New Tuition Leaflet

I have produced a leaflet to promote my tuition, both on a 1-2-1 basis and through workshops, keep an eye out for it wherever you go!

Here they are at Cameraworld in Chelmsford!



And some general views so you can see what they're like...









If you know of any outlet that would be happy to display my leaflets, please let me know - I have plenty of them!  And if you like the look of these, and think I could design a leaflet or poster for you, just get in touch and I'll sort it out for you.

Pentax Christmas Cashback Offer

Just a quick one to let you know that there's a Pentax Christmas Cashback Offer running until 31st January 2009.  You can get up to £100 off the Pentax DSLR of your choice, and up to £50 off lenses.

So, if you got a K200D (with lens and vertical grip!) from SRS Microsystems it would cost you just £349 after £50 cashback.

Or you could visit Camera World and get a K20D with lens for £499 after £100 cashback.

I don't think there's a better time to be buying a new Pentax DSLR.  Especially that K200D offer, that's quite amazing!

Wordle Word Cloud

I came across this on another blog and thought I'd have a go. It's a 'word cloud' taken from my blog feed, showing words I've used most often when posting.

Just a bit of fun, but it took a few minutes to get a look I wanted, and the all important Pentax in red. ;-)


Click on the small image to see it full size.

Pentax in reviews...

Often, as a Pentax user, I feel that Pentax cameras and equipment get unfair reviews in magazines etc. Now, obviously no-one would like to admit the equipment they used was rubbish, but I very much believe that Pentax gear is up there with the best (okay, perhaps not Nikon D3 best, but the K20D is a fifth of the price). You do tend to get your money's worth with Pentax, comparable lenses are better value, bodies have more features (weather-sealing being a case in point - both the K20D and K200D are fully weather sealed).

But occasionally a review appears that fully justifies the feeling that there is a bias towards other brands, and the one below is a classic!

These lens tests were from the Photography Monthly magazine Macro Lens round-up, June 2007. Left hand chart and verdict Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8, right hand Pentax SMC-D 50mm f/2.8 (click on the pic to open a larger version).



Just take a second to note the score for each lens under 'Performance', then have a look at the resolution charts. Hmmmm...

According to the reviewer "where it (the Canon) does score well is wide open at f/2.8", whereas "at the wide apertures below f/5.6, the (Pentax) lens is a little disappointing".

Hence the reason magazine reviews are held with an air of scepticism round here.

2009 Desktop Calendar

Just a quick one to let you know that my 2009 Desktop Calendar is now available, with details and a link to purchase it using Paypal on my Calendar page.



To see how the calendar looks in real life, this blog post has some shots of the 2008 calendar.

Thanks for looking!

Nearly Winter!

Well I've been a bit quiet on here lately, but that doesn't mean I've not been busy!  I've run several workshops over the summer, including the Garden and Flower one described in my previous post, which worked well so I will be repeating that one next year.

However, for this year we're near the end of my workshops, just a Macro one and a Photography in the Park one to go.  You'll have to be quick to book onto the Macro one, as it's very nearly full, so don't hang about!  Details here.




So once the workshops have finished for the year, how do you get help with your photography?  One to one tuition of course!  Before you think that it would be too expensive, it's not, but if you want to share the cost with a friend or two, that's no problem. Find out about my 1-2-1 tuition here.

I'm currently sorting the dates for my 2009 workshops, and all being well I'll be adding a venue to the list - the Essex Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre at Hanningfield Reservoir, between Billericay and Chelmsford.  I'll post dates when I've finalised them.

Garden and Flower Workshop

I have arranged a new Workshop at Hillcrest Nurseries in Ingrave, Essex, concentrating on flower and garden photography.  Imaginatively titled 'Garden and Flower Photography Day', it will be limited to a maximum of 6 participants, making use of a polytunnel for indoor, but well lit, shots, and the nursery plants and gardens for outdoor photography.

I am taking bookings, either by telephone or email (see my Contact page for details), please do not contact Hillcrest Nurseries for bookings.  I will be putting more information regarding this workshop on my Workshops page in due course, but if you want to know more in the meantime, just drop me a line.

Cost for the day is £40, payable in advance to secure your place, and booking is essential.  Cheques will not be cashed until after the workshop has been completed, in the event of the workshop not running, no money will be taken.

Thanks for looking, and I hope to see you at Hillcrest Nurseries on 27th June!

Fingringhoe Macro Workshop

We still have spaces on this Sunday's Close-up and Macro Photography Workshop at Fingringhoe Wick, give the Visitor Centre a ring on 01206 729678 to secure your place.

Details of all my photography workshops are here.

New Macro Workshop Date

I have added a new 'Close-up and Macro Photography Workshop' date, at a new location - Chafford Gorges Nature Park.

I've chosen to run a macro workshop there because it's a superb location for Dragonflies, Damselflies and Butterflies, as well as having excellent wildflowers.  The workshop will be taking place on Sunday 24th August 2008, 10.00a.m. to 4.00p.m.

Here's a few shots from the park, showing the visitor centre, and a couple of dragonflies.







More details of this, and all my photography workshops, can be found here.

The Geffrye Museum

On friday we took a trip up to London, and paid a visit to the Geffrye Museum in Shoreditch, which "shows the changing style of the English domestic interior in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present day".  It was very interesting, and allowed a range of opportunities for photography.  The Anti-Shake feature of the Pentax K10D really helped here, as exposure times were around a half to one second, and I was hand-holding, with only a wall or two to help.













There is a garden room, which has a beautiful mural painted by Jonathon Early, but I can't find any details about him.  If anyone knows who he is, and where else he has painted, I would be grateful if you could drop me a line - I'd like to link to his work from here.







Later, we ended up crossing the Millenium Bridge, so I got some shots while I was there, ideally the sky would be clear, giving a deep blue rather than the murky look here.






It was a very nice day out!

Outdoor Photography Magazine

If you've seen the listing for one of my workshops in the latest (April 2008) Outdoor Photography Magazine, you'll find that it doesn't match up with any of the workshops that I'm actually running.  This is because I sent through details of two workshops - the 'Photography in the Park' one at Thorndon Park, Brentwood, on the 30th March, and 'Close-up and Macro Nature Photography' at Fingringhoe Wick on the 4th May.

Unfortunately, these two workshops got combined at OP so nothing really matches up.

Oh well, never mind.  There are plenty of dates to choose from, so you will find something to suit you, and there are more in the pipeline for later in the year too.

Don't forget, there's always the option of One to One tuition fi you want to learn something specific, or just have the luxury of my undivided attention for 4 hours.

Lastly, if you saw the listing in OP, you may be wondering why some of the other workshops cost £80 - £150 per day, whereas mine are £30 (£35 at Fingringhoe, which includes lunch).

The simple answer is one of numbers and what's included.  My workshops can have up to a dozen participants, others may restrict numbers to 2, 3 or 4.  Also, if it's a residential course, this should include accommodation and food.

Above all, I want to give you a enjoyable day, for a reasonable price.  I make a reasonable wage from the day, Essex Wildlife Trust (the charity that hosts these workshops) receive a good donation, even better if you Gift Aid your course fee, and you go away at the end of the day feeling that you've had excellent value for money.  Everyone's a winner.

See you soon,
Daniel

Pentax Photo Gallery

The Pentax Photo Gallery is an online gallery, run by Pentax, for Pentax SLR users. I'm very pleased to have had some images accepted into the gallery, and I intend to expand on these in due course.

You can see my images (and a slightly scary self-portrait, might change this) here.

Ducks and Geese

I was at Weald Park in Brentwood yesterday running a 1-2-1 tuition session, concentrating on animal photography - Weald has a decent lake with a good supply of ducks and geese, so I thought it ideal.

I rattled of a good number of shots myself, but as ever with moving subjects and my manual focus long lens, many were not sharp.  We were especially trying to catch some good wingflapping poses from the ducks, and I did at least get one good sequence.



However, it did make me think more about getting an autofocus 300mm lens, and Pentax have just brought out a new one, which is tempting...



I was particularly pleased with aspects of this shot, although the branch top right was unfortunate, but I like the action as these ducks had a squabble - there's three of them, but the right-hand one is underwater!



The Graylag geese were as bold as usual, so some good close-ups could be had.




It has left me with the urge to go back and try some more.

Workshops getting booked up!

I've checked with the staff at Thorndon Park and Fingringhoe, and the Photography Workshops (both 'Close-up and Macro' and 'Photography in the Park') are getting booked up - just a few spaces left on the March 30th PITP at Thorndon for instance.

If you want to be sure of getting on the workshop of your choice, book today!

Details of my photography workshops are given here.

Details of the One-to-One tuition I offer is here.

North Norfolk Trip

I had a few days in north Norfolk last weekend, an area I've only really visited once before, but one I wanted to see again. The area around Cley (pronounced to rhyme with 'eye') is a beautiful region, with large areas of saltmarsh, beaches, farmland and lakes, and it's a mecca for all sorts of birds.

First stop was at Holkham, as there is a large roost of Pink-Footed Geese on the marshes here, but as I'm not a wildlife photographer, I don't really own the required lenses to get a close crop in on the birds, which tend to stay at a fair distance. However, I was more than happy with shots like this one looking across the reed beds.



The next day saw a trip into Cley itself, to visit the Norfolk Wildlife Trust visitor centre and reserve, briefly stopping off to see the White Crowned Sparrow which had arrived from North America a couple of weeks before.



It was quite surprising how many birdwatchers and twitchers (there is a difference) were there to see it...



Sunday midday was spent at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve & Gardens, home to a wide variety of mainly wetland birds on both the lakes and within aviaries. There's also a few mammals there too, Red Squirrels in an enclosure and on 'Squirrel Island', but also Otters in the river Wensum which runs through the reserve, and at least one Stoat, which unfortunately was far too quick for me!


Here are some of the shots I got there:


A Puna Teal


A Lapwing, in one of the aviaries.


A Baikal Teal in one of the aviaries.


A sleeping Red Squirrel in an enclosure, probably my favourite shot of the trip, either that one or the Baikal Teal...

Later in the afternoon saw a visit to the beach at Wells-next-the-Sea, where there are some lovely, and varied beach huts, as well as miles of sand, assuming you get there at low tide.





Monday was the last day of the trip, but before leaving the B&B (Holly Lodge Guesthouse, in Thursford Green, very much recommended) I had to take a few shots of the dewy grass and moss on the wall in the garden.





It was an excellent trip which yielded some great photos for me, and I can't wait to go back.

Pentax K20D

Once again it's an exciting time for Pentax Users everywhere - Pentax are gearing up to announce two new Digital SLRs, the K20D and K200D.

It's been just over a year since the K10D hit the shelves, and it's a year that's turned Pentax's fortunes around. Winning just about every award that was going, the K10D truly showed that you had a choice in the camera market. Although the *ist series Pentax cameras were great, they were always a bit behind the competition. But the K10D changed that, with a whole range of features and a build quality far ahead of its rivals from 'the big two'.

The K20D looks to be about to do the same again.




Based on the body of the K10D, the Pentax K20D will have a new 14.5Mp CMOS sensor, Live view, full weather sealing (of course), even better Anti-Shake, possibly higher frame rate (I'd guess 5 frames per second), higher ISO options, and a price tag of, I would guess, around £999. Mind you, we thought the K10D would be around £900, and that arrived at £600. We can only hope.

There are rumours too, about 'something revolutionary'. It may be something to do with the focusing. We'll have to wait and see, all should be revealed in the next few days.

The problem I'm left with, is that I bought my K10D last spring. Do I upgrade so soon? I think not, but if the K20D is as good as the rumours have it, I may have trouble resisting...