May « 2010 « Blog: Photography by Dan Santillo

May 30, 2010

Mumbles Pier and Lighthouse

Tags: Gower, mumbles, Mumbles Lifeboat Station, Mumbles Lighthouse, Mumbles Pier, Panorama, sun rise, sunrise — Dan Santillo @ 7:17 am

Last Tuesday morning, I set the alarm for 4am. That’s the trouble with summer – the sun rises so early! 5:09am so the BBC Weather site told me. Add in time to get dressed and have something quick to eat, then drive there, walk to the location, set up and finally be ready to take the photo. I was only standing around for about 10 minutes before the sun rose. And sometimes the sky before sunrise can be amazing, although not this time unfortunately.

My location in mind was Caswell Bay, but as I drove along the seafront at Swansea I saw the tide was as high as it could be – meaning I misread the tide table. So instead, I decided to go to Mumbles and shoot a panorama to include the pier and lighthouse – something I first saw by Steve Moon. I first met him when he come to my exhibition last year and have kept in touch via Facebook and Twitter. What I didn’t realise that the panorama would be such a difficult photo to process once I’d taken it.

My current computer, 3.5. years old, was in the process of dying and whilst it could cope with the 21megapixel (130Mb) files my camera produces, when it comes to stitching 8 of them together it struggles. In fact, it took me all of Tuesday to stitch it. The big problem was the large patch of sea between the pier and lighthouse – there were no landmarks for the software to line up on so I ended up putting large X’s on two photos to tell the software where to join. At the end of Tuesday, it finally managed it. Then on Wednesday my new fast computer arrived (i7 920 with 6Gb RAM and Windows 7 64 bit so Photoshop CS5 can use memory above 3Gb.) After getting it all set up, software installed and my two 1.5Tb work drives put in I was able to resume work on the panorama on Thursday. I ended up having to skew, distort and warp sections of the photo to get it to line up and the panorama software hadn’t quite got it right. But thanks to the new quick computer, I was able to complete it with no waiting around for the computer to do stuff. Photoshop was using over 4Gb of RAM by the time I’d finished. So it took me a few seconds to take the photos and over a day to process it – I sure hope it was worth the effort!

Mumbles Pier and Lighthouse

After shooting that sunrise, I decided to stop by Mumbles Yacht Club and make use of the deserted area – it was before 5:30am! Although I did see someone fishing and a mother walking her baby in a pushchair… The light was OK, but not brilliant so I decided to have a go with my 10 stop ND filter – sometimes it really helps with a shot, others times not so much. In this instance I was pleased to have it with me.

Mumbles Pier and Lifeboat Station

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May 20, 2010

What’s In The Garden?

Tags: blue bell, blue bells, bluebell, bluebells, extension tubes, fern, ferns, garden, macro — Dan Santillo @ 2:32 pm

In order to get a quick break from the house and surprisingly quiet and sleepy baby, I nipped out into the garden for a while and went to the far end of the wild bit we have – we own the very edge of the forest. I rarely use my Sigma 105mm and extension tubes, but after seeing today’s results I think I ought to use them more often. There was only the gentlest of breezes occasionally so it was fairly easy to get sharp photos – especially being able to use live view to check the focus.

Buttercup

Bluebell

Fern

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May 18, 2010

The Grey Mare’s Tail

Tags: afon conwy tributary, river, stream, the grey mare's tail, water fall, waterfall — Dan Santillo @ 2:49 pm

In September last year, we went on a family holiday to Snowdonia and stayed in a cottage near Llanrwst. A few metres from the cottage was The Grey Mare’s Tail, a fantastic waterfall in a little glade called Coed Felin Blwm. Naturally, I went there with camera and tripod and spent over an hour standing in the river. I finally got around to process the photos today!

The Grey Mare's Tail

Afon Conwy Tributary

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May 10, 2010

St. Illtyd’s Path

Tags: blue bells, bluebells, Pontardawe, saint illtyd's path, st. illtyd's path, woodland — Dan Santillo @ 2:31 pm

Piran is 4 days old today according to Neath Port Talbot hospital and 5 days old according to Pontardawe midwife – some health authorities count the day of birth as 1 day, some don’t…. Anyway, he is healthy and fine and gaining weight as he should and Paula is doing very, very well too.

I don’t want to go away for too long at the moment, but I did manage to leave the house for 5 minutes today. St. Illtyd’s Pathis a Long Distance Path (LDP) that starts in Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire and finishes in Margam Park in Neath Port Talbot. It is 64 miles in length and passes through Pontardawe. Seeing the bluebells out in force, I jumped the back fence, climbed a short incline and took the following photo:

St Illtyd's Path, Pontardawe

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May 6, 2010

Happy Birthday Piran!

Dan Santillo @ 9:41 pm

Our second child, Piran, was born today at 16:35 weighing 7lbs and 12oz. We’d only been at the hospital for 2.5 hours before he shot out – quite literally! Paula was in the birthing pool – we hadn’t booked it, it was offered (pretty good for the NHS!) and her waters broke and minutes later the baby was in the pool! The midwife asked Paula to pick him up, but she didn’t hear due to being high on entonox so the midwife dived in without gloves on and picked him out. He was blue and not breathing (but with strong heart beat) so was resuscitated briefly and then taken away and warmed up for a couple of minutes before being bought back in. He is fine and healthy and fast asleep when I left after having a big feed. Mother and baby should be coming home tomorrow.

Piran Santillo

Maternal Grandmother with Big Sister giving her approval!

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May 5, 2010

Rhossili Bay

Tags: 10 Stop ND Filter, Gower, long exposure, Rhossili Bay, worms head — Dan Santillo @ 9:24 am

I managed a quick trip out last night, possibly my last for a while as Paula is due to go into labour today – and it’s nothing to do with politics… I nipped out to Rhossili Bay as the tide forecast was OK as was the weather forecast. It was pretty windy though. When I went to photograph the Helvetia Wreck last time at sunset, another photographer had the spot but this time it was free. I took a couple of shots, but had been hoping the water would be lapping around it. I then went down to the water’s edge to have a play with my 10 stop ND filter, but as it turned out just a polariser gave a better shot.

Helvetia Wreck, Rhossili Bay, Gower

Worms Head with 10 stop ND filter

Worms Head, Rhossili Bay, Gower

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