St. Mary's Lighthouse

Cullercoats

After yesterday's disappointment, I decided to try again this morning, this time in Cullercoats. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on my side, and the sky was flat and grey, so no light at all. This black and white image was the best I could muster under the circumstances.

South Shields

This morning was my first trip out with the camera in months, due to a busy work life and a lack of energy for early summer mornings. I was very rusty, and it shows. These were the only three images I managed to rescue.

EXIF: 50mm : f/1.8 : 24secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 1.2 ND : Lee Big Stopper

 

I'd picked an uninspiring spot along the South Shields coastline (I won't be going back), so I opted for some close-ups of the rocks instead. This kind of thing irritates me, as it gives no sense of place, but then I guess it's better than coming home empty-handed!

EXIF: 50mm : f/1.8 : 15secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 1.2 ND : Lee Big Stopper

 

There's something I find extremely fascinating about wide-aperture long exposure, that I'd like to explore more. Long exposures are usually shot at very narrow aperture for maximum depth-of-field, and to increase the amount of time the shutter can be held open.

EXIF: 50mm : f/1.8 : 25secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 1.2 ND : Lee Big Stopper

 

I've been experimenting with extreme neutral density (11-stops) to get a reasonably long exposure time, yet with a very narrow depth-of-field, which leads to some interesting and unusual shots. I just need to get them looking good now :)

Click on any of the photos to see them full-size against black, and please do leave a comment below if you like the photos.

50 Problems in 50 Days

Maybe I'm late to the party, I'm not sure, but I just stumbled across this and wanted to share it. 50 Problems in 50 Days is the brainchild of Peter Smart (by name and by nature) who is "on an adventure to explore the limits of design's ability to solve social problems, big and small".

Ad-overkill ruins ITV player UX

I was delighted to see Econsultancy pulling up the ITV Player for its overuse of frankly irrelevant and inappropriate pre-roll advertising. In this day and age, I would expect an organisation of the size and heritage of ITV to have a far better grasp of both technology and user experience, but it seems that the need to drive advertising revenues has overshadowed the fundamentals of providing an engaging experience for second-screen audiences.

Top 5 Trends Influencing UX in 2012

An interesting question about the state of UX in 2012 was raised on Quora last weekend, one that I actually found quite difficult to answer, given that there are so many cool things rocking the UX world at the moment.

Whether or not my top five influences will be the top five or not remains to be seen, but these are certainly five trends and movements that will have a massive impact on UX over the next 12 months and onwards. This post expands on my answer on Quora, which was written at about 11pm on a sunday night, and so probably wasn't an insightful read.

Collywell Bay, Seaton Sluice

I wasn't feeling well this morning, but I hadn't been out with my camera for a while, so felt compelled to get myself out. I couldn't be chewed to travel far, so I took a short trip back to Collywell Bay to see if there were any better viewpoints. The only radically different viewpoint I found was this little cave.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 133secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 1.2 ND

 

This was shot from the top of the cliff. At 50mm, my Zeiss lens flattens everything out, so St. Mary's Lighthouse was barely noticeable. I headed down onto the rocks to see if I could get closer, without getting the other half dozen photographers down there in my shot.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 45secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

 

I managed to get down in time to catch the sun just above the lighthouse. It's difficult to get a good even exposure on a shot like this, even with the ND Grads. This was the least burnt-out version of the three I shot before the sun disappeared behind a cloud.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 39secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

 

Closer still, the lighthouse looked better, but there was a distinct lack of foreground interest and what there was was hard to get in shot with a 50mm prime. I think it's about time I saved up to get myself a super-wide - perhaps an 18mm or 21mm.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 180secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

 

I only got one run at this one, as the sea was swirling in around my ankles. Thankfully my new GoreTex Salomons lived up to their reputation and kept me dry, but my filters were getting sprayed, so I had to head home.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 100secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

 

Warning: If you're planning on heading over to Collywell Bay, be seriously careful over at the Seaton Sluice end, as it's very slippery and there are tons of plunge-holes big enough for a grown man to disappear, and deep enough that it would be difficult to climb out of. The number of flower wreaths tied to fences on the way down serve as a grim warning! The New Hartley end isn't so treacherous.

Click on any of the photos to see them full-size against black, and please do leave a comment below if you like the photos.