PORRIDGE N PICKLES OFFICIAL BLOG

Today was such a gorgeous day, it just couldn't go unloved. Even though I had to spend all day revising (no really I do mean allllll day) I had to put the sunshine to good use and so I picked up each pile of books and one by one shifted all I needed outside. I laid out a blanket put on my shades (white paper is painful to look at in the sun!) and got to work. It really did help to brighten up my day. This time of the year is just the worst, I dread nothing as much as I dread exams, they make me so nervous. I can't wait until the end of May...




Photos taken using a Nikon D5100 and 50mm f/1.8.

A photo a week - People look so peaceful when they are sleeping.

I've decided to go back to one of my old favourites this week. I took this well over a year ago but uploaded it to flickr a little later, hence the upload date. It really is one of my favourites that i've ever taken. I took it on my Pentax ME with some Rolli 100 film for a school project. The film was developed by me along with the prints in my make sift darkroom at home. That's all thanks to my dad. It was his idea to turn the spare bathroom into a darkroom. It was such a dark room to begin with, it only needed a little tweaking and can easily be turned back when guests stay, which isn't very often. 

Click here to visit my Flickr.

So today I thought i'd give a little insight into my favourite apps for the iPad. My iPad is like my right hand man, I take it everywhere with me and do everything on it; apart from my assignments, I guess they require a little more 'room'. I probably should have taken these pictures after cleaning the cases screen cover...
Firstly, i'd like to show you the Afterlight app. This thing is pure genius and just £0.69! For basic image editing it is the most simple, yet powerful application i've come across. It gives you an array of photo filters, borders and textures. I find it perfect for editing photos i'd like to put up on the blog.
For photo's that require a more sophisticated form of editing, Photoshop Touch is the go to app for when you are on the go! Offering you a little less than Photoshop CS does, it still allows you to play with the basics such as curves, brightness/contrast, shadows/highlights, colour balance, noise reduction and many more! You can also select certain pixels, the whole image, cut, copy and paste. Obviously I wouldn't recommend it as a replacement to the actual Photoshop CS, but for on the go, this really is a competent application! To me, it was a little pricey at £6.99 but i've found that for me, it was well worth it.
Have you ever heard of the Eyewitness application? That's what this is. It is an application brought to you by the Guardian newspaper. Everyday an image is uploaded with a little box containing a small bit of information about the picture shown. In that box you can also see who the photographer is and if you click the 'info' button, you often are given a 'Pro Tip'; if you are lucky, it will also tell you the camera used to take the picture along with the settings. The app is free, but if you choose to subscribe, more images will be available to you on a daily basis. I haven't gone for this option though, i'm more than happy with just the one image a day.
This is the 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic. I believe that it originally costed £2.99 although i'm unable to check that now as it says 'Open' where the price normally is, so don't quote me on that! So anyway, in this little app there are obviously, the 50 greatest photographs of national geographic, however there is also a whole tale to go with each photograph. You can view how the image originally looked when it ran in the publication and you even get a little biography on the photographer. When I first saw this app I believed that it would be a simple collection of the 50 photographs so the stories and biographies were a nice surprise. The images are just gorgeous and I recommend everybody to try out this app, I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

To give you an idea of some basic things you can do on both the Afterlight app and the Photoshop Touch app, here is:

• An original image.
• Here is the image after I added the 'Hellow' filter in the Afterlight app and altered the brightness and contrast.
• Here is the same image after turing it black and white and playing with the curves in Photoshop Touches.

Do you have any apps you would like to recommend?

Just a quick post today, revision is banging at the door and I need to get going; just under five weeks left of year one! It's gone crazy fast.





1 - An old 35mm picture that I managed to unearth a couple of weeks ago|2 - Another 35mm image that I unearthed. It was taken during a trip to Cardiff during the Summer a couple of years ago|3 - Grand Central, a fascinating place|4 - Another from my trip to New York last Summer, we got lost a couple of times...|5 - The view from the Empire State building was breathtaking|6 - Cardiff buildings can look really gorgeous in the lighting of the night|7 - Puppy dog smiles on a sunny day.

Sunday was spent doing pretty much the same as Saturday was, hanging around and enjoying the sunshine, oh, and enjoying some yummy roast dinner! This weather is great though... I hope it sticks around!

Did you have a good Sunday?

Yesterday was spent outside enjoying the glorious sunshine, which for the moment, we aren't getting much of.

How did you spend your Saturday?

A photo a week - Cardiff has some gorgeous buildings that glow so nicely during the night. 

 Click here to visit my flickr.

Make: Nikon
Name: 35mm AF-S f/1.8 G DX
Filter Size: 52mm
Cost new: £150.00 (here)

I brought this lens with the idea of it being my go to lens as well as (or an alternative to) the 18 - 55mm standard lens that the Nikon D5100 comes with. I read countless reviews and looked at many pictures before I made this purchase. I also looked at brand new cost and second hand cost. I was lucky enough to find a second hand mint condition example on that specific auction site that I wont mention by name... wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I ended up making a £36 save which I can't say is to bad now that i've seen that the lens really is in mint condition! I considered buying the 35mm f/1.8's bigger brother, the f/1.4 but the price difference kind of made that decision for me! I have to say though, that I don't regret going for the f/1.8. It carries out the job that I want it to do perfectly! It works well in all conditions and produces pictures that are just so crisp. Many people have described the bokeh produced by this lens as rather ugly, caused by how crisp the lens actually is. I'm not sure whether I totally agree with this or not; I don't really find anything to be hideous about the bokeh produced by this lens, but I guess that is dependent on taste so check the images bellow to make your own judgement!

Would I recommend this lens?
Yes! It is brilliant, I really do love it.
Would I recommend this lens over the 50mm?
I guess that is all dependent on where you take most of your pictures and what you like to frame. Many people have said that there isn't much point investing in both lenses. However, I did and i've found that for me I made the right decision because they both have there strengths and weaknesses focal length wise.
For all the fancy twiddly information, please check the lens spec here.

Check out these:

• Here is a review that I really did like. It is between the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 but they do talk about all the good bits (as well as some bad bits) about this brilliant lens!
• Here is a basic look at a few f/stops. 
• Here is a link showing an example of the bokeh produced at f/1.8.
• Here is where you can find all the images that i've taken and posted on the blog using this lens.

Ok, so after talking about how I was going to buy the 50mm AF f/1.8 D, I actually ended up getting a second hand 35mm AF - S f/1.8 G and the 50mm version, yes I know, I deviated from the plan! So anyway, the 35mm arrived on my door step Tuesday afternoon and I did not hesitate in trying it out, i've spent Tuesday, yesterday and today getting to know it a little better and how it works in different situations. The fact that it's a prime, a.k.a no zoom, is a little strange and will take some getting used to. It does make you think a lot more about composition though! I have yet to try out my 50mm yet which arrived yesterday so I will let you know how that goes when I get to it. Here are some 'tourist' snap shots from the past few days. All are the original straight out the camera.

What is with that rainbow?! GAH.

So on Thursday, I picked up the new 'N Photo' magazine for some tips and tricks to get me started with my new D5100. In it, was a tutorial on how to turn images into the classic red and blue 3D. Cool, I thought. So instead of spending the weekend writing an assignment, like I was supposed to, I spent it shooting images and turning them 3D. Only, I don't have any of the 3D glasses that work with this type, anyone have a pair they want to lend me?

Click here to view my flickr.

New York City featured in a photo a day for four days.

4 - Grand Central Station. What can I say, it was spectacular... and a little confusing.

Pictures are from my trip during Summer 2012.

New York City featured in a photo a day for four days.

3 - The view from the Empire State building. It was spectacular. My dad couldn't face it because he is deathly scared of heights. He even told me off for going up to the fencing because he was scared i'd fall over the wall...

Pictures are from my trip during Summer 2012.

New York City featured in a photo a day for four days.

1 - Empire State Of Mind.

Pictures are from my trip Summer 2012.

New York City featured in a photo a day for four days.

1 - Hello, Broadway. 

Pictures are from my trip during Summer 2012.

In my space I have a feature wall (I think that's what you call them, right?!). My feature wall has cork-board tiles on it which are glued on with matching brown cement like stuff. On that wall, I also have my tele, shelving and a desk, all of which, minus the tele, was made by my daddy all by hand (I know, he's rather talented). The idea was that if I had a whole wall on which I could freely pin anything I chose, I would be less likely to do it on any other of the freshly painted ones (ha no, that didn't quite go to plan). I love how busy it looks compared to the rest of my space but the pictures have been there for a while and I think it's time for a change. I don't take them down to exchange them for new ones that often because it is such a time consuming task, but, needs must. So before I started, I thought i'd show you the 'before', just so i'd get to show you the after and you'd actually know what I was talking about...

I spent some time today getting to know the manual focus on my new Nikon D5100. So far i'm loving every little feature of this camera (I still haven't figured out how to get the video mode yet, though... I should really take a look at the instructions...) and I do no regret upgrading to this model at all. I have been doing some research into other lenses that i'd like to invest in, my first move being a lens for portraits. I have looked at both the 35mm and the 50mm but I will probably end up going for a 50mm f/1.8 for now due to the much cheaper price tag in comparison to the 35mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 and the 50mm f/1.4. If I get as much use out of it as I intend to, I may consider upgrading. I will also probably end up going for the AF f/1.8 D seen as that's cheaper again! On my camera however, the auto focus feature will not work because the D5100 doesn't have the auto focus motor built into the body, hence why i've been practicing my manual focus skills, I want to know I wont find it to be to much of a hassle (and that i'm fully capable) before I invest, otherwise I will probably end up splashing out the extra bit of cash for the newer AF-S model with the auto focusing built into the lens.

Do you photograph with any of these lenses? If so, which one and what Nikon model do you use it on? 

A photo a week - An old photo that was hidden away. 

 Click here to visit my flickr.

This weekend was spent with both new and old friends (I even made a couple of friends all the way from Norway!). It was filled with laughter, tears and a few good byes. In the end though, it was spent relaxing and enjoying life.

How did you spend your weekend?

Images taken using a Nikon D5100. Edited using the very simple, and awesome, Afterlight app for iOS devices.

Yesterday I went out and brought myself a Nikon D5100. I had actually gone out with the intention to buy a D3200 and I hadn't even contemplated the one I ended up with. When I got to the store however, I got into a 2hour conversation with the sales man and after leaving, scrutinising each cameras speck and returning to the store, I ended up walking away with the D5100. It may be the older model, the new D5200 has just been released and is a whopping £200 odd more, but speck wise it is pretty much the same as the D3200 while doing a little more on top... The D3200 has slightly more mega pixels but I hardly ever print my photos and so it made little sense to waste those 24 odd mega pixels on me; I mean when I do print, I certainly don't enlarge to the size of my bedroom wall... So for me, I believe I made the right choice. I will let you all know how I get on with it and get back to you with a review once i've had a chance to properly take it for a test drive.

Have a good weekend!

So the other day I was sat with my mama while she was crocheting some small flowers but she was complaining that even though she enjoyed making them, she wasn't quite sure what to do with them. With that, I had an idea! Why not attach them by a few of their corners? That way, you could then make a vest overlay out of them, perfect for the summer months. So that's where we are at now.. Not quite finished yet, so I have some photos for you of the stage we are working on. I'll let you know when it's done!



All images were taken using my iPad and edited using the Afterlight app.


P.s - i'm still unwell with the flu.... :(