Merry Christmas

Christmas Cheer

Hi all who read this, (all 3 of you!)
Just to say a Happy Christmas to one and all. Let's hope we can all look forward to a better year ahead.
I am making an early New Year resolution. I am going to be adding to this blog on a much more regular basis, I hope with information about photography and other things, special offers I have found that might be of interest.
So do keep coming back or subscribe using the RSS feed on the left and that will update you without having to visit the site first.
Best Wishes
Gerry

Unusual Wedding

Have not been able to write anything on my blog lately so this is part of "catch up"


A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph a very unusual wedding. It took place in Co. Fermanagh in the middle of Lough Erne.



Well not strictly in the middle but on Devenish Island. Now there are on Devenish the ruins of a 6th century Monastry and Church and a very well preserved Round Tower. This is the first time that as far as anyone knows that a wedding has taken place on the island. There is a graveyard with some very old graves but there are no records of any marriages ever having taken place.
Lisa and Jamie started the day from the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen town, right on the Lough shore.



Jamie (the groom) started the day a bit earlier by going water-skiing, and then after he got changed, travelling up to Devinish in his own speedboat, myself, the minister and the Best Man all travelled with him.



Lisa (the bride) came up in a white Motor Cruiser, and all the guests travelled up in the "Lady of the Lake"




The day was a bit grey and overcast but the rain stayed mostly away, which was lucky as the church has no roof. After the ceremony it was all back to the Killyhevlin for some nice Guinness and an excellent meal. My best wishes to Lisa and Jamie and have a great life together.

Success at the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts

I have just received confirmation that an Artwork of mine has been accepted into this years RUA. The image is a Three dimensional photo construction of the old Drawing Office at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. (where the plans for the Titanic where drawn up)The image is made up of approx 50 individual images mounted onto board and pieced together and layered on top of one another where the edges overlap to a depth of over two inches in places. The RUA (equivalent to the RA in England) accepts submissions from artists in all disciplines and this year had the greatest number of artists submitting work, over 1200 pieces of art were submitted and only about 10% got accepted. The original 3D image is a one off, but I am doing a Canvas Art Print of the image, size 60inches by 14inches. See the image above or on my ARTWORKS website to make a purchase.

New Exhibition now on Display

My new exhibition is now on Display at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.It is on display in Luciano's coffee bar in the new building, open every day from 9.30am. Please go along and have a look and have a coffee at the same time.

Exhibition in The Opera House

Hi All,
Just a short update on my Exhibition. There has been a bit of a delay over getting the work up on Display due to a Health & Safety aspect. So if everything works out OK, I shall be putting the rest of the pictures up this Monday.
I will post pictures of them in situ when all is finished.
Gerry

New show of Canvas art prints

NEW ARTWORKS EXHIBITION

AT BELFAST'S
GRAND OPERA HOUSE
EXHIBITION FROM EARLY AUGUST
IN LUCIANO'S CAFE/BAR

THIS IS GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO SEE A LARGE RANGE OF MY ARTWORK IMAGES


For those who cannot make the show itself, please visit my Canvas Art Prints Gallery online.

More details on the D700

This is just a short post to say about reading the reviews on the Nikon D700.
It really is a case of I want one.

see here: http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/d700/

Nikon D700, New Camera

Just a quick link to read a review on the new Nikon D700.
Now we all know what we want for Christmas!!!

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond700/

Gerry

Exhibition

Just a quick note to say that I now have an exhibition of my Canvas Art-Works on show at Clements Coffee House in Royal Avenue, Belfast. Clements is opposite Belfast Central Library. The show will be on over the summer months and then there will be a much bigger show in August at The Grand Opera House, Belfast. Date to be arranged. Go and have a coffee and tell what you think of my pictures.
Gerry

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Photo trip to Spain

Hi,
Been a bit lax in writing this blog lately, been a bit busy and a bit lazy, no real excuse.
I have not long come back from a photo trip with a crowd of mates from our local camera club.
We went to the area in Spain known as La Alpujarras up in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
It is about 1 1/2 hours drive from Granada and about 2 hours from Malaga airport. We stayed a small village in the mountains called Mecina. This area is very rural and as far away from the typical "Costas" as you would like. It is a very quiet area with not a lot of traffic, but the scenery is fantastic. There is something there for everyone. For the landscape photographer it is stunning if you can just catch the right light. The small villages offer a lot of material for the photographer who likes the more intimate type of photo, old white houses dating back over 500 years and all the villages painted white. In the village we stayed in there was only one Bar/restaurant and one vegetarian restaurant. Both were excellent although some service in the bar was a bit slow to say he least, the food was good. The Jamon (ham) starter was fab and the pizzas were very tasty.
The veggie restaurant was really good, it is run by a French man, Jean-Claude and although not all of our group are dead keen on vegetables, they all agreed that the flavours were excellent.
The one true vegetarian in our group was in veggie heaven.

There are other local towns that are a bit more touristy but not overun with them, and we enjoyed salads and beer sitting in the sun listening to local musicians in the town square.

We then all went down to Granada for the last day, some of our group were staying one extra day so that they could go into the Alhambra the next morning. It is very difficult to get photos in the Alhambra because there are so many tourists about, even going in first thing it was very busy. So that was my last wee trip. Now we have to think were we go next year.
See Ya
Gerry

Canvas Art Prints: Coe Artworks - Welcome

Canvas Art Prints: Coe Artworks - Welcome

I have given my Canvas Art print site a bit of a makeover, and I have now been able to reduce the prices of my "Artworks" quite substantially. Have a look if you are interested. I will appreciate any comments.

Some hints and tips on using Nikon D300

The new Nikon D300 is a marvellous camera with a lot of extra functions over the D200. The larger viewing screen for one, is a big plus and is really just a mini LCD screen.

But like all cameras there are many shortcuts and ways to do things that are not always obvious, unless you read and understand the small novel of an instuction book that comes with the camera. What this article is about is showing a few basic shortcuts that will help make life a bit easier.

The first simple one is that just by hitting the the info button (the one with the Key symbol) just below the Menu button, you get a display of all the camera information that is in the top info panel, very easy to see especially if your eyesight is not as good as it was.

You can make all your normal adjustments and they will change as you alter them.

The next thing is a quick way to zoom in on the subject, this is the way to set it up. Push the Menu button, then using the multi-selector button go to the Pencil icon.

Scroll down to “f Controls”

Right click on the multi-selector button which will show, “Multi-Selector Centre Button”.

Right click again and go to Playback Mode” Right click and go to “Zoom on/off

Again right click and you will have 3 options, Low, Medium or High, pick which one suits you best. Medium or High for checking focus, Low to get in close to see facial expressions when doing a portrait, you can still use the plus and minus buttons on the left to move in closer or move out as normal. And you can still use the scroll wheel to flick through all your photographs at the same magnification.

One other thing that could be of great use is that you can set up the back scroll wheel to flip through the photographs instead of using the Multi selector wheel.

This time go to f 7 “Customize Command Dials”

right click and go down to “Menus and Playback”

Click that to “ON”

And one last tip, make sure that the f 9 “No memory card” is set to lock, that way you will not accidentally take photographs without a card in the camera.

Hope these will be of use to you.

Adobe Updates

This is a short blog, but just in case you have not heard, Adobe have just brought out a new update to Camera Raw and Lightroom. The new updates are CR4.4.1 and L/room 1.4.1. There had been problems with a previous update and it had been withdrawn, these updates have fixed the problems. To download, Click Here

Back to Work!!!

Hi,
Well I am just back into work again after a lovely wee break out in Spain. My wife andI have an apartment out on the Costa Blanca, it is an hours drive north of Alicante and it is in the country, we are only 20 to 30 mins from the beaches.

Photographically it is very good with mountains all round us and vineyards (wine can be a bit rustic but drinkable). We took a trip to Alicante for the first time and it is a lovely city, with an old quarter and a lovely beach area.

We have also been up to Valencia, and that is a really beautiful city, we normally drive from our place for about 40 mins and then take the train, about another 50 mins. There are a lot of photographic opportunities all round these areas, this time out I was testing out my new Nikon D300. (read Scott Kelby review) I have found this a fantastic camera and the quality is amazing.


I hope to have some new work up on my "Coe-Artworks" website in the near future. I have also thought about doing some travel/photo workshops out in the area for groups of about 6. People would stay in apartments like mine and we would travel about showing you a bit of Spain that is not too touristy and can be very rural. All levels of photographic ability would be catered for.

There are some great restaurants all round the area, I can still taste the fabulous Paella we had the day before we left. If anyone is interested in a 5/6 day trip out please contact me and I will give more details, cost should be about £550 to £600 incl. all evening meals,transport and accommodation.

I expect these may happen late this year or early next.


Do please email me gerryATgerrycoe.co.uk replace the AT with @

Soft Focus

Hi,
One more thing about my Portrait Workshop at the D.L. Kirkpatrick show in Armagh.

I have been asked about the softening method I used to get the nice skin tones. I have over the years of working with digital tried many different methods but this is the one that I like the best (so far).

It requires you to make an action which then can be run anytime you need it. Now if you don't know how to make an action then I will show you how. Come back to this site soon and I will have a connection on how to do it.


In my continuing quest for knowledge I am always buying books, One of the most inspiring book of images I have recently bought, is one by a Spanish Photographer,
Chema Madoz, I have his site listed over in my favourites on the left. I really recommend this or any of his books, it just might make you think a little bit differently about your photography.


Well that's it for today, back with more info soon. If I can help with anything then please email me, or at least leave a comment. Be nice to know if anybody is actually reading this blog.

Gerry

email gerryATgerrycoe.co.uk Replace the AT with @

Some info re Armagh Workshop

At the Armagh talk I mentioned a book by "George DeWolfe", Digital Photography Fine Print Workshop. See the link on the left for Amazon. This was mentioned a bit late and some people had already left. I have found this to be a very informative book and it gives a very good way to get a workflow organised so as to give your photographs the best quality that you can get. It may not suit every situation but it gives you a good understanding of what you should be aiming for. It is written quite simply and with humour. I certainly recommend it.

I welcome your feedback so please leave a comment or email me .
gerryATgerrycoe.co.uk Replace the AT with @

Did a seminar today

I was asked to do a seminar for D L Kirpatricks , the photographic wholesalers annual show in Armagh, Co. Armagh.

It was very well attended and the reaction to my talk was very good. But I have found that there are an awful lot of people who do not understand the basic idea of how to light a subject. I suppose this is a case of me having spent a long time working with portrait lighting that I had forgotten how steep a learning curve it can be.

I normally would work with 4 lights in the Studio, 2 on the white background, to keep it as white as possible, and 2 on the subject. I have 2 softboxes for the main lights and if I am wanting to capture fast moving children then an overall general lighting will give me that freedom.

Also if I move in close for my special style of "Pencil Portraits" then the same 2 lights close in, almost forming a tent slightly to the front of the subject with a silver reflector underneath at about chest height. This will create a wonderful wrap around light and gives me the desired light for my portraits.

It is also very easy to move to a Low Key" style of lighting by turning out the 2 background lights or using one of them with a snoot or Honeycomb modifier to give a splash of light onto a black background. Then just use one of the main front lights to light the face, and if positioned correctly it can give the classical look of the Rembrandt light, which is one side lit and the light comes round the face to give a triangle of light on the shadow side of the face. A reflector underneath is not used but it can be placed on the shadow side just to give a slight lift to the shadows.

I am soon going to do some very special talks and also arrange week long Photo breaks away in Spain taking photographs and producing prints without traditional negatives and printing without an enlarger. This will probably not be until next year sometime but if anyone is interested email me and I will keep you posted.
Gerry

I welcome your feedback so please leave a comment or email me .
gerryATgerrycoe.co.uk Replace AT with @

New boy, my first attempt

Hi if anyone is out there, this is something totally new to me so I am sure I am going to make lots of mistakes as I go along,

I hope this little blog will maybe turn into a mix of information and interesting stories.
A little bit about me, I have been a photographer for almost 45 years and I'm still learning, I am principally a Portrait photographer doing mostly Families and Children.

I have a Studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I have concentrated on B&W and up until recently it was all hand printed in the darkroom. Almost 4 years ago I bowed to the inevitable and bought a digital camera, a Nikon D70.

I experimented with that and after many hours working with Photoshop I was convinced that I could turn out work as good as anything I was doing in the darkroom. Nowadays I think I can do more and better.

People ask me if I have missed the darkroom and I can honestly say no, I have absolutely no desire to return to that dark and smelly room. I sit as I am now at my computer looking out onto the street I live in and watching people passing by taking their dogs for a walk on the beach about 100 yards from my front door. I can live without all the chemical smells of Fixer etc and the long hours of washing prints, especially as they are now going to charge for water.

So what do I do now? Well I have 2 printers at present, an Epson 3800 and an Epson 4000 which I am now setting up as a dedicated B&W printer. I used to have Epson 2100 which was a dedicated B&W printer using Jon Cone "Piezetone" inks from the States, it died on me, so I decided to use the 4000 as my B&W printer but this time I am going to use MIS inks. I also like the idea of the bigger B&W print from the 4000.

This is my first post and I will try to add some pictures to make things a bit more interesting.
Thanks for looking
Gerry

I welcome your feedback so please leave a comment or email me - gerryATgerrycoe.co.uk Replace AT with @