Movement

The Special Interest group at my camera club has set us some "homework"!  A good idea, as it makes us get up and get out and try something new!

The theme is "movement" and we will have two months to come up with some images interpreting this. We meet once a month - and next month, we will be expected to bring along some of our efforts - explain what we're trying to do - and seek help and advice if needed!

Two of us went to a local beach on Friday night hopeful of making a little progress.  The tide was out - but slowly coming in.  The clouds were barely moving! Not the best start, perhaps!!

Here's a couple of my first attempts!

This shows implied movement (I hope).  The rock strata on the left shows some kind of movement towards the island on the skyline.  No water or sky movement.  That had to wait for over an hour!

An hour later - the tide was coming in - but it was getting really dark!  This was a ten minute exposure at f16 with an
8 stop neutral density filter and polariser!  Too blue for me!

Mono suits this same scene better, I think.  Converted with Nik Silver Effex Pro.

Conclusions?  This use of "big stoppers" needs a lot of practice.  Weather conditions need to be just right.  Ideally, if at the seaside, the tide should be RECEDING.  Shooting into the sun would result in some more interesting sky.  Clouds moving in the sky would help with the sense of movement.

We are not disheartened!  Although this trip WAS planned - we will have to be far more targeted next time.  And there WILL be a next time!!

Watch this space!

An Experiment

Sunday was windy and very sunny here in Devon.  Clouds were blowing across the sky - and all looked promising to have a go at a technique I want to explore and perfect!
Kit needed was a camera (of course!) a sturdy tripod with 6" spikes on the ends of the legs.  This enables the tripod to be rammed into the ground, greatly improving stability.  Last of all, a collection of high density neutral density filters.  I had to end up stacking a 10-stop and an 8-stop together in order to get a 4 minute exposure.
Settings on the camera were f22 on a medium zoom lens (24mm on a full frame camera.)
The idea was to capture cloud movement!
Several attempts were needed before I got the picture posted below.  Not perfect - so I will have to keep trying - but hopefully, you will see what I'm trying to get at?

Zooming clouds over Brentor Church!

Tuscany

Not been a very good blogger recently.  Sorreee!!  

I've just got back from five days in Tuscany.  Somewhere I've long wanted to visit, so when the opportunity to do a photographic workshop there came up, I grabbed it with both hands!  Mind you, the emphasis was very much on the word WORK!  

Every day had the alarm ringing at 5.30am.  A hurried wash and a quick gulp of some tea, and we were off to catch the sun rising.  Got some lovely mist on two mornings - but the rest of the time it was - wait for it! - TOO SUNNY!  I know!  How can I complain?

The routine was to snap away like a mad thing until about 9.00am when we returned to base for a Continental breakfast.  On three days, we did as the locals do - which is, took a siesta!  On the remaining two days, we kept going all day, until midnight - as we needed to travel for a couple of hours to far-off locations!  Natch - on those days, we were poleaxed with tiredness!  But I wouldn't have missed it for the world!  Just a small selection of photos taken shown below.  

See more on my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/snaphappyann/

Cheltenham

Spent 24th and 25th October at a studio in Cheltenham partaking in an RPS organised studio fashion/portrait/nude workshop.  We worked with four professional models, all very experienced and such a help to us novices, adopting a different pose each time we clicked the camera and the flash worked.

This was not a venture into collecting competition winning images (although none of us would say "no" to high praise from judges - or Salon acceptances in the future!)

John Burton.  Contact - potonpots@hotmail.com

John Burton

John Burton

John Burton

No: this was more of a learning experience.  We worked with two to three studio flashes, and various light modifiers, starting off gently with one male model, two lights and a reflector when needed.  The lighting was "low key" - ie.: moody!  The intention was to create an end result in monochrome, with strong side light which would create drama.  More suitable for a male with strong features - which John certainly had!  He was a joy to work with and I am very pleased with the images we created.

Aretmis.  Contact - purpleport.com/portfolio/artemis

Artemis

Next, we progressed to high key lighting and a lovely little model called Artemis.  This session was all about shapes and delicacy.  The lighting gave a bright, white end result - which worked really nicely with some back lighting against a pseudo window with net "curtain"  Artemis created some lovely shapes with her youthful body!

Artemis

Artemis

The first day finished with Artemis, doing some nude modelling.  This again was all about shapes being created by the body - and the honeycomb-gridded light, above her head, threw a soft pool of light down onto her.  The end result was intended to be monochromatic and "sculptural".  Thank you very much, Artemis for some wonderful shots.

Day Two was devoted more to Fashion photography and some portraiture.

Brodie Lock. Contact  at Model Mayhem and Purple Port.

Brodie Lock

Brodie Lock

Brodie Lock

Two different female models were provided for us to work with, and they hardly needed any direction.  However, as the day progressed into the afternoon, we were expected more and more to dictate how the shoot went - moving the light to best position, and directing the models.

Leah Axl. Contact www.leahaxlmodel.co.uk

Leah Axl

Leah Axl

Leah Axl

Once more, Brodie and Leah proved to be very co-operative and understood how nervous and unsure some of us were at times!  A big 'thank you' girls!

Just a small selection of images shown.  Hope to post more on Flickr soon. www.flickr.com/photos/snaphappyann/.

Grateful thanks to Simon and his team for a variety filled two days.  If you fancy a similar training session, I can't recommend www.FilmPhotoAcademy.com at Cheltenham highly enough.

Isle of Wight - 5th - 8th October 2012

Back from our jaunt to the Isle of Wight - Mike to listen to his Blues music - me to indulge a bit of photography.

Each evening, I photographed the bands which were playing as Mike is writing reports on all this for Blues Matters, and wanted some images to accompany his article.  Some sample images appended.

FIRST NIGHT

'The Guy Tortora Band' kicked the weekend off.

. . . followed by 'Nicky Moore's Blues Corporation'.

SECOND NIGHT

 'Bad Influence' started the second night . . .

. . .  followed by 'Stomp and Holler'.

The whole ensemble.

. . . and their drummer.

THIRD NIGHT

The final night saw 'Split Whiskers' 

and the 'The Nimmo Brothers' giving their all!

One of the 'Nimmo Brothers'

DURING THE DAY

Saturday and Sunday were good days for photography.  I nipped off loaded with all the gear, and spent several hours happily indulging myself!

Sunrise at Totland Bay

Same location as above - used an 8-stop ND filter to "mush" the water!

Under the Pier at Sandown.  Tide was out, fortunately!

As above - slightly different viewpoint - and turned to mono.

Groynes at Sandown

Paddling by the Pier

Lamp post reflection at Ryde

Hovercraft at Ryde

A Few Days Away

Mike and I are off to the Isle of Wight on Friday.  It's Mike's annual pilgrimage here to attend a Blues weekend with like-minded friends.  Lots of loud music and some rather odd carryings on!  But all good fun!

I cadge a lift but spend the days happily wandering around the Island with my camera.  Over the last three years, I have made a friend of a lady photographer over at Bembridge.  We're down to have a luncheon date on Saturday!   I still haven't managed to "shoot" any Red Squirrels yet!  But I will persevere!

Evening are spent "enjoying" the music and general atmosphere!

This year will be especially good as a couple of close friends are also going along - so I will have some nice company while Mike enjoys the dancing and general frolicking around!  As you've guessed - he's made a remarkable recovery from his broken leg!

Will try to post some IoW images next week - if I get anything worthwhile, of course!

First Gold Of The Olympics!

I should have posted this much earlier - but frankly, I have been a bit dazed!

Back in July, I won a Gold medal for an image I created.  I started entering Salons last November (for the uninitiated, these are International Competitions, run by different countries around the world ) Great fun - but a little costly!  There are up to 5000 competitors entering each Salon - so competition is tough, and just getting an acceptance is cause for great excitement!

I really hadn't expected to get any acceptances, let alone an AWARD!

Anyway - this was the winning image!

The Banjo Busker

The picture is a composite: that is - two images put together.  The graffiti was in a tunnel in southern Ireland and I had to press myself hard against the opposite tunnel wall and use my widest angle lens to capture it.  Even then I had to "patch" in some detail along the lower edge to finish it off - and then flipped it left to right.

The busker was in the street playing his banjo - but was very shy, and wouldn't look up.  As it turned out, I think that was for the best.  I had to cut the busker out, and then place him in the scene, with the graffiti-man apparently having been woken up by the "noise"!

I loved the end result - and fortunately, so did the judges in Slovakia!