Archived Updates
New Gallery: Animals
2005_11_29
I spent the day at a stable today and took lots of photos of dogs. Odd, I know, but the dogs were being more interesting than the horses! Anyway, the new gallery is here.
Gallery Tweaks
2005_11_28
On the surface it's nothing much but now the galleries are listed alphabetically (as are the thumbnails in the galleries) and each link has a number by it indicating how many images are in that gallery. I've also adjusted the PHP file so the generated XHTML is W3C-valid.
New Themed Gallery: Abandonment
2005_11_25
I've added a new gallery to the Themed section, called Abandonment. As the gallery blurb says, these are photos of things left behind, no longer in use, or simply lost.
I also added a couple of new images to the Macro gallery: frostyleaves1 and frostyleaves2. Ok so they're not really macro photos as such, merely (quite) closeups; I just added them to the Macro gallery for lack of a better home. Furthermore, I like frostyleaves2 so much I've made it the new homepage image.
The Fog
2005_11_22
Today was really foggy so naturally I grabbed my camera and headed out. Images can be seen in the new Fog gallery in the Themed section.
The Moss Lane image from the Fog gallery is also the new homepage image.
Gig Photos
2005_11_20
Up til now my gig photography has been for private parties but today I shot a Christian concert at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool and have put the photos up for public display. If all goes well I'll be able to put up some of the earlier stuff I've done too, and of course I'll be adding to the new Gigs section as and when.
Gallery Page Updates
2005_11_17
After much hair pulling, often the case when trying to make various browsers display CSS the same, I've finished updating the look of the gallery menu. The heading was a bit redundant so I removed it, also made the text a bit smaller, added a 'current gallery' highlight box and finally, removed the bullet points.
Also uploaded new versions of the images in the Liverpool City Centre gallery—the old ones were too big and overlapped their containers.
New Gallery, Image Display Update And A New Article
2005_11_10
The first update is a new gallery: Liverpool Loop Line. These are photos from the local section of the Loop Line, a cycle path that runs from Garston to Fazakerly and forms part of the Trans-Pennine Trail.
The second update is the addition of Prev and Next links to the image display page in galleries, to facilitate easier browsing of galleries.
Finally, in an unprecedented spurt of creativity I've written another article, a mere week after the lasst one! The new one is entitled The Meaning Of Life.
Southport Christmas Lights and New Gallery
2005_11_06
On Sunday the Christmas lights in Southport were switched on. There was a big ceremony with singers, a band, Ken Dodd and a street parade. My photos of the event are now up, in the Events / Christmas Lights 05 gallery.
I've also added another new gallery, this time to the Themed section. The new gallery is entitled Street Photography. It includes some images that were previously in the Black & White gallery. I hope to add to the gallery more soon as I'm considering the purchase of a Sigma 20mm f/1.8 lens which ought to be ideal for this kind of shooting.
New Article: Of Limited Use, Part 1
2005_11_04
Once in a blue moon I get the urge to write an article for this site and last night was such a moment. The new article is about the use of prime lenses versus zooms.
Day Out In Liverpool
2005_10_20
Since it was a nice day today I went for a wander around Liverpool city centre. Shooting in JPEG mode I accumulated over 160 photos, something of a record for me! I've split the results into two separate galleries: Liverpool (2) and Liverpool Waterfront.
Various Additions
2005_10_17
Some may have noticed a few unannounced additions to the galleries – I've been a bit lazy updating this page of late. Well, this is the announcement! The first of the additions is a few extra photos in the Near Here gallery (renamed from 'Where I Live' since the Orrell Park gallery more accurately represents that). Next up is a gallery entitled Southport At Night which needs adding to really as some of the photos are rather too similar. Finally there's Bootle Cemetery.
Rural Areas
2005_10_9
Continuing the documentary theme of Where I Live, I've now put up a collection entitled Rural Areas.
Autumn
2005_10_06
Autumn is here and with it some wonderful colours on trees and in the light. Yesterday I added a new category and gallery to the photos secion, entitled themed and Autumn respectively. I've now uploaded sixteen more photos from today, all of autumn leaves, to go with the other few that were already there.
Where I Live
2005_10_04
Since I sometimes get asked about where I live, today I decided to go out for a short walk taking some snaps of the area. It's not a bright sunny day, rather it's one of those nice crisp overcast wintery ones that I quite like. The Photos may be a bit dull to anyone local but hopefully they'll give an insight into what a typical English suburb looks like. The gallery is entitled Orrell Park and includes a map of the area for anyone interested.
British Fireworks Championship
2005_9_25
Today was the final day of the Fireworks Championship with 2 teams, Chester Pyrotechnics and Star Fireworks, doing their displays. Both were spectacular shows which I tried to capture as best I can, difficult since it's only the second time I've photographed fireworks (the first time being 4 years ago with my little Fuji 4800z). Over the three days of the event there were 6 displays, though I only managed to get there for the last 2 today. Each display is in its own gallery:
WLYC 24hr Yacht Race
2005_9_17
Finally the photos from Saturday are up. The sheer number I took on the day (over 300) meant I kept putting off wading through them all to pick out the good/best ones. I managed in the end to narrow it down to 40 and you can see them here.
Thanks to Patrick for letting me on the boat with him!
Southport Airshow
2005_9_11
Odd timing but there you go: the Southport Airshow on the same day two big planes crashed into the WTC buildings in 2001.
The event is held over the second weekend in September but I didn't manage to get to the Saturday show in time. It was cloudy and dull anyway so possibly no great loss. And even though I did make it to the Sunday event, it turns out my battery was running low. I only noticed this after I took the photos of the field guns, so I decided to hold off until the 'main event' - the Red Arrows display. Thus the Red Arrows are the only aircraft photos in the gallery.
Raw Power
2005_9_6
After fiddling with the contrast and saturation for the new Freshfield Beach photos I put up the other day I got to wondering what the high-contrast-low-saturation look would be like applied to some of the forest images. The results have been added to the existing Freshfield Forest 2 gallery (the last few images, named forest?b.jpg).
I like them; they give the images a completely different feel, kind of a horror movie "scary forest" look. They demonstrate one advantage of raw: the ability to go back to an image and interpret it in a different way, like you can with B&W negatives in the darkroom.
New Freshfield Beach Photos
2005_9_3
Yesterday I went on a nice photographic walk to Freshfield beach with my friend Mark the other day and came back with a surprisingly high number keepers: 41 out of 82 photos shot! The new ones of the forest can be seen in the new Freshfield Forest 2 gallery while the shots of the beach I added to the existing Freshfield Beach gallery.
Winter Revisited
2005_9_1
Showing somebody one of my favourite images, Southport Station Morning, I had a go at converting it to B&W using Convert To B&W Pro. The results are rather nice I think:
I then went on to have a look through some of the other photos I took that day (8th Feb 2005) and some of them are rather nice, mostly due to the fine winter sun. I've added them to the Southport gallery (the last 4 of the images are the new ones).
More New Photos - Macros
2005_8_30
After a few failed experiments I managed to create a successful macro 'lens', consisting of my old and not-very-good Nikon 35-105mm zoom and a Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 reversed on to it. The results are here. I've got prints done of leaf and coins7.
New Photos - Summer Showcase
2005_8_20
There was a talent showcase on today in Southport and I decided to stop and take some pics. The gallery is here.
For those interested in such matters, the main lens used was the new Nikon AF-S DX 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED. It's a very small lightweight lens with good sharpness and nice bokeh but it's rather slow to focus and the zoom ring is a bit too stiff (might loosen up with use though).
New Photos - Delamere
2005_8_10
Today I went to Delamere Forest, a bit east of Chester, and have now finished a gallery of the best photos.
And while I'm at it I've gone and updated the site colour scheme. The grey makes viewing the gallery images better because a very light background (as before) tends to overpower darker images, making them look too dark. Compare this image, using the new style, with this one which is in the old style. See the difference in the dark water? This new scheme is much better balanced (and looks a bit more professional to boot).
I also updated the front page image with one of the photos from Delamere.
Freshfield Beach
2005_7_15
A new gallery: Freshfield Beach. It's only got six photos in it at the moment but will be expanded soon.
Pier More
2005_6_18
Added eight new photos to the Southport Pier gallery, this time taken in rather better weather and mostly with a 70-300 ED lens.
Back In Business
2005_6_17
My D70 is back! After a mere two and a half months away being 'repaired' (i.e. sat in a room being ignored) I finally have my 'proper' camera back.
Since I was a bit rusty I went out today even though the light was rather flat and grey. A new gallery entitled Southport Pier is the result.
I've also updated the home page to show a miscellaneous image that I'll update as and when I feel like it.
New Article - Brief Encounter
2005_4_15
With a sudden and surprising burst of creative energy on the train home last night I started writing about my new D70. The result is an article entitled Brief Encounter.
Some Additions And A Tip
2005_3_30
I've made a few additions to the Freshfield Forest gallery. Rather than entirely new images (though there are a couple) I've added some older images processed with a lovely new RAW file developer called RawShooter essentials. Like CaptureOne it's a very streamlined browser and developer. Unlike CaptureOne it's free, has a more efficient workflow and generates better output, at least to my eyes. It's still quite young so I wouldn't expect it to do everything (like crop and rotate) but it's the first program I've found to come near to being a total workflow solution. Since it's free what's the harm in giving it a go?
I should mention, don't judge the quality of the program's output based on comparisons in my galleries. I'm still fairly new to RSe so I've not learned how to get the best out of it. Plus naturally what I deem a better output image mightn't be the same as what others think.
New Gallery
2005_3_13
A few more photos have been added to the Southport (2) gallery, mostly taken in the lovely evening light nature has been gracing us with lately.
New Gallery
2005_3_7
A new gallery of Southport photos is up, entitled (imaginatively) Southport (2).
New Gallery And Article
2005_2_20
Been a while but I really did actually write an article! It's entitled Manual Labour of Love.
I also put a new gallery up: Freshfield Pine Forest.
More Black And White, And Gallery Updates
Update: 18:40
The mechanism is now in place for me to upload text files for each image giving their full title and a caption. Those images with no such text will have a generic caption and their filename as the title. It could take a while as I have around 140 images to caption.
2005_1_21
I've not been announcing it but nevertheless more B&W photos have made their way on to the B&W gallery. Furthermore I've now updated the image display so it loads the image on a page with the full title and some descriptive text. Well, in theory it does because I haven't yet finished the text bit (nor written captions for every image) so for the time being every image is imaginatively entitled "Image Title" and the caption is standard Lorem Ipsum filler.
Since I've now had my F3 for quite some time I will shortly be writing an article about it. I know I said this nearly two months ago but work and social life have been rather hectic of late. A poor excuse, I know!
Black And White
2004_11_29
Now that I have a goodly amount of B&W prints worth sharing, I've put them on the site for viewing. Hope you like them!
New Server & Tardiness
2004_11_24
After some issues with PHP Web Hosting I've now moved servers to nethosted. Hopefully everything should be working ok but until the domain name propagates my e-mail won't work, although if you're reading this there's a good chance there's nothing to worry about.
If you're a regular visitor (you both know who I mean) then you'll have noticed I've been somewhat slack in updating the site. The reason for this is twofold. First off, I've recently started a new job in Jessops, leading to much upheaval and less time to do things. Second is my growing interest in old-skool black-and-white photography, using film and everything! I recently sold my Nikon F-801 and bought a Nikon F3 instead, complete with 28mm Series E lens. I'll have an article or two about this soon, I promise.
Article Written
2004_09_19
Wonder of wonders, I've finally written an article.
Links Added
2004_09_12
The links page now at last has some actual links on it – mostly just the sites I read the most or have a particular interest in.
New Gallery
2004_08_26
Two years ago, almost to the day, I went on a geology field trip to Arran, off the coast of Scotland. The photos used to be up on an old website of mine called Link People, now sadly unavailable. Since they were taken with my old Fuji 4800z (which I don't have any more) and I'd archived them, they were left mostly forgotten. Then today, for some unknown reason, I remembered them and thought they'd make a great addition to the site, so here they are.
Minor Gallery Update
2004_08_12
The list of galleries now has the heading "Galleries:".
New Gallery
2004_07_28
It's called 'Abstract / Still Life', and contains some images that don't particularly have a subject but which nevertheless make for good photographs.
I've also updated the gallery pages slightly with a brief description of each particular gallery.
Minor Site Reworking
2004_07_26
Well, this is only the first update in nearly a month, to my great shame. All that's been done is to move all this news stuff to a 'latest' page, while the main home page is kept free for introductions and major announcements. Thanks to PHP it was a simple 5 minute job.
Other news: I finally got a lens and some film for my Nikon F-801. The lens is an old manual focus 50mm f/1.8 AI-S Series E. Apparently it's a great lens, and even though I'm still new to SLRs it feels great to use. Without a split-prism focussing screen, though, I have to go by the little 
mark in the viewfinder. Since the lens only cost £30, I can live with that (until I can afford an AF lens). I've bought various types of film. First up was some Fuji Provia 100F, which I used up in about an hour, wandering around Southport. Processing should have been done by today, although I can't collect it until Thursday. Next was some Ilford 125 ISO something-or-other black and white which I dropped off on Saturday and which will take a week from then to process. Finally I've got some Fuji Velvia 100F which I had to order off the Jessops website since nowhere I could find stocked it. Of course I later found out that Jacobs in Liverpool (where I dropped the B&W film off) stock it, along with a large variety of other film types. You live and learn...
Once I get the results back, I'll see what I can do about putting the samples up here. To be honest, since film is all new to me I still have to learn about scanning and such, so it'll be a bit of an adventure. I do hope I haven't got too many exposures wrong – being brought up on digital has meant I don't think as much about exposure as much as I shoule since if I get it wrong I can just re-shoot. It's a whole other kettle of fish with slide film, so I think a trip to the library to refresh my knowledge is in order.
New Galleries
2004_06_28
A new gallery is now up: Liverpool City Centre.
New Gallery
2004_06_28
A new gallery is ready for viewing: Southport.
Domain Registered
2004_06_26 (later that day)
I've now registered www.caerphoto.com.
First Gallery Added, With PHP
2004_06_26
The first photo gallery is now up. I decided to use PHP since this makes maintenance a whole lot easier - automatic gallery generation means I just have to upload the photos and I'm pretty much done.