A few finished pieces

Hi Guys as promised here's a few finished pieces.

Ill have pics of some finished infantry guns within the next couple of days.

Mark

:)

Camera Practice

(Apologies to anyone not interested in Cameras or Pictures - just skip this post, the next one will have finished miniatures i promise.)  

So with my leg improving i took a trip way out west to visit Rob at his house.  Rob lives near Muriwai beach and a surfing area called Maori Bay where there is a Gannet colony.  Will had suggested this would be a great place for me to get in some practice with my big Tamron 150-600 lens.

1/160 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 213mm.

I had an awesome day getting out and about hanging with the lads and getting in several solid hours of practice were i took almost a thousand photos.

1/320 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 193mm.

1/400 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 483mm.

At 1/800 the Tamron gets smooth shots and ill definitely put in some more practice with that setting. But i think it did ok at the lower speeds as well.

1/800 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 483mm.

Now i know i looked like a total newbie as i was getting the hang of a new strap, new camera and a new heavy lens. I was also dressed in jeans and a long sleeve shirt as id got super burnt the day before - so on a 26+ degree day i was overdressed and super hot. (Will posted a couple of pics of me on his blog - the cheeky bugger!!  (Will's Blog)  

1/800 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 256mm.

1/500 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 158mm.

There were a few surfers out and about as well. i decided to muck around with some black and white effects on these.

1/1000 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 600mm.

1/1000 sec at f /8.0, ISO 200 @ 500mm.

Considering the distance of these im pretty happy with them but some more practice is needed to get some really good surfer shots like the ones Rob got - (Robs Blog).

I was pretty happy with this one:

So there you go a beginners attempt at some photos of some fast moving and not so fast moving stuff.  I've got a long way to go but im enjoying the learning process.

Mark

:)

Something a little different

After the cat destroying some of my latest work i decided my next post should be something of a happier note.

Last week a sold a couple of Field of Glory armies i had painted and this allowed me to purchase something ive been wanting since i got my new camera - a bit shiny zoom lens for shooting pictures of birds and planes etc will the lads.  Most of them have far nicer gear than i can afford but i got the best i could afford (at least for now) A Tamron 150mm-600mm lens.

Now Rob came over today and we had planned to play a game of Battletech but its been over a year since we played so we played out a few turns and got our heads around the rules again and talked about a lot of stuff and since i have been trapped inside the house for 5 months Rob took me down to the local airfield to try out my new toy.  We weren't out too long as the sun was blistering at around 31 degrees! My leg held up pretty good and although a bit sore i managed ok and really enjoyed being in the sun. We started off taking shots of some planes but most of what i took was rubbish as i had no idea what i was doing. 

 

We saw some Blow carts over the far side of the airfield so drove around the other side to see what sort of shots we could get. Here's a few of the ones i was happy with.

These things seriously look like a load of fun and you can rent them for like $20 for a 10-20 minute go. (once my leg is better i know what im going to try!!) :)

Great hour out and about and so good for the soul to clear the head and get some fresh air.

Looking forward to giving it another go soon.

I can see that im going to have to do another blog for my Photography stuff so it doesn't clog up this blog. Once ive put together a new blog ill put up a ling for anyone who wants to watch my trials at a new hobby.