Time To Focus

ERCP or Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography involves an endoscopic procedure into the stomach and small intestine. The special endoscope allows access into the lower bile duct which means the endoscopist can sort problems such as common bile duct stones by removing them and blockages from other causes. Here the patient - who gave her permission for the shot - is asleep with a general anaesthetic, suspended on an X ray imaging table that allows a C arm to envelop her. X rays can then be taken so that not only is there an endoscopic view as visualized but also X rays can picture wire guided endoscopic access up into the bile ducts. How is that for photographic jargon!

Photography in the endoscopy room is not straight forward. For me the solution is to use off camera flash.

Meet The Team

In my job I work with great people. People who make things happen. Occasionally I get to work with a group which are amazing. And its a real privelage. Meet the team.

The hospital puts on a show for its own staff consisting of songs, often choreographed, sketches and the occasional audience participation which is always gentle, always with a great production team, accompanied by excellent live music, sound and lighting. Directed by Naomi (fifth from left front row) and produced by Naomi and Sally (first from the left front row) this year had a real buzz to it as each half of the live performance really shone with good original material and a cast that were focused on making it come alive for their audience whilst holding down their day jobs in healthcare.

Bath Time

In work we formed a photo group that meets from time with a specific remit of submitting photographs for that evening. On this occasion "Bath Time" left me slightly unchallenged as I imagined most shots would be taken from lower than waist height looking up at the subject (who probably was slightly unenthusiastic having their private cleaning ritual brought up for technical photographic discussion) and covered from head down in soap suds.

I wanted something different. Whilst supervising our six year old India during bath time the inspiration finally came that all I had to do was change my viewpoint. Every photo book on composition discusses this (somewhere at the start). But where....?

Time to Get Up

I'm not particularly proud of this shot.

Part of the "Time" series that I have studied in evening class 'Time to get up' was conceived as a typical image that would depict early morning sunshine and getting up. I imagined a shaft of sunlight shining on my favourite drink - coffee. Do you ever have that feeling that you want something badly but you know in your heart of hearts that things are not working out when you try to execute the plan? 

And you keep going anyway?

This is one of those times.

Concept: cup of coffee with some coffee beans shaped in a heart i.e. One bread board turned oblique so that the diagonal lines give a sense of pace to the picture. Coffee beans purchased from Whittards (coffee shop franchise in the UK). I love coffee. I didn't ask for much.

Could I do a heart?

Could I light it so that everything was in focus?

Diagnosis Merger

Two hospitals will merge on the South-coast of England within the next twelve month time frame. Exciting for some, a headache for others, both hospitals must continue to focus on day to day care of people coming through its doors on a minute to minute basis. A small group of individuals put on a charity show from time to time on an annual basis raising money for the hospitals and their patients. Today I took this to help publicise the event which takes place in a few days time for its staff and their family & friends.

Global Drugs Survey

Founder of the Global Drug Survey Adam is a dual accredited psychiatrist and physician with specialist expertise in Drugs and Alcohol. But that's only the start. After several years as a consultant and area manager in his field in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and with a major track record in research both there and back here in the UK at the Maudesley Hospital, Adam has performed ground breaking work in research and education amongst drug users that is the envy of multiple drug agencies.

By designing a smart phone app that protects the users' anonymity he is able to reach out to hundreds of thousands of people which will benefit both individuals and also the research community on an international scale.

But the connection between my post and this important area of health education is...what exactly?

Time to Finish

Training to be a surgical doctor starts with school, A levels in England UK, 5-6 years in medical school +/- the odd additional science degree, and then a mere 15 or so years as a trainee in hospital medicine before you get to cut it as a consultant surgeon.  Then the real learning begins...

Play Time

Christmas night 2011. On a bridge over the Necker river in Waiblingen, the bridge being situated at the Hegnacher Mill, Waiblingen, Stuttgart, South West Germany.

Photographing molten metal is dangerous as an occupation.

Time To Die

There are two ways of getting this shot:

1) Walk in and take the photograph
2) Ask the pastor permission beforehand to come onto the land at a pre-arranged time

I shocked the pastor. I went for the second choice.

Time to Reflect

October 2011 early morning: a dawn shoot over stacks at sunrise. Parts of the Dorset coast are closed to the public for protection (they are used during the week as Ministry Of Defence rifle ranges), only opening at weekends. Mupe Bay is reached by a short 60-90 minute jaunt over headland east of Lulworth Cove.

Though I didn't enter this for the Photog Level II work around Time I would have named it:

Time to Reflect

Nikon D700 Carl Zeiss Lens 21mm f/2.8 @f/16 and 0.6secs
Lee filters: Pro Glass ND0.9; Hard Grad ND0.9.
Gitzo systematic tripod. Minor levelling of the horizon (cropping) in Lightroom 3.6

And the learning points for me here:

To chase good light means investing in an alarm clock, planning, preparation and sometimes a spot of fitness.

If some detail in the water is required then the shutter speed is going to have to be tight - once a few seconds have passed a milky smooth stillness develops instead.

Time Out

Mid January 2012 at the end of the day: picture opportunities with expressions like this don't come up often. India placed herself on the "naughty step" after a tiff with her siblings. Suddenly I had another picture for my Photog homework on a "Theme of Time".

Checking that no social worker was outside the front room window I grabbed the camera with a fast lens as I knew it was dark up on the landing and time was going to be very short indeed.

Time Out

Nikon D700 ISO800 Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens @f/1.4 1/60sec
Minimal cropping in Lightroom 3.6

For me the legs to knees & elbows to wrists are the lead in lines to the only thing that needs to be in focus: the eyes - and the subtle catch lights from the stained glass window high up behind me that act like a large soft-box in the post sunset light. What is the learning point for me in this composition?

Keep it simple.

Show Time

Teaching has it that you should have the lowest ISO you can get your hands on when taking the picture. It stands to reason: you get detail, you get images without noise, you get....the picture.

But what if the ISO doesn't allow you to capture the moment? Then you try to compensate and you realise you might get that hand held picture only if your exposure is a few seconds under a minute. Even having super fast glass ain't going to cut it here: f stops of f/0.34 just don't exist on humble commercial lenses. Light Meter says no - or worse has a seizure.

Sometimes you have to make a judgement. Compromise and get the picture or lose everything.

Nearly but not quite

End of a sunny day in the south of France and returning from secluded pools which can only be reached by walking along a rail track. Unusual location, great composition, lead in lines, colour - all ingredients for a great picture. Ah, well, no actually...


India's expression says it all. The picture is out of focus.

This was taken with all the right building blocks for a sharp picture: great subject with autofocus set on the eyes before re-composing and a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens with vibration reduction (VR first generation). At ISO200 and f9.0 everything was in place to get this shot tack sharp. But the VR was switched off from a recent landscape shoot and the speed was 1/50th sec.

Sanctuary

Welcome to the first post on my Blog. I have to start somewhere on this journey of teaching and learning - so here goes....

Sanctuary

The old Swanage pier, Swanage, Dorset on the South coast of England, UK. A popular site for photographers and clearly a view that has been taken over and over...

Taken with a Nikon D700 DSLR & Nikkor 24-70mm lens at 40mm, f11 71.0secs ISO200 held steady on a Gitzo systematic tripod. This was a stark cloudy though bright day with poor light for colour photography at the end of January 2012 early on a Sunday morning. Lee filters allowed me to delay the exposure with a 10stop Neutral Density filter (the "Big Stopper") whilst a hard graduated 0.9ND Lee filter held back the sky to give some definition to the clouds.

Whilst I have had my camera for just over three years I could barely transfer my images to the desktop from my camera up until 18 months ago. Fast forward to now and I have spent the last 18 months learning workflow with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (now version 3.6) and more recently have purchased the plug-in Silver Efex Pro 2. Other than some spots removed from the original RAW file and conversion to Black and White there is little here that has been altered.

What are the learning points for me here:

• When the weather is bad all is not lost
• I have a long way to go in learning about software and plug ins (but I'm enjoying the journey)

Feel free to leave a comment +/- teach! Thank you for visiting my blog.