New facebook fan page

If you are over on facebook why not stop by my page and become a fan?

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Suzy-Walker-Photography/142248119589

These are some of the new photos I’ve uploaded:

New Raja Ampat uploads to the bubble

Red bubble is an online store that sells cards & prints etc… I’ve added some more to those available here:
http://www.redbubble.com/people/muzy/art/

North Red Sea 2009

I wanted to tell you a little about our recent trip to Egypt (as promised).

As usual, click on the images to see them at a larger size.

This is our second trip with Alex Mustard this year (our 1st was Raja Ampat in Feb) but this one was a full on photo-workshop.

We Flew to Egypt on Monarch (groan) into Sharm El Sheikh, luckily we didnt have to stay there, our liveaboard was waiting for us at the Military port. MV Whirlwind of the Tony Backhurst fleet was a very comfortable boat.

Alex runs this workshop trip ever year at this time to try and see the huge schools of snapper (& other large fish) that come to spawn in the area on these weeks. It was a little daunting as these fish are HUGE and because of the properties of the fisheye lens I was using I had to get very close to them! Also, strangely for this time of year the visibility wasn’t that great. Usually in the Red Sea the water is gin clear and you feel like you can see for miles. In amongst these snappers I feel like I was in a snow flurry so I am surprised I actually got any good photos of them.

We also head over to Tiran Island for a bit (since we weren’t having as much luck as usual with the Snapper). This trip was primarily a wide-angle trip but those who know me know I don’t go on any underwater jaunt without my trust 60mm macro lens. I tried to “go-wide” with that too this time to shoot some fish portraits but I couldn’t resist the odd tiny macro fish or occasional abstract.

We also saw a rather large amount of shipwrecks (this is the North Red Sea after all) including the Ghiannis D, Thistlegorm & Yolanda.

This was actually a treat (even though I’m not fussed about wrecks usually) because Mike has never seen the Thistlegorm & I’ve not been back since I first learnt to dive. I enjoyed seeing all the Motorbikes, trucks & things but I was still really spooked by the wellies. It was nice on the Ghiannis D too since we had Mr Alex (Magic Filters) Mustard himself with us to give us guidance on how to use them effectively. I still dont think I got the hang of it properly but it was good fun to try something new.

One of the things I really like about going on photo workshops in a group is you tend to meet really nice people. Everyone helps everyone else out. Julian ended up giving a load of us a Lightroom tutorial or two (and also taking me under his wing for my 1st snapper experience) so many thanks to him. Also, I’d like to thank Robin for being an excellent model & stand in buddy. And many thanks of course go to Alex for giving us such a great trip.

The only thing I was disappointed in (apart from getting really sick on the last day when we stayed in Sharm) was the poor moray eel I found who had a giant hook in his mouth C’mon people this is supposed to be a protected marine area! I guess the usually vigilant Egyptian authorities must have missed this one (or else he swam into the area from outside).

my full underwater gallery can be found here. Mikes above water gallery can be found here.

I’m Back…

Just come back from Egypt. Went on the Alex Mustard June 2009 Ras Mohammad Red Sea Photo workshop. More about that later as I’m processing the photos now.. Heres a taster of what we went to see, snappers in action!

Tripod tribulations!

Today I’ve been trying to decide on a new tripod. I’ve owned precisely one tripod of note and that was for my compact camera. Needless to say I never had it with me when I needed it so it didn’t get used much.

Tripods for SLRs have to be much heavier (am I’m even less likely to bring it along) to cope with the weight of the camera and lens. Herein lies the issue I’m facing. It has to just heavy enough. Too heavy and I wont have it with me, not heavy enough and I’ll see my gear tumble to the ground with the first light breeze

With this in mind I set about finding the lightest one that can be used (allegedly) with a DSLR.

This is what I found out..

• You have to choose head and legs separately
• Most people recommended manfrotto (I asked about on twitter)
• The lightest manfrotto legs I could find were still far too heavy (1.6kg)
• Found a Feisol one at 0.9kg (without head)   and 1.1kg with ball head.

While I was looking at all the heads for tripods I found its easy to get carried away with the geekery and choose something that perhaps doesn’t fit my requirements. I started to further analyse what these actually are.

factor no1. Weight.

If I don’t have it with me I can’t use it anyway, so this is a major factor. Well I already knew this. What was harder to pin down was head & height requirements.

factor no2. height?

Well I want it to be versatile but pack up small (to fit in a small case or backpack). I found out that 4 sections in the legs are better than 3 for this purpose. Do I really need it to be as tall as me? Am I going to use it for extended periods and get back ache with a short one? Maybe. Am I going to want it to adjust really low to the ground (maybe) if so I need to be able to adjust or remove the center column.

factor no3. head usage?

Am I going do panoramas with it? Yes. So I need it to pan.  Will I be using it on uneven ground? Maybe. But, does it really need a leveler function & spirit level built in  or should I just get one of those little cheapo spirit levels for the top of my camera? Yes, I’ll do that.

So what have I decided? Well so far I’ve decided to get this one:

CT-3441SB – Traveller Carbon Fibre Tripod and CB-30C Ball Head

and perhaps the PB-70 panning base but I’m still talking with the very helpful sales staff at www.feisoluk.com about that one.

White Wall Voting Poll

If you like my photo (below) for the theme of ‘White Wall’  then please consider voting for it here: http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1722261/

Work Duty:

This is for the 1st project of the #TOGether flickr group. You can see the others in the group pool with the tag of WhiteWall. Thanks to all those that have voted for me so far

Lego lineup

Mucking around with a desk lamp a camera and some lego

1st IR photos – what a disaster!

Thought I’d try my hand at IR today. It didnt go so well. I got some good tips and comments from my friends on twitter though so its all a learning curve!

Heres my 1st stab at editing:

After speaking with some people (@ Scott_Wood, @ gallarotti, @IlanBr) on twitter I followed this tutorial

Heres the re-edited version:

The trees arnt white (as you see in many IR photos) because I didnt know I had to manual white balance on grass first! I shall try that next time.

You can find other attempts here: http://www.pbase.com/suzy_walker/ir

As you see its very mark looking. To see what a lovely sunny day it was (and the sorts of colours I should have been shooting with HDR instead of IR) check out Mikes photos from the same walk!

http://www.pbase.com/michaeL_toye/london

Mini Macro Mr Moo

Just mucking about I think my ’sky’ jumper could have been lighter

Booklist – Within the frame

At the moment I’m reading David duChemin’s book Within the frame and enjoying it very much. Great images and a great message, a very inspiration book. I havent finished reading it yet so here’s a short review by Jordan Nielsen