Mark Allen Photography

A 30 second exposure, on a tripod. I never bother with manual, I set the camera to Aperture Priority at f/16, manual focus one third in and use the self timer to take the shot.

The camera does the rest. Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8 lens

My local camera club is having an on-line competition with a Spanish club. There were 9 categories and the judges had to select 3 photos in each category to represent the club. A total of 265 photos were submitted, the judges had a difficult time.

For example, the judges considered this photo in the 'Water' category. I could hear them questioning, whether there was enough 'water', was the water to main aspect to the photo or was it a flying dog! Suddenly it clicked, 'the dog is a Water Spaniel'. (He is actucally a Lagotto Romagnolo, an Italian Water Dog - from which it is believed - all 'water dogs and spaniels are descendant.)

Four of my images were selected and can be seen here

Whites Tavern, Belfast. Benny and Julie's wedding day, 3.10.09.

Who says that wedding photography can't be fun!

[Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8, three remote flash, hand-held]

Another one of Benny and Julie at Whites Tavern, Belfast.

[Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8, three remote flash, hand-held]

Whites Tavern proudly lays claim to being the oldest tavern in Belfast. Benny and Julie first met there and on their wedding day they wanted to get some photos inside the bar.

The patrons were more than happy to let the bridal party take over the bar for 15 minutes. Enough time to get a pint in! (But not for me as I was working, although one of my assistants couldn’t help himself!)

[Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8, three remote flash, hand-held]

My son, Conor, helped me out at a recent wedding. I gave him my Nikon D300, 18-200VR lens and told him to go for it. I am proud to say that many of his photos were well seen and captured.

This is just one of many that impressed me, and no doubt will delight the bride and groom!

More photos here

See last post. Turning my flash off and boosting the ISO to 1600 I was able to get a different view. I was only able to get this as I was using a VR lens that allows me to shoot at 1/15s and still get a decent image hand-held. This was 1/13s.

With the sensor boosted to ISO 1600 I can see things in this image that I couldn't really see at the time. Many modern DSLR's can handle high ISO settings. Clearly a tripod would not have worked as the ship was moving.

The morale of the story is that you should use higher ISO when you need it. It is easy enough to remove noise, created by the high ISO, than it is to try and correct motion blur from using too slow a shutter speed. In addition a high ISO might often reveal details that you did not notice at the time.