It's Dark, and we're wearing sunglasses

S5000445, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

So the stag-do went really well. St Johnstone won some kind of cup and there was a pitch invasion by the fans. Peachy!

To combat my off-camera flash problem I decided to invest a massive £20 in some equipment that attaches to the hotshoe and the flashgun to wirelessly trigger the thing. For the price it's pretty awesome - the 'real' ones are £300 as they incorporate the TTL metering from the lens. What use that is if the flash aint anywhere near the lens is beyond me.

Got my ex-bosses, son's wedding coming up soon and I am meeting the couple on Saturday. Looking forward to it.

Blues Brothers

DSC_0576, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

Rather conveniently, we went to see the blues band "Radiotones" play at the Twa Tams last night. Tomorrow we are on a stag-do which has a Blues Brothers theme - scary huh?

This shot was taken with off camera flash. The D200 uses it's built-in flash to remotely trigger the SB800 flashgun, allowing you to get some funky lighting effects,

Unfortunately the on-board flash has an awful habit of lighting up the scene as well, so a hand over the camera flash is needed. I'm looking into some kind of remote trigger to go on the hotshoe instead,

Tablet nonsense

kat, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

Well I promised some tablet nonsense - and here it is!

Just starting to get the hang of it now but I'm up to my neck in other projects at the moment. Couple of websites on the go and now I've found somewhere to permanently display my work. Whether the cost will ever be returned... I'm not convinced.

Graphics Tablet

So I decided to treat myself to a graphics tablet for my 30th birthday this weekend. Waiting on Amazon delivering it - would you believe that it was £10 cheaper from Amazon than it was on Ebay? What a screwed up world we live in.

Watch this space for some tablet nonsense!

Bolton Abbey - HDR

Generated-HDR---Tone-mapped, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

Four days in the Yorkshire Dales and i'm back - feeling like i've never been away!

I'm not the first to shoot this scene from this angle i'm sure, but I am very pleased with the HDR results in this instance. A lot of people seem to overdo the technique and you end up with unrealistic shots that look almost painted so I was hyper-aware of walking the fine line between an image that "pops" and one that just looks fake. I'd like to think I managed it...

Arbroath Shore

DSC_9645, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

Another field trip today and we ended up heading over to Arbroath to the cliffs. Not the normal way to get to them - we started more towards the middle.
When we arrived at the beach we came to the expert conclusion that the tide was on its way out...

So I clambered my way over to the huge caves that create large tooth like black areas on the cliffside (camera and tripod over the shoulder of course - much cooler looking that way) and went to take some spectacular waves-hitting-rock shots.

After setting up my tripod about a metre from the water edge and firing off some shots, I start to wonder what the lapping sound is around my feet.

Turns out we were 100% not correct on the direction of the tide...

Tommy Reilly, Tbreak 08

Tommy Reilly, Tbreak 08, originally uploaded by HenrysCat.

So I won the T-break 2008 competition and became the official photographer for the T-break stage at T in the Park. Spent all day hanging around the tent and popping in and out when the bands came on.

It was good to see so many of the bands that were performing at my heat had made it to the big event - Haight-Ashbury being the ones that stood out in my mind. Their harmonising sounds are captivating and you struggle to walk away or ignore them, even if their stage presence isn't exactly exciting.

The man pictured is Tommy Reilly who was recently brought to my attention when my pictures of him became 3rd and 4th most viewed images in my photostream!?!
Turns out that the laddie has been signed to a major record label and interest in him has soared.

If said record company would like to buy some great pictures of him playing at the Liquid Rooms...