Landscape photography in Cornwall - pt2

So a couple of days later, I met up with Adam Burton again, this time in the heart of Dartmoor at 4:30am! We drove up to a hill overlooking Chagford as the forecast had been for mist and we were lucky to find plenty of mist hanging in the valleys. Unfortunately as sunrise approached the clouds closed in from the horizon and the sun never quite landed where we were hoping but I still got a lovely few shots that I was happy with.

After the sun had risen we moved to a second location in Dartmoor, a beautiful parade of trees on either side of the road. The sun was still low enough in the sky that we had some stunning side light on the trees. This was probably my most favourite location and where I learned the most about composition from Adam - constantly tweaking to include or exclude small elements.

I definitely need breakfast and a coffee by the end but a great couple of trips out with Adam.

Looking towards Chagford and Castly Drogo (just) as the mist hung in the valley at sunrise.

A farm house waiting for the sun to creep across it’s fields.

The beautiful parade of trees down each side of the road in the heart of Dartmoor.

A huge thank you to Adam Burton (www.adamburtonphotography.com) for taking me to all these locations and his help and advice in getting seven shots that I was delighted with.

Landscape photography in Cornwall - pt 1

I was recently given a gift to go on a workshop with the excellent Adam Burton. This workshop involved a sunset shoot on the north Cornwall coast before a sunrise shoot in Dartmoor.

I met Adam at the Rumps just above Polzeath at around 4pm giving us plenty of time to get some shots of the late afternoon sun before heading down to some slate ledges for sunset. The weather didn’t work exactly as we’d hoped with clouds rolling across the sun before parting just before sunset. Although the spectacular clouds that we thought might catch light never materialised.

It was a fabulous evening and I was really pleased with the shots I got. Looking forward to the shoot on Dartmoor now!

View from the Rumps with a trail from a boat on the sea.

Looking along the coast at the Rumps as the sun came out.

Slate ledges as the sun goes down.

Potholes and geology on the slate ledges.

Adam’s excellent website is www.adamburtonphotography.com.

September photo challenge '20 - pt 2

The second half of the September 2020 photography challenge. I think I had a couple of duff ones in here - I certainly wasn't delighted with them all but I guess when you forcing yourself to take photos every day, they can’t all be great! I still had fun and really enjoyed the last one with Rose.

day 6 - vivd

I know this is a tried and tested experiment and I’ve seen it on Instagram hundreds of times but never tried it myself.

As you can see I didn’t quite get the bowl flat before I poured the water in but I still love how it came out.

You don’t get long before the water goes brown though!

day 7 - peace

I completely ran out of time on this one (and inspiration) so I had to settle for a photo of the moonlit clouds. I think it still conveys peace but even I think it’s boring!

day 8 - interior

Another opportunity for me to experiment with using flash today. This is my photography cupboard and I really love how well the flash worked here, especially with the one splash of orange!

Certainly much happier with this compared to yesterday.

day 9 - skyline

I really suffered today with not being in London. If you can’t leave your home how do you take a photo of a skyline?!

Luckily I had a lego model of the London skyline already and I had to blend two photos to get the greenery in the background in focus as well as the Lego.

day 10 - on Netflix

It is a becoming a regular staple of the photo challenge that there is always a movie theme of some sort. Rose loves these as it gives her a chance to dress up. Finding the right elements to make her look like a queen was easy and it was a lot of fun experimenting with the flash again to get this low key image.

And just like that the September challenge is over again for another year. Lots of fun and motivation again. I must try and keep up with taking more photos before next year rolls around!!

September photo challenge '20 - pt 1

A second photo challenge of the year! it felt very strange taking all of these photos near home rather than some in London. We’re still pretty locked down in England which meant being a little more creative at home!

Great to have the excuse to be photographing again though and I got some that i’m really pleased with.

day 1 - taste

I didn’t actually make Jack eat the lemon so we’ll just have to imagine the look on his face if he had!

I tried to edit this to look more like an old polaroid photo and then boost the colour in the saturation in lemon to make it pop as much as possible.

day 2 - skill

I’ve had this dart board in the garage for a few years and never got it out before. It made the perfect subject for today’s theme. Needless to say they weren’t thrown but stabbed in!

day 3 - inspired by

Jack has recently joined a local football team and has been watching football videos non-stop. Not sure if there is just one or many footballers that he is inspired by but he is loving playing football in the garden too.

I was trying to get the backlight from the sun on his hair and I took quite a few photos and loved the starburst of the sun in this one as well as the motion blur from his foot.

day 4 - my favourite thing

I do love a wee dram of Scottish whisky and this is my favourite one - Aberlour 10yr.

I had a lot of fun taking this one too. In the garage with a light below the chipboard pointing up the wall to highlight the texture and then a large light above the camera. I love how it came out.

day 5 - autumn

Autumn means getting the wood burner going to add a bit of extra warmth in the evenings.

This was taken on a long exposure to get the waves of flame, so I had to sit very still. It was tricky keeping Grace out of the shot too as she loves it when the fire is lit!

"Stay at Home" photo challenge - pt 2

The second half of my photos from this lockdown photo challenge. My kids were really eager to be involved in as many of these photos as they could be and it was great to do a lot of these with them. My daughter even took and entered some of her own.

It’s felt great to have the camera out regularly and to take an edit all these images. Maybe I should set some of my own challenges…

day 6 - window

The eyes are on a window on the soul apparently and I just love how innocent the eyes of a six year old look. Plus I got a reflection of a window in too!

day 7 - easter

This was a lot of fun setting up. I cut of the bottom of a big Easter egg and had to get my son to look like he was taking a bite while shot up through the egg. He thought it was brilliant.

day 8 - sky

I really struggled with this theme. With lockdown in place and not being able to go anywhere I found it very difficult to get an interesting image of the sky. Luckily we had a nice sunset but not really enough clouds in the sky to make the most of it.

The lady who runs the photo challenge reminded me that not every image has to be a masterpiece.

day 9 - colour palette

My take on colour palette was that nearly all of my most commonly used items have no colour at all. I’d never tried taking a ‘flat lay’ image before but really enjoyed this. Plus I realised my kitchen floor makes a great background for it.

day 10 - movie poster

My daughter was so excited about this - she got put on real make up (briefly). This was a take on the Black Swan movie poster but with a six year old as a model. My favourite of the challenge and therefore a satisfying way to finish.

I really enjoyed this format of a photo every day. It adds an element of intensity and pressure which makes it more enjoyable and engaging in my view. Can’t wait for September again now!

"Stay at Home" photo challenge - pt 1

A ten day challenge over the Easter holidays and the setup for this was a little different to previous challenges. This time we had the ten themes at the start and while all photos needed to be taken during the challenge they could be taken and submitted at any point.

Here are my first five entries.

day 1 - spring

Spring is well on the way and the blossom is all out along our roads. The hardest part of this image was isolating a single bit of blossom from all the rest.

day 2 - from above

We bought a new trampoline just before lockdown started. The kids were playing on it and I thought it would make a great shot for ‘from above’. Standing on the top of a ladder leaning against a tree with the camera on a tripod held out over the trampoline and trying to trigger the shutter from my phone didn’t feel very clever.

I think Jack’s hand are only up like this in case I dropped the camera!

day 3 - yin & yang

Joe Wicks is a fitness coach in the UK who took over PE lessons for kids during lockdown. It’s been great joining in where possible, this day i tried to balance out the goodness of exercise…

day 4 - fruit

I was struggling got inspiration to find any interesting way of photographing fruit. In the end i used some old blueberries laid out in a geometric pattern on some white card and just put them near the sunlight.

It was all going well until my son kicked the card and they rolled all over the floor.

day 5 - movement

As I suspect many people are finding, I have been watching a lot of photography videos on YouTube. In one of them they were explaining how to get this type of effect. Basically you take a photograph of the empty glass on the table, then, without moving it gaffer tape one side to the table and pour in some wine. When you tilt the glass towards the gaffer taped side and let go it stops flat and the wine sloshes up. Then combine in post.

I didn’t spill too much wine…

"Stay at Home" Photography Challenge

We’re living through strange times at the moment. The coronavirus has affected everyone and everything in the spring of 2020 and with staying at home it can be difficult to find variety and interest from one day to the next.

I know, I have really enjoyed being at home with the family more and I certainly haven’t missed the hour long commute to and from work each day. The downside is that I have had my camera out much less and taken hardly any photos.

When my fantastic, local photography group announced that they would be running another photo competition over the Easter holidays I couldn’t have been happier. This focus is exactly the sort of thing I needed to force me to get the camera out and start shooting again.

The challenge was shorter than in the past and only encompassed 10 days, below are the themes and I’ll post my photos as I go.

Another early morning!

I enjoyed my sunrise trip into London so much in January that I was on the lookout for another morning of good weather to try again.

My chance came another month later by which point the sun was rising a little earlier.

I grabbed my stuff and headed back towards the Thames. There were virtually no clouds on the sky at all and therefore not a lot to photograph of the typical subjects. I wandered around for a while not able to find anything to shoot.

I decided to head back towards St Pauls and was pleasantly surprised to see some of the pink and purple colours reflecting on the white stone of the magnificent cathedral. I tried a few different angles and compositions as the light changed but ultimately this was my favourite. The orange and yellow colours after the sun had risen just did’t convey the calm of the pre-sunrise pinks and purples.

I also managed to get an image of the reflected sunrise in the new building at One Blackfriars. Not one of my best but it was a great morning to get out and get some images.

Early morning in London

I work in the middle of London and normally get to my office at around 8am. This time of year is a great opportunity to get up a little early and head in to London to catch sunrise.

This particular morning in January was freezing cold and I had checked the weather the night before. It looked like there would be some high level cloud but I thought there was a chance of some colour in the sky. I set my alarm for 6am and hoped.

When I woke up, I grabbed my stuff for a day at the office and made sure I’d included my tripod. I first headed for London Bridge as I knew the sun rises behind Tower Bridge for a beautiful view. As I got to the river I could see the colours were spectacular! The reds and oranges from most of the images looking east ended up looking far too saturated and I just didn’t like them. I managed to get one that I was happy with before I moved on.

I moved slightly further along the river until I was opposite the Shard. I’ve seen this composition many times before but had never taken the photo myself and I was ecstatic about the purple colour the sky had now become.

Finally, I moved a little further along the river for a different angle of the Shard and put on an ND filter for a more peaceful image of the giant building. Most of the colour had now gone from the sky but there was still some lovely light and I love how calm the image feels.

An early morning but well worth it!

September photography challenge - pt 4

Final week of the month. This is always a week of mixed emotions for me - exhaustion from trying come up with ideas for all the themes and therefore some relief that September is coming to an end. This is also tempered with sadness as I so enjoy being forced out of my comfort zone and getting out there and taking some photos.

So here are my three entries for the last week:

theme 10 - self portrait

This is a perennial theme and one I always find hard.

I don’t take many images of people and even fewer that are posed.

I tried to convey a sense of how I will be feeling throughout the Rugby World Cup this Autumn.

theme 11 - beautiful

I’ve been wanting to try photographing water drops for a while after I got the inspiration from a magazine article. A simple flash, grill pan and dripping bag was all I needed and it was surprising how easy this was in the end.

I took lots of photos with different coloured backgrounds (and lots with the drop just above the water of just after it settled!). In the end I liked this plain one the best.

theme 12 - fresh

My final photo and the one that I had to rush the most. I was away for the weekend at the end of this week and struggled to find something I was happy with.

A fresh coffee always makes me smile so I thought I'd go for this. Plus I could use my water drop experience again!

So there we are - all twelve photos done and the challenge is over for another year. We had a great party to round off the challenge and it was fantastic to exchange thoughts and favourites with the others that took part. I feel like the standard of my photos is slowly going up year on year and that makes me happy.

Looking forward to next year now.

September photography challenge - pt 3

I really feel like I got back into the swing of things this week. I felt inspired by a few ideas and was really excited to shoot some of the themes.

This week we had music, movie title and at night.

theme 7 - music

My daughter is always interested in getting involved with the annual photography challenge. This year she was only too keen to help make some ‘music’ while I took this image.

It was taken with a very shallow depth of field to get only the end of the recorder in focus and I love the way this focuses you straight to the ‘music’.

Face paint is model’s own!

theme 8 - movie title

Most years there is a charades style theme around movies. I had the idea for this at the start of the week but didn’t get a chance to take the shot until towards the end of the week and it was a lot of fun.

I ended up putting on the face paint myself and had to buy some large red balloons especially.

In hindsight I should have warned my wife that this was what I was going to do before hand.

If you haven’t guessed it yet the movie is IT!

theme 9 - at night

I have wanted to take a picture of our completely black cat for a long time, Every time I’ve tried (during the day) she just looks like a black blob with yellow eyes.

This theme gave me the perfect opportunity. I imagine that this is the last thing that the mice see when she is out hunting!

Next week is the last week of the challenge which is always sad (and a little bit of a relief). The final three themes are self portrait, beautiful and fresh.

September photography challenge - pt 2

So now we’re into the second week and I have really found this hard! The themes seemed difficult to interpret for me and I couldn’t find inspiration, especially with ‘unexpected’ - how do you generate an unexpected moment to capture?!

I captured these throughout the week but waited to post them until the end of the week in the hope that I would be struck by something better… well it hasn't happened yet.

This week’s themes were speed, unexpected and wild.

theme 4 - speed

I got my son’s scalextric set out of the attic and set it up in the hope of getting an action shot of two cars racing. I had to sellotape the triggers on the controllers to keep the cars going while I took photos. I really like how the front car is already out of shot.

theme 5 - unexpected

This was the hardest one so far. I really struggled to think how I could generate an unexpected moment to capture that would seem genuine.

In the end I was out for a walk one evening and saw the most incredible sunset. I dashed back home to grab my camera and grab a couple of shots.

theme 6 - wild

We’ve recently started putting out bird food in the garden again and I’ve been amazed at how many blue tits we’re getting.

I was trying to get an image of a blue tit in flight but after many pictures of a blurred bird or a tail, I ended up with this… a little bit wild.

Well, we’re half way through the month now - let’s hope I can get my creative juices flowing for next week’s themes.

Next week’s themes are music, movie title and at night - let’s get started.

September photography challenge - pt 1

Every year I take part in a photography challenge run by a local photographer in her facebook group. This is the same photographer through whom I learned all about cameras (and, more importantly who inspired me to use my camera more often).

The challenge is normally 30 themes, one for each day in September. The idea is that you must take the photograph on that day and upload it to the group where the community give feedback. It’s a great way to encourage regular camera use and practicing all sorts of different techniques. Plus it’s a lot of fun.

Well this year, the seventh that the challenge has happened, it had felt a lot to ask of everyone to take a photo every day of the month so the challenge has been paired back to 4 weeks with three themes each week. Now you get the whole week to take all three images and upload by the end of the week.

I thought I would share mine here.

The first week’s themes are: together, green and vantage point:

theme 1 - together

This was actually the image that took me the longest. As it got to the Saturday at the end of the week I thought that this would work, plus I got a cooked breakfast out of it too,. I didn’t have long to take the image as i wasn’t going to eat cold bacon and eggs!

theme 2 - green

I had a problem with inspiration here and eventually settled on a mojito. I was a bit worried that i had over done the ingredients and that it would be too green but i’m Really pleased with the result. Especially the inclusion of an old salad server so look like a muddler..

Sadly I didn’t even make a mojito, this was just soda water!

theme 3 - vantage point

This is a view of the Shard in London, taken through a. window at St Dunstan in the East church. I visited here early in the week to get this image but it didn’t come out how I wanted.

I then, by chance saw exactly what I was after on Instagram. So i returned to try again and was really pleased with the way this came out.

The problem I find with some of these themes is that they can be interpreted in so many different ways that sometimes imagining something that is immediately recognisable as the theme is really difficult. Looking forward to next week’s themes: speed, unexpected and wild.