Hugh_C's blog about food, photos, music, video editing & other lesser codologies

Self portrait in blue.

I’ve been lucky enough to experience a bit of growth in the photography area which is great. It has got me thinking more about lighting in general and strobism in particular, and the upshot of this thinking is that I’ve acquired a second strobe used in this picture above. It’s a Nikon SB-800 which complements my SB-600. The thinking behind this is that I could have enough power to light any person/small group of people in pretty much any location. I’m portable

I’ve also been talking a bit to the models and subjects of a lot of the stuff I’ve been doing recently and as an exercise, I’m imagining myself and imaging myself as they see me. When I’m on the job, this is what they see: a rather large white-haired guy poking a camera into their face, trying not to be intimidating. It’s fun, I’m enjoying myself and hopefully the subjects are too.

You can assess the beauty stuff yourselves by clicking this link.

mua: Eleanor Magan | model: Davina Brennan | photographer: Hugh

Some more from the make-up student and model sessions. Here’s Davina, burning up the screen. Taken with the 85mm at f/4, really getting to grips with this lens, and since it’s on a crop frame camera, it’s effectively about 120mm and I can back off a little, be physically a little further away and not be up the model’s nose. Distance is good. But so are close ups.

mua: Ingrid Deegan | model: Sarah Nugent | photographer: Hugh

I’m generally blown away by my latest two pieces of camera gear, a Nikon flash – SB600 – not the newest or most expensive for sure, but it’s an amazing piece of kit all the same and then there’s the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 ais, an old lens which takes really nice pictures. See above.

The whole concept of measuring the amount of light through the lens is a tad overwhelming, as I understand it, the flash fires off an imperceptibly close second flash to actually make the exposure, while the first gets the camera organised to make a good exposure. I think I need a second SB600 and a bunch of wireless triggers … I’ve been adjacent to the whole experience of lighting for years but it’s only relatively recently that I’ve moved from the domain of natural light to what’s going on up here in this portrait. I suppose I haven’t complete;y grasped the bull by the horns in that I’m using a few static lamps here in addition to the strobe. I f you look closely you’ll see three catchlights in the model’s eyes, a dead giveaway. In fact I’ve read that some photographers go to the trouble of obfuscating their subjects’ catchlights so as not to give away their lighting secrets. Not me.

The 85mm is a monster, weighs a ton and is a cranky old lens – manual focus and when you can get it in focus, gives great results. Using it above at about f/4, so it should be coming into its own round that stop. I’ve been wondering whether I should send it off for a spot of maintenance, the focus ring is stiff which may be due to too much grease from a previous user. Maybe.

I’ve been reflecting a bit about the process of taking photos and what I end up doing with them. The photo above was taken on the last day of the year, December 31st, on Inch Strand, Co. Kerry on a blustery, miserable day with bad light and a strong wind. I like the picture but all of a sudden I’m wracked by guilt (wracked I tell you ) by the amount of underhandedness it contains. First off, the original image (below) is incredibly flat and uninteresting, so I messed it round a bit in my photo editor of choice, and because I’m slightly a mathematician and therefore fan of the Golden Section, I’ve cropped the image above to conform to that. Secondly, and this is way more underhand, I repositioned the horses and riders to adhere to the Rule of Thirds. You can see that I’ve moved the riders relative to each other.

Being also a fan of TV, an industry close to my heart, I’m beginning to draw an analogy between the underhandedness here and the smash hit TV series FlashForward, what if the manipulation I made in my photo editor actually happened in Real Life? The space-time continuum would be rightly Shanghai’ed. We’d all be screwed I tell you, missing metres and seconds out of our lives, without the lovely FBI Special Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fffffiennes) and Dr. Olivia Benford (Sonya Walger) to save us. Ponder on it.

In my meanderings round the web I came across a website called prezi where you can design, publish and share your presentations. Kind of a fun tool really, although I still have to get to grips with the editor. Here’s my first attempt at prezi-ing, with thanks to @senseilp in twitterland.

I kind of invented this by mistake. Supplies were running down in the fridge and I found the ingredients below, assembled them into a version of saag aloo a la Hugh. I’m sure it’s breaking every rule in Indian cuisine by adding the rashers, but I suppose you could omit them if you want to make it vegetarian. Anyway, it’s delicious by itself. Really delicious.

Ingredients:
1 kg baby potatoes
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion
2 tbsp curry paste
1/4 tsp salt
two large handfuls spinach uncooked (I have big hands)
5 back rashers
large bunch of coriander chopped roughly, stalks and all
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

Method:
Chop the baby potatoes into cubes or crescents and steam for about ten minutes. Meanwhile chop the onion, garlic and rashers and fry in a tablespoon of olive oil or ghee if you have it for a few minutes in a heavy casserole or pot. Add the curry paste and keep everything on the move. Add the spinach. Toss in the can of tomatoes and bring everything up to a simmer. Then toss in the potatoes and stick a lid on your casserole and cook for another couple of minutes until the potatoes are tender. I poured in a few tbsps of the cooking liquor from the steamer. Season with the salt.

My daughter K has been playing the viola for a few years now and since today was the first time it’s been out this year, I thought I’d stick up a little post. It’s a pleasure to hear her play, although I think she finds it uncomfortable playing for me. But we’ll both get over that. I really enjoy what she’s doing. Her technique has come on in leaps and bounds, and the sound she produces out of an admittedly inferior instrument is really warm and mellow. The music (as distinct from technique and tone) is really beginning to happen too. I’m not sure if she’ll come across this post anytime soon, but hopefully if and when she does she’ll realise that I appreciate her (and her music).

The journey hasn’t always been easy though; the early days, when she first started learning the violin, were pretty unpalatable. The sound of a beginner could be likened to a bag of strangled cats, but over the course of a year or two, that developed into something more tuneful. And then came vibrato. For those of you who don’t know, vibrato happens when you see violists, violinists, cellists, bassist and Jimmy Hendrix wobble their wrists round a bit when playing, it changes slightly the pitch that the instrument is producing and for some reason, it sounds great. The modern ear pretty much expects vibrato, so it goes largely unnoticed. Sometimes it’s overdone, like when Shirley Bassey sings, but that’s just a personal thing. I can’t play the viola to save my life (I’m a ukuleleist) but I did try, and I did try to add vibrato. I suppose for the uninitiated it’s a bit like spinning plates while simultaneously rubbing your head and stomach with different hands and reciting the alphabet backwards. It’s seriously hard.

The next big, difficult step was ensemble playing. It’s a big thing for a young person to get landed into a room of other largely unknown other young persons and to play music together. Shyness, timidness and pressure all come into play. But once over that hurdle, it becomes fun, I suppose. I played in an orchestra myself a long time ago and I enjoyed it thoroughly. So the ensemble thing was a bit step, but it builds a person up and the social aspect of being part of a group is really important.

So then, the change of instrument happened. K is a tall girl, taller than her mother easily. Great mileage will be had out of that. Anyway, she’s long-limbed and perhaps this was one of the reasons that her teacher at the time suggested she switch from violin to viola. It’s not something that I’ve regretted, the viola has a deeper, richer tone and the world is short of viola players. If she stays with it, she’ll likely earn pocket money in a year or two playing for cash. Not to be laughed at when you’re a student.

Anyhow, I hope she stays with it. The world will be a richer place.