Thousand yard stare...

...from a three legged cow.

Same cow on a sunnier afternoon.

Round Hill, Little Wittenham

Beech trees on top of Round Hill, one of the Wittenham Clumps which are a landmark sequence of hills in South Oxfordshire. They form part of the Sinodun Hills and are also known locally as Mother Dunch's buttocks! The site is managed by the Earth Trust.

Panorama of Round Hill, Little Wittenham supplied by Panoramic Earth

Panorama of Beech plantation, Little Wittenham supplied by Panoramic Earth

Sequence: 30˚ up + level + 30˚ down.

Tamron SP 10-24mm @ 10mm

ISO 100, f11

Projection: equirectangular

Projection stitched and rendered in Hugin

David the Harp #2

Another day, another learning curve. I've never really done formal portraits except of family and friends. When I got the opportunity to photograph David Tomlinson with his harp, I thought it would be daft not to have a go.

Last pic of the day

I managed to 'borrow' a morning in the de Morney room at Howbery Park. Plenty of space and just enough natural light to work by. It is a conference room in its spare time, so the big projection screen doubled as a very useful reflector.

The taking is half the story, the rest is in the edit. I got about 40 useful frames out of 210. Balancing available light with a moving target on a dull November morning risks shake - and I got plenty of that. I'm sticking with black and white for this post because, well, sometimes when you take the colour away, you're left with something closer to the truth.

Cunningly placed copy area, top right

Big thanks to Angela Andrews at Howbery Park for the use of the room.

Feel free to wade through the colour work here.

David the Harp

Harpist David Tomlinson in Guv'nor mode.

More of this set to come when edited...

Captain's Bulletin

Hey! I made Reading Rowing Club's Captain's Bulletin: Nov 11. 
Picture sales from this event are my best yet - thank you, my discerning customers. Was it the sunshine? Was it the photography? Or is it just a case of sticking with it?

Old Labour

I don't suppose a photo blog is the best place to advertise failure, but this one's interesting - and I learned quite a lot:

Committee Room G, resplendent under four dim overhead lamps

Last week, I had the good fortune to be asked to take some photographs of a presentation and discussion by Lord (Roy) Hattersley and political academic Kevin Hickson. The meeting was in a committee room at The House of Lords and was organised by The Political Qarterly, publisher of their jointly-penned article, In praise of social democracy. Worth a read - it is about equality.

As you can see, Committee Room G is small and dimly lit. By the time 60-odd people were seated, there wasn't a huge amount of room to move about. I'd decided beforehand that flash would have been much too intrusive. Even the noise of the camera shutter seemed to bounce of the walls and fill the room. So much for being inconspicuous. Even with a monopod, I was trying to take pictures at ISO 3200, 1/15s, f5.6. Tip for next time? Set up some flash photos before or after the meeting!

In the end, I grabbed a few key frames, gave up, sat down, and listened to Roy, Kevin, John Denham MP, Helen Goodman MP, the Guardian's David Walker, Neil Kinnock, Austin Mitchell MP, Lord (Neil) Kinnock. I have never heard so many politicians talk as much sense in such a short space of time. See what I mean about old labour?

Roy Hattersley and Helen Goodman MP enjoy an off-mic moment of merriment

John Denham MP, Dr Kevin Hickson and Roy Hattersley

Quote of the day: when asked if he'd mind being photographed, Roy Hattersley said,

"Dear boy, did you ever meet a politician who didn't like having his picture taken?"

Acknowledgements:

Thank you Emma for inviting me along.

Photoshop for helping me rescue a few pictures.

The House of Lords procurement department  for an excellent bottle of red.

Pan-tastic

Camera: Nikon D5000

Lens: Tamron SP 10-24 @ 10mm

Head: Panosaurus 2.0

24 frames in 2 rows, 20˚ above and below horizontal

Stitching: Hugin

Flash: EasyPano Panoweaver 5.0 (demo). Embeded as iFrame

Another one, in the kitchen - tip: this one has scrolling="no" before width=

Finally, the FULL iFrame code from Easypano at size 600 x 300: