Falcon 50 Cockpit - HDR

One of the frustrations faced by new photographers is that their cameras often don't record the image that they appear to be seeing. With practice and understanding how a camera sees the world, most people can start to achieve the image they are truly after but we should remember that digital cameras never see the full range of tones in a high contrast scene that we see with our own eyes.

A technique which is proving ever more popular is HDR photography. The idea is simple, shoot a range of images at different exposures that cover the whole brightness range of the image, then combine them to produce an image which shows detail from the darkest points to the brightest points in the image.

I'm still very new to HDR and haven't yet got to grips with tone mapping, but every so often I'll have a go to try to learn a little more.

Recently there was the opportunity to photograph the cockpit area of a Falcon 50 business jet, a good opportunity to try some HDR.

Shown below are just three photos from a series of seven that I took. As you can see at one end of the scale the cockpit detail is virtually black whilst the world outside the cockpit is acceptable, at the other end of the scale the cockpit is slightly overexposed whilst the world outside the cockpit is completely blown out with overexposure. By taking seven images at various exposures I had covered the full brightness range of the image.



Once the seven images were combined using HDR software the following image was produced. Whilst HDR isn't to everyones taste, and this is only a very quick rough and ready example, it does demonstrate what can be achieved.

A second HDR example

Midland Offroad Club - Buildwas Comp Safari

Following the frustrations of not being able to get off his drive during the earlier snowfall of this year, a friend has recently purchased an eBay special, a cheap little 4x4, just to cover such eventualities.

As the 4x4 has subsequently turned out to be an incredible snow repellent (not a hint of the white stuff since its purchase) he decided to take it along to a 4x4 open day hosted by Midland Offroad Club at Buildwas, just to experience a bit of specialist driving.

Many of you who know me, will understand that I rarely pass up the opportunity to attend a motorsport event, even if I'm not officially working on it. Therefore when my friend mentioned that a Comp Safari had been organised as part of the weekend, I just had to pop along with the camera.

The organising team were a friendly bunch, and I was allowed to 'sign on' despite not arranging anything in advance. Whilst the number of entrants was quite low, they did all appear to be enjoying themselves.

The following are just a few photos from the days activities.

Further details of the Midland Offroad Club activities can be found at Midland Offroad Club - Home

Horiba D'Isis 2011

Organised by Quinton Motor Club, the Horiba D'Isis Stages Rally has been using the specialist roads of MIRA for 17 years.

By its very nature the Motor Industries Research Association proving ground is a very sensitive location, where cameras are generally banned so I consider it a privelage to be one of the invited and trusted photographers allowed to work on this event.

Capturing rally cars in action on tarmac is always a challenge as you don't have the muck and dirt flying around like you would in a forest, but as you can see in the following images, MIRA still provides plenty of photographic opportunities.

I would just like to say a big thank you to the organising team from Quinton Motor Club and the staff at MIRA for once again inviting me along.

Air To Air With Spirit Of Safety I

Making a welcome return to Halfpenny Green Airfield during April 2011 were two Lightship A60s in the shape of the Goodyear liveried G-HLEL and G-TLEL.

Once home to part of the Lightship Co, A60+ Blimps were a regular site at Halfpenny Green in many different advertising schemes but G-HLEL is the first to return for a number of years.

Unfortunately during its stay at Halfpenny Green the weather precluded most of the flights for G-HLEL Spirit Of Safety II but for sister ship Spirit Of Safety I the weather was a lot kinder and allowed some extensive flying on Monday 11th April.

During a very short window of time I was lucky to get airbourne to do a few air to air shots on what turned out to be G-TLELs last vip flight from Halfpenny Green before moving on.

A very big thank you to Steve for getting me airbourne and to the pilot of G-TLEL that allowed us to fly alongside and make the following images possible.

Cheltenham Festival.....Without The Horses

Every March Cheltenham Racecourse plays host to the Cheltenham Festival Meeting, the most prestigious meeting on the National Hunt racing calendar. Usually incorporating St Patricks day the festival attracts a large number of fans as well as many corporate visitors.

With its own dedicated heliport, many of the corporate guests choose to arrive by air and beat the surrounding traffic jams. With all this frenetic aerial activity packed into a few hours each day before the racing commences, it offers some good photographic opportunities.

As most fans headed into the racecourse I made an early start and headed up to the heliport in the hope of getting some ‘stock’ corporate helicopter shots. Though the sun never really played ball I still managed to get some reasonable images.

By the time the first race started I was already in my car and on my way home, reflecting on Cheltenham 2011. Perhaps this year the recession had started to hit, as there were only three or four Irish registered helicopters present, there seemed less helicopter generally and there appeared to be more space in the event car parks and grandstands. One thing was for sure though, the atmosphere still remained.

The largest helicopter present was the Sikorsky S76. During the week quite a few made an appearance including pairs from JCB and Air Harrods along with a brace of Manx registered examples.

Arguably the prettiest type present at Cheltenham was the AgustaWestland A109, various examples are shown below.

Other types present included the Eurocopter EC135, a shape more normally associated with either Police or Air Ambulance operations.

The SA365 Dauphin..

The EC155, a much updated and newer genration helicopter with takes its heritage from the AS365 Dauphin

The EC120, another Eurocopter product

AS355 Ecureuil

Bell 206 Jet Ranger

And Bell 206 Long Ranger

The latter Long Ranger G-LVDC had only emerged from the paint shop at the start of the week and looked immaculate with its fresh paint job. Rumour has it that the registration stands for Large Vodka Diet Coke !

Lotus Evora 414 Evolution - Geneva 2011

During February I undertook a commission to photograph specific details of an automotive exhibit that was bound for the 81^st International Motor Show in Geneva.

Right up until walking into the design workshop on the morning of the shoot I knew the marque of car involved, but very little else.

I can now reveal that the car in question was the cutaway hybrid Evora 414Evolution exhibit, which showcases the advanced series hybrid drivetrain, the production Lotus Range Extender and intelligent HALOsonic technology.

To maintain client confidentiality the only photos exhibited below, are two examples that were actually distributed by LOTUS as part of their press release.

As a photographer it makes a nice change to see the photos being used as only too often we never get to see the end results of our work.

Further images from this shoot along with full details of the reveloutionary 414 Evolution can be found at Lotus Cars - Lotus Evora414evolution

Its Like Marmite

The results of HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography / Tonemapping are very much like marmite, you either love them or hate them.

The whole HDR process is new to myself and so far has proved complex, challenging and also very frustrating. Armed with a number of books just dedicated to this form of photography I'm slowly getting to grips with the basics, although I don't claim to have a deep technical understanding of the process yet. The one thing I am sure of, personally I love the effects that it offers, especially some of the more extreme results.

During some recent construction site photography I picked out a few images that I thought might just prove interesting after the HDR / Tonemapping treatment. After an hour on the computer the results are below, see what you think.

Has Fotopic gone for good this time ?

Like many photographers I started using fotopic to host 'fun' image galleries that were easy for people to view.
The initial intention with fotopic was as a stop gap until such time as I had a full web site up and running, but as time moved on I put it to use in a different role, a gallery of images form Halfpenny Green Airfield.
On several occasions the gallery has crashed or been unavailable, but this has generally been down to technical glitches at fotopic. Now though, just as the number of followers seems to be growing it looks like fotopic has shut down once and for all.
Optimistically I'm hoping that I'll click on my favourites and the site will reappear, but in truth its not looking good....

Here We Go ! - Welcome To The Perspective-i Blog

After much consideration, I have finally taken the plunge and started a blog.

Initially posts will be a little slow as I'm going to spend a bit of time getting to grips with the layout, customizing the template and generally getting used to the idea of running a blog.