With the trip up to Ben Ledi cancelled last weekend at the last minute I was determined to get out an about. I couldn’t think of many places to go that I hadn’t walked a thousand times before and a few people suggested various walks around Glasgow but at the end of the day I wanted something simple. I ended up walking from the bottom end of Victoria Road to the Peoples Palace (a quick stop there to see the video my Grandad is in) and then along the Clyde cyclepath. The idea was to follow the cycle path as far as I could and once I stopped for lunch I could wither turn back or work out some other way of getting back to the city centre. It didn’t work out that way.

The walkway heads out towards the SECC from Glasgow Green. Over the last wee while they have been upgrading the riverside walkway from the Casino onwards and instead of my usual walk along dusty roads without sight of the water I strolled along the shiny path instead. Everything was going great until the Fire Brigade’s search and rescue boat went rushing past. It was only out for some practice so I thought I’d catch a shot of it as it flew back down the river but with my 50mm lens on my camera I wouldn’t get close enough to it so out came my 70-300mm lens. I’d just changed the lenses over and was admiring the sun shining on the Armadillo when a ball came out from nowhere (or the SECC car park if you want to get technical) hitting my shoulder and knocking my 50mm lens out of my hand. It hit the ground and fell into two pieces.

It wasn’t their fault really as they we’re on the other side of the road and I had seen them so was aware they were there. It didn’t stop me from shouting blue murder at them though. I spent the next 20 minutes sitting beside The Ferry trying to put it back together. I was that pissed off that despite only being about 45 minutes into my walk I gave up and headed back into the city centre to see if the guys at Merchant City Cameras would be able to save my day and fix it. It turns out that the parts cost more than the lens sells for at retail and they didn’t even attempt to put it back together. I gave up completely and jumped on the first bus home.

I think the bus made it to Fernhill before I gave up and thought I’d try and have another go at putting it back together and it clicked at the first attempt. It works and doesn’t fall apart when you hold it upside down which is always a bonus. The focus isn’t as sharp as it once was but it made me one happy bunny to see it working again!

I’m a little late in day for this what with it being nearly the end of January. My excuse is that before the new year my camera died and the new one only turned up a few days before the bells rang. I didn’t have the time or the patience at that point to think about where I wanted to go with it this year never mind learn a new camera. So hear goes nothing.

Blatently nicked from Mostly Lisa

1. I will learn how to use my camera.

I never got my head around the 300D so I figure now that I’ve actually got a *new* camera rather than a very well used second hand I should actually learn how to use it. I should probably find the manual if I’m going to do that though…

2. I will not use the Auto setting on my camera.

It’s something I never used on the 300D. I don’t know why but I started with Aperture Priorty mode I never really moved it out of there. I never had the manual for the 300D so never worked out what most of the buttons did so I only ever tweaked the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. I know that’s the big three but that’s as far as I went. With the 500D it’s far easier to change the other settings and it scared me enough on occasion when I had to get a photo just right to throw it on to auto and hope for the best. I need to stop that.

3. I will not use on-camera flash

I hate how photos using the on-camera flash coome out. The only time I ever use it I’m either bouncing it of a bit of white card to get a little more light on the subject or when I forget my wife had used it on auto right before I pick it up.

I got my 50mm f1.8 so that I wouldn’t need to use the flash as much until such times as I can afford a decent flash unit. It’s working out quite well

4. I will not be hindered by the gear I do not have.

I’m fed up moaning that my tele is very soft at the extremes or that my kit lens is a plastic piece of crap. They all take great photos if used right. I could really do with a decent set of lamps for my light tent thingie though.

5. I will shoot in RAW

The processing speed of the 300D meant that it took an absolute age to take photos in RAW. If I was taking shots of the kids I’ll always fire a burst off and use whatever ones are in focus and look good. I felt with RAW I’d get maybe 3-4 photos in the same time I’d get 8-9 on jpeg format. The 500D is much faster though. I actually feel that it deals with them faster than the 300D dealt with jpegs. From now on when I’m taking photos that matter rather than whimsical family shots in the park I’ll start using Raw.

6. I will learn how to process my shots

I can use Lightroom and I can use Photoshop. I just don’t have the time to sit through 120 photos and working on each one individually. I need to learn ways of speeding up my work flow and actually doing more than messing with the contrast and saturation without devoting an entire afternoon to Photoshopping one photo.

7. I will share my photos with others on the web

Most of my photos end up as friends only on Flickr. I’m working on getting the balls to widen that net for the decent shots.

8. I will accept critiques of my work.

To be honest 7, 8 and 10 all roll into one for me. I joined the DPS forums a while ago but over time stopped visiting and being part of the community. Part of that community gives critiques of work if you want it. Although I’ve started going back there and sharing some of my shots I’m not asked for advice or thoughts on any of my work. That’s going to change.

9. I will set goals and be proactive about my photography career

I’m not looking at photography as a future job. It’s a hobby that will hopefully help me with my job but it won’t actually be my job. I have standards to keep to in the coming months and I need to get my finger out to attain them. It’s been a good while since I used my camera for anything more that photographing the kids so that is my first one. Getting the skills I already have back into shape and honing the skills that I will need the most over the coming months.

10. I will connect with other photographers

Going back to the previous answers. The DPS forums are a good start for me and I know of a few local photographers that are always up for helping out with technical questions. These will be the base from which I learn from and all that flowery nonsense. We’ll build from the once I’m more comfortable with my camera and skills.

So that’s that. It’s not a tough list but one that is going to mean a lot of work none the less. Time to get my finger out!

I’ve spent countless hours hunting for a bit of blogging software that could pull photos from my Flickr account and put them into a page that looks good. Most of the software I’ve tried in the past has meant re-uploading the photos again to my own server and having to code my own exif retreaver. This really annoyed me.

Recently though I found Flogr. It’s everything I ever wanted in photoblogging software. It even links in with Flickr’s commenting system to display those as well as the correct exif data, photo titles and descriptions. All I need to do is throw a photo in to a set put aside for my photoblog and it is automatically picked up by the software. I love it!

Just before Christmas my beloved 300D died. The autofocus sub assembly broke causing every photo I took to have the bottom two thirds blanked out. Thanks to Santa however a replacement was found in the shape of a 500D. It’s great but I’m having to relearn a lot of post processing work as I was used to the results that the 300D gave me straight from the camera. Photos are very soft and in dire need of sharpening and slight colour correction once they get thrown into Lightroom. The results are great however.

Still trying to work on the white balance settings on the 500D but it makes for some nice photos of the family.

The cats seemed to like the snow at first but Horatio seems to live on the top of the fence now.

I went to pick up my camera earlier tonight only to find it had died.

Apparently it’s a common problem on the Canon 300D. The sub-mirror won’t retract when it’s taking a shot and so all I get is a photo that is black on two-thirds of it.

It can be fixed. I could fix it even. I’m get the feeling though that it’s going to cost an armand a leg to fix even though all it takes is a paperclip if I was brave enough to dig past the flash board and it’s capacitors.

Ho hum.