Wednesday 27 January 2010

Hand-held Macro Photography...

Since the club recently purchased a macro lens for its members. I thought that this article recently published on the well known Naturescapes website maybe of some interest.

Crying Wolf...

Jose Luis Rodriguez has had his title of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year removed, after the judges re-convened on evidence that the wolf which appeared in the winning image was not wild but indeed a trained one available for hire.

The wolf apparently called Ossian was allegedly photographed at Canada Real Open Center near to el Escorial.

The photographer denies that the wolf was hired for the shoot and states that he wasn't even there when the photograph was taken, as his camera setup was activated with infra-red triggers.

Further information can be found on various news sites (BBC & el Mundo).

There are many debates on many Nature web boards of the impact of this decision both on the integrity of the competition and nature photography in general. I'm not going to comment on any of that, but looking at Jose Luis' work you have to say he is a very talented photographer indeed (Pbase galleries, Mirada Natural galleries and his personal website).

Sun Bouncing....



Amongst some of the clubs recent purchase's was the Sunbounce MICRO-MINI PRO with flash bracket. This light, fast to assemble reflector, can be used with both available light and with flash to direct the light exactly to where you want.

The material for the reflector is white on one side and a mix between gold and silver
on the other (see image below), which produces a wonderfully warm light, like that found at the beginning and end of the day, without being too over the top.

I hope to get more of these products for the club in the future, especially the SUN-SWATTER and BOUNCE-PRO, which means you can effectively work in the midday sun and still produce wonderful images, something that's no very easy to do in Spain with its unforgivingly harsh midday light.

Also, take a look at the video above where Bert Stephini of Squeeze the Lime fame, gives us a more light hearted look at the MICRO-MINI's many uses.

Friday 8 January 2010

This months featured photographer...

This months featured photographer is one of the more popular groups on Flickr, this 'invite only' group has many fine art images covering the colour, B&W and alternate processes genres.

Happy New Year to all of you and enjoy the images..!

Previous featured photographers:
December '09 - Ray maï
November '09 - *6261
October '09 - Vladimir Longauer
September '09 - LJ
August '09 - alex.alexander
July '09 - falsalama
June '09 - micmojo
May '09 - orvaratli
April '09 - ArTeTeTra
March '09 - Tom Hoops
February '09 - Strobist Favourites
January '09 - Tommy Oshima