A change

This blog is now on a hiatus while I focus more on astrophotography. My astrophotography site can be accessed by clicking this text.

A goose, traffic and opportunities

Transport [18 of 52], a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

I'm taking a rather philosophical approach to this post, and hope that I come across how I intend to.

This week, my photography theme has been 'Transport' - to be honest, a pretty dull subject at face value. Cars, trains, buses, planes? all just part of every day life, things we take for granted, things that aren't out of the ordinary or exciting.

I had a few plans, but nothing stood out, so I decided to play it by ear.

Change subject now, and back toward the beginning of the month (and year) I was thinking a lot about resolutions. I was going to do a post solely based on New Years resolutions, as it seems to be the fad that sweeps the nation within the first week of the year. I gave them a lot of thought, but nothing really came up that was worth writing about. However, in the past few days, I have decided what one of my 'resolutions' is going to be. Carry my camera with me as often as I can.

This became evident over the past 48 hours. Today is Wednesday, and back on Monday during my preparation for work - I ALMOST picked up my camera to take with me, as the roads are snowy, the fields are white and everything is looking rather picturesque. Of course, I didn't take it. On that mornings commute to work, I passed many views that I'd love to get a photo off, my whole commute was during the sunrise and the light was bouncing all over the place. Then, I was driving along next to a field, and I saw something sticking out of the snow. I get closer, and realise it's a goose. One lonely goose, sat among the snow, in the middle of a white field. I have no idea why it was there, I have no idea what it was doing, resting? To add to the scene, the field behind the goose rose and then dipped, causing the 'horizon' to be a perfect white line where the snow met the sky. I wanted to stop and get a photo, but thought there would be no point, even with my phone - the quality wouldn't be good enough and I'd be disappointed. If only I'd had my camera with me...

So yesterday, Tuesday, I have a day at university. I put my camera in my bag, and go on my way. I took a dozen or so shots before I'd even made it there that fit the weeks theme (one of which is shown above). The photo I ended up posting, I could only have got if I had my camera, so really, I made that photo happen by giving it the opportunity to happen.

It gave me some perspective of things, and made me realise, that good 'luck', or the interesting things in life, only happen if you give them the opportunity. Almost as if you have to meet them half way, put that effort in and you'll be rewarded. I guess this applies to many things, the more you put in, the more you get out.

So since then, my resolution has changed, from taking my camera everywhere I go, to make these opportunities happen as much as I can, say yes more and try and 'do' instead of 'do not'.

How to photograph and stack star trails (indoors)

Meteor on the right

Star trails have been something I've wanted to photograph since I first became aware of them around a year ago. The patience of spending all night in the garden with your camera in the freezing cold put me off slightly, but lately due to a clear window and some clear skies, I've managed to get the same results indoors.

This guide will briefly (and as simply as I can) explain the process I took to get these results by stacking multiple images together to create one final long-exposure image.

The first step is to set the camera up. For these images I use continuous shoot mode, with 30 second exposure and a low ISO (around 400) to keep the grain down. I'll set the aperture once the camera is pointing at the sky as it depends on how dark/light the sky is.

I've been taking my latest star trail shots through a back window in a spare room. By positioning the tripod against the wall, I can get the camera as close to the window as possible (try make sure the window is clean too!). Adding a bit of support to the tripod legs to stop any movement or slippage during the night. 

Once my shutter speed, shooting mode ISO are set, and I'm happy with the aperture, I use a wired external remote with locking switch to begin shooting. Continuous shoot mode will continually take shots while the remote button is pressed.

I'll then, usually, go to bed. You will usually find the camera silent in the morning, having drained all battery life. I've been told that when the sensor is activated is when the camera uses the most power, so continuous shots drain it pretty quick - however you should still get 5 - 7 hours of shooting out of a full charge (on my Canon 1000D anyway).

I'll then review the photos on screen, checking every 15 - 30 shots for clouds. Some trails I have had to cut short as clouds tend to come along after a few hours, in this case, I'll discard these from the final edit.

To stack the good images I use a program on the Macbook called Starstax (will add a link). This program, simply put, takes all the photos you select and stacks them together. Very simple to use indeed so no real need to explain further in this.

The stacking will show you each image as it stacks it, 2 or 3 per second, which is interesting to watch as you can see your photo gradually building up - star trails gradually getting longer. Occasionally you may see a plane fly past, or if you're lucky a meteor suddenly appear. By watching the stacking process you can also identify any shots that need touching up, for example last night I had to edit 4 or 5 photos after noticing a neighbour used a spotlight, thus filling the shot with an over-exposed foreground and bit of lens flare. A quick touch up in Photoshop on these images quickly solves this. If you chose not to touch these up, and simply delete these images, you will have gaps in your trails.

Once the stacking is complete, you can save the final image onto your computer.

2 hours 38 minutes

I tend to open the final image in Photoshop to see if it needs any touching up or colours fixed. I generally make the sky a little darker black/blue as so much exposure can make it pretty light/purple. I may also touch up the light pollution at the bottom of the shot.

I'm now pretty confident with this process, but am continuing to play around with different angles and parts of the sky. I'm also trying to hunt down some meteors of course ;-)

Summer's here

Taking in the Sun, a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

So summer turned up, and judging by the weather out the window it's gone away again.

Having spent a few weeks looking after Cheryl's sisters cats, we've returned home and decided to think about decorating. No plans have been made yet other than the plan to make plans. We now have an almost clear spare room which we can do as we please with, so will start once we find the time and colour.

The weather has been nice, we went to Legoland last week for the day. It was good, a 6 hour ambush of children running around and the constant feeling of being under a spotlight from the rather intense heat. The weather said it would be cloudy, such lies.

Since then the house has been too hot to sleep in, everyone complains about how the summer in England is rubbish, then we complain it's too hot when it finally turns up!

In other news, I've finished the second book of Game of Thrones, which is still a brilliant read. I'm now reading something a little lighter to have a rest from all the medieval shenanigans before I start on the third.

I've become a little dry on the photography front lately, mainly due to doing other things. I do however have a 52 photos project coming up, which I'm sure the next blog post will give more details about. (In short, 52 photos, one per week on a given subject).

Weymouth

Weymouth Seafront, a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

So it's been a long time since I've updated here, I keep doing things and wanting to write about them but never get round to them, seems to be a trend lately.

Beginning of June we went down to (almost) sunny Weymouth for a weekend away, met up with Chris from flickr - top bloke.

Was good catching up, seeing the sights, the places I've seen on his stream etc. We also went to the sea life centre on the last day, followed by some pirate crazy golf, which was indeed piratey and crazy. I won, but Cheryl not scoring a hole may have seen otherwise.

Since we've got back, we've been maintaining a fish tank, slowly adding more fish. They seem pretty happy but the water isn't ideal just yet. Hoping to sort that before we buy the final batch.

Listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, Tribe called Quest, and still learning a few bits and pieces on guitar. Starting to get the hang of a little song on piano currently too.

This is starting to feel like an essay, which I have finished 4 of in the last month, so I'm going to stop now.

Great Easter

Well, as the Easter Holiday draws to a close, I thought I'd post a little something about how good it was. This Easter was spent looking after cats, spending time with both our families, shopping, egg hunts, and more shopping...

I've been continuing to keep on my Lego theme, and really enjoying it. Views have increased, but in different ways - I think people used to seeing landscape/animals/cat photos on my Flickr are slightly confused or surprised about the constant flow of small plastic men. However this has moved my audience into fellow Lego fans which has been great as things people have uploaded and shared have been inspiring and mostly amusing/fun.

As you can see, Cheryl let me buy the Millennium Falcon Lego set, which I must say (although expensive) is well worth the money. The build was fun, theres a lot of detail, and it's pretty big too for the price (along with some cool figures), I am hoping to get some photos of it soon when I get the time.

We spent 2 hours last night putting it together, and then spent a little time afterwards playing with it. I'm looking forward to the weekend when I can round up the troops and plan an attack on Cheryl while she has a lay in.

We set up an egg hunt for my niece Connie, who seemed to really enjoy it, using the clues to find the next eggs etc. and managed to do a little hunt in the garden even though it was a bit wet.

Of course, Cheryl put her skills to good use and made some Easter cakes, which looked really good and tasted even better.

It's been nice having the time off work, and having another 3 day weekend at the end of this week which will be nice too. We've also started reading more - I've started reading The Game of Thrones, which is 800+ pages of small tiny text, which I'm about 250 pages in to (and pretty hooked). While Cheryl is reading/has read the Hunger Games, which we are going to go watch in the cinema this evening! Good times!

Lego

Build a Droid, a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

Been a while since last post (probably said that in most of my blog entries so I don't know why I bother really). Me and Cheryl have just had 2 weeks off work, the first week was spent in Livigno, Italy (snowboarding). The second, we didn't do a lot, just lazed around, made a cake for Cheryl's dad, I did a presentation at university which concluded my second term and that was pretty much all. But it's nice to have some time off to just not do anything.

As far as photography goes, the last few weeks have been pretty much Lego orientated. Moving from minifigures to Star Wars figures and from a small box studio to outside in the garden. I have seen progression in my photos using the mini-studio, getting the hang of changing the lighting and aperture to make the shots come out like I imagine (attached image is one of my favourites).

Last night I was called up to the local Fire station, to take some photos of the fire crew before they part ways - the village station is being shut down due to budgets etc. (same as everywhere else in the country). It was nice to get out and try put my photography knowledge under some pressure to produce results, and I'm reasonably happy with how the photos came out.

I have fallen behind with my running, but have started it up again (slowly catching up with my goal - 17 miles behind! - was 21).

Not a lot coming up that I know of, but I'm thinking of going away for a weekend sometime with Cheryl - a mini getaway.

(judging by this post I use brackets too often)

A New Look

I have decided to enhance this blog/site, add more to it, contribute to it more. I have recently got rid of my Facebook as I found I really didn't feel the need to keep it. I found it a bit odd that people I haven't seen for years (since school) were able to see what I was doing - not that I put a lot on there.  So it brings me here - back to a blog that I haven't been on for coming up to a year.

Eye see you, a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

With 2012 sneaking up quickly and already being way into the second month - I have been trying to get back into the hobbies I enjoy doing. I've recently started getting back into photography a hell of a lot more. I've bought a few new tools to expand my horizons and parameters - a couple of macro tubes to help me zoom in, a macro 'flash' which is pretty much a ring of LED's that attaches to the front of the lens. Both of these used for the featured image of the eye. It's a shame about the white ring from the flash showing in the reflection, but I was still kinda happy with it.
Another 'challenge' I have 'stupidly' given myself for 2012 is to run 212 (2012 - get it?) miles... I've been running a few years, but never consistently throughout the whole 12 months. I've been out a few times, but due to the snow we've had recently I've not been out. I'm currently 4.16 miles behind my target - having run 18.89 miles so far (thanks to Nike+ for stats!) but with a few runs when the snow clears I should be back on track.

Cheryl is also starting a blog for her cakes (finally) it'll be a great place to showcase her huge amount of awesomely decorated cakes! Will post a link on here when it's up.

Lou Reed

Not been blogging for a long time, but had to state yesterday was a brilliant day.

Had a lie in, went and did some food shopping, had a BBQ, then drove up to London to watch Lou Reed. Awesome day, Lou Reed was brilliant, so glad I got tickets to see him.

I've also been to London to see Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire. And we also went to see the Lion King at the theatre, which is also brilliant.

I'm going to see Primus next week, then that's all my concerts done for the time being!

Me and Cheryl on some boxes

Me and Cheryl on some boxes a video by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

March was pretty busy, I went to South of France on another snowboarding holiday, just for 5 days this time but was nice to get away. Video attached is of us doing some boxes (Cheryl doing them for the first time).

In the past week I have moved offices and jobs, I am now in a quiet office with 5 other people, rather than an open planned office with 50+ others, so that's a nice change.

Mothers day weekend has just gone, was nice, had a nice meal with the whole family last night and now back to work Monday morning, brilliant... (not really.)

Second colour added

Second colour added a photo by CJ Isherwood on Flickr.

After painting the entire board gloss black, I masked the edges and painted this red stripe down the middle. I have also painted further stripes, which will be in the next update. Again using the same masking technique and spray paint.

Paint it, Black

Paint it, Black a photo by Chris Isherwood on Flickr.

After I'd sanded/cleaned it down, I added 4 layers of white primer as a base layer.

I then added 2 layers of this black gloss paint

Post Sanding

Post Sanding a photo by Chris Isherwood on Flickr.

So, once the board has been sanded down taking the surface off, taking away the plastic/gloss-like finish, I have filled the binding holes with cotton buds to prevent paint getting in and clogging them up.

Next step is the primer, which will give the base layer and help stick the paint to the board. I will be using all surface white primer.

Snowboard Paint Job

Snowboard Paint Job a photo by Chris Isherwood on Flickr.

Been pretty busy lately, booked a second boarding holiday this season, this time we're going to south of France for 5 days riding. Also bought 2 new (well, second hand) snowboards.

I decided to give one of the boards a new look, I bought the pictured board and another board for £80 second hand. The board is pretty old, has a few notches in it through wear and tear, but overall not bad condition.

I did a little research online on how to do it, and went and bought a few bits and pieces. I bought some primer, masking tape, and some black paint for the base start (came to about £15 total).

Firs step... sanding it down.

What's up

Great Orion Nebula
Originally uploaded by Chris Isherwood

Took this photo the other night of the Orion constellation, and the little fuzzy patch just below the middle of the shot is the Great Orion Nebula, a cloud of gasses forming new stars.

I've got the bug back for photography, and astrophotography. I have bought an adapter for my camera so I can attach it to my telescope and get some sturdier and hopefully better shots of the moon and planets. In the long run I'd love to look into long exposures and getting some shots of deep space objects.

Other news is I may be buying 1 or 2 second hand snowboards, probably for use on the dry slope. I'm thinking of painting/designing my own artwork on one of them, but will probably need to spend a fortune on the materials etc.

Boarding again?

A pause for chips
Originally uploaded by Christopher Isherwood

Well, I have reset myself back into my usual routine after returning from Austria. It didn't take long, and in all honesty wasn't as bad as I thought originally, probably because things have been going above average recently. Things are moving at a pace I'd like them to move at, maybe too fast if anything.

Work has got busier, social life has got busier, and things I need to do has gone up. I'm working on a video using all the footage I got from Austria and I've got nowhere with it as it takes time, which I seem to have little of right now. But, I'm not complaining, it's nice doing things all the time, it gives you less time to sit around thinking too much.

As for what's coming up, we've been looking at another boarding holiday in March, possibly France this time, though time will tell on that one. Also looking to go away in May somewhere nice, I've got my eye on Dubai but will need to look into it a little more.

Some other things I've done, I got a new windscreen on my car, I've watched a lot of good movies (The Prestige - good stuff), I've made a Katsu Curry, I bought a new keyboard for my netbook as it broke, annnnnd I'm going for Sushi tonight.

Back from Austria

Stoopid Boarders
Originally uploaded by Christopher Isherwood

So after 7 full days boarding, and 1 day shopping, we returned from our holiday in Austria.

The snow was sufficient for the first few days, but the brilliant sunshine made things real nice. The last 2 days we got more, which allowed us to do some full top to bottom off-piste runs.

The accomodation at Chalet Alex was real nice, food was great and people there where real friendly, and our big quad room had plenty of space for our gear.

All of our boarding improved greatly, and I think we all gained confidence in our ability which helps quite a lot.

Smile

Sea hits the sky
Originally uploaded by Christopher Isherwood

Never has one person made me smile so much.

Hello 2011

So, 2010 is leaving and 2011 is coming. It's been an interesting year, a few lows, a lot of highs, I think if 2011 is similar to 2010 I won't complain, but I'll be hoping (naturally) that it shall be better. A main part of 2010 has been snowboarding, I feel I've improved a lot, learnt a few new things and in general got a lot more involved with it.

Its 2 weeks exactly until we (me, Cheryl, Mark and Ben) go to Austria, my GoPro HD Helmet cam (with wide angle lens) was delivered yesterday and it's super sweet, so will get some good footage with that. They seem to have had a lot of snow recently, so should be some good conditions out there. We're looking at doing some freestyle course if there are some going, to work on a few techniques and get Cheryl out of her comfort zone a bit.

Boarding Summary
In 2010 I've ridden switch, learnt to land frontside 180's comfortably, managed a few backside 180's, done an indy, melon, roast beef, tindy. Also learnt to butter, tail press and have nailed a few tail blocks too. Also done some frontside and backside boardslides and 50-50's.

In 2011 I want to be more comfortable with backside 180's, nail a few more rails, and get some more air off kickers.

Almost Christmas...

Tail Block in the garden :-)
Originally uploaded by Christopher Isherwood

...and not long til I go away to Austria. There is now 4 of us heading out there in January, and all sharing 1 room which will be cozy.

We fought through snow and traffic last Friday to get to Milton Keynes and use the indoor slope. Was freestyle night so got a few rails/rainbow rails in the bag, managed half a backside boardslide, but I want to work on my confidence with rails, as really enjoy doing them.

Have had a real nice weekend just gone, was snowed in with a special friend so watched a few movies and stayed in bed for the most of it. Built a rather huge snow man so the weekend was a little productive in the end.