Be Excellent To Each Other

I've no idea, frankly. Only that the really, really good ones on Flickr frequently get 10k per photo!

I've got 99,244.

My most popular photo has 2,854.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grim/stats/allphotos/

I don't have permission to view that page.

Oh, so you don't. Huh.

So it appears that everyone on Beex with a Flickr account has way more hits than me, the most obsessive photography nut on the board.

Dickens, the irony.

What counts as a hit? Just somebody looking at your picture? You don't have to 'like' it or anything?

That's right.

I do have a fair few favourites, though!

If it helps I have 685 picture views.

*Hugs Craster*

Noble Cuz!

And I was among the first hundred people to use the site, so that probably helped.

248.

14,787 spicywashingmachines.

133,822

You're still alive!

Only partly. I was sent home from work early because of not being able to breathe. Or talk. Or stand up without shaking.

Have been sleeping

I've been there. Sympathies.

A few from the last few days up in the Lakes.

Properly nice hotel, built in the 30s and still with loads of original detail, in such a quiet spot too. Also had red squirrels everywhere.


Storm Clouds Over High Street, Haweswater. by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Red Squirrel, Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Keswick by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Evening Mist, Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Red Squirrel, Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Haweswater Hotel by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Seagull, Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Chaffinch and Fledgling, Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Haweswater by Loopdreams, on Flickr


Haweswater Valley by Loopdreams, on Flickr

Some lovely shots there. I particularly like 1 and 4 - they look positively prehistoric.

Some stunning loveliness there, MarkG. The first one is beautiful, though I pickily do wish you'd found an extra couple of feet elevation!

Haweshotel is lovely, a real fresh, solid feel. A really anchored, immersive shot.

The seagull one is almost Monet - in fact I'd be tempted to clone out the seagull and have it as an abstract.

The red squirrel drinking water, with the fuzziness of the nose and the smooth, hard ripples of water, the muted red of the fur and the strong slick green of the water is simply incredible. Amazing, beautiful shot. Am jealous.

I like the character in the Chatfinch and Fledgling. I suspect they also fight crime as a duo.

Hope you didn't get your feet wet for Haweswater, great lead in line. Beautiful toned greens.

Overall verdict: BASTARD.

Fishing Until the End

Superb colour in that shot Pete!

Mark, that first photo is fantastic, love it.

The rest are all crackers too, really like that Squirrel drinking.

Thanks for all the kind words again, people.

Pete, I totally agree about the first one but I was already on my tippy toes stood on a rock in the border. I guess I could have tried shooting using the flippy out screen thing but I don't seem to manage well with that for some reason.

Such a beautiful place, though. The typically changeable Lakeland weather was being especially interesting, apocalyptic storm clouds, torrential downpours, baking summer sun and then tranquil mists would all happen over the space of an hour. I'd highly recommend the place where we stayed to anyone who wants a few days break in a quirky but beautiful hotel in one of the quietest parts of the Lakes.

Yeah, I felt a bit of a heel soon as I posted that as I figured that if you could have you would have. Glad you're posting your photos again, you've got a strong eye, would love to see some street photography by you.

Here's one from a while ago. I didn't think too much of it at first but I got to tinkering a little and now I quite like it. It's from inside an abandoned frontier prairie house in Oregon.



Abandoned Prairie House

And again - Lightbox:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervouspet ... /lightbox/

This took me fucking ages:



Kitchen Still Life

Big view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervouspet ... /lightbox/

What, work?

Is it the woefully slow and inaccurate autofocus? That bothers me on the d5000.

Cobweb Stairs

Something a little different from me today. A political photograph is what! Was gadding about Liverpool when I espied someone dressed slightly hipsterish and looking pale and shifty. Took the shot. Turned the corner and there were literally dozens of police, horses, vans, a guy being arrested and a dozen or so skinheads dispersing with George Cross flags and the like. The gin from a local woman was that there was a fascist march and countermarch, hence the police presence. Took more photos and thought no more about the hipster until I got home and started tinkering. Noticed his 'National Culturist' badge and googled and found him to be the chairman Jack Buckley, head of a student 'not-at-all-National-Front-oh-no' affiliated group.

So my first photograph of an out and out massive douche. Enjoy.



A Massive Douche - The National Culturist

Great portrait yet again, and really nice to know the background behind it all. Never heard of that shower before.

Skaters

Big size:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervouspet ... /lightbox/

Common Emerald Moth, light and colour look strange due it settling on the inside of a translucent yellow plastic Wendy House. Noticed quite a few bugs seem really attracted to the colour yellow.

What strange, papery wings that thing has. Also, mighty antennae.

I'm going to start picking up speed with more US Civil War pics this summer. Here's one from the wet and gloomy summer winter months...




Confederate Camp Boys

Embiggend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervouspet ... /lightbox/

Hold onto that one! You'll be getting royalties in a few years when the papers need a good shot of him.

Cripes, didn't think of that! Might watermark it just in case. See if the bastards can claim 'orphan work' then.




"Steady now!"

Embiggend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervouspet ... /lightbox/

That's an excellent one.

(18th Mo., not 18th Miss.. )

He looks like the most irritating boy at school.

His name is Jack Buckby, I have just found.

Ah, yes. I misread. Ta for the correction!

And the Civil War photo-explosion trundles on with some camplife shots...



Shy



Union Breakfast

(My first ever food shot, fact fans!)

Hello. Been a while since I posted anything, but here's a shot of last Monday's auroral display.


Hawkeye Aurora

Great shot!

wow!

Am super jealous of your aurora. I've always wanted to see one. That looks beautiful. *Sniff*

Three new ones...



The Red Line




Basement Portrait




The Photographer's Desk

Which lens are you using for those last few shots, Pete? What about the reenactment pics? Can you describe your equipment? Phnaar.

Yo-ho Hugh.

I only actually have two lenses, so all my shots are using one or the other. (Excepting America trips where I borrow the nifty Nikon 18-55mm kit lens for wider shots)

For portraits and detail work I use the 85mm f/1.8d as seen in the Desk, Telephone, Breakfast, Shy Kid, Super-Douche and Stand Fast. The 35mm f/1.8g I used in the Basement Man and the Confederate Camp Boys.

The 85mm f/1.8d dates back to the early 80's. It's slow to focus and vulnerable to blue and purple fringing when wide open, but on the plus side its super sharp and suffers from zero distortion. I also find the slight vignetting pleasing. Bokeh is a little meh so you have to coax it more than with the even better new 85mm f/1.8g, which I would like but is a low priority. I use it for all the Civil War battle shots too.

The 35mm f/1.8G is a very cheap (£159!) and very nice prime lens. It translates as a 50mm on my 1.5 crop sensor, which means it shares Bresson's favourite focal length. It's pretty good for street photography and portraits in a pinch, though there is a little distortion to faces close up, being wider. It's pretty darn sharp but not as sharp as the 85mm and it has a pleasing colour contrast and punch. It's also fast and silent in focusing. Downsides are that again, it's a little vulnerable to colour fringing and the bokeh is a little meh.

On rare occassions I'll use a SB-700 speedlight, but as I prefer natural light that's none too often. I also use Lightroom 4 to process my pics, and that piece of software I find pretty amazing.

All photos taken on the Nikon D90, which is a lovely prosumer camera - if a little long in the tooth now. Sooner or later this year I'm going to buy a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 for Reenactment battles, but not quite yet. It'll be different to my stubby primes however, as it is long and extends. Fnaaaaar.

("Can you work in a joke about 'vibration reduction' too? Oh, too late." - Ed.)

Fantastic pics in here.

Loving that sky, Malc74. Welcome back.

It looks like people have already started picking up your image of Buckby there Pete. This blog article has a screenshot of a Facebook post from some bunch of twats (the North West Infidels) which uses a crop of your picture.

GO-GO LEGAL TEAM!

Thanks Pete. I appreciate your time and response. I currently operate a 50mm 1.4 on my 60d and am really pleased with the results as a portrait lens but am struggling to reign in the bokeh which is sometimes too bokeh for my taste. All part of the learning curve.

Woah!

Ta for the tipoff. Looks like they've taken down the photo now.

And now I feel oddly guilty that I tinkered with the light and colour levels to make him a little paler and glowery. In the sphere of photo-hero-truth, is that respectable, even if it be against a massive racist twat?

Anyway, am posting a comment on the blog:



Hugh - yeah bokeh is sometimes a bit tricky to get rid of, especially when you want environmental portraits. Other than go for a wider prime, the only thing I can think of other than the narrower aperture (which you'll already be trying) is to get your subjects closer to their backdrops and you further from them. The more distance between subject and background, combined with the closer you are to the subject, the greater the bokeh. That's a nice lens, btw!