A big hello from Dibs in the support team and Photographer outside of the office.

DibsMcCallum

Hi everybody, its Dibs from the Support team, I thought I would get the conversation going and show you what I get up to out of the office.

Photography is my specialist field and I completed a masters degree in the subject in 2018, I am always more than happy help out with anything I can.. Editing techniques, shooting tips or even some camera advice.

My biggest interests are landscapes, architecture and decaying buildings and if I can get all 3 in 1 shot, well that the perfect shot 😍

You can see plenty of my work and what I get up to on my website, I try to keep it as up to date as possible.

I shoot with the Fujifilm X series cameras and use filters for a lot of my work. I have loved using Imerge in testing for some of my personal work, such as with this shot below when we were testing out the Focus stacking, Dynamic contrast and brushes for applying very localised highlight and shadow adjustments to the image. Seeing Imerge develop since I joined the company in January 2019 has been amazing and exciting and its great to now use it in my workflow.

(The location is called Herringfleet Mill and is on the Norfolk and Suffolk border in the UK)

Luckily where I live I am surrounded by stunning coastline with everything including cliffs, piers, sea defences and sandy beaches with amazing sand dunes, so I tend to spend most of my spare time wandering along the coast with my daughter, camera and dog or I am teaching photography or shooting some of my projects.

It would be great to see what you all shoot and to get the conversation flowing with photo talk, so get posting new threads or reply to this one, I would love to see how creative you all are and as I always say on my workshops, there is no such thing as a silly question as long as it is about photography, so feel free to ask

Here are a few of my very recent favourite images from near to the FXhome office, I think these were all taken within the past 2 months.

Sunset at Old Hunstanton, Norfolk. UK

Sunrise at Lowestoft, Suffolk. The most easterly point in the UK.

Sunset at Snettisham Jetty, Norfolk. UK

Take care and I look forward to seeing your work.

tddavis

@DibsMcCallum Ah, finally, someone gave this poor, lonely empty forum some love! When I visited Scotland and London (probably before you were born) in 1988 or maybe it was 89 I was obsessed with pictures of castles, old stone bridges and seasides (Well, Firth side 😂) Nice to see some of that again.

DibsMcCallum

I just got back from holiday and saw this was a empty place crying out for some attention from me 😁

I love Scotland, its my place of birth. I tend to go there every year to see family and have a bit of photo time as well, plus hopefully once the van is converted maybe even have a few more weekends there too.

IamJoshuaDavies

I can't wait to see more Dibs photos, and hopefully some tutorials on how this stuff can be created in Imerge! :)

Andy001z

Haha boom the boss has spoken and yey it must be done ;)

philipwesson

@DibsMcCallum these are absolutely stunning!

Triem23

@DibsMcCallum those shots are all gorgeous. In particular I appreciate the Sunset at Old Hunstanton. Clouds O' portent FTW!

Often I shoot whatever I'm paid to point a camera at. In my personal photography I shoot largely landscapes and buildings. I guess as I'm usually paid to shoot people, on my own time I like to shoot things? Still, if it catches my eye, I'll take the shot.

Over the last few years, largely because of my Dad (RIP, Dad), I've had the opportunity to travel to Ireland and the UK (my honeymoon with Lady Laura), Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ant-frickin-arctica, Australia, New Zealand and, again, Ireland and the UK (Ireland/UK was after Dad passed)

I'm in the Canon ecosystem, and have a thing for handheld HDR. Partly because, well, I like the results from HDR and also because shooting brackets lets one be a little sloppy on exposure - which is important when in a tour group and might only have ten minutes at a stop before you have to get back on the bus.

I tend more towards wide angle lenses. My travel kit usually holds a Canon 24-70L f/2.8, a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 rectilinear, a Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 fisheye (really, my fav lens) and a Tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro. I've recently grabbed a Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 which will probably replace the 14mm. I have many other lenses - a 50mm f/1.4, a Lensbaby with several optics, and, when I feel like a workout, a Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sport. There are a few other lenses, but, the 12mm, 24-70mm and 100mm are my go-tos.

Software wise my primary tool remains On1 Photo Raw for its cataloging and tagging. I do most of my HDR processing in Photomatix 6, and use software like Affinity Photo, Imerge and a surprising amount of Hitfilm for other post-processing. Imerge's Merge to HDR is blazing fast compared to Photomatix, On1 or Affinity, so Imerge has recently moved into a more central role in batch-preprocessing. Saving a minute on a bracket merge when merging a couple hundred brackets? That's hours of time saved. Thanks Imerge!

Sunset in Southampton, UK

Taken from our cabin balcony on the Queen Victoria (we got back to the US just before Covid-19 hit), this image was edited in Imerge while testing v7.

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, Ireland

Handheld HDR processed in Photomatix and finished in Imerge. I just had a 20x30 print made of this, and it's stunning.

Sunset Waterville, Ireland

Two seconds after taking this I was soaked to my knees. No HDR. I was rapid firing and there are two more shots in this series that aren't terribly well framed... My legs were moving before my finger came off the shutter.

Twinkletoes, Knightstown, Ireland

As we walked around Knightstown we were being followed by this glorious beast. We joked she was keeping an eye on we tourists to make sure we behaved. Handheld HDR of an animal is difficult - they tend to move - and I'm really happy with this shot. We found out she was owned by the handyman at the Hotel Valentina, where we lunched. I sent the hotel a copy of the image as I thought her owner would appreciate the pic. Never heard back. I'm a bit miffed by that.

Hotel Valentina, Knightstown, Ireland

Another handheld HDR. I also sent the hotel this shot - even gave permission to use it, gratis, because we had such a good meal. Yup, never heard back, but I'm actually more miffed about Twinkletoes.

Ghost Being Adorbs

This is our new kitten, Ghost. He was a feral, and, where we live, packs if coyotes roam. The Oedipal (think about it) coyotes walk the streets in broad daylight, so Ghost is better off with us. Plus, frankly, he was dying of a respiratory illness when we managed to trap him. Instead of suffocating or being someone's dinner, Ghost now has to put up with the indignity of being spoiled rotten for the next couple of decades. Poor, poor, Ghost! He's very snuggly for a feral. He spends his nights sleeping with Laura and I and spends his days being a holy terror and jumping on his kitty uncles Fuzz and Scott at random intervals. Uncles? Yup. Fuzz and Scott were brought in by my parents. They're my kitty-brothers. Ghost is our kitty-kid. This is straight from my phone cam.

Ghost, Fuzz, and Scott

What? Gotta give the uncles equal time. I think it's obvious which one is Scott and which one is Cyrano de Furgerac... Another phone snap, but the first time I caught them all in proximity.

Andy001z

@Triem23 wow never seen Southampton looking so SCFI. Better forward this to the BBC locations department for the next Doctor Who series, lovely shot.

Andy001z

Wow @DibsMcCallum some great shots there. Love the sunrise and sun set long exposure stuff, very magical.

Dibs I have a selection of photography links on my VFXLists site, might be something of interest.

https://tagpacker.com/user/VFXLists?t=Photography

Keep clicking.

Andy

DataDesign

@Triem23

Repped. :-)

Triem23

@DataDesign repped? Excuse my ignorance, I don't get it.

DataDesign

@Triem23

I see this on many consumer forums. The OP gets "repped" for a good post. It's just a "like" here. :-)

tddavis

repped

To add +1 reputation in a forum.

Nice post, dude! Repped.

by e-berlin.org June 14, 2010

Who knew?? I had to go looking cause you got me all curious how the term came to be. 😁

DibsMcCallum

@Andy001z They are all handy sites with great news and content, I often find myself going through them and you can end up in some rather cool places reading some fairly decent content by the end of it.