Sometimes it’s the shadows that are the focus of my camera rather than the people in it.
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
Tag Archives: Urban
Escalator Moments
A one second exposure captures the movement through time of the escalator in Nikeworld San Francisco last August. This is one of a series of shots, including a few of Mark and Andy although I think this is the most dramatic of them.
I wasn’t going to post this at all except that a few days ago another escalator photo made the front page of Digg somehow. Digg away please 🙂
| Aperture | ƒ/16 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1.3s |
Girl reflecting on bus
Waiting at the traffic lights, the camera can still see you, even if it’s not pointed in your direction. Those are the buildings of the Grand Parade in Cork behind her.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
Mom and the girls
A mother and her daughters on St. Patrick Street, Cork last year. Look carefully in the window. Can you see what time of year it was?
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/640s |
Man and pipe at the FM Store
Outside the FM Store, St. Patrick Street Cork. I was walking past when I spotted this scene unfold. I didn’t even see the pipe in the old man’s hand until later, but I was very happy with what came out. If only that girl had turned around.
The FM Store is that noisy place at the end of the street where Irish traditional or similar music blares out. The ESB Broadband Eircom picture I posted a while back is right behind where that old man is standing.
Thankfully I wasn’t affected by the Flickr outage. I was asleep while it all happened!
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/800s |
Never mind the bollocks
A Sex Pistols fan on his bike last April. This was taken on Washington Street, Cork while waiting for the street lights to change. I was walking, not in a car!
PS. Mallow Camera Club did really well yesterday at the SACC competition!
The club won the event outright and also took first place in each of the three sections, Colour Prints, Monochrome Prints, and Slides. In the individual category club members Morgan O’Neill and John Hooton won first prize in Colour Prints and Slides sections respectively.
Well done everyone! Sorry I couldn’t make it up for the day. In case you’re interested, here’s another reminder that Des Clinton will be talking at the club tonight.
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 106mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/400s |
A kiss at Finn’s Corner
A kissing couple outside Finn’s clothing store on the corner of Grand Parade and Washington Street, Cork. This was way back in August last year when temperatures were a little higher than they are now.
Psychedelic colouring comes from the “soft light” plasma layer I plastered on top of the original black and white layer.
Edit: of course this is “Finn’s Corner”. I must have been half-asleep when I wrote the title of this post. Thanks to Mykel C for commenting, and Tony Finn for getting touch and correcting me. It’s much appreciated!
| Aperture | ƒ/5.6 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/320s |
Cupid’s Arrow and the birds
Cupid’s Arrow in San Francisco provides an interesting silhouette against the evening sky. If you’ve payed close attention to my photos in the past you might think this is a duplicate of another shot but it’s from a slightly different angle and wider, and I feel stronger because of the pattern the birds make in the sky. What do you think?
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 11mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/200s |
The broom at 187
Walking through the urban environment the seemingly normal assortment of rubbish or objects can make an image that bit more interesting. This was taken in August, but guess who forgot to bring in the Christmas lights?
Oh yes, a small tip if you’re adding noise to an image. You’ll need to do it twice. Once for your full size image, and a second time when you resize. After resizing noise, it gets blurred and is nowhere near as effective.
PS. I really like An Incidental Shot – the photographer who’s quick off the mark will get the shot!
PPS. Micki has finished blogging on Shutterbug Underexposed and she’ll be missed. Many blogs have fallen by the wayside over the past 2 years, but it takes time and it’s not always easy to find that time.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/100s |
The red and white man
A street entertainer on stilts entertained the crowd at the Midleton Food and Drink Festival last September. I took photos of him in Cork too and I think he recognised me and my wife as he made a beeline for us and stopped to chat.
This was shot from below as he was towering over us, but I cropped a much larger shot. I used flash to illuminate his face against the bright sky.
| Aperture | ƒ/9 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/250s |
San Francisco DPT on the job
The San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) have painted the kerb of the sidewalk in the city to designate different parking areas in the city.
Wandering around the city I was struck by the startling paint job on the ground, especially the “warning” colours used. It didn’t stop people double parking though, but I didn’t spot any traffic cops around either!
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
The lonely swan
A solitary swan swims on the calm waters of The Lough as the sun disappears at the end of the day.
Believe it or not, this is a 10 second exposure that turned out much better than I could have hoped! I balanced my camera on the edge of the Lough, set it to Aperture priority mode at f/11, dialed the exposure down two stops, flipped up the camera flash and took the shot.
How does this work?
- By setting the aperture to a fairly high value little light is let into the camera sensor.
- By setting the exposure down two stops the whole scene will be underexposed but bright areas will be exposed mostly correctly.
- Given the above settings, any dark moving objects will be completely invisible so when the flash fired it picked out the swan swimming past and even created a nice reflection in the water.
Hope that helps!
| Aperture | ƒ/11 |
| Camera | Canon EOS 20D |
| Focal length | 10mm |
| ISO | 200 |
| Shutter speed | 10s |