The Bad Photographer » Night time http://www.badphotographer.com Donald Jackson's Photographic Journey Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:08:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 World Cup 2010 in Cape Town – Part 1 http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/07/world-cup-2010-in-cape-town-part-1/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/07/world-cup-2010-in-cape-town-part-1/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:58:25 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=166 So I’ve taken some photos during the World Cup in South Africa. I live in Cape Town, so the photos I have taken have been limited to the games/events here. I thought I’d post some up for now. The games I have attended so far have been

  • Uruguay vs France
  • Italy vs Paraguay
  • Korea DPR vs Portugal
  • Portugal vs Spain
  • Argentina vs Germany

and I will be watching Uruguay vs the Netherlands too (which will be the ‘part 2′). Enjoy.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/07/world-cup-2010-in-cape-town-part-1/feed/ 0 The Jack Parow Concert http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/03/the-jack-parow-concert/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/03/the-jack-parow-concert/#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:12:39 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=135 After a long wait I finally managed to get myself into a club with my camera. As some of you know I prefer taking photos at night and this was a cool setting for me to try out.

I headed to Jack Parow at Mercury Live on Friday the 19th March 2010 to check it out. I love his shows so thought it would be a good place to try my first night time concert stuff. I struggled to find the settings I wanted in order to actually capture some decent photos. I found what worked for me was setting it into shutter priority and then simply finding a shutter speed I was comfortable I could shoot without a flash (without being insanely blurry). I then picked my moments when the lighting was substantial enough to actually get some decent photos. It was very much an experiment, I ended up with many underexposed photos but I did get one or two that I liked. Let me know what you think.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/03/the-jack-parow-concert/feed/ 0 The Electric Cello http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-electric-cello/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-electric-cello/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:31:33 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=127 Last night was my friend Dani’s birthday which she chose to have at the top of the Grand Daddy hotel in Long Street, Cape Town.

In addition to the already awesome setting, Carol Thorns was there with her electric cello (pretty cool looking and sounding gadget). Anyway I took some photos of her playing which I thought came out decently, check them out.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-electric-cello/feed/ 1 The Party at Pellie’s House http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-party-at-pellies-house/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-party-at-pellies-house/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:48:17 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=118 My family and I headed down to my Dad’s friend Pellie’s (aka Mark) for a nice quiet braai. I took my camera along because it was full moon out and wanted to snap some photos in case I saw something nice. Well, the moon was OK but the old people losing their minds was a lot more entertaining. The photos aren’t great but they are sure as hell funny (to me). Note the woman in the main photo (with legs in the air) is 75 years old!

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-party-at-pellies-house/feed/ 1 The Trip to Port Elizabeth http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-port-elizabeth/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-port-elizabeth/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:49:24 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=78 So I made my way down to Port Elizabeth for the Christmas holiday. I took the ‘back way’ via Worcester and Robertson and on the road between Robertson and Swellendam dawn started which really allowed for some awesome views and shots. I’d never tested out the bulb function to catch ‘car drag’ on a road so I thought I could try and capture both the dawn as well as one or two of the few cars on the road.

This shot came out well for me, and there is a green light in the sky moving across the frame, but it was unintentional and I’m still not sure what it is, possibly a plane? I like it, but I am still struggling to focus the lens correctly in the dark.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-port-elizabeth/feed/ 4 The 92 second exposure http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-92-second-exposure/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-92-second-exposure/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:08:13 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=58 My friend Alex and I went out and about at night to see what we could see with my camera and tripod, we took some great shots (in my opinion) but this was my favourite.

We used the bulb setting and aimed it at Lion’s Head in Cape Town for 92 seconds. Gives an eerie feel almost. It’s strange to see how the stars in the sky have moved slightly, yet the mountain is not blurred. My guess is that this is the rotation of the earth but I may be wrong :)

You can see all the shots I liked here.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-92-second-exposure/feed/ 0 The Flash http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-flash/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-flash/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:48:23 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=47 I had always seen online the photos taken at night by ‘professionals’ and I thought wow I wish my night shots would look that nice. Well last night I had the chance to test out my new external flash (Canon 430 EX II) and literally the first shot I took was up to the standards I had always wanted. I took many photos but I liked this one, very realistic skin tones and just a happy moment I think.

What this night did teach me however, was that I needed to start watching my depth of field. My most used lens (Canon 24-70mm) is a f/2.8 which does by default blur out background subjects, which is a great effect. The problem was though that if two people were sitting next to each other but one slightly further away than the other, they would be blurred out. Working on it ;)

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