Sight of the son.
I've not been shooting much portraiture due to other commitments. Here's a quick one of the No. 1 son.
Sean's Blog
Friday, February 25, 2005
Visiting his Great Grandad
He won't remember it but I will take pictures for him, but Matthew will see my Mum's Dad (now my last remaining grandparent) tomorrow for the first time. He's 90! And doing great I might add. I rang today to let him know and he said 'Wait till I'm 96!'. I really want them to meet. If for nothing else to ease my great regret of my Nan in Mosstown not seeing him in person. I'd add more but the aforementioned little man has just woken up! And its 5:10 so off to bed.Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Camera Bags
I'm a bag hoarder. I've way too many bags. Mostly because I don't have a bag that does what I want so either carry 2 or just risk my gear in a bag that isn't right. Imaging Info have a great list of camera bags. I have the Lowepro Computer Trekker. It's a great bag but way too big for going around the place. Beside my little 12" powerbook fits into it sideways!!!! Also in that list is the bag that seems to be the one that will fit my needs. The Delsey Pro Bag 31. It'll hold the 12", the 20D, 70-200, the 17-85 Is USM I'll be ordering tomorrow and the 105mm Macro (which might eventually be replaced by the EF-S 60mm macro). I'll squeeze the 50mm 1.8 and the 1.4X in too. Like I said, it seems perfect for my normal out and about stuff. The 50-500 can stay in it's own case for when I need it. I should mention I have the Orion waistpack too, It's good and holds most of my day to day stuff except the 12". Delsy here I come.Monday, February 21, 2005
Galway Now: Tom Portman
The portrait I did for Tom Portman is being used in the current issue of Galway Now. It's near the back, along with an interview with the man himself. Let me know what you think of it... Ah go on use the comments for once.
Trains and houses
The Galway Advertiser Front page has an article about the train that came in after mine went out last Wednesday. A student jumped in front of a train. Now I'd not say much except that it happened within view of the back door of my apartment. Down to my left as I look out I can see the white gates that lead across the line to Murrough House (currently owned by GMIT- who really should allow public access to the beach). This is where it happened. Why do I mention it now? Well two things. Aimie, who has posed for me, thinks she knows the guy involved. From the same place. Also John from the Weightless Astronauts was out checking email on my wireless network at the time. He went down for a look and chatted to one of the firemen there (he knew him). Apparently the body was strewn all over the rails and a right mess. Not so good.Gmail
I've a bunch of gmail invites to give out to family and friends. If you want one os these accounts drop a line to me at gadgetgeargrind(at)gmail.com Obviously turn the (at) into an @ to get me. (Damn those spam harvesting robots).
Faking it
Here's a shot that is hopelessly flawed due to camera shake. It's unprintable but looks fine at 400 Pixels wide. Should've made sure IS was on for the lens. There was a ram in the shot when we stopped but Kelvin scared it away!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Yesterday.
I don't really want to say much. We were up at 6 to get to the funeral. Again thanks to Darren for getting us there from the train. Everyone was there. The service was nice. All the grandchildren walked the coffin from the church gate down the hill to the graveyard, where she was laid in the ground. After a short ceremony, we all cried and left. We all went back to the local hall and met each again for the first time in years. Despite living closer a lot of the cousins hadn't see each other in nearly as long as I had. One thing that was very plain yesterday was the wealth of Family. Matthew got loads of attention as the youngest great grandchild, but that'll soon change with Darren's wife, Germaine, expecting! I think Sandra is expecting too. No more to say now.Monday, February 14, 2005
Home and dry. For now.
Today was long. I got the phone call at 9:13 to say my granny had passed on. I was very upset and just lost it as soon as my Da had hung up the phone. I'd been so built up about it that I hadn't even realised that it was churning away inside me so much. It was good to let the tears flow.We got the train at 11 and we arrived in Athlone about 12, where we were picked up by my Da and my uncle Seamus. We stopped off in the Town for a little bit where I saw my half-sister and brother, Amanda & Jonathan. When we got out to Mosstown the driveway was full of cars and there were loads of people coming and going. My dad's family is big and it meant that I spent the day talking to cousins I'd never met or hadn't seen in years! Caroline, Shane, Anthony, Darren, Rita, Richard, Siobhan, Mark, Thomas, Aisling, JJ, Andrew, Damien and others.. and then some had partners and children. My head is spinning from it all. We all talked and got on well despite the very broad age gaps, with literally all ages represented.
The hearse arrived back late in the afternoon, maybe 4 or so. I really didn't pay attention to the time. When the coffin was brought in I helped place it on stools in the back kitchen. We then opened the lid, something I've never done or even seen before. I saw her then resting there. She looked magnificent in a blue dress, very natural and peaceful, as though she might just wake up any minute. The enbalming work was that good. We lifted her from the coffin and into her bedroom, where my aunts prepared her in the bed. All the family came through to pay their respects. It was very moving and touching to be there, so much so my Dad got upset for the first time. I tried to comfort him a little, along with my uncle Seamus. I spoke a few words to her and a little later brought Cynthia and Matthew in. When everyones tears subsided we all bantered about to help our grief. Time was passing and eventually we had to go. Thanks to Darren for the lift to the train. As to arrangements the Funeral is on Wed so we'll be going back then. I'm too drained to write anymore now.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Family
It's not a good time for my family right now. My Granny (Dad's Mum) is dying. I've not been able to get to her and I don't know if I will either. My brother Derek is coming home from the North Sea to see her and I'm closer and have had too much that can't be stopped or postponed to get there. I'm going to try get cover for tomorrow and go. I texted my Da tonight but got no reply-probably too late for him to. If I can't get off tomorrow afternoon (I'll still have to do the late night gig), I should be able to get Monday off. Tuesday is free anyway. It just means bringing Matthew with me. Lots of nappies and bottles. And a carseat.Derek is not too good either but I'll not mention any details now. He called me in the middle of the gig to say he was coming back over. It was too hard to hear and I had to get back so I'll speak to him again tomorrow.
iPhoto 5
I installed iLife '05 today. I've only looked at iPhoto 5 so far and it does much improve on the iPhoto 4 experience. The layout looks cleaner, the saved slidehows are great. My only gripe is that the Ken Burns effect can still happen even when you've unticked it.Saturday, February 12, 2005
Failed Sunset
I'm glad to be myself today instead of a 'Daycare Dad'. Midweek is really the worst time to try anything productive with a child about. Matthew demands complete attention, so that's all I get to do. So today I've been editing loads of shots from the last few years into more arty frames for printing and hopefully some kind of sellable item to recover the costs of the equipment
Today had very variable weather so I went out in the sun to Ballloughane Beach to get a sunset. Needless to say it clouded over immediately and lashed rain. I hung around behind the lifeguards shed while it cleared. The horizon remained veiled in cloud so I had to give up. Besides the biting cold and wind was more than enough reason to leave. I'm back to editing and planning a little portfolio of the final prints.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Another day. Another iPod.
I've updated the FOR SALE post with A PICTURE! It's only taken all day. Matthew's been so demanding that there has been little time for anything today. I got the 512 iPod shuffle yesterday but only had a quick play before work. Today I actually got to listen to it. It sounds great (despite Apples earphones). I'm using it as a 128mb drive and 90 songs. I guess I have a Disgo 128Mb USB drive for sale!! Enough for now too hard to type and hold babies for any lentgh of time!
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Monday, February 07, 2005
Photo stuff for sale
Due to my new stuff I'm selling some stuff.Canon D60 with new shutter and full service €600
EF 28-135mm IS USM €350
EF 28-200 f4-5.6 €400
Sigma 17-35 f2.8-4 EX wide angle €350
Update:
Added a photo of the stuff. Click for a larger version
The truth about the weekend.
I hope you like some of the shots I've put up recently. However I'm not quite sure how drunk/sober/hungover I was when I shot them. My sense and composition are all quite fine but my mental state may not have been. I decided to stay after work for one drink which ended up being a lot more and ended up at 9am with a beautiful morning and a nosebleed courtesy of Barry the barman. (Apparently I gave him one back, but as we were both messing at the time it wasn't really anyone's fault). I won't incriminate anyone else-except Alanna but she didn't stay. Anyway. I was supposed to be picked up by Kelvin G. to go shooting in Connemara at 10:30am. This was weather based of course, but how could he know how nice it was out asleep? In my wisdom drunken state I hammered on his outside bell to no answer. Undeterred I waited until the door opened from other residents and went to his front door and hammered on the front door bell and woke him. He wasn't impressed. But he was amused by my state! We picked up my stuff and off we went. I dozed at lunchtime and made it through to get sleep before work for an hour or so. After work I was up editing til 6. I slept then til 7.30 and was picked up by Mike Shaughnessy at 8 for the Rally.(I'll post one or 2 rally shots after this). Back to bed at 12 for a few hours and then off to do Sean Tyrrell for his Sunday session. Then home for another hours sleep! And finally back in for the Weightless Astronauts! A busy weekend. Enjoy the photos because I enjoyed getting them!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Camera Club tonight.
It's Spain/Special Olympics by Raymonde Standun. Also if you're on Brendan Lawlors photo group, we're meeting at 7:45 before the main meeting.Ah lighting.
Thanks to Barry M. for sitting for me this afternoon allowing me to run my Bowens all round him trying out stuff. I tried umbrella shoot through, shoot into and as fill. I'm so used to the softbox I needed to better my knowledge of umbrellas. Anyway here's one based on a Greg Gorman shot of Warren Beatty.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
SportsShooter.com - Color Management - Giving digital images that color
SportsShooter.com - Color Management - Giving digital images that color Great messageboard post on getting better colour from your shots. I'm using this post to bookmark and record it. Chip Litherland recommends approaching it as follows:"In my work, I use Selective Color and levels (always with a lasso tool) almost exclusively. It gives you much more control over the specific colors in your photo, rather than affecting the entire image. For example, that lead picture of the the player stretching in your gallery looks really, really flat. In Selective Color, there is a pull-down menu that has the all the primary and secondary colors, as well as white, black and neutrals tones. The workout clothes of the guy on the right in Red needs to be popped for sure. So, I would go in to Selctive Color, select the Reds on the menu, the pull the slider on the Cyan channel to the left. If you know how color works, its in opposites, so taking out Cyan adds Red. You'll see the jersey become much more red. Then I would go into the Black slider at the bottom, and slide that to the right until it looked decent. The black slider will add or subrtact density to that specific color. Next, I would go into the Blue menu at the top, and slide the Yellow slider to the left, which will add Blue to the workout gear of the foreground guy on the left in the workout pants. I would repeat this for each color I wanted to adjust....
The Whites menu in Selective Color at the top is pretty effective, because with the digitals I tend to see a color shift in the highlights alot. You can adjust the density and color in just your highlights that way, making them white again.
The Blue menu in Selective Color is great for pulling your skies back down. Try adjusting the Blues and Cyans and you'll notice a dramatic improvement. Pull Yellow out of the Blues and add Cyan to the Cyans, then drag the Black slider to the right do darken your skies to how they were in real life.
For tones, I use Levels almost exclusively with a heavy feather on the lasso tool (80 px or so). Every image I turn in, I am lassoing different areas and adjusting the levels that way. My dodging and burning comes from that, but if I need to use the actual wand tools, I always set the dodge tool on Highlights at a low percentage of range, and the burn tool on midtones, also on a low percentage.
I then Unsharp Mask. Usually 60 - 80% depending, .5 radius, and 0 threshold.
As always, this worfklow is to get the image back to what it looked like with the naked eye.
Hope that helps. If you want to send me a raw photo to tone and then explain to you what I did, I'd be more than happy to do that for you.
Auto levels and Auto contrast are the devil, by the way.
Chip"
The ultimate place for my ramblings, musings, insights, revelations and pictures.
Unless otherwise stated all photos on this website are ©Sean McCormack 2005-7 and may not be used without permission.
Previous Posts
- Going, Going..
- Guitar Girl
- Realisation
- The mod
- 550ex with PC sync.
- Olympus SP-550 UZ
- Printers: As if deciding between an Epson R1800 an...
- John Beardswoth Blog
- Powerbook Power Supply woes
- Service and smiles
Archives
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- June 2007
- November 2007
- Current Posts
Links
- Random Panderings: My Photoblog
- Photo Website
- letting loose with the leptard
- North Atlantic Skyline
- Babblogue
Flickr
