Chris Halford's photostream  

In a pinch an iPhone and Snapseed is as good as any dSLR. OK, the image quality might not be as good, but I find it really satisfying to get the shot that I want, and to be able to instantly share it.

This is a test shot - I'm heading back soon to do it again (right this time).

From New Jersey I took 13 images of Manhattan Island starting from the Upper West all the way down to the bottom of Lower Manhattan, and across to New Jersey.

If you look at it full size, you can actually see and count windows in the buildings.
At a reasonable resolution for print I should be able to output this at 10 inches high by 13 feet wide. That'd look cool on the wall!

If you look really carefully you can see a few interesting things:
1. The Concord is parked next to the Intrepid.
2. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge is peeking out.
3. While she's a bit hard to see here, the Statue of Liberty is also showing.

OK, I did a few things wrong and I can correct them next time:

1. f/22 is not as sharp as I'd like. I'm going to lower to somewhere between f/4 and f/11 next time.
2. The light at that time of day sucked. The sun was aimed right at the lens. Didn't help the clarity
3. I was using a Tilt-Shift and took advantage of its' sharpness, but not it's tilt. I can compensate better using the Tilt-Shift next time.
4. I rushed it.... Next time I won't.

Perhaps I'll shoot it closer to sun set next time. That'll require mechanical precision in each step though as the colour of the sky changes rapidly and I'll want each shot to blend nicely together.

As stated above, this one was a test. The good one will come next.

Click on the image to see it with a black background and then follow the "all sizes" link if you want to get in closer to the detail. This is a bit noisy, so come back in the next few weeks to see a better version.

This is my first photograph posted for 2012. I was going for something that you couldn't quite figure the date out from the processing. I wanted a bit dreamy.

I'm not a landscape photographer despite trying hard sometimes. I need a lesson or intervention or something (offers?)

My New Year's Resolution is to learn how to do landscape photography as I intend, and not only to fluke upon it from time to time. That means I'm going to go out at least once a month for the entire year and do a landscape-dedicated session.

Cheers and Happy New Year to you.

Stuck in traffic and only had my iPhone to shoot with. It amazes me sometimes how happy I am with iPhone Pictures.

I know it won't stand up to being printed at a very large size, but still the quality of smartphone pictures is getting better and better all the time.

Trying out a concept for rainy day shoots.
The idea is to hide a strobe in an umbrella to light the subject (probably a couple for an engagement shoot).

The end result will be less dramatic than this. The goal would be to have a drab grey and dark scene with the couple magically brightened, making them the obvious subject.

The idea has some interesting colour balance challenges as in that scene we'll want the couple to be slightly warm and the surroundings to be slightly cool.

I will post the results if I ever get that situation to shoot in.