… the control that comes with RAW mirrored the control the photographer has when developing film photos albeit with more precision. Being able to adjust the focus apre-shutter-press has no bearing on traditional photography though and seems alien to the process.

Although annoying, when looking back through your photos from a shoot and seeing some of your shots out of focus, that, at the time you believed were perfect, it’s part of the process, it’s part of the fun of photography seeing how your shots turned out. If you already know that everything is going to be perfect or completely fixable with your photos when you get home won’t that kind of take the fun out of photography??

Last week Nikon launched a new camera. The Nikon V1 in their Nikon 1 range. The first of their mirrorless range of cameras.

When the camera was announced at a Nikon press release last week I initially didn’t pay it much heed as I was hoping for a refresh of their Pro DSLR range and I considered this a let down as I wasn’t interested in their new consumer cameras or “gimmicky” new mirrorless technology.

A week later whilst reading a review of the Nikon V1 and J1 on DPREVIEW here I realise what I had missed before. Forget about the technology and the specs and mirrorless system. Look at the camera. Nikon has created the most beautiful cameras I have seen in a long long time. For years, the market has been flooded year upon year with countless compact and mini cameras. ALL THE SAME. Every camera maybe a different shade, but all released in a rainbows worth of colours. Who wants that? I used to make a point of knowing everything there was to know about all the new cameras that came out. All the new cybershots, the newest IXUS on the block or the latest Olympus tough camera, even owned a few of them. Don’t get me wrong though, modern compact cameras are amazing. I was blown away with one of the latest sony’s when playing with one recently in a sony centre. The spec list was unbelievable. It made me think, why didn’t my Nikon Dslr have some of those features, but then thought that they were really gimmicks appealing to consumers who really don’t know anything about cameras anyway and would be sold by their new shiny having WIFI or BLUETOOTH or GPS….. anyway, I’m just ranting at this point.

Where was I? Oh, the Nikon V1.

When I saw this camera, when I actually looked at it, instead of just brushing past it as one of the new kids on the block, I realised that this one was different. Nikon had done something new here. They have at last taken a step back from the design direction that digital cameras have been heading in the last while. The Nikon V1 looks good, it looks REALLY GOOD! They have stopped messing around with unnecessary design details and brought the camera back to basics. Clean lines. Simple styling. Minimalist. As a designer and photographer this began to appeal on a number of different levels. This is almost Leica like, but in the consumers reach. Until now, the last few years at least, there has been two distinct camera design trends. The ever functionalist look of any brand of DSLR and the multi-coloured rectangle of the consumer compact camera. I suppose there was a third which was all the cameras that came in between these such as bridge cameras and micro 4/3′s but these had no design direction and didn’t really know where they belonged.

Nikons new offering is really throwing a camera in the works. Not only is it creating a new breed of camera, i.e. an interchangeable lens system which is also mirrorless, but it is also bringing the aesthetic design back to a pure form that is melding design and function together in a beautiful way. Nikon must realise they are onto something here suggested by their naming of the Nikon 1 series. It is as if they intend to start again.. A clean slate perhaps. Re-write their range from inside out. This, I find a very interesting thought. This camera looks so good, what if this thinking and design was applied to their DSLRs. Now that is an interesting thought. I really hope that this is the direction that Nikon are hinting at with this new camera. Now I eagerly await two things. One, getting a chance to handle a Nikon V1 and two, waiting to see what they bring out next. For now look at some of the pretty pictures courtesy of the brilliant dpreview.com and for a full spec list see the dpreview link above too. Ben

Ok. So the degree show has been launched and is underway this week at NCAD Everyone’s projects are finished. We are now graduated industrial designers. Strange. I will have some photos from the degree show up soon but for now let me introduce you to my degree project. I designed an adaptable camera mount for video DSLRs. It is the Mountkestrel Duopod and the Mountkestrel Talon. Check it out here www.mountkestrel.com and you can check it out in action below. So for any of you camera nerds out there let me know what you think.

After that short overview… I am inviting you to come and see our Degree Show. This is essentially a big exhibition of all of the final year students work, from us in Industrial Design, but also all the other departments, Viscom, Fashion Design, Media, Painting, Ceramics, Glass, Metals – Jewellery, Sculpture, Print, Education, and Textiles. So it’s worth coming along and having a look around, there will definitely be something to interest everyone.

Now I gotta go work on something important for my project.

See you there.

This week Dublin was literally closed down for the Queens visit. Streets completely locked down, completely closed off to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Some streets appearing apocalyptic, which is sort of fitting considering the supposed Rapture. At times, bridges the length of the liffey were closed preventing movement between north and south, I got caught twice for about 40mins a piece….

Despite all the disruption I think it mostly was a success and most Irish people felt it went well. I am just in the last couple of weeks of finishing my industrial design degree so its pretty busy, but here are a few shots of this epic event. Now for Obama on monday…. want to try and find some time to pay him a visit.

It’s that time of the year again when everyone’s flickr streams become populated with bluebell pictures. At least that’s the case around Boyle since we have such an abundant supply of epic bluebell locations. I of course had to partake in what is becoming a yearly tradition. So this is the first of a few shots that I took. Me being the smart person in a hurry coming back from college decided I didn’t need most of my camera gear for the weekend, only to discover when I arrived home that it was a beautiful evening with an equally intense sunset splaying vivid light everywhere! Then while browsing www.realboyle.com and flickr and catching up with the weeks events around here and seeing other shots of bluebells suddenly I remembered about the bluebells and knew this was a perfect evening to get some shots. Then also remembered I’d left my 70-200 in Dublin, the one lens I really wanted for shooting the bells….So what i had with me was a really old 28-70 that I never use. I only popped it in the bag because it’s tiny and I wanted to travel light. (I also had my 10-20 but this was no use for how i wanted to shoot). I wasn’t sure how this 28-70 was gonna perform but i thought id give it a go. I didn’t have my tripod either so i brought my small monopod. Turns out i think i’ll be using this lens a lot more and I actually came away with a some ok shots. More to follow.

1/125 f6.3 iso2000, monopodded, 58mm

The light was so intense while I was at Derreen Wood, Knockvicar. The sun was streaming through the trees and creating stunning avenues of light. The warm rays blending the sea of blue with a golden hue resulting in pathways of pink bluebells…

Light was fading dramatically fast and I had to work equally fast on my exposures and compositions to find the shot I was looking for. Same as the previous I was limited here with no tripod and an old unfamiliar lens, but I’m quite happy with how this one turned out.

Check out the previous image and comment for more coverage.

1/80, f7.1, iso 2000, 55mm, monopodded.

Went downhill mountain biking today with my good friends Alan Harrison and Liam Howard. INTENSE DAY! Headed up to maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.249161,-6.239591&s… in the wicklow mountains where there are many trails specially for mountain biking. The area is very popular with Dublin mountain biking clubs such as www.madmtb.com

After a slow ascent to the top we had access to many different routes back down and ended up doing quite a few trails. After the morning sessions and lunch it was time to get the camera’s out. Fun and all as the biking is this is where my fun really began. Now usually I would have come back with lots of photos like this, but on this occasion this, and the shot below are actually the only photos I got. Literally the only two shots I fired. This is because we were shooting video for most of the day. Started at the top of a trail and worked our way down. Alan and I shooting, Liam riding. We were working on a two camera set up which meant we could capture nice shots of Liam whipping round corners and have two angles that worked really well.

It was a long day, but certainly action packed, which the video will show.

It was a good day, and no one died…. although there were some close calls….

Shot on D7000, sigma 10-20mm, sb-600 off camera to right on tripod. 1 single shot, no burst. Had to time it as flash could only fire once. One test shot below.

Video shot by Alan Harrison and Ben Millett