Pampelmuse and Me

10.11.10

MayaLee Photography

These photographs are from the very talented Swedish Photographer Lotte. I won a giveaway on her blog a few weeks ago (I'm having a lucky streak, seriously) and the print that I ordered from her etsy store just arrived. It also came with two additional postcards which are just as lovely as the original print. I'm considering putting the two postcards in some Ikea frames and taking them to work for my office walls. The other day a male colleague told me that I need some more "pretty things" in my office. At the time I found this mildly amusing and a tad offensive, but on reflection I think he might be right. Anyway, Lotte has a beautiful blog where she posts pictures from around her home town in Sweden, as well as pictures from her portrait sessions. If you're after some girly prettiness, check out her Etsy store. The prints are even better looking in your hand than on the screen.

Etsy
Blog

Photo Credits: MayaLee Photography

9.11.10

Currywurst and Fleamarkets

A cold and chilly weekend in Berlin. We had our last guests for the year and had a fantastic weekend sampling some of Berlin's best weekend fare. Currywurst, brunch at Anna Blume and then fleamarket rummaging at Boxhagener Platz. I managed to pick-up an old Polaroid which I was promised still worked - I ordered some film from The Impossible Project yesterday and now I just need to wait and hope that the camera is still in working order.

8.11.10

Amazing Aperture

This week we're talking about aperture. For me, aperture is where the real fun of photography is, but it's also the most counter-intuitive. Aperture does two things - it is another way of controlling how much light your camera receives and it also controls your depth of field. Depth of field is a fancy way of describing how much of your photo is in focus. These two aspects interact, but I'm going to explain them separately as this makes the most sense to me.

Aperture as a control mechanism for light.

Loosely defined aperture is how wide your camera's shutter opens when it takes a photo. This is different to shutter speed. Shutter speed is how quickly your shutter opens. I'm a visual learner and I find that the easiest way to explain this is via a "clapping" demonstration.

1. Bring your palms together in a prayer or clapping position. Now, slowly move your hands out until they are about 30cm apart and then bring them back together.
2. Repeat this process, but this time do the movement quickly.
3. The difference between step 1 and 2 is shutter speed.
4. Repeat step 1 (seriously)
5. Now, repeat this process at the same speed, but this time only separate your hands by 10cm
6. The difference between 4 and 6 is aperture.
7. Repeat, draw a diagram, say it aloud. Learn the difference. It's important.

Aperture is measured in f-stops with the narrowest being around f/22 and the widest f/1.2.

Looking at the diagram above it is easy to imagine which lets in the most light. F-stop numbers such as f/16 and f/11 let in a smaller amount of light compared with f/4 and f/2.8. Notice how I've resisted using the terms "bigger" and "smaller" - that's because when we talk about aperture, the bigger apertures are f/2.8, f/1.4 and the smaller apertures are f/16 and f/11.

Aperture as a mechanism for controlling light matters (again) in poorly lit situations. As well as raising the ISO to increase the amount of light reaching the camera (see ISO post here), we can also increase the aperture. A wider aperture such as f/2.8 will let in more light which will allow us to have a quicker shutter speed. If you're confused about this, do the clapping demonstration again and imagine the amount of light entering through your hands while they are separated.

In these three photographs I set my camera to Aperture Priority and the only thing that I changed was the aperture. In order to correctly expose the photograph the camera had to have a faster shutter speed to compensate for the wider aperture setting. (Note: Lenses with wide aperture are often called quick for this reason). The only other difference between the first photo and the two below is that I edited it slightly to increase the colour saturation of the foreground flower to make it stand out a bit more.

Next week: Aperture as a mechanism for controlling depth of field

5.11.10

365 review

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has left suggestions for what to do in New York! Seems as if I'm going to have to make a trip to the High Line and perhaps while I'm down that way wander around Chelsea.

I'm into my second month of the 365 challenge and it's getting both easier and harder. I'm finding it easier to remember to take the photos but with the days shortening I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find time to take a photo before or after work. I missed four photographs in October, most of them due to light issues.

This month I'm planning on joining Justine Gordon for a 'black and white' month. Black and white photography is a little more forgiving when it comes to lighting and I've recently fallen in love with this medium after going to an exhibition of Marianne Breslauer's work. If you're interested in joining Justine (or me) in the black and white challenge you can head over to her blog or visit the flickr stream.

Here's my favourite from the first five days

4.11.10

New York

In a little under two weeks I'm going to be here! Even more exciting, that means that I'm beginning my holidays. Well, kind of anyway. I arrive in New York on Friday afternoon, have a meeting on Saturday and then fly to Melbourne on Sunday afternoon. I am dreading the New York - Melbourne flight. I've done it once before and promised myself that I'd never do it again. Well, I eat my words.

But if you guys did the maths like I did I have roughly 24 hours in New York to myself. What should I do? I don't really have long enough to venture very far and I'm staying near Pen. Station. Suggestions? Coffee, vintage markets, secret photo places... I want it all.

3.11.10

London

Rather stealthily last weekend I popped over to London for a surprise 30th birthday party. It was such a wonderful weekend full of good food and the very best of company. For extra special "surprise value" we all bumped into each other at Kings Cross and St Pancreas tube stop. This meant lots of phone calls and text messages to ensure a good 'meeting spot'. If you don't know London, Kings Cross is literally heaving with people on a Saturday morning and trying to find anyone in the crowd even when you're both looking for each other can be challenging! But we found each other and ended up having a delicious lunch at the River Cafe before being really very lazy on Saturday and camping out in front of the TV with cheese, biscuits and a bottle of red wine. And on Sunday... we went shopping. My first visit to Liberty and it didn't disappoint!

2.11.10

October Photo Hunt

My submission for the Photo Hunt Challenge. Twenty photos over one month doesn't sound like a lot but it was a challenge in the truest sense. Many of these photos have been posted here over the month, but I needed to put them all in one post for review.

Oh... and I'm sure that the old man in the 'Dining photo' is famous, but I have no idea who he is - he's British is the only clue. Politician, Actor? Am I making it up? Please help me out!

In Disguise