That’s true! I just got an email from Amazon.co.uk and I had to share it on here, in case some of you didn’t receive it, or don’t get updates from Amazon. It just really surprised me when I read the subject, “DSLRs for under £300″. And significantly less! 

At the moment, you can pick up the Nikon D40 DSLR with the kit lens for £226.27! That is an amazing price. It is clear that there hasn’t been a better time to jump into the DSLR pool. If you want to support the AP Blog, please consider purchasing this camera, or other photographic items using this link:

Nikon D40 Digital SLR Camera - Black (18-55mm Lens Kit)

Another great deal is the Sony A200K, which also comes with a kit lens, (of a slightly longer range than the Nikon), and this camera is just £259.99. Another amazing deal. You can pick that up here:

Sony DSLR-A200K Digital SLR Camera + Zoom Lens Kit (18-70mm F3.5-5.6)

I just thought this was worth sharing with anyone who is still sitting on the fence when it comes to upgrading to a DSLR, I think these are some of the lowest prices around. 

Charlie -

I thought it was worthwhile to write about this here, as it’s not often I do one of these. I decided (after putting the lights on the tree), that a timelapse of the tree being decorated would make a cool video.

I set the 400D with the Sigma 10-20 on a tripod, and started with a composition containing a table, filled with all the decorations, and then the fire in the background with the tree, which looks ‘christmassy’. I changed the composition towards the end to be with the tree more central, as it was unnecessary to keep the table in when it’s empty.

Anywho, I have written up about timelapses, HERE, optimistic post before I had the 400D, and I feel I have posted up some of my attempts before. This one worked well I think, so, let me know what you think, and I may work on a guide as to how I do these at least, when I have some time, tell me if you think it’s worthwhile!

So, here’s the video, I recommend you actually click through it to the vimeo site, and watch it in HD, but if you can’t be bothered, or have a slow Internet connection, feel free to just watch it here

Decoration of the Tree from Charlie Styr on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas!

Charlie -

I was thinking about this as an idea for a blog post when I was writing my last ‘ramble’ about Flickr, which proved vaguely interesting as a topic of conversation. I will write up some ideas for Christmas presents that I think are good, and related to photography. There will be some expensive, and some less so, so it should hopefully cover many of you in terms of something potential, hopefully not too late!

I’ll start with some more expensive ones, Digital Cameras.

Someone’s first DSLR

I was sent a very nice email the other day by a reader asking about what a suitable upgrade to a DSLR from a compact camera was, and so I got doing some research and came to some conclusions.

The Nikon D60 is Nikon’s current entry level camera, and has achieved very favo

urable reviews across the internet. I decided that this is an excellent idea for a first DSLR, I also feel that c

urrently Nikon is ahead in many respects that Canon, particularly in terms of Design, they keep doing significant rebuilds, in comparison to what Canon appears to be doing which is shoving new parts into a body, (400D style), that has had complaints about quality/handling in the past.

Furthermore, for ~£329 the Nikon D60 comes with an image stabilised kit lens which has also achieved many positive remarks, about the glass, and the IS as an added bonus, (or VR as Nikon call it). Therefore I would say that if you are looking at buying a first DSLR for someone, either as their first camera, or as their first DSLR, this seems an excellent way to go.

- Great price in the UK (~£310)

- Great price in the US ($529)
On a side note, the D60 is replacing the D40 base model camera, so, if you are still looking at the idea of a DSLR as a gift, but the D60 is looking a bit too expensive, the D40 is also a great camera, and due to being ‘not the latest’ will be available for even less money.

- D40 UK (£199.99)

- D40 US ($368)

Ideas for a compact camera

This was something else I was thinking about whilst browsing Flickr the other day, and that is of compact cameras, and their capabilities. Realising that many of these cameras now have lots of manual control, and are surprisingly capable at getting detail out of their lenses/sensors.

So I explored the internet for a while and drew my conclusion on the compact cameras available, and thought of the Panasonic DMC-TZ5. It is a mid-rage compact camera, in terms of control, and quality, and price also, yet it is very highly regarded.

Again, it has achieved good reviews, but I was also considering the specs and therefore how it could apply to different people. I think it would be a fantastic first camera if you weren’t wanting an SLR or didn’t have the money, it has a huge 28-280mm zoom range, have a look HERE if you are confused by the zoom range values, which allows you to go from fitting in a big scene, to zooming right into some distant detail. Furthermore, the lens is made by Leica, a marque synonymous with quality glass, and it has Image Stabilisation to boot.

I think this would apply as a first camera, a great gift, but where I think this is also a good idea is as a gift for someone in your life who is a keen photographer, has an SLR maybe, but would find plenty of practical use for a decent compact to take everywhere, or even just situations where an SLR is imposing or impractical.

- UK (TZ5 & Case & 1GB card) (£186.99)

- US (TZ5 only) ($224.99)

For some less expensive gift ideas, I thought I’d start with some good books.

An author who I have a couple of books by is Tom Ang. A renowned writer on photography, his books inspired me, particularly when I was just starting out. One of his latest has received great reviews, and is about photographing ‘anything’, and is an interesting guide, it’s avilable at Amazon, so just have a search in your country for ‘Tom Ang’ and you can bring up a whole host of his books.

Click the book cover to the right if you are in the UK to visit the Amazon page for that book.

Something I think is an excellent idea for a gift is a subscription to a photography magazine. I am subscribed to the magaine to the left, and wholeheartedly recommend it, in the UK of course. HERE is their website, and you can probably subscribe online.

What I think is particularly good about this as a gift idea is that when you subscribe you often get a free gift, for example a Tripod is quite often the gift, or something similar, and that can double as an additional gift at the time, or the subscription for Christmas and then the tripod for the Birthday for example. A great idea.

I remember every time I receive the copy of the magazine, ie. once a month who gave me this gift, so it is a good way of getting yourself stuck in someone’s head as a gift giver too
There are of course other ideas in the lower cost area of photography, I’ll list a few ideas:

• Calendars
• Tripod
• Off-camera flash
• Lenses
• Photography Books, (photographs rather than guides)
• memory cards
• cases for cameras
• a film SLR!

So, I hope this has given your mind a little jolt when it comes to Christmas, or Birthday gift ideas for someone photographic in your family, or one of your friends. Please leave thoughts on this article, as it is my first of this ‘type’ really, so any analysis is greatly appreciated.

Also! feel free to email me, (contact link at the top of the blog), if you have any specific questions, I will answer! (and hopefully help!).

Charlie -

So, I thought I would have a recap of two of my favourite images from Prague, so I have selected two that I was really pleased with, there are more, but these are just some of my faves. If you want, go HERE, and you can see the whole set from Prague on Flickr, so, let’s get into them!

The first photograph, although a little cliché, is one I’m really pleased with, and it is a market scene, at “Havelske Trziste” I believe.

So, why do I like this photo? There are a few points about this image that I am just really pleased with. The first point is: the colour.

This photograph, and in fact, both the photos in this post coincidentally, were taken with the Canon AE-1, a film SLR, and it was loaded with Kodak Ultramax 400. I didn’t look specifically into the film, but it was available in a bundle at WHSmith in the airport, so, you know.

Anyway, back to the colour, the main point to me is that it looks completely real, something I feel I rarely achieve using my digital SLR, and it’s great, it looks like it looked when I was there, the glistening, brightly coloured fruits, with the harsh fluorescent lights above them, it was just like it was in real life, and that, I love.

The next thing is the DoF, it must have been darker than I remember to achieve what I can only guess was f/1.8, judging by how shallow this image is, but I think it worked well, what I love is the grapes, hanging, crisp and in focus, over the OOF people walking in the background.

All in all I am really pleased with this photo and have actually got a large professional print of it done, maybe a picture that will get walled!

The next photograph is something I entitled on Flickr, ‘stormy sea’. I will explain all in a moment, first, the photograph:

This was a ‘hidden gem’ in ways, when I looked through the photographs, in the respect that I had forgotten taking it, normally I find I remember almost everything I have taken a photo of on a roll of film, so it was a nice surprise to find something I like, but didn’t remember on the roll.

The reason behind the title is slightly confusing, even to myself. Basically, I view the lines and shapes in the photograph as something from a stormy sea, you have that fence at the bottom, an incredible shape that looks like it could be a rolling wave, and then the other fence line, the roof line etc, and to me it all appears like waves; then, you have the crack down the wall, coming from the window, which is like a lightening bolt from the sky.

Wait, it’s gonna get more confusing:

What it really reminded me of, was an animation I feel like I have seen of a stormy sea, but made out of unnatural objects, like cogs and clockwork kind of objects. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film, ‘the illusionist’ but there is a scene when certain documents are found, and there is massive elaborate cog-work inside things, and imagining those spinning is how I imagine this. Also, to make it more confusing, you know the animations for a film production company before a film? Like the one with the long straight road, and then there’s the one with the lighthouse, it reminds me of one of those too.

All in all, I have probably confused you, but I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone at all would be able to understand my thinking. I’m going to scour YouTube and Vimeo for an animation video that explains what I’m trying to say. Possibly.

Anywho, so, I like the photograph for that kind of dual meaning, but I also like the simplicity and the abstract nature of it, it’s just one I really like.

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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little blarb on the photographs, any thoughts are welcome via email, or just in the comments on the blog, also feel free to click on the photographs and visit them on Flickr!

I remember when I was new to Flickr, the first year I guess, a while back now. I was using a FujiFilm Finepix S7000, a great camera, I still have it and use it for video. What I remember as being really exciting back then, was the proposition of opinion, seeing what other humans, who I had never met before, from anywhere in the world would say about my pictures.

I would get up the day after uploading a photo, and when I got on the computer I would head straight to flickr, and see the ever pleasing, yellow, ‘New!’ recent activity, link, lit up! It was so exciting, and I would go in, and see someone, or maybe more than one person’s comments!

I would learn, and pick up tips and ideas, for example, I never understood what the exposure compensation was, or how to use my camera out of P, but I picked it up and moved on. I live in Aperture Priority now, although for certain things obviously you have to go into Manual, but just experimenting for the first time with shutter speeds where you could hear the opening, and the closing as completely separate things, it was a strange, but interesting time.

I was looking at this picture:

I still adore that photograph, it was and still is a stunner, if I say so myself, modestly. The comments, the comments! It had 4 comments and became my most ‘interesting’ picture according to Flickr!

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The point of this rambling post is mainly for my purposes, but maybe you will find it interesting to read too; reincarnating my excitement with Flickr. I moved away from all the groups which require forced commenting, 1-2-3 style groups and the like, and nowadays I have a very solid circle of friends on Flickr, a few who I have now met in real life now too, and that is great, but there was something oh so exciting about just having the comments pouring in and seeing what people were saying, different people every day.

I kind of want that back, kind of, but I also much prefer the more personal comments I get from friends, the comments will tend to be more detailed, etc, but I did love just seeing loads of people’s ideas for what would improve the image, or what would make the image more interesting to them.

I think hearing all those comments is what made me progress in my photography, not to where I am now, but it helped me appreciate different ideas, and therefore my tastes changed over time, I look back at some of the stuff I faved back in the day, and unfave them immediately, thinking ‘how did I ever like that!!’

I’m not sure where this thought rant is leading, but I know that I really brought back memories of what I loved Flickr for originally, by looking back through my first pictures, from Nov. 7th 2005, a long while back, and seeing my own excitement in replying to people’s comments etc. I think Flickr has changed an awful lot since then, and is indeed a very different place now, in good ways and bad ways, but I still really enjoy the site, and must visit every day, I’m sure.

Hope you’re well,

Charlie -

I thought I would try and start a new kind of regular post to the blog, in which I analyse a photo that I have taken recently, and that I like, and try and work out what’s great about them, in my mind, and then hopefully hear back from you if you agree, and if you like them too.

This photo were taken in Edinburgh, with my Canon AE-1 Film SLR, and the standard 50mm f/1.8 lens. Let’s have a look!

This photograph was taken in the ‘honesty bar’ or lounge of the Glass House hotel in central Edinburgh.

It is a photograph I really like, and am glad I took some time to take a photograph of it. Of course, in this case, the subject really is fantastic, and therefore the image is bound to be quite nice, but I think there are a few interesting aspects to how I took the photo that are worth noting:

Firstly, the focal point; You can see that I focused on the papers that were in the rack, I did this, because of what I think many people will do in this lounge, you will look at the papers, and, so the photograph does too.

This coupled with the shallow depth of field has made it seem like the rest of the room is simply the background, but yet, you can still make out much of the detail. I particularly like little points of out of focus, (OOF), light, such as the candle, and the fireplace, they are very aesthetic.

The textures in the image I think also play a key aspect, there are so many crammed into the frame: shiny metal, plush carpet, hanging fabric (background), paper etc. All of this coupled with the really warm atmosphere created in the room, makes what I really think, is a nice photo.

So what key points can we pick up from this photo?

• Focus on what people would focus on in a certain scene
• Pick a suitable aperture for the DoF you want
• Maybe try and capture some OOF highlights
• Combine textures within your image

It may all seem incredibly basic how we are looking through photographs in this way, and picking out points that you may think are incredibly simple, but I really think it is worthwhile to think of all these things for every photograph you take, and it’s definitely something that using a film camera has reminded me of, to read more on that, have a look HERE.

Thanks a lot for reading, and please, let me know what you think of this idea, whether it’s worth continuing!?

Charlie -

I thought it’d be worth a moment of your time to look at this site I came across. It is definitely worth a look if you’d be interested in submitting your photographs to be used ‘commercially’ and for financial or otherwise rewards. Here’s a little about how it works:

Publishers come to the website, join, and create an ‘assignment’ for example, a musician may want a photograph to go on the front of his new album cover, and he’ll give some description of what he wants, for example, something based on lomography.

Then, (after you’ve joined!), you can submit images for that assignment, (the creator of the assignment chooses how many you are allowed to submit). And that’s it!

The end result for the publisher is he/she has a collection of images that people think are appropriate for his assignment, and also, he’ll see votes on each image. (You are allowed to vote for pictures that have been submitted, to give the creator an idea of what some people like), and then he picks a winner, (or more than one winner if he wants), and that photo gets used!

This isn’t some dodgy referral thing or anything, I’m just sharing this idea with you, so visit Pixish.com now and sign up! (It needs the support, it’s just starting out!)

So, welcome to the completely revamped AP Blog. Hosted on it’s own, running on WordPress, hopefully this will be an exciting rebirth for the blog.

This first post is going to be on a thought I had the other day, about how since I bought my AE-1 I have rediscovered photography, (the AE-1 being a film camera, as aposed to Digital). So, here it is. It’s a story/article that I hope you will find interesting.

Nowadays, photography is becoming numbed, by it’s own evolution. The digital age, and your cheap digital cameras are flooding this art form with so many new ‘artists’ that it’s touch is being lost. People are firing off their cameras thousands of times and maybe leaving themselves with one or two likeable shots. I see this as a problem, purely because it’s in essence destroying photography, whilst aiding it too. So, I think there is also hope in this problem.

Film photography is becoming scarce, because, for the most part people just use a camera to record their lives, their family and friends, but to photographers, digital has managed to force newcomers to the art form to lose all basic training, instead of working out what composition would be best for a single frame, they take a hundred photos and see which one turns out best. You and I both know this can’t be a good thing.

A shot I took with the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

So, I’ve decided to follow my own story, and share it with you with a method that I think will change your whole view on photography. I feel it has helped me, and that it is something all new photographers should do.

I decided that a 35mm film SLR would be the next thing I would like to purchase. I looked around on Flickr and asked various people, and came up with a short list of SLRs that I thought could work:

• Canon AE-1, AV-1, A-1.
• Olympus OM10, OM20, OM30, OM40.
• Various Nikon film SLRs

This is by no means the complete list, and there will be plenty of other options by many brands, Pentax for example. You may have a brand preference, but I went by what was a reliable camera, and a popular camera, (thus meaning there would be lots available to buy, that were reliable).

I ended up buying a Canon AE-1, an SLR from the late ’70s which had a semi-automatic, Tv/S shutter speed mode, or fully manual, (manual focus of course). It works perfectly, I’ve run black and white, and colour film through it, and it set me back £21.

Photo of the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

If I can just put that price into perspective, I have got a Camera, with a lens, (battery too), that was £21, when I got my Canon EOS 400D, it was retailing at £500, and already from the rolls of film I’ve done, I am loving the work I’m doing with it. So, the investment for this fun really is minimal.

So, what am I really rambling on about here, well, it’s about photography, and your skills in that area. I feel that having a film camera will really connect you with photography, it all becomes much more real when you know there are slides of celluloid in your camera with images waiting to be seen on them.

A photo of my dog, from the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

The inability to look at your picture straight away and maybe delete it will put you in a completely different mindset. You will want to make sure that that picture you are about to take will be right, you don’t want to waste a frame of that film, you contemplate composition, lighting, you think about the exposure, everything. And I have noticed this in my own photography, with the AE-1, I find that my pictures are so much more ‘classically’ correct in terms of photographic technique, with my digital camera I often end up going for strange orientation, odd composition, excessive contrast, ‘incorrect’ exposure, with the AE-1 I get pure results, that are ‘right’, and they work on a much more simple basis.

Furthermore, in this time when it seems everyone and their dog has a digital SLR or at least a compact, how can one differentiate oneself in the photographic ‘market’. If you try and sell your photographs, there would be nothing more interesting to people than seeing a section in your portfolio of purely film photography, it separates you from the crowd in a big way.

Black and White film is also Lovely (click for flickr page)

Once you have used your film camera for a while, there is another big advantage: you will inherit your technique straight into your digital camera too. Of course, over time you may slip back to taking five shots of a single idea, but, the likelihood is that you would put more thought into those photographs.

If I can just slip back to what it means to use film, and people will inevitably bring up the fact that it is costly, and awkward to get your pictures etc. I mean, if we think about this for a second, if you live anywhere near a town, you can get your films processed, and printed in an hour, and nowadays you could just get them thrown on a CD as well. To start with, this quality will be fine, but after a while if you are yearning for higher quality, as you do, you could still get the film processed, but then have a film scanner, and get some high quality scans by yourself.

Furthermore, if you live away from a place to get your rolls developed, there are plenty of post based options, all over the world, you needn’t worry, you can send it away and get it back all done, simple!

The whole idea of this is to reinspire yourself for your photography, and I hope you will be able to do so. For a modest investment on eBay, you can really pick up some lovely cameras, the feel of the hefty metal AE-1 against the comparatively light 400D is also strange.

Hopefully this little article has been of interest to you, let me know if you liked it
Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

Well, Christmas is almost upon us, personally I just finished decorating the tree, and it put me in a very holiday-ish mood, and anyway, I’ve always had a thing for Time-Lapse photography, but I’ve never been able to do it with my Fuji, so, upon looking forward to Christmas, I’m even more excited by the fact that I may be getting a Canon EOS 400D, which is capable of Time Lapse photography, and I cannot wait, it’s going to be very cool, and to show you what I mean by cool look at this:

That is most certainly interesting, and being able to do things like that will make me very happy. It’s quite simple really, all you need is:

• A DigiCam capable of Time Lapse photography
• A Computer, (Mac or PC), preferably a laptop
• Compiler tool, (I will use Quicktime Pro)

And that is all it takes for some cool time lapse work. I say, preferably a laptop, because that means that you could do this outdoors. With Nikons, I believe, (however don’t know for sure), that you can set it to timelapse for you, with no computer, the advantages are obvious, however, it’s not hard to realise you’ll need a big memory card if you do that.

I think that Canon’s bundled software has a timelapse recording capability with it, which means, out of the box timelapsing. If it does not, you can easily download software, for example, GBTimelapse, which allows timelapsing with most canon cameras.

Once you have the software sorted, it is a simple case of getting the shots. The subject can be of almost anything, for example, mountains with clouds rolling through them, a road with traffic on it. Somebody working, all sorts of things. And then you set up the camera, on a tripod preferably, or on a solid rest, taking the pictures. You’ll probably want to take a lot of shots to make sure the video isn’t only a few seconds worth of footage, maybe taking pics of the subject for hours, even days.

With the final pictures you can use quicktime, (very quick and easy), to go, File>Open Image Sequence, then you just select the pictures, and there you go.

Of course, the advantage of doing all these pictures with a new digital camera, rather than with an old fashioned video camcorder, and then speeding it up, is that you are left with a sequence of images that are already HD, and can be cut to any resolution you want, 1980×1080, 1280×720, 640×480, anything! Ready for use in any situation.

Anyway, I’ll let you know if/when I get my 400D, and when I do any time lapse work.

Hope you’re well,

Charlie -

Hey Everyone,

Continuing in this 101 theme, I thought I’d bring up the idea of lens magnification and the such, a lot of people think that they’ll get the best zoom because it says: 8x or the like on the side of the barrel, this may not always be the case, and I’ll write a short entry on this now.

Firstly though, I must thank all the visitors to the site, because this week we broke 200 visitors, and I’m really pleased, thanks a lot to everyone who has helped me continue the blog this far!

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I must start explaining what you see on the side of lenses and on P&S (point and shoot) cameras. When you see, say, ‘10x Zoom‘, this means that from the lowest level of zoom, (or, the wide end), to the longest zoom is 10x larger.

The number that is being magnified, or enlarged, is the ‘mm’. The ‘mm’ is really how the zoom is measured, and typically on an ‘average’ camera, the zoom could be say, ‘35mm - 105mm’. That would be considered normal, and around 3x.

So I hope you can see that the zoom is the mm-mm which also equates the magnification. I’ll give you a real example, my Fuji S7000, has a zoom magnification on the side of the barrel stating, 6x optical zoom. The mm states 35-210mm.

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Now, more often than not, people would prefer a wider angle of view than 35mm, and this is were a lot of compact cameras really do fall very short, I mean, 28mm makes a big difference, and can be a lot more useful to a lot of people. You’ll notice that some of the latest Panasonic digital compact cameras offer their 28mm wide angle as a major selling point, and this clearly reveals how important it is.

Most photographers will use a wide range of focal-lengths, say from 20-200mm. (10x).

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I hope this has been a short but informative post to the 101 scheme of things. I hope you’re all well.

Charlie - Teenage Photographer