Lucy And The Lens

Tag: #NikonD3200

  • Moor Park: 6 Days 6 Lenses

    You may have seen my 8 photography techniques to try in isolation post.

    Well as well as trying new things using photoshop techniques on the portraits in my back catalogue I’ve been going out with my camera during lockdown and photographing the places I go on my daily walks. The main place I’ve been to frequently is moor parl.

    You have to really think about what we should and shouldn’t be doing on our daily walks. Should we be staying at a safe distance and asking people if they want to be photographed without going near to us. Is it ethical or unethical in this crazy time? How will people respond? Should we try contacting people to be photographed on there porches while we stay on the path? Is this okay or not? Its up to you as a photographer to decide.

    So Then I started to think about what else I can do without taking portraits  I decided to take my camera with me on some of my daily walks going to moor park 7 days in a row with a different lens every day to see what perspectives I could get with the different lenses.

    There is the Petzval 85mm lomography lens which is great for portraits but without the luxury of asking someone for a portrait like I normally what can I do with this lens?

    I also used a Nikon 35mm Prime Lens which is a very versatile lens for both landscapes and portraits.

    a Nikon 18-55mm kit lens, a Sigma 10-20mm,

    A Lensbaby circular fisheye lens which I love to create distorted images with. It seems to create a warped world view in my eyes.

    A Nikon 55-200mm Zoom Lens

  • Halloween 2019

    Halloween 2019

    If you remember last year I did a Day Of The Dead Inspired shoot in the studio. This year I decided to plan a Halloween shoot with another photographer. We choose to do glamourous Halloween rather than dark and Gory.

    Corpse Bride And Harlequin Shoot

    The look I chose was a modern-day Harlequin/ Pennywise look. According to the Oxford English dictionary, a Harlequin is a mute character in traditional pantomime, typically masked and dressed in a diamond-patterned costume. However, I choose to simply get harlequin makeup done by a makeup artist and my model wore a purple tutu dress. Harlequin comes from the french Hellequin, the name of the leader of a legendary troop of demon horsemen.

    The other photographer chose a corpse bride/ghostly look. Corpse bride was a 2005 Tim Burton animation where a man about to be married accidentally places a ring on a dead womans finger thinking its a plinth and she comes back to life thinking they are married. Im unsure whether the other photographers intention was to have it appear as though she dies and comes back to life but this is what i wanted to capture through my images.

    This time the location chosen was a woodland setting and as part of my idea we used smoke bombs for part of the shoot. This was the most difficult part as you cannot touch them when your lighting them and they can accidentally catch fire. The smoke will also just flow in the direction it desires.

    Killa Halloween

    My second halloween shoot was for a new clothing company called Killa Clothing. They sell Tshirts and hoodies for men and women.This time Killa clothing hired two special effects makeup artists to do halloween makeup on the models. I went to go and take the images when the makeup was done at a woodland location and a bridge over a train track. Here is the photos from both shoots both shot on Nikond3200 with a 55200mm lens and a 35mm prime lens:

    If you enjoyed this post stay tuned for more and follow me on social media @lucyandthelens

  • Halloween\Day Of The Dead

    What Is Halloween/ Day Of The Dead?

    A lot of people think that Day Of Dead and Halloween are interrelated. However they are two different festivals that appear to unintentionally connect in a number of ways. As stated on the National Geographic website Halloween is a dark night of terror whereas day of the dead or Dia De Los Muertos celebrates our love for those we have lost. The people who celebrate this believe in spirits and use literary Cavaveras which are short poems like a satire that make fun of the living. They also have official flowers called Cempazuchiti which are believed to attract ghosts.

    According to www.metro.co.uk website it states that Halloween came from the Celtic Samhain which marked the night where spirits could pass through and the distinctions between the living and dead were blurred. it is combined with the Roman Feralia which commemorates the passing of the dead and honours Pomona the goddess of fruit,  which is why we have apple bobbing.

    Day Of The Dead Shoot

    For as long as i can remember i have been a fan of using skulls in art pieces and for decoration so a couple of weeks ago I organised a Day Of The Dead shoot with Mentally Fit Sam and Aara Beauty. I planned to shoot the doing the makeup shots with a flash in my bedroom and then go to Avenham and Miller Park. However instead I ended up working with another photographer in his studio in Preston called Open Air Studio North West. This was my first collab using a makeup artist as well as a model and I chose to do a Day Of The Dead themed shoot due to my strange love of skulls.

    For The Day Of The Dead Shoot we used a red gel on a flash behind the subject which created a more halloweeny feel and made the makeup stand out more. I used my Nikon d3200 with 55-200mm telephoto zoom lens for the majority of the shoot to obtain close ups of the makeup look. However for the aerial hoop shots I decided to add more depth to my image by using my  Nikon 18-55 mm lens so more of the body was visible as Sam performed aerialist manoeuvres.

    Halloween Shoot

    On the 13/10/2018 i went to a photography session days event at Atlas Studios where there was a mystery set which was zombies. This fits perfectly with the Halloween theme. There were also some bloody knives over a door which enhanced this. I framed her under these to add to the terror of Halloween. I also enjoyed using the strobe under the stairs as it added a dark and moody feel to the zombies. The zombies caged and trying to break out adds a conventional, zombie movie-esque horror to the images and creates a sense of escape from reality.

    Here is a selection of my images from both of the shoots:

    I hope you enjoyed this post and for more stay tuned and check out my Instagram @lucyandthelens.

     

  • Crystal Ball Photography

     At the beginning of the year, I set myself 30 photography related goals. Currently, I have started 11 of them, and today I am going to talk about goal number 24 which was to begin using props within my photography.

    My First prop of 2018 is a Crystal Ball because this is something I’ve wanted to try for a long time. Crystal ball photography is a type of photography that distorts your image, simularly to a fisheye lens except your subject will appear upside down inside the ball, which is the main reason it appeals to me. I also started following the #crystalballphotography on Instagram to find inspiration.

    The first time I used it was sometime in mid-February when it snowed overnight, so I went into my garden the next morning and experimented with my Nikon D3200, my iPhone 8+, and my crystal ball.

    I decided my sigma 10-20mm (wide angle lens) was the best one to use for this experiment, so I placed my crystal ball on my garden wall making sure I had foliage behind and shot at ISO 100 but kept varying the aperture and shutter speed to achieve a variety of different photos. I decided that the crystal ball in the snow tended to look better in black and white, so I adjusted this in the post-processing in Lightroom. I did this by taking down the contrasts and highlights and upping the shadows and exposure and then converting my image to black and white.

    I also used portrait mode on my iPhone 8+ to test a variety of different types of lighting my crystal ball and edited these in photoshop express. My favourite set-up in portrait mode is the stage lighting in black and white as I felt it made the snow stand out.

    The Second time with my Crystal Ball I went to Beacon Fell with a friend who held the crystal ball for me while I photographed some sunsets. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a type of shot I thoroughly enjoy taking so I couldn’t wait to try a new approach.

    Finally the third time I took my crystal ball out it was also snowing except this time I went to Avenham Park using the landscape as my backdrop.

    Here is a gallery of my Crystal Ball photos:

    If you enjoyed my article be sure to keep checking out my website and for further reading check out what other bloggers have written about this topic  in the links below:

    1.  Photography Fun With A Crystal Ball
    2. How To Create Glass Ball Landscapes
    3. Glass Ball Photography
    4. The Travelling Crystal Ball

     

     

  • Victorian Fair

    A Few months ago I went to Winckley Square in Preston to photograph a Victorian Fair with Preston Photographic Society. This involved people lots of people dressing up in costumes that depicted the victorian era and a couple of comedic acts.

    There was a juggler and a magician who used a crystal ball as a prop. He was my favourite because it enabled me to get reflections in the glass and made it a more interesting shot.

    I really enjoyed the fact that you could print your own victorian shopping bag by pushing down a wooden block through the ink to print the pattern on the bag and leave it to dry for 30 minutes.

    Lastly, there was a theatre performance titled The Palace of Curiosities from some actors dressed in Victorian Attire and I rather enjoyed the afternoon. I decided to post this now because from the 13th May-9th June there is an exhibition for this in Avenham Park Pavilion Cafe where three of my photos are on display so watch this space.

  • What Lead Me To The Fencing Selfie?

    What Lead Me To The Fencing Selfie?

    The Inspiration

    So towards the end of 2015, I joined Preston Photographic Society and I started entering the competitions. One of these competitions is a theme competition, which changes each month and one of the themes was sport. I had two choices to photograph someone doing taekwondo or someone doing fencing because I do both of those.

    As I thought fencing was less common I decided to shoot one of my friends doing that. The competition judge from this moment didn’t understand my image and didn’t classify fencing as a sport, it was this determination to prove him wrong that convinced me to use one of the themes for this year’s competition to change that view.

    So this year I came across a theme called the faceless selfie which required me to think outside the box. So I got out my studio lights, set up a black background and my tripod and set my camera to a 10-second timer to photograph myself in a pitch black room. Then I put the mask on but my idea failed but In failing I created some half face selfies that I liked.

    A week later I tried again and got the image I wanted, but you could see the background I shot again so I still need to go back to the drawing board until I obtain this shot. However in taking a series of selfies I have now decided that I still want to get my original shot idea to work but using a model, as I found that shooting myself was more difficult and a lot less fun than shooting someone else. However, I did learn a lot from this experience which I would like to share with you.

    What is A Faceless Selfie?

    In my opinion, the faceless selfie is a picture of you that doesn’t include your face or it can be something quite conceptual so something that embodies your personality.

    A faceless selfie can be about how you see yourself or how you think others see you. I decided to use an idea that states that not everyone is who they appear to be to the world.

    So I set up my tripod and put on my fencing mask aiming to obscure my face. I was going to call it behind the mask because if you put your hands up and ask people how many people see the real you, it’s usually two or three people. People only show what they want you to see and the rest should leave a mystery.

    But as I wanted the mask in this instant to be an embodiment of myself, I used a pun and called the image daughter of mask because that is one of the many aspects of who I am. Everything in life has a purpose and you gain something from everyone you associate yourself with.

    For example, when I fence I am a fencer but it doesn’t matter who I am beyond that at that point and it shouldn’t matter unless I choose to share other aspects of myself with someone.

    In Conclusion, don’t let anybody disrespect anything you believe in and if you believe in it strongly make photography that changes their minds. Don’t just sit there and do nothing keep on photographing that thing until you create something for yourself that becomes a passion project. I admit that because of that one image that a judge was ignorant about fencing is currently not only one of my hobbies but one of my photographic passion projects and it is one of which I can test ideas out on myself.

    Below is the shot that started it all off and two of my fencing selfies all shot on my Nikon D3200:

     

     

  • Photography And Social Media Marketing

    I’ve been passionate about photography for as long as I can remember and it’s only in the last couple of years I realised that you need more than just photographs.

    I’ve made social media marketing into one of my top priorities on the way to starting a business. It all began when I decided I needed a platform to showcase my images rather, than just making photo books as a portfolio and for people that know me personally to see.

    These days everything is online so in around February 2016 I bought my domain name Lucy and the Lens and I continue to update my work as often as I can. For the first couple of months I wasn’t sure where my idea was going to go and it wasn’t until April that I decided to start my blog and add a gallery.

    In August I decided that when your working it becomes even harder to take a trip to photograph something every week. So with my current busy schedule I decided that setting up photo challenge Friday as a new page where I challenge myself to post a new challenge every week was a good idea. I also tell people to participate in challenges on my blog and upload them to #lucyandthelens on twitter and instagram.

    I also set up a Facebook page and once I have completed a couple of new shoots I upload a set of new images on their and I also promote this website on my page.

    For my Instagram channel after every new shoot I upload my photoshop edited images to my phone and select my favourites for Instagram and make sure I #. No matter what I post I always #lucyandthelens and #photographer and I have also started to #nikond3200 (the camera model) and the lens I shot on and I believe that the rest should be kept a mystery apart from on my web galleries.

    For me I use twitterfeed.com because it creates a quick and easy way for me to upload my blog posts to my twitter and Facebook accounts.

    I am currently in the process of creating my twitter chat schedule as at the moment my twitter simply reposts my blog, but my aim is to do at least one tweet a day other than my blog post and Instagram feed. To be successful in my eyes I need to be tweeting other photographers and re-tweeting and reimagining trends in photography.

    In conclusion I think that the way you market yourself in this day and age is just as important as taking the photographs as you get nowhere without an online presence.

    I hope this post has opened your eyes to how I market myself and if you’re inspired then get social media savvy, you won’t regret it.

  • Street Photography

    So recently I’ve been doing a vast amount of street photography so I thought I’d share with you what I’ve learnt.

    The first time I did street photography it felt obtrusive, I felt like I was doing something wrong because it is essentially photographing people without their consent.

    Later I found out that street photography is legal in a public place. A subject is also allowed to ask you to delete images and it’s always better to agree to avoid an argument, as chances are you will find another interesting subject pretty quickly.

    Street photography involves observing the people around you when your wandering aimlessly round the streets and people are an extremely interesting subject when you find what you’re looking for.

    Everybody has a story to tell and after photographing them on the streets you become an author, a writer of images waiting to be discovered.

    But for me on the streets I don’t just look for people I look for something quirky, something out of the ordinary.

    Street photography is essentially speed dating for the minds eye, you see what you envision as an interesting subject and shoot them as fast as you can before the opportunity disappears.

    So previously I wrote a post called read this if you want to take great photographs of people by Henry Carroll but I purposely left out his street photography tips to use here.

    Henry Carroll says that ‘capturing fleeting moments on the street is all about making your own luck’. To me this means that street photography is hit and miss if you don’t capture the right person at the right time you will lose the opportunity or if you see something interesting it might have moved before you have the chance to photograph it.

    Carroll states photography is all about finding the right spot so all the action will come to you. If lots of people are looking at something you can’t see then assume they are an interesting subject. Approach people as well as capturing moments. Slower shutter speed blurs your subject and faster shutter speed captures less movement.

    To conclude this post street photography opens your eyes to the world around you and it gives you an in depth view into the people in any city and the stories they have to tell which is what makes it all the more intriguing to me.

    Here are a few of my street photography shots from a variety of walks in different cities:

     

  • Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs of People by Henry Carroll

    So after reading Henry Carroll’s other book discussing how to take great photographs in general which I posted on this blog and absolutely loving it, a couple of months later I walked into Waterstones and found that he had written another one but this time it was only to do with people, my favourite subject to photograph.

    The Question

     The first thing Carroll tells us to do before reading this book is close the book and ask yourself who am I and why do I want to take photographs of people. I think what he is trying to do here is telling us as a reader that no one is born ready to do something and until you know what your purpose is then you are not ready. In my opinion the question he asks when rephrased would work for any subject so think about what job you want to do and ask yourself that very same question who am I and why do I want to do the job or hobby I want to do and until you know then you are not ready.

    The Answer

     The Answer is also personal because everyone will have a different answer to the question and the way I’m looking at it on a deeper level is that not everyone will be asking himself or herself the same question. My Answer is to the exact question Carroll poses who am I and why do I want to take photographs of people. My name is Lucy and I am a media graduate with a passion for taking photographs. Yes I love taking photographs but why people in particular, you ask? I love the way that you can tell a lot about a person by the way that they express themselves and I want to capture that in my photography. Photographing people for me tells a story and every person has a different story to tell and I want to convey that message in the photographs that I take.

    Composition

     Carroll states that when you are composing a shot of a human subject you need to trust your instincts and think about whom you are photographing. What is their mood? What is your mood? Where is the shoot taking place and what’s going on around you?

    In photographing people the rule of thirds is the most important aspect of composition because placing your subject in the centre of the frame or in the far right third of the frame creates an essentially perfect composition.

    Carroll depicts that linking layers is a brilliant idea as you keep one eye on the subject and the other on the background. In my eyes this means that you need to let the background compliment the subject and not the other way round.

    Think about who you are shooting and where and play around with different camera angles to change the perception of a subject.

    Lens Choices

    My favourite idea Carroll has is that nothing impacts your composition more than your choice of lens. I have three lenses now and for my first studio shoot since university I only had the lens that the camera came with (18-55mm) so this was restrictive as you could see too much of the background which was distracting. Now I use a Nikkor Telephoto Zoom lens (70-200mm), which is a lot better for portraits, and you can see more of the subject. A couple of months ago I bought a brand new Petzval (85mm) Lomography art lens, which so far I have only had the opportunity to test once. This lens is made for portraits but on a recent shoot to Crosby I used this lens to get a different perspective of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place because I had already shot it a year before. The Petzval lens comes with fixed aperture plates that allow me to change the aperture according to the setting. It is also manual focus, which means the lens pushes me to find my own clarity to the extent that I want it to be. The best thing about this lens is that it allows me to obtain different shaped apertures where the light hits the out of focus areas of an image or reflects off a subject.

    Breaking the Rules

     It is important in photography to create your own rulebook by thinking outside the box or recreating interesting images. In life I always go with my instincts and I feel that these rarely fail me. Carroll illustrates that the same rules apply with photography: “Shoot what your comfortable with, step outside of the comfort zone but don’t shoot anything that makes you feel uncomfortable to be shooting.” In my opinion if you abide by this then you will develop your own style and others will be able to know your images by sight.

    Context

     The subject has to blend into the environment and you can also use a plain backdrop to isolate your subject so nothing distracts you from them. When taking an image of a person always be on the lookout for juxtaposition because in photography opposites attract. You can reveal a lot about a subject by the traces they leave behind. So don’t always photograph a person photograph things that belong to them in order to obtain a different dimension to their story.

    The Gaze

     One of the hardest things that you aim to do when photographing people, is to achieve a natural look because in order to do that you have to appear unobtrusive. This statement is one of the most accurate descriptions of my beliefs about photographing people that Carroll expresses: “ A smile is a mask that a person wears, you can see a lot more by breaking your subject out of their shell to see another side of them.” This means a lot to me because only when your subject gets comfortable with you do you start to notice what they are trying to tell you through their body language and their attire.

    Control

     There are many different techniques you can use in order to photograph a subject. You can make them feel a little bit uncomfortable for a different dynamic to a shot or you can give them something playful in order to expose their subconscious.

    Nobody is perfect so looking for flaws in a subject is what makes them unique and interesting. But always remember the only subject you have complete control over is yourself. This last statement has stuck with me and I am planning an exciting new self portraiture project that so far until I complete it, only one person other than me knows what I’m planning which makes it all the more intriguing.

    Black and white or colour

     I tend to shoot in colour and when I envision the shot as black and white I use a Silver Efex Pro filter taken from the Google Nik collection on my photoshop and typically choose the high structure black and white effect as it is usually images where I want to add depth to the background that I add these too.

    Conclusion

    To conclude in referring back to Carroll’s original question who are you and why do you want to take photographs of people? This post is my answer so yes I love taking photographs but why people in particular, you ask? I love the way that you can tell a lot about a person by the way that they express themselves and I want to capture that in my photography. Photographing people for me tells a story and every person has a different story to tell and I want to convey that message in the photographs that I take.

     

     

     

     

  • Photo Challenge Friday Week 7: Numbers

    My challenge for this week was Numbers.  

    My initial idea was to go out and photograph doors and use the numbers on the doors as a metaphor by stating that life presents plenty of opportunities and all you need to do is pick a number and go through that door. But I was working a lot so I actually took inspiration from the card and decided that my cocktail jigger would work in a different way. My idea is that life is measured in numbers and it doesn’t matter how far you fill the jigger as long as you have a number of things to keep you content so this one is titled ‘the measure of contentment’

    Then it came time to choose my challenge for week eight and card picking time is my favourite part as i never know what the next challenge brings but the result of each challenge is based on how much free time I have in that week and this week I needed a bit of quick thinking to complete the challenge. 
    So My week 8 challenge is to shoot textures and patterns. We see textures and patterns in everything but we don’t always deem them as something we generally photograph.