What a day it’s been today!

It all started a little while ago when I received an email from someone who worked at the Liverpool Daily Post newspaper telling me about a book of images they were publishing as a review of Liverpool’s year as Europe’s Capital of Culture.  It was to be a sort of year in review guide and was to feature a selection of photographs from staff photographers and those who submitted their images to the Liverpool Daily Post’s Captail of Culture 2008 Flickr group.

Since I’d been submitting some of my Flickr images to their group, I was happy to take part in the book.  There was no mention of getting paid for the use of images, but for something like this I would value taking part more.

The next thing I know, the book’s on sale at Amazon and then I get an email asking for my address so that they could send me my free copy.  This meant that they’d used at least one of my shots!

Today, the book arrived and, to my surprise, upon opening the packaging I found that not only had the cover changed from what was shown on Amazon, but they’d put two of my images onto it!

To say I was pleased is an understatement!  But then that wasn’t the end of it as opening the book onto pages 4 & 5, the first double page spread, I was presented with a pair of my panoramic Liverpool waterfront images.

Here are my shots that got into the book:

For anyone interested in getting prints, please visit my RedBubble mini-site.

Oh yeah, I also got my Canon EOS 5D today, but more on that at a later date…

:O)

On Sunday, I attended my first Flickr group meet-up in Liverpool city centre with some fellow Merseyside photographers.  It was even more of an event because I finally got to meet a couple who I’ve chatted online with for quite a while now. [Hi Sarah & Dave!]

A small number of us met for a tapas lunch which was very tasty and then went onto the German Christmas market that was being held in the city centre for a quick photo session.

I’m not used to taking candid shots or street photography so it made a change for me.  As did shooting with my 50mm lens which I’m only really starting to appreciate.  Not only does the fixed focal length mean I have to put my feet to work instead of the zoom ring, but it also forces me to think differently about the shots I might want to take.  I say ‘might’ because sometimes I’ll change my mind about a shot once I’ve seen it through the viewfinder.

One of the main things I like about the 50mm is the very shallow depth of field at f/1.4 and even at f/1.8.  The difference in bokeh compared to f/2.8 at 50mm is seemingly huge.

I’d like to see what the 50mm f/1.4 can do on a full frame camera which would allow me to get much closer to a subject for the same field of view and this is one of the reasons why I want to go full frame.

Anyway, some shots in my Liverpool set on Flickr.

After visiting Seacombe ferry terminal over the past weeks for some sunset shots of the Liverpool waterfront, I decided it would make a nice change to capture the sunrise instead especially since the sun would rise from the direction of the city centre.

I’d also just recently taken delivery of a Cokin P neutral density (ND) graduated filter set and was keen to try them out on a landscape shoot.

So, just after 7am this morning, we (I dragged my able assistant along - don’t worry, she’s a morning person!) arrived at the waterfront to find a number of other photographers already set-up and the sky was already turning a light blue.  I felt like a schoolkid arriving late for class!

Anyway, with auto-bracketing on and my new ND grads in place in front of my EF-S 17-55mm, I set about taking a series of shots with the intention of stitching them together.

Why stitch?  I could easily fit the most significant parts of the Liverpool cityscape into frame with my lens set to 17mm, but the resultant image would be too much sky and river.  There’s just not enough detail to be able to crop down a single shot so I prefer to take several and fill the frame with more buildings.

Here’s an image that’s actual comprised of 15 individual exposures - 5 sets of 3 bracketed shots tone mapped and stitched.  It’s too wide to see in full here so click it and view the original size to see it the detail.

I’m happy to say that this particular pic has been featured on the RedBubble Liverpool group.  Now, if only someone would buy a print…

It wasn’t easy, getting up so early on a weekend, but I will do it again and next time I’ll be further to right so that I can get the sunlight reflecting off the other side of the buildings.  I’ll also shoot in vertical format instead of horizontal so I can get more sky and water without losing any detail.  It means a bit more post processing, but when I’m faced with clouds and reflections like this I’d prefer to capture them.

Yesterday, 70 Superlambananas took a last stand to the public at St. Georges Plateau before being auctioned off for charity.  I went along, looking to get some shots of the Superlambananas that didn’t look like all the ones I’ve seen before.

As you can see, the exhibition was very crowded and I left St. Georges Hall somewhat disappointed that I wasn’t able to get any clear shots without people clambering all over the statues and into frame.

When I got back home and reviewed my shots, I was no happier, but that was before I turned to Photoshop…

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