Best Photos of the Month

So I've come up with an idea for me to post a few best photos that I've taken throughout the whole month and analyse them a little bit in depth, or what I can say about them anyway.
I will start today and then make the next post on the last day of every month, hopefully when I fully finish college I can look back and see an improvement from all the months that have passed.

So this photo was planned after I was taking a few random ones of Owen in the skatepark at night, I had a shot similar to this from further away and thought it would look cool if I got really close, I personally like it, but getting slightly closer may have looked better.

This photo just seems pleasing to me but annoying to Owen as he had to repeat this a few times for this shot haha.

I like this photo a lot, it shows a lot of mysterious content, not being able to see any faces, the only way of guessing a personality is by looking at their skateboards, looking at what clothes they're wearing and even then it's hard to tell what sort of person they are. What makes them more mysterious and anonymous is that 2 of them have their hoods up and the other has his hat on. The low angle also creates a sense of power from them as they're walking in front of you while you are behind them and more lower down.
I took this photo as me and the boys were walking up a big hill to bomb, if you skate and live in the RCT area then I recommend going to Aberdare, few nice spots there, skate the park, manny pads all around the car parks, steps and ledges by the library and then huge hills to bomb everywhere.

I was chilling in Seekios, the same day we planned to have a party, it was around 2 in the afternoon and we started early before everyone else, I went and sat down then turned around and I just saw a photo opportunity, it doesn't speak much sense or have a meaning but I just think it looks really cool the way the smoke is made much more clear by the light coming in from behind them.

This photo is from the first time I went up to the abandoned house, this shows the 'Urban explorer' sort of story. Where the light shines through the windows of the shed, and your eyes follow the shadows that travel all around the picture, it's pretty messy as your eyes can be attracted to the green around the image, or all the shadows and where they are pointing. 

I like this image as it has a sort of refreshing atmosphere to it. You can see low key colours around the edges such as brown, black and rusty colours, whereas through the middle of the window you can see very nice, refreshing greens coming through the window which stands out a lot in this image, make it feel satisfying overall.

If you looked at my abandoned hospital post, then you'd know how different this one was to all the rest, it seems to tell something other than show something, if you looked into it deeper then you may be able to see the sign demanding you to exit the area, or maybe I'm thinking too hard about it. Although my eyes first gets directed towards the green, then spots the yellow, which starts me off the in the bottom left corner and then I notice the man running with the arrow in front of him.
I instantly follow the arrow which leads out the door to which I then look around the floor as to why it's facing the exit. The glass indicates danger and would maybe make people feel slightly uncomfortable because of how close I am to the floor and how close I am to the danger which is the glass.

This is the most recent image I took which I like because it's quite humorous, Luke standing on the piano and I'm pretty sure I didn't even have my camera on at the time so he was up there for quite a bit haha, honestly surprised it didn't fall down.
I like this as it seems like he's actually dancing when he's just standing pretty still to avoid falling.

Personal Experience and basic review of my Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens For Canon.

Personal Experience and basic review of my Opteka 6.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens For Canon.

I purchased this lens from amazon.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opteka-Aspherical-Fisheye-Digital-Cameras-black/dp/B002MR0L9Y

You can also buy it to fit Nikon and Sony cameras.
I had this camera in December and only recently started to use, it was sitting in my cupboard for ages and when I took my camera out to get some shots I only took my default kit lens and I'm really glad I used my fisheye because it was a different experience and all types of shots I got were fascinating. I posted some of the fisheye shots onto one of my posts the other day.
http://streetshots-ds.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/fisheye-lens-testing-shots-skating.html

To get the shots I had, the camera had to be pretty close to the skater, which is pretty scary seeing as this lens is new and any bail could've broke the lens if the board happened to hit it.

A few test shots resulted in the skater being too far away and then the skater being too close, finding the right distance and angle turned out to look nice.
If you make the angle capture the floor and the sky then it over exaggerates the height of the object the skater is gapping.

Maybe this isn't the best angle it could potentially get, I think the ledge looked bigger than it was.
Being slightly taller than my kneecap, looking at the right side of this image it feels as though it's a lot bigger. Some other shots had me closer to the lens to make everything look bigger, or for the shot to just look nicer overall. 

I feel like I could get much nicer shots as I didn't take any of these as I'm the one skating, although I did test with angles and do some other pictures, I will definitely be using this lens much more and not leaving it in my cupboard to collect dust. I also ollied up this ledge too, if you wanna see the video my mate put up then click the link and give her a thumbs up and support her channel by Subscribing, if you like my skating posts then you'll like the content she has to put out in the future.

In my opinion, the lens is very useful to get different shots from it, it can be used to experiment and play about with some shots, and it can also be very useful for recording skate videos. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't taking photos of skating as I don't see any point in it being used for anything else.
Here's a few videos i recommend to watch if you're ever thinking of buying this lens or a fisheye lens in general, whether you're a skater or not it may be useful, although I don't think fisheyes should be used for many things, people can still buy them to experiment, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_bDPn15-k&ebc=ANyPxKrezK5dbuTYIunrn7kmUthrFMfwjlU4N8E5XnEuCOlBaUeUd7XEXEyREuQxLVoyNaX6D1k5IaOm0YikOE_GCwzThKXSiw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3AKW104p3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGg_nWFFouI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAmiHKK8fsM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpjwhgpKWVY

These videos should show the potential of the lens and also give you a choice whether you want to get one or not, I recommend them but only if you're using them for skating.

Thanks for reading my blog post, make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and check out my 500px profile page and pictures!

https://www.instagram.com/dalesouthall/

https://twitter.com/StreetShots_ds

https://500px.com/dalesouthall

I've also made a Tumblr Blog page too, it's not me posting anything that I do on here, it's just to promote my page across different social medias but I will be posting some images on there time to time, and also re-sharing some of my favourite images that I find across tumblr, I could give shout outs on there too if you ask!

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/streetshots-ds

Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO.

All photographers that start off fresh and new will get very confused at Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. These 3 things can change a lot of things in the image.

Aperture 

Aperture can change the focal distance of the image, for example if you were to use an Aperture of f32, there would be a large depth of field. OR, if you were to use an Aperture of f2.8 then the background would be very blurry causing the subject in focus to stand out much more, many people would do this do capture animals or even shoes, just to make them stand out more and make them the main subject, and most time, the only subject.

(IMAGE NOT MINE)
As you can see, the background is very blurry which only makes you focus on the shoes, this may have been taken with an Aperture of f1.4, but not many lenses have this, a lot of cheap lenses just allow f2.8 - f3.5 or even f4.
Also, f1.4 is where the lens opens up the most, therefore more light is let in than any other f stop, this is where you have to then keep changing settings as you go along, if the hole is open at it's biggest then you don't need as much light, this is why you'd turn your ISO down to 100, ISO is the light sensitivity, after reading about in then it'll make more sense to you and to what I'm talking about.
A small aperture would be f22 or f32, these are smaller holes. I know how complicated it sounds, the smaller the aperture, the smaller the hole, the bigger the number.
The larger the aperture, the larger the hole, the smaller the number.
It's very confusing but this is why you have to read over it a few times and then go out to practise it.
Anyway, with an aperture of f32 (which is a small hole) then less light would be obviously be coming in, this is where you'd need to slower the shutter speed which keeps the hole open for longer, OR, you can raise the ISO (remember that ISO is light sensitivity and that the higher the number, the more sensitive it is to light).  And with a smaller aperture (f32) you would get a more large depth of field, it would focus on more. (The background would not be blurry)

 (NOT MY IMAGE)

^^This image^^ has a small aperture (f32). Which means the lion and buildings can both be sharp and in focus.

(NOT MY IMAGE)

And again, this image has a very blurry background meaning it has a large aperture (f1.4).

Shutter Speed

Moving onto Shutter Speeds, they can be easier to learn as there isn't much to them, the smaller the number, the quicker the shutter works, for example, if you have a shutter speed of 1 second, then the shutter will be open for 1 second until it closes again, so it will let light in for 1 second, and if you set the shutter speed to 1/125 then the shutter will be open for... well.... 1/125 of a second...
Shutter Speed is measured in seconds, therefore, 1/1000 is faster than 1/60. 1/60 is faster than 1".
1/500 is faster than 1/125 and so on.
And what I've learned from my photography teacher is that 1/125 is the cut off point for handheld, if you are using 1/60 and slower, then you'd need to use a tripod to avoid the shake and blur in the image. The tripod will stabilize the image.

If you want to freeze an image you'll need to use a fast shutter speed, for example when I take photos of people skating I will use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action.
(I WILL ALSO USE FLASH AS THIS HELPS MAKE THE SKATER MORE SHARP AND FOCUSED)


This image below is taken with a shutter speed of 1/200 and I have used flash also.

This image is an example of a slow shutter speed, this was exposed for 1 second, meaning the shutter was open for one second. Using a slow shutter speed on water can make it look very smooth, people that use slow shutter speeds to capture cars or stars etc. can sometimes use an "ND filter". This means "neutral-density filter" and it can reduce or modify the light, colours and intensity etc.
This will make the lens see less light and you can make the shutter speed slower and get a smaller aperture etc.

ISO

ISO is the specific light sensitivity. The lower the number, the more "clean" the image will be, the higher the number, the more "noisey" the image will be.
For example if the ISO is 100 then the image will be clear.
if the ISO is on 3200 - 6400 or even higher then the image will look more "grainy".

This is the best example I can possibly show, it covers most of the subject too as you can see the examples with your own eyes.

If you want to read over this quickly and just read from a poster then check this out, it's the best thing regarding Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. You can scan over this very quick to understand what's what.

Thanks for reading my post, next post I'm thinking of speaking about my life a little more, about what I do in college etc.
But also remember, going out and taking pictures helps out a lot more than just studying so make sure you get out and take some pictures!

Check out my Twitter!
https://twitter.com/StreetShots_ds

Check out my Instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/dalesouthall/

Check out my friends blog page! He blogs about movies and posts movie reviews.

http://criticalcinemareviews.blogspot.co.uk/

Going through recently found Street Images from other photographers.

As I look through other street photography I sort of notice a pattern in most of the images although they're all very different , it's obvious that they're based around street and most of the ones you see have concrete in them and man made objects, it's the way photographers can show certain things in the images, whether it's battling a concern in today's society such as taking images of police doing something they may or may not do, pictures of riots, or it could even be the art around the street that normal commuters may not seem, OR even well timed shots, there are many different ways to get really good shots in the street.

This image is packed with things to look at, what mainly stands out is the two people kissing on the right, as the woman is wearing pink, looking at mine compared to all these images are completely different, I haven't really had a good go at daytime street photography yet as I've been out a few times but Cardiff doesn't seem to be as active as this to fit in one picture, but soon I will get some really good shots that I will be very happy with.
(IMAGE TAKEN BY GUS POWELL)

I actually really like this photo, I like how quickly the photographer may have had to think to capture this, the couple or people probably about the have a one night stand are focused in the background as the foreground is blurry with the writing "You won't tell your mummy, will you?". I'm unsure where this advert is from but it seems funny as this girl in the background could possibly be 16-17 living with her parents and just telling them that she stayed over a friends house in the night, but in fact, she was out drinking like the stereotypical teen. I'm not saying every teen is like this but there are obviously teens that do this.
(IMAGE TAKEN BY MACIEJ DAKOWICZ)

This is the sort of thing that people wouldn't see while walking to their job or going home, it's only small and would be very hard to see but this shows the sort of eye some photographers can have.
(IMAGE TAKEN BY SIEGFRIED HANSEN)

This one, also taken by MACIEJ DAKOWICZ is really humorous. It shows how different British police can be compared to other nations, the police go out, observe what is right and what's not, and if everything is fine they have fun themselves, most of the time it seems like they're messing about with the locals but why not? It isn't doing any harm and just shows how our country can be fun. I believe this photo was taking in Cardiff, the city I shot in a few weeks ago, as I was looking though Dakowicz's gallery I searched him up and found out he was a Polish street photographer which studied in the University of Glamorgan.
He is also best known for his series of photographs of Cardiff night life which was titled "Cardiff after Dark" which this was more than likely from, if you want to check out the other images then check the link out - http://www.in-public.com/MaciejDakowicz/gallery/102

I strongly recommend you check him out, I'm more than likely going to analyse some of his images for my photography as I really like them, the way he captures the photos just makes me stop and think about drunk the Welsh can get, I feel slightly insulted looking through these and seeing a woman literally laying down next to the biggest pile of take away rubbish you'll probably ever see haha.

This post was obviously about other photographers images and not mine, I'm thinking of posting some pictures I get tomorrow if I end up going out, (the weather is very bad ATM) it'll be a mixture of nature and street, it's an abandoned house, if I do go there and it's better than expected I'll try and create a sense of loneliness etc. 

Thanks for reading my post, make sure to follow my Twitter page and personal Instagram page!
https://twitter.com/StreetShots_ds

https://www.instagram.com/dalesouthall/

I'm off to sleep, here's a picture of a bunny which I found randomly in my shed like last year.
Night :)

Recommended Videos and Nature Pictures

As posting shoots all the time may not be enjoyable I'm going to link a few videos about what I think has helped me with extending my knowledge in photography, fun videos also. 

Studying photography and passing with flying colours doesn't necessarily mean being pro or even noticed at all, reading from a lot of peoples experiences, being noticed and doing something great from photography is actually getting contacts and going out with other photographers and helping them out, and just getting stuck in. It would be make sense to know the theory of it and learn how the settings work, but you won't fully understand the settings unless you go out and actually try them for yourself, this is why watching videos and then going out and trying a few things will teach you a lot if you actually go and try them, and like I mentioned, it doesn't matter if you have a "bad camera", I've already linked a YouTube playlist on pro photographers taking pictures with extremely bad cameras, go watch them.

So the first video is called "10 Things To Learn From Pro Photographers" by DigitalRev TV"
This channel is very good and it's fun while also being educational.
This video is a top 10 of tips and things you may need to do to get better at photography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUMri-mes-I
Other videos I suggest are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRvaVulWTLc - This talks about reasons why you do and dont need a tripod, quite interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G60VlLsmCUs - This one is also interesting, if you want to look at other ones there are many all over YouTube which helps out a lot.

Not to make this post boring I'm going to add a few different images, from other things I've took which don't really go with Street or Skating, this is only going to show variety and if people like them then I can maybe post some nature photos rarely too.

This picture is one of my favourites, there are others too which I will post onto my next blog post, they are amazing and have nice colours and it was honestly so much better looking in real life.

I also like this image too, I loved taking pictures of trees that were in front of the sky as you could see each branch come off one another if you looked closely and it looks so cool.

The branch at the very foreground of this image is slightly annoying, reminds me of an eye floater, you know, them things you see just out of the centre of your eye when you look into the sky? And you can never really look right at it.

Thanks for reading my post and looking at my pictures, here's the link to my Twitter if you want to follow me.

https://twitter.com/StreetShots_ds

And here's the link to my personal instagram if you wanna go check that out too :)

https://www.instagram.com/dalesouthall/

A few of my best photos from my third shoot

Extremely sorry for the lack of content, may not seem like much but I was hoping to add some tonight, yesterday was sort of a break to get on with college work and revise etc.
Today I went skating and didn't get back until 20 minutes ago, I was taking pictures of my friends skating, not many came out good.
a few close ups with flash weren't too bad, although most of the shoot looked bad, shooting in the dark sort of annoys me as I can see vibrant colours in the streets and know I can capture it and make it look nice but I just can't seem to get any nice pictures of the views I come across.
Turning up the ISO annoys me also as the images go more grainy and have less quality. 

Quick shot of my mate doing a nice pop shove down a 3 stair at our local library.
"See if I can land this now, try and get a photo"
And he lands it first try haha respect.

Mate brought out a radio, thought it was pretty weird haha.

This is the image of the town, it doesn't do justice as all as there were so many vibrant lights going down the street.

This image was a change of white balance as I was messing around with it, thought it looked pretty nice.

I also like this image too as I've got a low angle on them walking, no faces at all which shows some anonymous behaviour, and they also have hoods up or a hat on which makes it slightly more unnerving. 

I like this photo a lot as it seems to relate back to an older picture which I took of these exact trucks, which I'll post underneath, this was taken using flash and it's not over exposed at all, the railings at the side have glare on them but it seems fine, and the image was taken with the camera tilted at a weird angle which makes it seem pretty different.

This is the image I was referring too, this was taken last year.

Sorry about the quick post, I got home late and I'm pretty tired, I'm free a lot tomorrow and will post. Thanks for reading and make sure to share! 

Camera Setup and More!

I'm not sure how I got into photography to start with, but I remember asking my mother if she would get me a camera, it was months before Christmas and I wanted one so bad, looking at these really expensive £900 cameras in the shops but knew I was never getting that as it was my first camera and I don't think I'll have more than £900's even next year or the year after, you don't need money or very good equipment to be a good photographer. 
Just look at 'DigitalRev' on YouTube, they have a great playlist called "Pro Photographer, Cheap Camera".
Here's the link - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ECB90D96DF59DE5
It's worth a watch. 
One of the most enjoyable ones was the episode with Chase Jarvis, he gets challenged to take pictures with a Lego Camera. It's a long video but if you're interested in what cameras can potentially do then give it a watch.

So when Christmas came I received a Samsung WB100, my very first camera, it's a bridge camera with a 26x optical zoom and 16.4 MP. It was a good camera and I had it for about 2 years before getting another camera, my mother and father told me she would get me a better camera had I used the Samsung one enough.
I was hooked, took it around wherever we went on holidays, never really took it out when I went out with friends though, although I did take a few pictures of skating with it and took about 400 pictures of a wedding with it. That's when I knew I wanted to do something with photography.

The camera I then had on Christmas of 2014 was a Canon 700D, I've now had this camera for a year and a month, this was one of the first pictures taken with it. 

With the Canon I had I also had the 18-55mm lens, which came with it, I still have this and use it constantly, I then bought the Canon EF Zoom Lens 75-300mm, here are my lenses.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opteka-Aspherical-Fisheye-Digital-Cameras-black/dp/B002MR0L9Y (LEFT)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Digital-Camera-3-5-5-6-Sensor/dp/B00BYOY9AS  (MIDDLE... PLUS THE CAMERA BODY, YOU CAN GET THE LENS ON ITS OWN OR THE CAMERA BODY ON ITS OWN ALSO)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-75-300mm-4-0-5-6-III-Lens/dp/B00005K47Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454268628&sr=8-1&keywords=cannon+ef+75-300  (RIGHT) 

This Christmas I also received the lens on the left, which is the Opteka 6.5mm Fish Eye lens, I have planned that I am going to mainly use this for filming skating videos. Many filmers use fisheye lenses if they are filming with DSLR's, they also use handles which stabalize the videos too, which makes it easier to film with, I also have one of these, I purchased it cheap online, most things I have bought are from amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Camcorder-Stabilizing-Stabilizer-Handle/dp/B00GOMRVQE/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1454268847&sr=1-5&keywords=camera+handle+grip 


You can get these for very cheap and it's worth it to try them out, mine is very good and seems quite durable although I haven't used it loads yet.

This is the rest of my things, including the camera body, as I said it's a Canon 700D, another thing which I've also bought is a battery grip too, it was also cheap and is very well, it holds two batteries and therefore lasts 2x as long with double the battery power in it, and it also acts as a grip, with a shutter button on it too, this makes it easier to take pictures portrait.


Here's the link for one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer%C2%AE-Battery-Replacement-Batteries-Digital/dp/B00PJUJYU8/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1454269222&sr=1-6&keywords=battery+grip
The other things in this picture are another battery, you can't have enough batteries for just in case.
A spare 16GB SD card which I've yet to open.
And also a remote, remotes are used mainly for wanting to take a photo while also wanting to keep the camera still, when it's on a tripod etc.

I also have a tripod which I had about a year ago, you can also find them online for pretty cheap, you never really need expensive things, as long as you have necessary things for what you wanna do then it's all you should need.
When a camera is on a tripod you may want to be taking a long exposure shot of a river or the stars in the sky, if you press in the shutter button there will always be a shakiness or blur in the image, no matter how careful you are, this is why a remote shutter button is necessary for things like that, you won't have to harm the image that you're about to take. I've tried taking photos of the stars once or twice, the outcome wasn't the greatest but my camera didn't get shake from it as I was using the remote button.

I'll show examples of photos I've taken where I have needed longer exposures for more light, including the stars image I attempted, no matter how bad they look, it's always somewhere you have to start. 

Thanks for reading my post, make sure to share it if you liked it, bye! 

And also make sure to follow my blog account on Twitter if you want :) 

https://twitter.com/StreetShots_ds

Shout out to my mate Twm, that also makes blogs, if you like movies, wanna see reviews and quick news then follow his blog!! (and his twitter)

http://criticalcinemareviews.blogspot.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/critical_cinema