Uploads from chris@APL, with geodata

Stick 'Em Up

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:53:16 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

Took this photo at the Glasgow West End Festival.

Had a stormtrooper try to attack me! Damn Imperial army.

Unfortunately, my camera is now needing repairs. The releasing lock of my SB-600 is not working anymore and is now permanently attached to the Nikon D50. It's out of warranty and I'm getting a quote of £70 to replace the hotshoe. Geez. I don't have that kind of money just now.

Quack Quack

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:49:50 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

Looks like everyone is enjoying the wonderful sun! To all those that have been wondering where I am, I've just had a lack of inspiration for photos recently. And travelling to and fro the hospital has been immensely tiring.

But the nice sunshine has really got me shooting lots!

Thanks Bigboydrums and WoodyAng and skynet for the kind welcome back! I will post more soon. I promise!

The First Day Of Summer

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:37:02 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

Summer is finally upon us. Amazing 20 degree weather (that's celsius in case you wondering) and picnics and barbeques everywhere.

Finally after spending a few months in my bag, my camera gets to come out to play.

Took this photo in Glasgow Green which was the site of many previous public executions. It used to be greeted with much fanfare with families going out to watch the occasion. I'm glad to say that executions aren't done anymore and it's a place to just relax and enjoy the sun.

Except for me who has to beware the pollen count. Damn this hayfever.

Queen Victoria

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:08:15 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

And I thought my troubles were over. Just happened to have my Macbook Pro die on me over the week. Neglected to run Time Machine in the last 20 days so lost 20 days worth of RAW files. I only have the JPEGs on flickr to fall back on so am busy trying to download the photos. Had to take a whole day to re-install all my applications and transfer all my files from my Time Machine back into my computer.

Will be slow in uploading any new photos as I try and salvage my photos.

Also... I'm off to see Cirque Du Soleil's Quidam today. Can't wait!

House Of Fraser

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:26:35 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

House of Frasers on Buchanan Street.

Kind of makes me wish I had a tilt-shift lens for this shot. Even after numerous attempts at photoshop to correct for the distortion of shooting from the ground, I just gave up and posted the original shot.

To all those that have kept up-to-date on this pathetic excuse for a medical student's blog, it turns out. I might have to change that title because now... it's going to be a pathetic excuse of a doctor's blog! Passed all my exams and it's clear sailing from now until graduation!

If anyone wants a celebratory toast, let me know! I'll be there! I'm also going to be heading off to Manchester this Saturday for some good food and great friends.

Also, I am committed to getting the new Nikon D400 when it comes out. I think I'm committed to staying with DX for now. The sheer selection of lenses available for the DX format and the cost of getting an FX camera is just too daunting for me at the moment.
Features I'm hoping for:
True HD video recording (not gimped 720i that the D90 is capable of) - I don't shoot video but I'd like the option
Improved noise handling
Incredible ISO performance comparable to the D700
LESS MEGAPIXELS - I have enough trouble finding space to store years of 5MB RAW files. I can't imagine how I'm going to have sufficient storage for 25MB RAW files.
Built-in GPS
Priced under £1,000

Here's crossing my fingers.

Edit: Thanks to BigBoyDrums with help in reducing lens distortion. I've reduced it the best I could but there's still some distortion that's pretty obvious. But on the whole, I'm pretty happy with the result. It's hard because the street itself isn't level either so it emphasizes the distortion.

Keeping Our Streets Clean

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:16:18 -0700

chris@APL posted a photo:

Shot on Buchanan Street.

Sorry for the lack of blog updates. Been finishing up processing the backlog of photos that I promised I would do for others. That and waiting for 2,000 photos to upload to Flickr just takes days in itself.

So I've got my clinical rotations and hospitals all sorted out. I got my first choice in everything so I'm quite excited to start working. I might even scrape enough money to buy a car come August! I can't wait.

It's also great to have like-minded people who are keen on photography. After the Glasgow Flickr Meetup Group folded, I've been hard-pressed to find people interested in going out for photographs.

Soul Sisters

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:16:11 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

The gals heading off into the city centre to hunt for fish.

I love the rim-lighting I got with this shot in the middle of the day.

And so the first of my 4 practical examinations starts tomorrow and again, instead of studying, I'm too busy processing photos. What am i to do!

I am as well absolutely livid at my e-mail provider. ALL e-mails are not being labelled as spam and being redirected to the Spam folder. Adding the e-mail addresses as contacts, whitelisting the e-mail addresses and registering the e-mail addresses as valid all do not seem to stop the evil computer maniacs at RealMail.

Happily Married

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:49:43 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

As requested by Thomas, I've uploaded another photo which I've processed from J&N's wedding.

This was a high-key effect I used to blow out most parts of the photo. I love the low-angle of this shot taken by my assistant Trisha (Thanks Trisha!).

Gotta love what you can do with RAW.

Although the final university exams I will ever have to take in my life are in a week's time, I'm totally not focused. I'm enjoying myself here in Beanscene using their internet. I made their router think my laptop was an iPhone so I can use my unlimited wifi without paying for it.

Hehe... Let's hope O2 doesn't find out.

St Mungo's Tomb

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:44:21 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Just thought I'd throw in a new HDR photo I had in the archive. I know it's not perfectly aligned. Didn't realise it until I got home. It was insanely difficult to get all the lines perfectly horizontal and vertical that I just gave up.

This is St Mungo's tomb the patron saint of Glasgow buried right under the Glasgow cathedral. It's somewhere everyone who visits Glasgow should see.

Am working on a project right now which I'm quite excited about and will show the results once it's finalised and approved.

The Happy Couple

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:40:20 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

The happy couple!

1588 photos for the wedding. Out of those 488 are usable. It will take me a few months to finish processing the bunch but I'm surprised how many of the photos ended up actually being usable.

I'm just wishing Jim and Nkem a great honeymoon and we'll see you guys when you get back!

Strobist:
2 SB-600s @ 1/8 on camera left and right fired through shoot-through umbrellas

Worship Leader @ New Mercy

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:55:02 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Eileen belting out and singing praise to our Lord!

Non-strobist shot this time. The service is recorded for television so I had to keep as low a profile as I can for the shot.

I love the lighting for the stage because it's bright enough for me to get a decent shot at normal aperture settings. This was shot at 1/125s but yet you still get blur from the movement of her hand strumming. It looks to be about 2 inches of movement in that 1/125 seconds which equates to about 22.9km/h!

Note: changed the watermark for my photos from "a pixel life" which is my blog www.apixellife.co.uk to "chris kueh photography" in case I can get some offers to shoot simple events in and around Glasgow.

Oh, I will be shooting my first wedding on Saturday and I need all the help and ideas you can afford for it! There won't be a backup photog and so the pressure is really on!

Blind For Half A Week

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:33:26 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

MY FIRST DUAL SPEEDLIGHT SETUP!
Well, I guess from the shot it sure looks like it could have been done with one speedlight and I'm sure you'll get the same result.

Anyway, I posted this shot because earlier in the week SY stepped on my previous glasses and broke it so I was blind from Monday to Wednesday when I had these made. Imagine a blind photog. But we all get by.

Strobist:
1 SB-600 shot into ceiling with full CTB on subject left.
1 snooted SB-600 shot directly at the glasses ungelled.

I am rather disappointed with the black velvet throw I bought from Ikea as a photographic background. If it were highly reflective or highly absorbent, I'd be happy with it. But it's somewhere in-between. Stray fibres everywhere seem to give the surface a glowing quality which I find quite distracting. To the art store I go to look for better suited backgrounds!

Any suggestions on which background is best is highly appreciated!

Would You Like To Dance?

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:22:42 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Ceilidh in church. Was hard to get a nice clean background for the shot but I'm glad at the overall result anyway. After reading Strobist the past few weeks, I have actually had so many ideas brewing in my mind as to how to improve this shot with speedlights. I guess I will save that for next time!

Just FYI, a ceilidh is like a Scottish social dance.

Oh, and the mailman came bringing lots of presents! Excited to try it all out!

First Strobist Attempt

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:35:01 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

First TRUE attempt at a strobist post.

Bought a black cotton fleece throw, threw it over the curtain, put up a shoot-through umbrella on an existing lamp stand, fired a SB-600 at 1/32 power ungelled on subject left.

I like the highlights and shadows across the face. Probably should have bought some white foamcore board and put it on subject right to bounce some light back to light the other side of the face. But I did like the "mystery" feel of the shot although the expression does not exactly match.

Thanks to SY who let me photograph her (after some grovelling).

Thanks for all the well-wishes guys. My grandma is now out of critical condition and recovering nicely.

Ryan

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:50:57 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

A reprocessed image from the visit of Johnny Ramirez.

Taken with El Sharpie. It's such an amazing lens. If you are shooting wide-open, any small movement can push your photo out-of-focus. Zooming in, his chest is perfectly in focus but his head is just slightly out.

Dreaming about the 52-point AF areas on the D300 rather than the measely 5-point AF areas on the D50.

Jim And Nkem

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:52:22 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Jim and Nkem's photo they asked me to take 2 weeks ago.

So I'm half-way through the exams and I can't seem to think about anything else except photography and how my life has just stopped for the past few weeks. To re-energize myself, I have just bought a Manfrotto monopod. Totally digging using it in the next few weeks. Always had a problem with tripods being too bulky and heavy to carry around. Hoping the monopod will help.

Also nicking bigboydrums and isayx3's idea with using the words on the photo rather than blatant self-promotion. Gonna try it for a while and see how it goes.

Thinking back to this photo, I would have loved to go back and tried to do better 3-dimensional lighting for a more powerful image. However, I only had one SB-600 in the bag and this was a fast and easy ceiling bounce shot.

Maybe next time...

Steven From The Phat Farm

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:40:18 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Close-up shot of one of the stitched photos from last week. It was one of the best shots from the day from a strobist perspective.

12 days left until my final exams. And I'm still posting photos... Man... I really need to sit down and study.

Strobist:
SB-600 shot into shoot-thru umbrella high camera right
SB-600 into 1/4" grid camera left

The Media Team

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:51:27 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

Stitched photo composed of 15 individual photos cut out and pasted on the background. At first I was trying to attempt the Twilight poster shot but I thought a Vampiric movie poster was not the best inspiration for a church photo so I went with this instead.

Strobist:
1 SB-600 high-camera right into shoot through umbrella
1 SB-600 camera left with 1/4" grid

Most of the photos are SOOC so I'm quite happy at the results great lighting can give.

Johnny Ramirez Live

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:19:27 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

So here's what I was working on- this is supposed to be a CD cover for Johnny Ramirez's performance at church. Johnny Ramirez and his worship team came to Glasgow for a weekend praise and worship. They are amazing and you truly hear God speaking through him.

Somehow, the text looks like an election style text but oh well... I like it anyway.

Before The Cross

nobody@flickr.com (chris@APL) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:18:55 -0800

chris@APL posted a photo:

The cross at the Christian Centre in Glasgow.

Last photo before heading off for the wedding. Quite nervous and excited at the same time. It will be a very long day. I just hope the camera, has enough energy to last and I hope I have enough energy to last as well.

Equipment for the day:
Nikon D50
Nikon D60
Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8
Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
2x Nikon SB-600
Jessops speedlight
2x Lightstands
2x white shoot through umbrellas
Honl 1/8" speedgrid
Giottos tripod
Cactus radio triggers

20 AA batteries
back-up batteries for the Nikon D60