Inspired by a thread over at the forums of DSLR User Magazine, I took my Canon 50mm f1.8 for a walk over the town centre this week.

It’s fixed focal length, unlike the standard zooms which come with most cameras these days, so you can’t use zooming to help compose the shot, you have to compose it by choosing the right place to stand.

It’s a great little lens, very sharp & with such a wide aperture – f1.8 – you can get some nice creative depth of field shots. The results certainly surprise considering the lens is available for around £60.

I didn’t have too long as the photography was combined with a shopping trip so the shots were all taken around Broadway Gardens in the town centre. The gardens had been known as Kennedy gardens for many years until the name change a few years ago as part of the towns 100th birthday.

Welcome to anyone who is visiting my blog as a result of all the business cards & free pens which I gave out this week! (you know who you are, and so do I!)

The least you can do – in return for the pens & cakes – is to add a comment or two to some of my posts!!

Now that I have some more time on my hands, I’ll be checking!

There must be something about walking around in public with a decent camera & a large, expensive-looking lens. Whenever I go to an event with my gear I invariably get someone ask if I’m a professional & am I from the press. If only I was earning a living from this picture taking lark!

It happened again at the Remembrance Day service. I was approached by the Events Officer for Letchworth Garden City Council. She asked whether I might be able to supply some photos for the council’s website. I duly did & you can see them on the Town Council’s website.

And a quick update on my Remembrance Day video, it’s now been seen nearly 550 times on YouTube.

I’ve been playing around with ProShow Producer, which is an excellent way of creating photo movies to display collections of shots. It can be used to create movies of all types really, not just static images although it’s described as “slideshow & presentation software”.

I created a short movie of more of the shots taken at the Remembrance Day Service & put it up on YouTube. It lasts just short of 3 minutes (enough time for the Last Post to play twice) and has had over 300 views so far.

Unfortunately the quality of YouTube videos is not great but you get the picture.

I was able to attend my local Remembrance Day Service at Letchworth Garden City again this year. The last time I was able to do so was in 2005. That last time was one of the first occasions I’d used my Canon 20D & the very first outing of my Canon 100-400mm L IS; I only bought the camera & lens at the start of November 2005.

Ironically, this year’s parade will be one of the last full shoots with the Canon 20D as I plan to replace it after Christmas.

There is usually a good turn out at Letchworth & this year was no exception. The local Army & Air Cadets head the procession and there is always a good turn out of Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Scouts & Guides.

The service was led by Roger, curate at St George’s in Letchworth who recently provided some support to my wife Jane during our recent bereavement. It was all the more poignant for us this year as Jane’s dad, Tom, died in September & was a war veteran himself.

I had two cameras with me, the 20D sporting the Sigma 50-500mm with which most shots were taken, and the Canon 300D which had my Sigma 18-55mm lens fixed.

Most of the shots taken concentrate on individuals. I stayed perched at the side of the War Memorial so didn’t get any shots from the crowd-line, but I think I was best placed for some nice shots of the people taking part.

It was hard to make a small selection of shots from this event as I was really pleased with the vast majority of them. I don’t know if that’s more a comment on the amount I shoot or the quality I shoot at.

I got asked to take a couple of shots for a budding actor’s agency profile recently.

Young Fred is 7 years old & keen to get off to an early career in adverts & filming. He attended my ‘studio’ with his mother.

The setup was two 180W studio lamps at about 45degrees fired by radio-trigger from the camera. The setup was metered with my Sekonic Flashmeter.

Unfortunately, I seem to have a problem with the radio trigger which fails to fire quite often, but we got there in the end.

You can see Fred’s profile & picture at the A & J Management website.

This post is a flashback to 2007.

In July 2007 I was taken out for the day by Digital Camera Magazine for a day’s photoshoot at Mallory Park racetrack in Leicestershire for some motor sport photography. The resulting article was published in the October 2007 issue.

I met up with two staff from DC Mag, Ben & Rachael. We had an ‘access all areas’ press pass for the day, which meant we got to take our shots trackside.

The published article was spread over 8 pages & included over 30 of my motorsport photos. This turned out to be just a small proportion as I took around 1,400 shots during the day. There were also several shots of my good self. You can see photos of the article here.