BUMP! Paul's efforts

Ladies and Gentlemen...

I have taken photographs, and attempted to upload the same. Unfortunately the intertubes are currently completely clogged, and I can't get my pictures uploaded. This serves me right for only having a cheapskate GBP40/month 1Mbps broadband connection that currently and habitually runs at less than a tenth of the advertised speed.

The pictures, the EXIF, and my commentary will be available for your C&C once uploaded. I hope for tomorrow morning at the crack of sparrow-fart.

Edited 20th January.
Sunday night is absolutely the wrong time to visit a funfair. At least, it is if you want to see activity and bustling crowds; to drink in the all-pervasive smell of candy floss and toffee. It's a good night if you want to be guaranteed no queues for any of the rides.

The first shot was one of many. I tried lots of combinations of flash, shutter and aperture, different flash modes, and this one came out nicely exposed without losing the coloured funfair lights. At least as a 'still life' something wasn't changing. It is, unfortunately, a bit on the boring side.

Eventually three shabab turned up, so I got plenty of pictures of these boyz. Presented are the best two. This sort of photography is something that is so difficult to get right I'm very chuffed to get a good one. None of these are particularly stunning. Perhaps they're more of a demonstration of the principles (excuse for crap pictures).

It's interesting to note that rear synch (where the flash fires at the end of a long exposure) produces a ghostly effect. The camera has already picked up the background before reinforcing the main subject with a blitz of white light.

Slow synch is, I believe, firing the flash at the start of a long exposure. This reduces the ghost effect, but doesn't produce light trails.

Personally I like the trails on the third picture best.


Nikon D70s on tripod
Nikkor 18-200 at 31mm
1/6 sec F/4.8
SB800 flash on hotshoe



Nikon D70s on tripod
Nikkor 18-200 at 48mm
1/6 sec F/4.8
SB800 flash on hotshoe
Slow sync.


Nikon D70s on tripod
Nikkor 18-200 at 34mm
1/4 sec F/6.7
SB800 flash on hotshoe
Rear sync.

LIGHT: Paul's offerings

I stopped off in Ajman on the way back from a Barracuda run. Having spotted the funfair, I went into the mall for a snack to kill time until it was dark enough for some photos of fairground machinery. Remembering to bring the camera was a good move; what was less good was forgetting a tripod. Therefore a lot of my photos were wobbly, and the offerings below, although strictly hand-held, were abetted by my leaning against solid objects. All of the long exposures involved multiple attempts at various exposures. Aperture priority throughout, cranked down to allow long exposures. Most success seems to have come with a stop or two of under-exposure.

Octopus Merry-Go-Round
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
31mm 1/3sec F22
Hand-held

I confess to some use of the 'clone' tool in this one to get rid of a hideous light fitting. I rather like the hint of the Etisalat golf ball silhouetted against Sharjah's light pollution and picked out by red beacons. The curious coloured smears are the ride itself: a large grinning caterpillar snaking past.

Rollercoaster
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
125mm 3sec F22
Hand-held

I remembered my tripod for this next one. Unfortunately a trip through Festival Centre mall was sufficient to chill the camera, and I spent half an hour in the humid Dubai evening waiting for condensation to clear from the camera's innards.

I rather like the blurred reflections, although it is of course impossible to get a ripple effect in the water and still catch the movement of the rides.

Funfair and Reflections
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
48mm 3sec F27
Tripod

A bit of lateral thinking here. Light as in 'not heavy' rather than 'not dark'. Although the way the birds stuff themselves they're generally not very light! The three finches show successive stages of take-off.

Light as a Feather
Nikon D70S
Tamron 200-400
230mm 1/250sec F5.6
Hand-held