tonyd1947's photostream  

If you're here to see more artistic photos I've taken then you are best to click on 'sets'. You can then choose to avoid my more mundane (but still very important!) family stuff!

Some of the 'friends' I've made contact with here seem to take nothing but 'fine art photos'. Sadly I do use flickr as a family archive too... but it's important for my family to have access to the more personal stuff. I hope you don't mind that too much!

This is just a little about me:

We (Val, my wife, and me!) live in Buckinghamshire; happily married; much too busy; easygoing; outgoing; Val is from Shropshire; Tony is from Warwickshire (well, Birmingham actually but doesn't Warwickshire sound much nicer?)

I've been a photographer (of sorts) since serving as one in the Royal Navy for nearly ten years in the 1960's/70's. Since leaving the service in 1974 I've just tended to take mainly family snaps.

In recent years I've taken it a bit more seriously again... and have to admit I do struggle with the 'artistic' side but it's not for the lack of trying!

Equipment:

I now use a Canon EOS 5D with:
24mm - 105mm zoom lens (Max aperture f4) :-(

50mm standard lens with an aperture of 1.2 which is a terrific lens.

I also have a Speedlight 580 flash, but don't use it much at all because I prefer to use natural light where possible.

What I like about it:

Digital brings with it a host of features that conventional film cameras didn't have, such as recording the time and date of when you took the photograph. This is a wonderful facility, especially many years later when you can't quite remember when you took a photograph!

Other features include:

Auto focus
Various modes of light metering
Instant playback to see the image you've taken
ISO speed adjustment from 50 to 1600
And lots more besides!

What I don't like about it:

Not a lot really, but one thing does get me wound up is the lack of a decent 'manual focus facility'. Yes it does allow you to focus manually... but without a 'split screen fresnal spot' getting an accurate focus point is, for me anyway, an incredibly difficult task!

This is particularly vexing when doing close up work, e.g. you want to make sure your focus is exactly where you want it to be! Eyes in a portrait is a very good example. I've often thought my focus is accurate only to find later it just isn't quite where I wanted it to be. This is often the case when using a very wide aperture and the depth of field is small. :-(

Still, overall, it's a great camera and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to have a high quality device at a price point that is 'reasonable'. (It does cost not far short of £2,000 so it certainly isn't cheap.)

Finally, these are photos of our granddaughters...

First, Miranda…

These are our other two beautiful granddaughters…



… here they are lying down playing together… (well, sort of!)

Willow, at the back, Éowyn at the front…



and here they are with their dad…



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And this is a photo taken with my daughter Kirsty's camera way back on 25 September 2005 when Miranda was just six months old:



Click on the photo and it will take you to Kirsty's flickr pics.

If anyone wants to know more about me then get in touch.