Interesting iris pattern effect in the background... Or is that something you're adding post production?
Morning Ken, I haven't seen anything like that in the short time I have been into photography. I always wanted to get good bokah but put it down to me being rubbish or the cheep lenses I used? Not sure I like the effect or I can do anything about it? Most of those shots are at 600mm wide open so that's probably why?
When the specular highlights in the background are out of focus, they're picking up the shapes of structures inside the lens and projecting them onto the bright points, in the same way that sometimes lens flare is octagonal (or however many blades there are in the iris). It's like a little camera obscura. you'll find that at different f stops, the pattern will change, or disappear completely. It's an effect most often seen with mirror lenses. Really soft bokeh is more in the realms of the fast lenses, f2 and faster. That's when you get the small depth of field and flat plane focus for the true 'bokeh' look. The number of blades on the iris makes a difference there too. The more blades there are, the smoother the edge of the aperture, the less visible any artifacts such as the ones above are. Remember that 'wide open' at 600mm on this monster is still f6.3... Christ, I shoot landscapes at f6.3...
Early morning Sunday spin, on the new bike. Round a corner and cows crossing. Farming - cows, mud and dung, and getting up early.
And another one from today; Local sprint racing through a short section of lovely twisties. Did not have my camera with me but had the iPhone 5 s. Just prefocus on the bit of road and wait for bikes/cars to arrive.
I've been scanning negs... God almighty, film was awful (I can say that here. None of my customers are reading). Beginning to find some of the classics though. And one or two that earned me a few bob... Group B, anyone?
Lancia S4 the car that killed group B..... I miss those days do you know who was driving Alen/ Toivonen?
It's Markku Alen, en route to Clumber on the last day of the 1986 RAC, so it's actually on the day that Group B died. Later on I was stood in the press enclosure on the last bend of the last stage and stayed there until the last Group B car crossed the line. Ericsson had taken Toivonen's place for the second half of the year but had retired before this point.
A fair few. It was my thing, in the day. They are deep, deep in the filing cabinets of my mis-spent youth that reside in the loft. It will be a while before I work my way down to them. This one was in my desk, which was why it got done so quickly. I've sold copies of it to a couple of magazines in the past and I like to keep cash cows close to hand.
I had a point n shoot compact back in the day and went to watch the 85 RAC Rally in the local welsh forest (Margam stage) and it was early evening and all you could see in the forest was lights coming towards you and going away from you. I was snapping cars as they went pass and swinging the camera across my body to capture whatever I could. When I got the pics developed I got the top of the wing and windscreen of a Peugeot 205 T16 with T.Salonen across the wing. This was the year which he won it before getting a contract drive for Peugeot in 86. If I can find the pics I'll pop them up on here. Also witnessed one of the BL drivers in the Metro 6R4 overtake and accelerate like a bastard up "Bryn Hill" between the service check point in Maesteg up to the entry to Margam forest and get nicked for the privilege! Had pics of that car in the stage too.
Everything was going well until it got close to totality. Then the focusing sensor said "Feck off! It's a quarter past three. Go to frigging bed!"
Yeh I couldn't get a picture once it was very close to totality. Could just haven very tired thoug. Great picture mate.
