Joanna Rodriguez : Runner

Joanna Rodriguez
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

I completed with Jo a few times over the last few years in various races. We were pretty closely matched but my running bacame interlaced with injury and hers went from strength to strength. I'm not sure what time she did int he handicap last night but the speed she ran past me to get this photo I'd say it would be around 32 minutes. (avg speed for 5 miles being about 6:20 min/mile. I'll post the time when the results are up.

Coy Smile
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

This was taken at the weekend at my Son's first Holy Communion. He was busy playing with his friends and gave me this coy smile as he paused for a moment in between rushing around playing catch and chase.

Dragonfly Heart in a sea of Bokeh

Dragonfly Heart in a sea of Bokeh
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

This was taken in my garden a few weeks ago. I'm using a Nikon 105mm micronikkor f2.8 lens, strapped to my canon 40D with a cheapo adaptor from Ebay. It mean you can still do auto metering once the aperture is set (set aperture manually) but all the focussing in manual. It's a bit of a pain doing macro work on a manual lens as the depth of field is so small. I would love to get a canon 100mm macro lens but htere are other things ahead of that in my must have purchases.

Loosing My Triathlon Cherry

Well today was my big day. I lost my triathlon virginity. The knee injury of a few weeks ago and the cold that still lingered had put paid to any ambitions of a fast time but I was very pleasantly surprised to exceed my expectations with a time of 2 hours 47 minutes. The swim was as bad as I had expected, getting swum over and kicked in murky river water is not nice and frankly after only 100m I felt like turning round and bugging out. I'm glad I stuck it out though as it got better after I warmed up. On the downstream leg of the swim I was getting into a rhythm and starting to gain a few places back. I was in such a groove I went 20m last the last buoy and had to double back to the exit pint. My legs were all wobbly and I felt dizzy getting out of the water. Transition went well as I whipped off t he wetsuit and got the bike going. Within a mile my hamstrings were cramping badly though. It was another 2-3 miles before I was able to start cycling properly. A bit of electrolyte drink (2L through the bike leg) sorted me out and I was able to start cranking the pedals. I was making good progress and was steadily overtaking people, and only being overtaken myself by some really fast guys. I took great pleasure on my 15 yr old steel framed bike overtaking £3-5K carbon machines ridden by people who obviously had all the gear but no idea. The most pleasing thing about the bike was the average speed being a shade under 20mph. Onto the run. There is a nasty hill up past Windsor castle that you have to tackle three times, luckily I'd stationed the family at the top so there was always an incentive to get to the top for cheers and high fives. The run was survival mode at the end but I was quite pleased with my time of 51 mins 56 seconds for the 10k. All in all a fantastic experience, not as hard as a marathon but say 2/3 the difficulty. Even so I've still been wiped out all day and having to power snooze regualrly.... and when not snoozing, eating and drinking. I'll definitely be doing another.

James Cracknell OBE

James Cracknell OBE
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

Today I was "racking" my bike in preparation for my debut triathlon in Windsor, which takes place tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous to say the least. Just as I was preparing to register I saw James Cracknell, Olympic rower, adventurer and all round nice guy. I asked if he wouldn't mind me taking his photo and he kindly obliged. We chatter for 5 minutes or so about his adventures, skiing tot he South Pole, rowing accross the atlantic and obviously his Olympic rowing successes. He was interested in my triathlon debut, as he's a hardened campiagner and he put my mind at rest. He's starintg the race early tomorrow so he can be back in time to cover the event for Channel 4 TV where he is a "celebrity pundit". James is #14 in my 100 strangers project and my second famous person.... I don't think I'm going to be able to maintain that kind of ratio !!!

See more about James Cracknell here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cracknell

Smile !!

Smile !!
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

I was looking through various folders in Lightroom last night looking for images that I had missed or that would offer an opportunity to try out the quadtoning technique on. I decided that this portrait would offer itself nicely. I'm very pleased wit the results and think it does the beautiful smile justice. This was a random and somewhat opportunistic "snapshot" taken in the car whilst stopped at a level crossing. You have to catch her unawares to avoid a terrible posed toothy smile/grimace.

Now I've got the quadtoning technique sorted I think I'll move on to another in Scott Kelby's book, CS3 for Photographers.

Jumping For Joy

One of my favourite shots from our recent holiday. B had a great time jumping down the sand dunes. I say sand dunes but really they were man made mounds that were being dumped by huge trucks to try and repair some of the beach erosion from previous years. You can see the trucks in the second shot

Flying Vizsla :Quad Toned

Flying Vizsla
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

I've been using Scott Kelby's book "CS3 for Photographers" to help me with different post processing techniques and one I tried recently I really liked. It's quad toning to add extra depth and contrast to B&W images. This shot is of our grorgeos pooch, Jasper. He's a Hungarian Vizsla, very photogenic and a bit of a poser. This is one of his favourite tricks when we're up on "Smiths Lawn" polo fields, jumping over the fence.

Water Drops.

I've been trying to take macro photos of water drops a few times now with some pretty good results.... but it "aint nothin" compared to some of these. See video ont he Strobist.com blogspot. There is some amazing footage.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-photograph-water-drops-with-one.html