Visited a lovely Owl Centre while on holiday in Wales last week:











Not an owl, but a black swan!

It is better than the kit lens but 50mm on a 1.6 crop body can sometimes feel very cramped, especially indoors! I do like the 50 1.8 though, great lens for the unbelievably cheap price

I've been messing about with layer masks in Photoshop Elements 10 ...

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/69346671@N03/7726190838/[/url

... and with high speed flash photography ...

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/69346671@N03/7760650798/[/url

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/69346671@N03/7760651704/[/url

Nikon D300s, Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens (set to manual focus), Nikon SB800 and SB700 (both set to manual at 1/80 power), 1/200s, f/16, ISO200, WB Flash.

Post processed in PSE10: mainly consisting of crop to 8x10, levels, some cloning and Unsharp Mask 100,0,3.

Where's the best place to look for a 2nd hand Sigma/Tamron lens, for a Nikon D5000, that will cover approx 18-300mm??

eBay or Gumtree, that is quite a range for one lens to cover though.

Yeah I know, but I am sick of having to carry and change lenses while out and about, and having the wrong lens on when i want to take something in the distance or a bit closer... :/

I bought the 50mm 1.8, very reasonable price. Found it quite strange at first with no zoom but the quality is very good. I'm going to see The Overtones in Blackpool in December and planning on trying it out for concert photography as it's supposed to be very good in low light. We're on the front row so my only concern is how much i will actually get in the frame.

It can be a tad odd using primes when zooms are so popular, at least I thought so the first time I used one. The 50 1.8 is certainly Canon's bargain lens (along with the new 40mm 2.8 STE). The 50 1.8 is decent in low light, you'll still need a pretty high ISO speed to keep your shutter speed up though and it can sometimes 'hunt' in low light but should be fine for the concert

Love that.

Thanks.

It was a fun session.

Advice please..

I've been asked to start covering concerts for a magazine that's being launched. I'm completely out of my depth on this, people shouldn't ask me to do things when I'm drunk...

I'm using a Sony A200 at the moment, it's more than adequate for print in normal light, and I'm assuming with a flash unit attached it'll be OK for gigs. The biggest problem I have is that I need a wide angle lens that isn't going to break the bank - this isn't a full rate pay job!

Can anyone suggest a reasonably good quality lens that would suit my requirements? The gigs are only going to be small ones, no stadium bands here - more semi-pro bands where I will have the possibility of being able to get right up to the stage, or shoot over the crowds head from a range of maybe 20 feet. I've used the stock lens a couple of times when covering events where bands have been playing, but never been entirely happy with the results.

Cheers...

Prefer the first one myself but I'm a sucker for neon.

One or two from the gig that got me the gig... So to speak.

Jim Jones Revue in York

A couple from The Skints at Doncaster too - this is where I started to realise the limits of my equipment - no flash on the first one, trying to catch the gig feel.



Notice the bass player blurring?

With flash it doesn't feel as exciting somehow:

Nik try a Sony 50mm f/1.8 SAM DT, not as cheap as the Canon Nifty Fifty but still a bargain at that price.

Many bands don't allow flash so you need an f1.8 even an f1.4 to cope, even the ones that do allow flash try turning the flash power down, something like 1/4 power will not over power the gig lighting.

Thanks for that Graeme, I'll watch out for a reasonably priced one on eBay etc.

BTW.. Re: Bands not allowing flash.

We're not talking name bands here, just ones that need a bit of publicity in the more specialist magazines. TBH if I turned up with a disposable camera it would probably do the job as far as they're concerned, I just want to do the best job I can.

I'm not familiar with your camera but perhaps it's worth looking at its high ISO performance and/or noise reduction software after the fact.

This might well result in too much noise/grain to satisfy the publishers but it might just produce a shutter speed fast enough to prevent motion blur (as in the guitarist's hand movements).

Thanks, I'll look into that too

Kestrel:

Bamburgh Castle

Ooo, nice shot. Nice processing, too. The B&W suits it perfectly.

Dally. Great shot also.

Bodiam Castle: