have been confused with Steve for 49 years - well he is an identical twin!.

Thanks for the clue Dave - I hope the security guards believe I have a big appetite!

Stuart

But I must be the clever one, because being born on 20th August 1957, I think we are only 48! and I do not think any body got us confused until we popped our little heads out

Steve H
48 Years 8 months and 16 days?

[Stuart H]

Hi Steve

I must be the clever one,...... we have been twins since the egg divided - 48 yrs 8 months 16 days and NINE MONTHS!

Stu

[Steve H]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that, its been a while since I did any SLR photography, but its coming back slowly. What ISO setting do you use when a concert situation?

I attained my A.R.P.S, (Associate of the Royal Photographic Society) some 28 years ago when the only allowable entries were 20" x 15" black and white prints which you had to develop and print yourself,

Its going to be good for us all to learn it again, and the forum will hopefully benefit with some great pictures too!

Steve H

[Dave]

Hi Steve,

I am entirely self taught but I've been "at it" for a long time, as you may realise when i tell you my first SLRs were a Pentax ME and a Pentax MX - long before the days of autofocus lenses. I nearly bought an even older model, the Pentax K1000. I've always liked my SLR cameras to be as light and small as possible and that, for me, always gave Pentax the edge over Nikon and Canon (albeit with a few sacrifices in range of accessories etc.). But my photography has taken a back seat in recent years so it's nice to get started again in this digital age, even though I am having to re-learn most of it. Life was simple when the only settings on an SLR were aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focus.

As for the ISO setting in concert halls, I just try to go as low as possible - which varies depending on the amount of stage lighting. For Hayley at Il Divo, it was usually 1600 or even 3200 (very grainy) to get reasonably clear handheld (snatched) shots. For Il Divo themselves, I could drop down to normal values, 400 ISO or even lower worked well - Il Divo shots were easy! For the the candid shots of Hayley at RAH on full zoom and f5.6 and a sensible shutter speed, I needed 3200 ISO, I think. Hayley appeared in among the crowd only momentarily and I had to grab what I could, fast!

It was great fun but also annoying to know that I could have done better with greater experience of using the myriad of camera settings available to me. There are some better ones to come... though not of Hayley.

Cheers

Dave

[postscript]

stevehome said:

Hi Dave,

Thanks for that, its been a while since I did any SLR photography, but its coming back slowly. What ISO setting do you use when a concert situation?

I attained my A.R.P.S, (Associate of the Royal Photographic Society) some 28 years ago when the only allowable entries were 20" x 15" black and white prints which you had to develop and print yourself,

Its going to be good for us all to learn it again, and the forum will hopefully benefit with some great pictures too!

Steve H

Oh Boy, STEVE (not Stuart) that's going some.

We oldies (to me you are awfully young but perhaps I'm feeling my age!) really are getting historical. There's me in the days of lugging Vortexions around before stereo came in and using ribbon mikes and now there's you playing with hypo in the bathroom and the real art of the camera.

That raises an interesting question. Is it possible to do black and white with a digital camera? Let's face it, black and white is an art form of great challenge. Would Graham Greene's The Third Man look better in colour? I'd argue that a lot of that superb direction would be lost in colour.

What's the betting that one (or the other of you--or both) like steam engines, country branch lines... and John Betjeman poetry?

Peter

[postscript]

Thanks Dave for your wonderful frankness in saying you are 'releaning' and 'feeling your way with digital'. It doesn't dim your 'wonder boy' image but does encourage the rest of us who would class ourselves as still in nursery school!

Peter