I was recently looking out for some white vinyl background to replace the muslin sheet I’ve been using. I managed to get some from an unlikely source. At Christmas I found a company in Glasgow that supplies vinyl for the sides of HGV trailers. lastolite have a wipe-clean vinyl background which I think is almost £200 for 2.5 metres by about 6 metres. I managed to get a roll of white vinyl for around £40 for 3 metres by 7 metres, even with the £30 delivery, this still represents a significant saving.

So how did it perform?

It’s heavy, I needed help to fit the thick card roll onto my background stand.

At 7 or 8 metres there is plenty to form a good length train. The setup above is in my front room. I used my older eBay (Hong Kong) lights on the background & the newer Elinchroms as the main flash. Note the card spill-killer boards clamped to the background lights to prevent light straying on to the model.

Unfortunately, I found the battery on my flash meter had run out & being as they take a non-standard sized battery I was a bit stuck, so I had to use the old fashioned way, setting the light power & checking the shots until I had a decent combination of aperture & shutter speed. hapily, it only took a couple of shots to sort. I hooked up the camera to my laptop & shot tethered so that Laura could instantly see the results of her modelling.

We even got Tess in on the action, although she’s not the most confident of models.

All in all, I’m really pleased with the new background. It will be a useful addition to my studio kit.

Posted under Photo Equipment, Photo Shoots

On the 14th February Hertfordshire travelled to Birmingham University to face the toughest challenge of their season so far. The Lions are the current BUAFL champions & haven’t lost a league game for several years.

The day didn’t start well with poor weather & rain enveloping the south east. Surprisingly as I got further up the M1, the sun started to come out. The game started in bright sunshine, though this varied throughout the gaem, it stayed dry.

Sadly, the challenge was too great for the Hurricanes to meet & it soon became clear that their rivals were equal to their reputation. The Lions ended up victors by 44 to 12.

If the Hurricanes advance to the playoffs, the chances are that they will meet the Lions again. If they do, they’ll have to put a stop to the silly little errors which plagued their game.

The new camera was a joy to use & I can’t wait until the summer season where the weather is the same throughout the whole game.

I love the first shot which captures a facemasking penalty in glorious technicolor.

you can see the rest of the game shots on my old website.

On the 7th February the Hertfordshire Hurricanes started the second half of their season by hosting the Southampton Stags.

This was a bit of a tester for me as it was the first time I’d used the brand new Canon 1D MkIV, a camera I’d had less than a week.

It certainly was a different experience being able to fire off 10 shots a second rather than 3.9. But it does take some getting used to. I’ll do a better report when I get some time.

The Hurricanes won the game 26-0 continuing their winning season.

Just popped into the garden to test out the 600mm with a Canon 1.4 converter.

I was really pleased to get the Black Cap which is a rare visitor to our garden. The Blackbird shot isn;t cropped at all, it was a shame it only perched nexty to the green wire feeder as it would have been better looking like it was in a more ‘natural’ setting.

In needed to take my 600mm lens back to Canon in January as I’d lost the little nut which holds the collar on. The service centre is just down the road in Elstree.

On the way back I stopped off at Tyttenhangar Gravel Pits to make sure the lens was working OK. There wasn’t any wildlife about due to the snow, so I tested it on the local flora.

The little white dots you can see are snow flakes, not sensor dust!

Back in November we celebrated the first birthday of our beloved Border Collie, Tess.

Invites were sent out to her dog-walking pals & the party took place on the local common. She had five friends attend her party.

It absolutely poured down at the start. We arrived at the common & I realised I’d left the camera batteries on charge so had to go back home to get them. By the time we got back the rain had died down.

Doggy gifts were received & party cake & treats were eaten, a fun time was had by all.

In December I was tasked to cover a 5oth Birthday party. The brief was simply to take photos of the guests as they arrived & capture some shots during the evening.

I used the 5D MkII with the 24-105 f4 L lens & a Canon EF 580II flashgun. Additionally, as a light-softening measure I used a Gary Fong Lightsphere attached to the top of the flashgun.

The following were taken at the wider end of the lens with the camera held up in the air & poitning downwards, a bit hit & miss.

I took some shots hand-held but had to up the ISO levels, so you can see more noise in these shots.

An overdue update as I seem to be getting behind with my orders, so to speak.

This one was from Sunday 22nd November 2009, when I travelled down to Greenwich via a very wet M25 to shoot the Hurricanes’ third match of the season. Driving conditions were atrocious & I was fully expecting a completely rain-soaked game, but by the time kickoff came round the sun was out.

The Hurricanes took their first defeat of the season losing a hard-fought battle 20 to 19, how close can you get?

You can see from the selection of shots the differing lighting conditions; bright sunlight, overcast sky & into twilight. Of for the 2010 summer season with brightness & blue skies all game!

I went for the first walk of the new year with my family a few days ago. We popped up to Therfield Heath near Royston. It was the first visit for our one-year-old Border Collie, Tess.

The skies were blue but the weather was very cold.

All shots taken with the 24-105 F4 L.

I was quite pleased with the last shot which is a self-portrait. Holding a 5D MkII with a battery grip & 24-105mm attached in one hand & getting such a perfect composition was probably more luck than judgement.

New Year’s Eve saw a ‘blue moon’. The name has nothing to do with the colour of the moon but is the origin of the phrase ‘one in a blue moon’ to mean a rare event because the blue moon only occurs once every 2 to 3 years & is the 13th full moon in a twelve month period.

Usually there are 12 full moons a year, but as the calendar year includes an extra 11 days over & above the usual 28-day cycle for full moons, these accumulate & mean an extra blue moon every few years.

The following shots were taken around 2.30am on the First of January 2010 & were done on the 5D MkII with the 600mm prime, additionally I stuck on the 2x & the 1.4x converters for a total focal length of 1680mm. The shots were processed slightly differently but are only slightly cropped from the originals.