A Corsican Dawn

A very clear morning from my apartment ( just 5km NW from Antibes France 43°36N 7° 4′7E, elevation 139m) looking over Le Cap d’Antibes and lighthouse to the Island of Corsica rising out of the Mediterranean sea. The closest point on Corsica is 175km, bearing 130°
The viewed width: 162km but would be less due to the curvature of the earth.
Island length: 184km
Island width: 83km
Highest peak: Monte Cinto 2706m
Area: 8680km²
Coast line 1000km

Corsica (French: La Corse; Corsican and Italian: Corsica) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia.

Corsica is one of the 26 régions of France, although strictly speaking Corsica is designated as a “territorial collectivity” (collectivité territoriale) by law. As a territorial collectivity, it enjoys greater powers than other French régions, but for the most part its status is quite similar. Corsica is referred to as a “région” in common speech, and is almost always listed among the other régions of France.

Although the island is separated from the continental mainland by the Ligurian Sea and is much closer to the Italian than to the French mainland, politically Corsica is part of Metropolitan France. It was once briefly an independent Corsican Republic, until being incorporated into France in 1768.
Corsica is famed as the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte. His ancestral home, Casa Buonaparte, is located there.

A use for the old linear polarising filter.

I sill have my film equipment from my Canon T70. One item, the linear polarising filter, I had found out is not good for the auto focus system (struggles to focus) on digital cameras and it was recommended to get a circular polariser instead. So this has been stashed away in the old bag with the rest of my film equipment, for years. I was watching the new season of DTOWN TV (Now they cover all things DSLR not just Nikon) where they mentioned that with fast glass (wide apertures like 1.2 /1.4/1.8/2.8 ) it is hard to set a wide aperture to get shallow depth of field when it is bright outside even when you have cranked up your shutter speed and brought down your ISO. The answer is to pop a neutral density filter (or stack if needed) on the lens and if you have not got these at hand the next best thing is to use a polarising filter. This got me thinking as I have now come across the problem particularly using the 50mm 1.8 lens I got last year. I do have a circular polariser in my bag so I thought what if you had two, like if you had two stacked polarised sunglasses, the more you twist them the darker it gets. Tried this with two circular polarised filters but the effect is minimal, id anything there is a colour shift from a yellow to a blue shade. I puled out my old linear filter and bingo! I had a variable density filter. I can turn the circular filter to have the normal polarizing effect and then if I turn the linear one I start to get darker shades the more I turn it. One thing I have noticed is that it gets a dark blue tint when I really crank it up to the darkest. I will be doing some experiments with this and I will keep you posted.
As you can see below two images shot into the sun with a relatively slow shutterspeed of 1/3200 and 1/500 even shooting at ISO 400. With the double polarising filter in its lightest, 1/8000 shutter was not fast enough and was way over exposed. The images are nothing special and it was a quick and dirty test. I will be doing some experiments with this and I will keep you posted.

Exposure: 1/3200 sec at f/1.8
ISO: 400

Exposure: 1/500 sec at f/1.8
ISO: 400

ZOOM-IN Porsche

Another “ZOOM-IN” technique used on the winner of the Porsche Cup at the Monaco Grand Prix last year. The Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens lend itself to this technique an it has a very smooth zoom function that you can both twist or slide. To achieve this “ZOOM-IN” affect a relatively slow shutter is required while a fast smooth zoom action is applied during the shot. This can be done hand-held or for a sharper focal area a tripod can help.

For the Lightroom develop preset download page click on the image below

RAW files

I am sure that most of you know that RAW files are inherently dull and lack punch but have a lot to offer to the creative eye. For those of you who are happy with you JPG files and do not want to spend time processing read no further but you still might find this intresting.  As each of us have a slightly different take on what looks good. The RAW files have so much more to than JPG. My tool of choice is Adobe Lightroom. Using this (or you can use your tool of chioce, Adobe Bridge, Aperture to name a few) we can unlock that creativity,without affecting the original file and we can always make virtual copy’s and apply slightly different treatments. I refer to further info on RAW files at RAW files Explained.  I have a page “Lightroom” dedicated to Lightroom presets where you can download some of the .lrtemplate files I have used on my images.

A Wide Perspective

Two boats, that my company I work for designed, at the Monaco Yacht Show last year, either side of the port, gave an interesting perspective of scale and size.  This was an attempt to create a “Tilt Shift  Lens” image. this was first a hand-held pano of about 10 frames in the portrait format. I Spliced them in Photoshop hen crated two layers with different amounts of blur applying a mask to keep the boats in focus.

Holiday Season Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets

A few images taken over the festive season. For those of you who have Lightroom the images link to the Adobe Lightroom Develop Preset pages

Hands at Work Adobe Lightroom Develop Preset

An “Old Salt” who was demonstrating his rope work skills During the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice 2009 part of the New Louis Vuitton World Series. You can find the Develop Preset for this image at
Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets pages

Updated Adobe Lightroom Develop Preset

Just a quick one! I have reorganised the Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets into a better format so that you now can download the “.lrtemplate” file directly.  Just head on over to the Adobe Lightroom Develop Presets. You will also find a develop preset used for the “Big Eez”

The next four Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas announced

The World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) and Louis Vuitton today announced more Louis Vuitton Trophy for 2010 and early 2011.
Paris, December 18th 2009, The World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) and Louis Vuitton today announced more Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas for 2010 and early 2011. These new international events follow the successful regatta held in Nice, France, last month.

Each Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta is a stand-alone regatta sailed in event-supplied 85-foot long AC Class yachts that require a crew of 17 top sailors to sail. The regatta concept is designed to transform a port venue, regardless of its previous sailing culture, into the capital of professional yacht racing for two weeks, along with all the associated activities and excitement, on and off the water.

The concept of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas was inspired by the acclaimed Louis Vuitton Pacific Series raced in Auckland, NZ, last February.

The schedule for the next events covers four distinctly different parts of the world:

Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland: 9 – 21 March 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena, Sardinia: 22 May – 6 June 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Middle East: 13 – 28 November 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong: 9 – 24 January 2011 (To be confirmed)

Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland: 9 – 21 March 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena, Sardinia: 22 May – 6 June 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Middle East: 13 – 28 November 2010
Louis Vuitton Trophy Hong Kong: 9 – 24 January 2011 (To be confirmed)

* The venue in The Middle East is embargoed until January 15th 2010

Newly-elected WSTA board Chairman Paul Cayard commented: “The Louis Vuitton Trophy is gaining momentum following the great regattas held in Auckland and Nice in 2009 and I really believe 2010 is going to be an even better year for our teams, their crews and supporters.”

Apart from being a cost-effective way for teams to match race impressively large yachts close to crowds, the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas also represent one of the most interesting media/marketing opportunities in yacht racing today.

The innovative low-cost solution to live TV and tracking coupled with live expert commentary from on board the yachts pioneered in Nice last November, allows spectators, hospitality guests and sailing fans around the world to watch live races in a hybrid virtual and real video show on internet (louisvuittontrophy.com).

The use of AC Class yachts from the last two America’s Cups now scattered about the world allows the existing boats to be shared regionally without the necessity to constantly ship equipment back and forth; only the crews travel, making for cost- effective and easily organised events.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland will again bring some of the best racing teams back to ‘’Kiwiland’’. Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said the team welcomed Louis Vuitton’s return to Auckland: “Last February we tested the concept. Its success far exceeded everyone’s expectations.”

“The Louis Vuitton Trophy has emerged from that experiment as a viable, top-level regatta. It’s good for the teams, it’s good for the sport, it’s good for host cities and we’ve given the fans something to watch.”

The caliber of teams competing is second to none. Most sailors are either world champions, Olympic medalists, round-the-world sailors or past America’s Cup players. All teams competing at the Nice regatta came with either America’s Cup experience or future ambitions.

Emirates Team New Zealand has been both Challenger and Defender in the past, BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) is the current Challenger of Record, while other teams such as Azzurra (Italy), TEAMORIGIN (Great Britain), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Synergy (Russia), All4One (France/Germany), Aleph Sailing Team previously known as Team French Spirit (France), Artemis (Sweden) all have future plans.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas provide an opportunity to compete at the highest level using similar yachts, with only the crew’s sailing ability as the deciding factor. The cost to teams is also a fraction of an America’s Cup or an offshore campaign budget, something that has already attracted several new teams to taste the waters at this level of competition.

Yves Carcelle, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, is pleased to be associated with the event: “Nice a few weeks ago again proved the viability of the concept, which reflects current concerns: easy, friendly, accessible and environmentally responsible. It is a great way to bring the best teams back on the water.”

A Burn on the Bike

This was the winning shot for the November “Panning” assignment at the 1st Martin Bailey Photography/WebSpy Assignments competition. More details at Martin Bailey Photography : The Blog

Having been to the last three F1 Grand Prix in Monaco and shooting a couple of thousand frames and getting a good few acceptable panning shots Speed Set . I thought this was going to be easier than some assignments. …wrong!! I had to get out there and pan! pan! pan! shoot! shoot! shoot! I finally chose, with my sons approval, “A Burn on the Bike”. After two set ups and shoots for the “LEGO to the rescue”, another shoot with my son on Rollerblades and a few other feeble attempts, I was still not entirely happy with any of the images so I came back to and submitted “A Burn on the Bike”
Just across from our apartment block in Antibes we have some hilly, open and wooded land where there are tracks and bike paths. I thought that this would be a great place to have some background and foreground that would be good to blur in the the panning action. I tried using a flash on the second shutter, this proved to have some potential but I could never quite get a real good keeper. I think next time I will try with the flash off camera and trigger it remotely. After shooting in various spots at the location my son suggested we move to another area where he went up a small slope and and came down through the shrubs. It was not long after that we figured we had a keeper. For me one of the good elements of the image is the shrubs in both the foreground and background which I did think about at the time. The composition came form a little cropping to get it just right, it was a little centred, I did conscientiously shoot a little wide encase I needed cropping as trying to get all the elements just right during panning is a challenge. The red fleece was just what my son was wearing at the time but it certainly helped in the final choice.

Once again thanks to all who gave their votes and thanks to Martin and WebSpy for the 6 month Assignment competition and prises.