Just to say Hi

[NeilF]

Hi I've just signed up. Im a scotsman who recently moved to the South of France. I work offshore on oil rigs and am in the Atlantic off the west of Ireland just now.

Years ago I played around with an Olympus OM1 and had a few lenses. When it finally broke I went to a small digital camera and kinda lost interest, apart from the snaps of the kids.

Recently on the way home, passing through Luton airport, I was wasting time window shopping and saw this E500 Olympus camera for ’…’‚‚£290. After some humming and hawing, a few beers and a phone call home to test the water! I bought it and haven't stopped.

So many wonderful new sights around me and a new toy to learn, I'm having a ball! Oh and a new baby due in August so a beautiful big belly to snap and a new model on the horizon.

Can't wait to get home again next Saturday and I'm glad to have found a site catering, I hope for my new hobby with some people I can quiz when I get stuck.

I've put a picture of a wee urchin who was playing football with his pals and an empty coke can on the picture page. I know it's not focussed as well as it could be but he was such a great character with his stookie (scottish for plaster cast) on his arm, his scabby nose and dummy. He makes me smile, so he's on my USB stick with my family.

I hope he makes one or two of you smile too. And I'd love some critisism, good or bad. Thanks Neil.

[Buddy4344]

Welcome to Byte. I look forward to seeing your work.

[bytethis]

G'day Neil.

Welcome to Byte, and congrats on the upcoming bub and picking up an old hobby. Here's just the place to get started, especially if you want to get more involved in what makes a successful pic.

I'd reckon you'll have tons of fascinating scenery/compositions/storms and people type subjects to shoot on oil rigs...man I'd kill to have a couple of days on one.

Good luck with all that.

Interesting shot you've posted too, specially that you did so in Black and White - had a quick look, no wonder it makes you smile - cheeky kid indeed. I could imagine all the interest you'd pick up in pipes and scaffolding and infrastructure, specially in B&W...

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions...lots of friendly, knowledgeble folk from around the globe are happy to help.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[NeilF]

Hi buddy, and cheers for the welcome.
Hi Bytethis we rarely get to take cameras outside on the rig due to the fire risk of intrinsincly unsafe spark hazards. This means we need to fill out hot work permits and it has to be part of the job. Occasionally though we do get to and I'm not busy so I can. No b/w as yet but it's a great idea! I'll post a couple of flaring off pics that I have here offshore. See what you think.

Cheers Neil

[bytethis]

ahhh cool...I was going to pose a question about security and the rigs...didn't consider the fire risks also...camera batteries can give quite a jolt.

Those two flaring off pics are really interesting...must be a heap of heat coming out of those! plus all the water being sprayed - must be tonnes? Really graphic and dramatic - you can tell there's a heap of heat and noise and action - this is the sort of thing that makes a successful (journalistic) image, plus you caught little things like the heat and colour coming through the spray and reflection of the fire on the surface of the sea etc...good stuff...you just have to nail thngs like focus and composition really...tho all in good time.

Great to see!

[NeilF]

Hi, on the subject of focus, I tried to get a photo of a bee in flight. I've posted one of the best ones in my gallery. Is there a way to get this kind of photo with more depth of field without blurring the moving subject? I tried setting up my tripod but then none of the bees would co-operate and hover where I was pointed. So I suppose I'm asking can I get more depth hand held, or will that come with practice etc. I'm quite keen to learn more about the techniques available and read some of the magazines out there, are there any recomendations for mags, sites and books to get/visit for tips?

Cheers

Neil

Oh, P.S. I've had a look through lots of the galleries and there are hundreds of absolutley brilliant photos. Lots of things I'd never think of as being good to photograph. I can see me spending a lot of time browsing here. And I hope you don't mind my v. amateur atempts popping up on your screen. Please give critisim liberally and hints and tips, one day I'll put a stunner on the site too.

[bytethis]

G'day Neil.

I don't doubt you'll put a stunner on this site.

If ever there was a cliched term it's 'practice makes perfect', the beauty of digital cams is that it's pretty well free to do, but practice you have to, with shooting photography! It's not unheard of to take many hundreds of pics before you get just the one you like...there's so much to get involved in, colour, lighting, sharpness, RAW vs JPG etc that you could easily get lost. Bytephoto has a chllenge comp where a given theme is suggested to all potential shooters so that they can all concentrate on (their perspective) of the subject, I heartily suggest you enter this comp to get yourself up and running, and shooting one type of subject (or theme) is one certain way to to get used to your cams features as you increase your abilities.

On the subject of focus, there's s couple of things you'll need to acquaint yourself with. One would be regarding the focusing system your cam employs. That is, most digicams these days have the ability to choose focusing for fairly static types of shots like landscapes, macro, and portraiture (and the like) i.e. where the subject is not likely to move at all. Some camera manufactures call it predictive or static focusing. Then there's the erratic, or quick moving type of subject, typically, sports, little kids, pets and insects. This type of focus employs constant, tracking or active type focusing, which is designed to actively 'track' (and hopefully lock on to) moving subjects.

Insects, particularly bees, wasps and other flying types are generally very hard to track because of their size and of course the things they fly around and in and out of are all pretty much the same distance as the insect themselves!

All in all you've chosen one of the hardest subjects to get right lol...

So essentially, make sure you choose the right type of focusing for the subject you shoot...in the case of shooting insects, I'd select an aperture of about f9 and choose the 'active focusing' method. Other things to consider are available light(for fast enough shutter speeds so as not to allow blur), and aperture settings to set the degree of focus.

You generally need a fast shutter speed to freeze them in flight and a fairly large aperture (f9 as suggested above) or larger, so as to blur out everything around your subject. Also gentle fill flash may assist in lighting your bee enough to provide a faster shutter speed. Also shooting with a tripod is brilliant, and you'll find as you get used to the cam moving over one plane, that you'll soon be able to track them longer and longer, so as sinply to freeze them in midflight.

Another line of thought is antishake or antivibration...I don't think your Olympus has antishake built into the body, but may be available in certain lenses that you buy for it. This assists to eliminate camera shake and therefore subject blur. Fellow Byte Olympus shooters may be able to help you there...I'm a Nikon man lol...

There's simply tons of books and magazines devoted to photography and your choice is almost endless...Because i',m in Australia, my mags may be a little different to yours, but don't be afraid to get mags that treat you a little simplistically at first, cos you have to get a handle on the terminology and technology first right?

Some great sites for learning about your cam and photography in general, are Steve's Digicams, Betterphoto and Digital Image Cafe...some very friendly folk on the latter two...great forums and BP has 'pay for' camera courses to help you in your quest.

Hopefully that's of some help!

[NeilF]

Thanks for the encouragment and the info. I've posted a question on the monthly challenge page cos there's no challenge this month. Also noticed it has a closed sign in red on the forum box. The last post before mine asks some questions regarding the validity of the winner due to the date posted and asks about judges, there is no reply. Do you have any idea what is happening? Im guessing the winner hasn't picked a new subject, or they've stopped doing the challenge but as you suggested, it would be instructive and constructive for me to have a go at this so I hope some one answers and they get it going again.

Cheers Neil

[pippafox]

hello Neil and welcome
pippa