I’m stressed after a delayed flight and having to constantly look over my shoulder to hurry my mum as we make our way through Milan’s complex metro system with my rucksack and her luggage.

It’s sweltering hot and I just know I’m going to lose it next time she says “oh wait Kevin…you’re walking too fast” Looking back, perhaps adopting that airline tactic of “making up time” was maybe taking it a bit too far.

For my mum’s sake and our further enjoyment of the trip, I hope I’ve chosen the right subway station that’s closet to our hotel. I can see daylight approaching as we take our first rest on the subway escalator since getting off the plane.

Just as we exit the subway mum shouts “quick…there’s a bus Kevin”. “No mum, that will be the AC Milan football team parading the European Cup they won last night!!”

OMFG! I could not believe my eyes or luck. Having just witnessed Kaka, Maldini, Nesta and co. hanging out the open top bus (mum still maintains it was the city bus tour) with the 2007 European Cup, I could have easily just headed straight back down the subway escalator and to the airport a very happy man. But I guess that would have been terribly unfair on my mum, leaving her in Milan all by herself trying to find that hotel.

I must tell you that I don’t normally go on holiday with my mum but it was my (xmas) gift* to her so she could see Piazza del Duomo (“Cathedral Square”), where my dad had played with the Black Watch Military Pipe Band back in the sixties.

But wait a minute, this isn’t related to photography…..I didn’t start reading this to hear about your trips? Well you’re right….but when I combine travel and photography I’m a happy contented wee soul.

I was also thinking back to Milan after booking up a trip to Rome with a mate next month - plus my mum was visiting last night and we ended up having “spaghetti carbinarae” so my planned blog about a gig I was at can wait until next week!

Travelling was what really got me into photography and I have been fortunate enough to photograph some beautiful cities around the world. Unfortunately and although we did have a great time, Milan wasn’t one of them as most of my memories are from visiting chemists and shoe shops all because my mum walked too fast.

Mind you, I got myself a cracking pair of shoes……

Enjoy your weekend!

Kevin

* Ryanair flights and heavily discounted hotel 

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So this blogging business has actually proved to be more rewarding than I first thought after a leading national magazine published my “Cragginess” picture and paid me a large four figure sum in return.

I now need to tell you that I’m talking utter garbage which is not always unusual as you’ll soon begin to realise - but it’s OK to live in hope right? At least it avoids that awkward moment of having to choose between buying a new lens or a Fisher & Donaldson fudge doughnut (albeit their “sit in” price).

Making choices doesn’t always come easy to me which brings me onto this picture of a beautiful (Amur) Leopard which I captured last week at Edinburgh Zoo. Do I take my DSLR or Compact camera to the zoo - or do I even take one at all? I’m not exactly going on safari and besides I wanted to travel light so the compact got the nod. Plus at the end of the day (I hate that saying but I’ll use it anyway) it’s a zoo where you just don’t get the same satisfaction or adrenalin from capturing wild animals at close range.

Arriving at the zoo I see plenty of people just like me who own a DSLR (I tend to call them losers when I’ve only got my compact) and then we had a proper loser alert with the guy who clearly thought he WAS on safari with his 47 lens cases and a “back up” camera (in case his main camera broke just at that momentous moment when the koalas turn their heads in synchrony towards you and smile).

Digital compact cameras are brilliant and do a very good job in most situations. It’s probably a reasonable assumption that most of us own one or get a similar result from our smart phones - they’re really easy to use and so versatile.

But then you come across the leopard who is sitting proudly up high on a tree trunk looking directly at you whilst thinking “right loser, you’ve got 30 seconds to take my picture before I head back to my den” and “who’s going to be the first joker to blind me with their flash through this window?”

Having not used my compact in ages I start panicking about the best settings. Do I go for “kids & pets” mode here? Wait a minute it’s not strictly a pet and I don’t see any kids on that trunk so that can’t be right…I’m losing valuable time here. Do I switch to Face Detection mode….it has a face right?

So allowing time for mine and the leopard’s eyes to adjust after the flurry of flash activity bouncing of the glass, I select my settings and raise the camera as high as I can above me so the camera is at the same level as the leopard before taking the shot. One of the things I’ve learned is to avoid pointing up or down towards your intended subject (where you can). You should try this out - it can bring out a more pleasing perspective and create a nice intimate result. 

And am I happy with the resulting shot? Well, I know it’s a stunning animal and I couldn’t have wished for a better composition but I also know the limitations of a digital compact camera. Last week I spoke about depth of field and how I wanted to achieve front to back focus. As you can see, this shot of the leopard has more or less achieved the same result but on this occasion I really wanted the opposite effect so only the leopard was in focus (a shallow or narrow depth of field).

This would have isolated the leopard and resulted in a less busy and blurred background such as blurring out the distracting branches towards the top of the leopards head. Unfortunately most compact cameras lack the creative and technical capability to create a narrow depth of field.

The moral of this story is that next time I go to a zoo I will certainly be taking my DSLR with me and my increasing stock of lenses so someone else can point their finger at me and shout “LOSER ALERT!!”. But be forewarned…it’s not only the rhinos who have thick skin :)

Anyway, next time you’re at the zoo and you have a window between you and the animal in poor light conditions, turn off your flash and select a higher ISO and your camera will select a fast enough shutter speed to get a nice sharp and bright enough image. Edinburgh Zoo doesn’t need any more big cats with only one eye and you never know, they may just sit longer than 30 seconds……..

Have a great weekend. 

Kevin

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I’ve been asked by a few people about my thought process behind taking this shot and subsequent processing method so I thought I’d take the opportunity to cover this in my very first….and possibly last blog on tumblr!

In terms of planning, well, I live within 5 mins so I had no plans to go out with the camera at all until I noticed that the sky had some great cloud formation and late afternoon light. I thought off two places - either the (Salisbury) Crags or Regent Road, two favourite spots that I had yet to capture that I thought would show off this light well. Time and distance meant I decided on the Crags.

I have always admired the Crags commanding presence over Edinburgh and I see them almost daily as I drive past in awe of their beauty. So for many years I have always wanted to capture them in a way that reflects their ‘cragginess’ in a light that does them justice. This was my opportunity.

I was a bit cheeky in Holyrood Park as I reversed the wrong way up the one way road (with care!) that comes down from Arthurs Seat, as if I had driven right around the park I would have definitely missed the light. OK so apologies to anyone currently frowning or deciding not to read any further….just don’t tell the Queen!

So getting as close as I could, I had a short walk up to the vantage point you see and it was then into thinking and decision making mode for the next 10 minutes or so. Mind you, one of those minutes was wasted by a tourist trying to scramble over the edge you see in the foreground (you can actually climb part of the Crags - but not for me!). And yes, I did get a picture of him - that’s in my ‘funny moments’ folder.

Composing the scene, my intention was to expose for the sky so I was hoping for enough natural light to reflect off the rocks allowing me to increase foreground exposure in post processing (which I did by increasing Active D-Lighting and adjusting the shadows).

Just in case I didn’t get enough foreground light, I also forced on the (SB 400) flashgun after pressing the shutter half way. This was a trick I read in a brilliant book - Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

To combat the common exposure issue you get when you either expose for the sky or foreground, I thought about bracketing (multiple shots at difference exposure values) and combining them in post processing but I was not using a tripod and opted against this approach.

As I was handholding the camera in fading light, it was critical I had a fast enough shutter speed to achieve sharpness across the image but not compromise depth of field, so the image would be in focus from front to back (depth of field).

I ended choosing this image as the sun briefly ducked in behind a thin layer of cloud which helped give a nice diffused light across the scene. The shot was taken at a focal length of 11mm, 1/320 sec at f/11 and an ISO of 100 on a Nikon D7000 and Tokina 11mm-16mm ATX-Pro wide angle lens.

Back home it was and even the kettle I had boiled before leaving was still hot enough for me to have that cup of tea I had planned!

In terms of post processing, I used Adobe Lightroom 4 to work on a final edit. I needed every bit of this image to show the Pentland Hills in the distance so there was no cropping involved – this is why I will eventually upgrade to a full format sensor as I could have done with just a bit more on each side.  The main editing I did in Lightroom was clipping some highlights and shadows, applying some clarity across the whole image, increasing WB temperature, applying some local sharpening to the rocks (which has caused some faint ghosting against the cloud – will correct in another edit) and Luminance to soften.

This shot has subsequently been invited into the Altered Edinburgh group on flickr and I had no hesitation in accepting their invite due to the type of post processing I’ve used.  Whilst this is not technically HDR (High Dynamic Range), this level of processing is not for everyone and even I would not choose to use this method unless I felt it benefited the picture.

After many years shooting JPEG, I’m now starting to realise the benefits of shooting RAW in terms of its non destructive nature and ability to make post shutter adjustments that are needed in digital photography today.

Post processing is now an integral part of digital photography and whilst I will never be one of those who “place” very large moons over city backdrops, I will, like many photographers use it to my advantage when I think it will bring out the best in a picture. This of course could never replace the skill in capturing that decisive moment, composing a scene or by getting your camera settings correct in the first instance.

Having studied aspects of digital photography and still continuing to learn more about this great subject, I have found writing this blog a great way to put some context behind my photography and this on its own is all part of my steep learning curve. 

I’ve quite enjoyed writing my debut blog and whether you are keen on photography or not, I hope this has given you the story behind the picture. You can see more of my photography on flickr by clicking here. If you have a question ask me here.

Finally, some of you may ask how did I know it was a tourist climbing up the Crags? Well it was pretty obvious, he had a camera of course…..

Hope you all had a good Easter break with your family and friends.

Kevin

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