important stuff. thoughts and observations of ben hennessy. » Photography

Ben Hennessy – Back in Team MPPIX

Ben — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:42:45 +0000

Good news, I am back in the Team MPPIX fold… after a few years with MPPIX, then a few years away, I am once again back and with new role and responsibilities. I’ll still be going to rallies taking photos but I’m also now responsible for the brand new website and keeping it update and sparkly clean. Mark now refers to me not only as a lazy shite, but also as the web monkey which is nice.

The site, like this one, is based around a Wordpress site but with a few more static pages as well. Mark has all the galleries hosted separately which makes things a lot easier.

Anyway, the new site is up now which you can find if you click here and my first proper event with MPPIX will be the Grizedale stages on the 5th Decemeber – watch this space for MPPIX news as well as some shots from the event.

Rally GB 09

Ben — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:07:51 +0000

Well that time of year has been and gone, sadly. Only another year to wait till the next one though…

As usual I went for the whole event, got wet, cold, muddy but loved every moment of it. This year I hired a few new lenses to try out and it was a mighty steep learning curve, the weather was appalling on day one – rain and fog and with a lens I have never used before this made it even trickier, I persisted though and got there in the end. It also showed me how poor my camera is and I will be buying a new one soon into the new year.

Anyway, enough chit-chat – here are a few photos!

Random Photo of the Day

Ben — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:15:19 +0000

One more random photo and then I really am closing this down for the night…

Doesn’t need an intro really. It’s just great!

OK, a few photos before I go away.

Ben — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:08:49 +0000

So I don’t get massively behind, here a few photos from our recent camping trips to The New Forest and then to the Isle of Purbeck a week later. Both of which were ridiculously hot weekends and it is fair to say we both got burnt. Anyway, here are some random pics from both trips… It seems Pepper took more photos than me on this occasion.

Sachsenhausen – Nazi Concentration Camp near Berlin

Ben — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:33:50 +0000

Visiting Sachsenhausen was an incredible experience. We all hear and see how bad things were in the war but until you actually visit these places and see what it was like and smell what it was like, you never really know how bad it was. I know Sachsenhausen probably wasn’t one of the worst concentration camps, but it wasn’t a pleasent one.

Here is a selection of photos, I took too many to put them all up, the photos speak louder than words as well…

Random Photos of the Day

Ben — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:40:30 +0000

It has been a while since I did this, months actually – my bad – so today I am going to add a few photos. They are my attempt at creating a model village using Photoshop. You can buy a lens that creates the same effect but I use PS, it’s cheaper.

Here is a site explaining how to do it. There is also a Flickr group devoted to it. Go there, go now!

Random Photo of the Day

Ben — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:07:16 +0000

Continuing with my new tradition of adding something visual each day, today is the turn of a photograph. It’s a photo I took at Wales Rally GB (rallying is one of my big loves, enables me to combine two of my favourite interests in one go) and this is a photo which stood out for me. It might not be technically brilliant, but I like it and I think that as long as a photograph is liked, that’s all that matters.

No wedding in Budapest sadly…

Ben — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:09:39 +0000

Well, me and Pepper are back from Budapest and what can I say? I loved it there. The gritty communist architecture and the solemn almost hardened look on the older Budapestians was just like nothing I have seen before. I have been to many different cities but Budapest was for me the best yet.

It was bloody cold but that didn’t ruin our Valentines weekend at all, it made the photos a little dull and stale, some blue skies would have been nice but overall it was amazing. I think both me and Pepper agreed that we would go back, maybe when it is a little warmer though…

And no, Pepper didn’t find me a gypsy wife. Damn!

Below are some photos from our trip, I took over 700 so this really is just a snap-shot. I also decided that I don’t think I want the 24-105 Canon lens, it just doesn’t cut it compared to the 24-70, enough of the geek talk. Here are the photos!

Decisions decision – Canon 24-70 or 24-105?

Ben — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:25:21 +0000

I am currently pondering over a Canon 24-70 lens and the Canon 24-105. The 24-70 is one of the best lenses I have ever used (some sample pics from it below) and I do dearly want one, but since our economy buggered up, prices have shot through the roof meaning its not quite so good baby brother is far more affordable now. So, I am currently hiring a 24-105 to try it out, going to take it to Budapest as well, so photos will appear when I get back.

Both seem like amazing lenses and both have their advantages, the 24-70 is a f2.8 lens whereas the 24-105 is an f4. The flip side is that the 24-105 has wider reach but then it is considerably smaller as well.

Who knows what I will decide. Will see how I get on in Budapest and go from there I guess.