The Bad Photographer » People 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 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 Beach http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-beach/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-beach/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:34:23 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=71 I was having a tough day getting my brain into gear so I decided to take a few hours off to get some inspiration. I headed down to Camps Bay beach in Cape Town with my camera. I saw this little boy playing on the beach and managed to catch this snap of him. For those of you in the know, you’d know I am not a fan of child photography but I thought this came out too well!

I was testing out a new mode on the Canon 7D which is called “Creative Auto” which has some presets, in this one I intentionally blurred the background as much as possible. I quite like it.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-beach/feed/ 5 The 2010 World Cup Draw http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-2010-world-cup-draw/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-2010-world-cup-draw/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:26:54 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=68 I was fortunate enough to be invited by Mike Metelerkamp of Cape Town Tourism to come take some photos at the World Cup Draw fan festival in Long street in Cape Town. It was an amazing vibe and was great to see all shapes and sizes of the ‘rainbow nation’ out in force.

This photo I took captures the entire mood for me, euphoria, supporting South Africa as one :)

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-2010-world-cup-draw/feed/ 1 The Johnny Clegg Concert http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-johnny-clegg-concert/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-johnny-clegg-concert/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:09:58 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=61 My sister invited me to come to the Johnny Clegg concert for a bit of a party. Unfortunately I had quite a busy weekend so I decided to take it easy and take my camera along. I liked this photo, even though I didn’t take it. It’s of my sister and I and just captures the mood of the entire day. You can check the rest of the photos out here.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-johnny-clegg-concert/feed/ 0 The Sunshine http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-sunshine/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-sunshine/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:57:29 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=55 I was at Alex’s house-warming party and she requested I bring my camera. It was another awesome day of spring in Cape Town, and her friend Lorien suggested the technique for taking this photo. I think it really turned out well and that’s a great happy face!

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-sunshine/feed/ 1 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 ;)

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-flash/feed/ 1 The First Day http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-first-day/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/11/the-first-day/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:30:52 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=43 So yesterday I borrowed my friends lens while I was waiting for mine to arrive, well today it did.

As you do with any new gadget I had to make sure I used it, so I went out to see what I could snap. Not much exciting going on in my neighborhood on a random Thursday, but I did take this one shot of a man in Ocean View drive which appeals to me for some reason. Going about his business quietly, pondering life (well that’s the vibe I get from his look).

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