The Bad Photographer 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 trip to Europe http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-trip-to-europe/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-trip-to-europe/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:03:53 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=132 Shortly after my last post I embarked on a trip to the Mobile World Congress which is an annual event held in Barcelona by the GSM Association.

Just before I left I purchased a new wide angle lens (Canon 10-22mm) as I was expecting to be trying to capture some indoor scenery quite well. Sadly while I was over there I didn’t take as many (good) photos as I would have liked due to work and being generally busy. So I’ve just posted a bunch to flickr to see what people think.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-trip-to-europe/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 Comeback http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-comeback/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-comeback/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:25:27 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=123 So you’re probably thinking I’ve been lazy. Alas I have not been, I managed to get a small hair on my camera‘s sensor. In addition to this something happened to the USB port so I could not transfer any images to my PC. Anyway, I have the camera back, USB still not working but I do have a card reader and some compatible cards now so that I can copy some photos again.

I went down to the promenade as it seemed like quite a nice sunset on the go and I managed to come up with these photos, let me know what you think? I am definitely considering a genuine ultra-wide angle lens to make sure these photos are as good as they deserve to be.

I also took a few shots the other night with my cousins, I wasn’t super impressed with the results but I’m putting them here just for completeness sake :)

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2010/02/the-comeback/feed/ 0 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 the Farm http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-the-farm/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-the-farm/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:30:50 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.badphotographer.com/?p=112 So today I went with my family to my Dad’s farm just outside of PE. I was testing out a new filter that I bought, a circular polarizer to see what effect it had on the photos. It had positive effects, but I was simply unable to capture the scenes that I was hoping to. I think its definitely time for me to take a photography course. Anyway, there are some spectacular views there so I thought I’d upload some of the shots I took on my day out there.

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-trip-to-the-farm/feed/ 2 The Christmas Lunch http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-christmas-lunch/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-christmas-lunch/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:45:35 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=105 Well let’s get the pleasantries out the way first, Merry Christmas ( or Happy Holidays as some people prefer ;) ) to all . As always our family gathered and we had quite a serious feast. I decided to whip out the macro lens and get some shots of the food. I think they turned out OK, but I am still struggling to get the depth of field correct on my shots, tips anyone?

]]> http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-christmas-lunch/feed/ 4 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 2009 SA Open at Pearl Valley http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-2009-sa-open-at-pearl-valley/ http://www.badphotographer.com/2009/12/the-2009-sa-open-at-pearl-valley/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:47:40 +0000 Donald Jackson http://www.bad-photographer.com/?p=76 Being the golf nut that I am, I made a trip down to the SA Open at Pearl Valley this year for the 3rd round. We followed around Eduardo Molinari for a few holes. On the 10th hole he hit it in the right fairway bunker and I thought this would be an opportunity to test out the drive mode of my camera and get an action shot. I was using the borrowed Canon 70-210mm which I am not as accustomed to as my own lens but it still did the job.

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