Category: blog

Posted on

photo: fun with D700

Hugo by Hugh Chaloner (hugh_c)) on 500px.com

I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and got myself a full frame camera – a Nikon D700 which is about to be superseded by something to be announced in a few days – for this reason I got it at a knock down price, and end-of-line demo price. I’m happy. The pictures it takes are terrific, but I still have to get comfortable with my focal lengths, having shot so much over the last couple of years with a crop frame sensor. It’s a fairly major step up form the D300, itself a great camera, not so much in terms of its operation, but more the “feel” of the pictures. Not something I can easily put into words, but the pictures are maybe a little creamier with all that extra sensor. Mind you it weighs a ton, and I’d think twice before lugging it up the side of a mountain, especially if it’s at altitude.

Pictured above is one of my kids enjoying himself at Brittas, He’s dudetastic.

Posted on

olc: iPad upgrade fail (4.3.2 to 4.5.3)

Tried again to update my iPad (original) from 4.3.2 to 4.3.5 but for some reason it won’t

 

Clicking “more information” brings you to the Apple website, but the info available is complete;y non-specific and of no help.
Weird.

Posted on

photos: 500px


kenny o by Hugh Chaloner

Somewhat excited about 500px, a photo sharing site a bit like flickr but without the dross. I’m finding that flickr is full of the mediocre whereas 500px seems to have a freshness about it with really inspiring photographers uploading premium work. At less than a dollar a week I think I might make the switch to 500px for professional work and keep flickr for the family & holiday snaps.

Posted on

olc: moment of panic reinstalling OSX

Decided that the best solution to my issues with the lapper “slowing down” was to reinstall afresh. Stuck in the DVD and pressed “Go” only to shudder momentarily thinking that I was erasing all Users and the whole shaggin thing.

Alas no, after the re-install, the Users are still present and correct.

Posted on

Hugh in The Gloss

Had the good fortune to be approached by old friend Katy McGuinness who wrote a piece on our family in yesterday’s Gloss supplement in the Irish Times. Thanks to Sam for sending the scan 🙂

20110603-122213.jpg

Posted on

photo: Killiney

Took a breath of air with Dogger here today, meandering down Killiney Beach with a warm wind at my back and a leaden sky overhead. I hadn’t been here for years and was quite surprised at how far the cliff has retreated, the erosion is pronounced.

I wish I’d brought a camera with me because the sky was so impressive, all I had was the iPhone, so that’s what you’re seeing above.

Posted on

The short memory of pain

I took this picture in Kathmandu after climbing down the Khumbu Valley with a very dodgy stomach which I picked up at Island Peak Base Camp. I now know what severe cramps can do to a person. I flew home with the beard, met my family, my youngest child (5 at the time) was frightened and cried. I shaved it off within an hour of being home.

Thankfully it’s been awhile since I broke anything, but there was a time when I damaged myself a fair bit either in the pursuit of contact sport or just plain falling down stairs. My poor unfortunate (then) girlfriend (now wife) had to pick up the pieces (literally) when I tore the ligaments in my right ankle after a misjudged descent of the stairs in my work at the time. I developed a clementine-sized lump on my ankle within seconds and came close to vomiting. I remember the pain as intense, very intense but short-lived. I’m not sure if there’s a pain scale, but if there is, this would have been up there. But soon gone, unlike the pain of loss which lingers. Continue reading “The short memory of pain”

Posted on

photo: close encounters

close encounters

Originally uploaded by Hugh_C

had an evening out with the lissome Sophie M and make-up artist Parima Barghgir on Sunday. I’d been meaning to shoot in this location again since making a time-lapse sequence here a year or two ago, and the opportunity came up, so we all grasped it. The location is beside the train station in Adamstown, near Lucan, west Dublin. It’s one of those new estates built towards the end of the boom, with an infrastructure the envy of west Dublin, only thing is though that it seems deserted. Nobody drove past during probably about 90 minutes shooting. Bizarre, there’s just nobody there.

Can’t say I’d like to live there myself mind you, the place is not very inviting, infrastructure notwithlstanding.

Anyway, here is Sophie in a dress of her own, a late substitute for a Claire Garvey piece we’d managed to leave behind in Parima’s house. She has a pair of strobes mounted on a stand a metre or so behind her, and some ambient fluorescent light from the tubes above. I’ve removed the stand in post, mostly hidden however behind Sophie. I’m pleased with the results.

Via Flickr:
model: Sophie Merry
mua: Parima Barghgir