CJ Trigg Photography

St Pancras Renaissance

Catherine — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:14:16 +0000

For a friend’s birthday in the SUMMER (for goodness sake), we went on a history tour of the ‘new’ St Pancras Grand hotel. It opened a couple of years ago following an enormous and expensive refurbishment which took the building from severely neglected Victorian station hotel to one of the most high profile venues in London, and for good reason because it’s quite breathtaking. The tour, which may have been an unusual birthday gift for some but fits right in with my oldest friend (er, by which I mean we have known each other since we were 6, not that she is 102) and the kind of things we enjoy, was very interesting and gave us the chance to see inside a hotel that we could never afford to actually stay in without a lottery win. We also learnt a lot about carpets.

It has now been such an embarrassingly long time since this visit that I can offer no good explanation as to why my aperture values seem so off. Well, that’s a bit of a lie. It was really quite dark inside so I suspect I had tried to open up the aperture as much as possible. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to cause too many problems.

34mm, f/4.5, 1/12 sec, ISO 1600

18mm, f/4.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 100

18mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 100

18mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 800

55mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO 1250

55mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

35mm, f/4.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 160

18mm, f/5.0, 1/60 sec, ISO 100

43mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO 100

55mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 320

18mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 160

27mm, f/4.0, 1/50 sec, ISO 200

18mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 1000

18mm, f/3.5, 1/40 sec, ISO 1250

18mm, f/3.5, 1/8 sec, ISO 1600

18mm, f/3.5, 1/25 sec, ISO 1600

18mm, f/3.5, 1/10 sec, ISO 1600

40mm, f/5.0, 1/10 sec, ISO 1600

18mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 1600

Instagram collection #3

Catherine — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:42:30 +0000

It’s been a while since I ~~updated~~ shared some of my latest Instagram offerings. Again, these are all from photos taken with the iPhone 4S, which is my point-and-shoot camera of choice purely for the fact it’s always with me.

December arrives

Catherine — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:25:55 +0000

Although I am making slow and steady progress through the backlog of photos from months past, I thought it was time to share something a little more up to date. Winter, it seems, has been switched on in the UK. This week I am not sure that temperatures have made it more than one degree above freezing where I live. However, combined with a week of working on an evening shift pattern, this means fun with the macro lens in our icy garden. I am starting to get the measure of both this lens (although I curse it for not having IS) and my own ability to hold completely still whilst taking a macro shot. It’s still a skill very much in need of practice, but these shots are some of the sharpest i’ve managed yet and I’m quite proud of them.

100mm, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 400

100mm, f/6.3, 1/60 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 320

100mm, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 500

100mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 640

100mm, f/6.3, 1/80 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 125

100mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 320

100mm, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 100

100mm, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 640

100mm, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/6.3, 1/40 sec, ISO 800

Photos from another garden

Catherine — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 12:31:44 +0000

I like taking garden photos. This is because I have a garden that I quite like, generally. I also like my in-laws garden, which has recently had a bit of a horticultural make-over that looked fantastic when we visited in August (yes, still on the backlog…) This wasn’t long after I’d got the macro lens and I wanted to have a play with the f2.8 aperture it offered.

100mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 640

100mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 500

100mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 1600

100mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 160
This lacks in the foreground by being in the shade, but I just love the bokeh

100mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 640

100mm, f/2.8, /160 sec, ISO 320

100mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 500
My favourite, for the wispy grass and offset out of focus flower

On my return to the house, I discovered I was being watched.

100mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 1000

100mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO 1250

Spectating at London 2012: Paralympics Closing Ceremony

Catherine — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:19:24 +0000

My ticket for the London 2012 Paralympics Closing Ceremony may be the best £100 I’ve ever spent. I can’t really explain how good this night was. Good company, amazing performances, a feel of celebration and appropriate closure, and the best send-off to an incredible summer. If I can’t explain it in written form, I can come a little closer with photos.

Irritatingly, I don’t have access to the camera data at present – it seems something has gone wrong in the export from RAW to jpg. But I was using my 70-300mm lens for most photos with the exception of a few which I reverted to 18-55mm to get the whole stadium in. Also, please click on the images for their bigger versions; if any photos are going to look better when bigger, they are these.

The stadium was quite magical in making you feel very close to everything going on and yet when you looked at the crowd it seemed enormous.

There was a parade of some strange animalistic steampunk… things. I haven’t watched the TV footage yet (I know), so I have no idea what the context was.

And then there was Coldplay

Rihanna arrived too

And so it was ours no more…

Spectating at London 2012

Catherine — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:14:38 +0000

Still sticking with the Olympic theme for at least one more post, as well as GamesMaking, I was very lucky to see a few events too. I’d come through the very first ticket ballot with tickets for athletics, and then at a much later date decided it wasn’t every day that the Olympics came to town and bought some for the Paralympics closing ceremony.

These photos of the first trip to Olympic Park and the athletics are not particularly remarkable, but again are memories. I would have liked them to be better, but you try getting nice crisp shots of sporting action when you’re a mile up in the Olympic stadium with lots of very excited people. Who often had flags. Anyway, fair warning: there are a lot of photos under the cut…

300mm, 1/500 sec, f7.1, ISO 800

21mm, 1/160 sec, f8.0, ISO 100
The athlete’s village behind Stratford International station

18mm, 1/200 sec, f9.0, ISO 100

18mm, 1/250 sec, f/10, ISO 100

24mm, 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 100
The plane makes this shot for me, I think the streak in front of it may be its shadow?

18mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100

18mm, 1/200 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100

18mm, 1/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100

55mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

18mm, 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100

300mm, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO 500

130mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

135mm, 1/1600 sec, f/13, ISO 100

And then the sport began…

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1250

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/250 sec, /5.6, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Oscar Pistorius making history on the far side

300mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Annoyingly I’ve uploaded the less good of two photos, but it’s the crowd in them that should be the focal point. During this race, the cheering and shouting was so loud in the stadium, I actually felt the pressure in my ears change. It was amazing.

135mm, 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1250

25mm, 1/8 sec, f/4.0, ISO 1600

18mm, 1/15 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600

Autumn in the garden

Catherine — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:14:30 +0000

In an effort to be more timely than I have recently (hello, 3 months of silence & belated posting), I thought I would share some photos from our garden recently. Autumn – in fact, winter now – is definitely upon us and there have been a good few days of blue skies and impressive colours. This has also been good for getting the new-ish macro lens out, although I am dependent on it not being too windy. It’s bad enough that I have to carefully time a macro shot as per my own, apparently in-built, sway, without Mother Nature joining in the game.

However, when she did make an appearance in bird-form, the 70-300mm lens was more appropriate.

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 1600

100mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 320

100mm, 1/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100

100mm, 1/125 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200

300mm, 1/500 sec, f/8.0, ISO 1000

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 1250

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 250

100mm, 1/125 sec, f/8.0, ISO 1600

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 1250

100mm, 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200

300mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 320

Bletchley Park

Catherine — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:14:05 +0000

At some point last winter we paid a visit to Bletchley Park. We live close enough to this fascinating site that, frankly, we were ashamed to have not visited before. Particularly when you consider how much can be seen there, and that your entrance fee covers as many visits as you may wish to make in a year.

Bletchley Park, for those not familiar, is the site of secret codebreaking operations during WW2, the biggest & most famous being the breaking of the Enigma code. This was also the birthplace of modern computing, and the workplace of Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers and sometimes Ian Fleming. Due to the Official Secrets Act, the park was close to being bulldozed due to the fact no-one was legally permitted to speak of it’s history, and it is only in recent years that the 50 year silence was finally allowed to be broken. It is now run as a sort of massive visitor centre and museum, and in the last few weeks has secured Government and Lottery funding to continue to preserve and restore the site.

Many of the buildings – huts, in fact – where history was made are currently still boarded up and derelict in appearance, something which excites me the most when I have my camera. I know they need to be invested in and restored to preserve the history, but I have great affection for looking at places like this and knowing that what I’m seeing has remained largely untouched and undiscovered since monumental things happened there.

Needless to say, I cannot recommend enough that you pay a visit. These photos were taken on our second trip, as this time I knew to bring the camera with me.

21mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 100

100mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
I didn’t get my act together with the aperture for this shot of the manor house

After a brief stroll in the grounds we had a look at one of the exhibition halls we hadn’t had time for on our previous visit. The macro lens came out for this, but was hampered a little by light levels and the protective perspex that all museums like to put around precious items. I tinkered with ISO settings and f-stops to try and get the best results but still suffered enough camera shake to stop these being as sharp as I would have liked.

100mm, f/8.0, 1/20 sec, ISO 800

100mm, f/5.0, 1/25 sec, ISO 1600

100mm, f/5.0, 1/100 sec, ISO 1600

Returning outside to make our way towards the National Museum of Computing section, we passed the aforementioned derelict huts. I’ve played with the saturation and contrast on most of these as it was a grey day and I wanted to bring out an aged, texturised look.

25mm, f/8.0, 1/125 sec, ISO 100

55mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 100

39mm, f/8.0, 1/50 sec, ISO 125

41mm, f/8.0, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

And then there was Colossus, the first modern computer. The reconstructed model we saw took up a reasonable size room easily, and that room was HOT. There were fans running to keep the temperature down, but it gave us a pretty accurate picture of how it must have been to have a room with a number of these (I forget how many) running all at the same time.

28mm, f/8.0, 1/40 sec, ISO 800

55mm, f/6.3, 1/25 sec, ISO 1600

55mm, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, ISO 1000

44mm, f/6.3, 1/50 sec, ISO 1600

One final look around the grounds before heading home.

44mm, f/6.3, 1/80 sec, ISO 320

39mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec, ISO 100

Again; I cannot urge you enough to visit Bletchley Park.

Force India F1 car

Catherine — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:11:36 +0000

Interrupting the enormously belated Olympics-related posts – although I say ‘interrupting’, it’s hardly been a speed of light experience – I take you back to the beginning of July. It was, as it happens, torch relay day in Northampton, but also a day when there was a Formula 1 car from the Force India team on display at our local theatre*. Enjoying both Grand Prix and having my camera on me from the aforementioned relay, it seemed stupid to ignore such an opportunity…

48mm, 1/30 sec, f5.6, ISO 800

55mm, 1/15 sec, f5.6, ISO 800
This one is annoyingly not quite sharp enough for my liking.

32mm, 1/20 sec, f4.5, ISO 800

55mm, 1/25 sec, f5.6, ISO 800

21mm, 1/40 sec, f3.5, ISO 320

29mm, 1/40 sec, f4.5, ISO 800

33mm, 1/50 sec, f4.5, ISO 500

* No, I don’t know why. I mean, I know that it was the week of the British Grand Prix, and a lot of Formula 1 teams are based in or very near Northamptonshire, but why exactly they chose to put a car in a theatre, well that remains a mystery.

Olympic GamesMaking photos

Catherine — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:53:31 +0000

So, a mere 3 months later, I finally share with you some of my Olympic photos. This post is devoted to photos which will not stand out technically, or in many cases even visually. These are all taken on my iPhone 4S and represent photos as memories – to me, it doesn’t matter that they’re perhaps the wrong speed, too grainy, slightly blurred and/or wonky. Besides, I couldn’t exactly turn up ‘at work’ with my 60D and lenses, tripod, flash, filter system etc. etc. So I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. But this means there’s a honesty to these photos – although some were fractionally enhanced using Snapspeed or Instagram, I will confess – because I took them without thought to “photography” and with the thought of, “I want to remember this”.

This was, more often than not, my daily view.

Seven different sports competed at ExCeL, one of the most entertaining being fencing

Walking the river side of ExCeL during a break

Our group briefing area at the beginning or end of a shift

The Tower of London at 5.30am, on my way to the station for a 6.30am shift

The east end of ExCeL where we left from each day

Waiting for the crowds

The boxing happened at ExCeL, and the atmosphere in the arena was electric

The end of my first day, looking back over the security tents

The 6.30am starts were a bit brutal, but often pretty.

After my first shift, I walked to the station via a specially constructed walkway over the river. I’m very glad I did.

That was my GamesMaker experience. But I have more to share with you, as I was lucky enough to attend the athletics and the Paralympics Closing Ceremony – both of which the proper camera joined me at, and so warrant a whole other post…