Sunday 28 June 2009

Suffolk Sortie

suffolk-1

Last weekend saw us taking a visit darn sarf to Ipswich. It wasn't intentially a photography trip but it was fun and i got some interesting shots. The main thing i realised on my trip that i seem to have changed my thought processes slightly.

Up to now i feel like i have walked around places and taking some shots of different things, mostly quirky things that are infront of me. Now i feel that i have stepped away from the 'snaps' that i would have taken on a trip like this, to take a set of images that are more structured.

That is not to say that i am taking better shots but the styling has changed. Some of the shots i took were styled in some way by the work of Martin Parr. again i'm not saying that my shots mirror his as i'm not anywhere near Martins quality but the colours and the flags in faces i can copy!




I enjoyed my trip to Southwold, the home of Adnams beer...and yes i did have some...not lots but some!
I would advise trying some street style on the beach and the front as some interesting shots do pop out!

Tuesday 23 June 2009

various adventures

Well at first i have to apologise for being rubbish and not posting recently, i have been out to take shots but not really had the chance to sit and post anything on here charting my experiences. On the whole i have taken some shots i'm happy with in some different styles to what i normally do.

Bradford Mela:

Bradford Mela-31

The Mela had the potential to be a fantastic event with a vast range of photos. i only managed to get a couple of hours but even in that time i managed to go from 'street'-off the hip shots, to low light gig shots. Obviously i have been using a number of similar techniques on my post processing recently, its still eerimental as i'm not fully sure if its the best way of doing them as its a bit over the top, please tell me if this is the case! i seem to be struggling to make slight improvements and make my photos stand out. again this is back to my problems i have with 'my style', PP work is the easiest way to make this style but these could be over the line when it comes to 'too much work'.

At the mela i did take down my 70-200mm 2.8and it was great for some of the cadid/street shots. but i was a little scared carrying round as much glass in a bit of a busy atmosphere! it wasn't intimidating but i do feel i'm being watched when i have such a big white thing on the end of my camera. I think that the street style shots i took were a bit different for me as i did start to wait for the right moment to shoot rather than the panic shots i have done thus far. As i'm sure you have heard me say before i don't really get the whole street thing yet but i am getting happier with some of my shots. could this be that i'm turning to the dark side??
Bradford Mela-2

Craig visiting i.e. Leeds street and moo cows

No flash corner

A quick trip in to Leeds with Craig and we decided to try and find a 'no flash corner'. This is a fun place where the liht is comingfrom a different side to the sun...kinda. all i was really doing was copying off Griff and Lloyd but hey it was fun. shots came out ok but has got me thinking of going out again nearer when the buisness people are leaving work rather than early pub time.
On the way home we tried again to get some shots of the infamous highland cows in the field in Drighlington. some of them came out well even tho we did the naughty of shooting them with flash.
Craig tells me this is the money shot ;-)
cows-3

We wouldn't have gone down this road ifthey had been bothered by the flasehes but they really were interested in what we were doing so these shots just happened! being honest i would like to investigate how some other animals react as if they don't see it as a problem there is some potential for some very cool shots. but i will not go down this road if it goes down badly.

I suppose again i wouldn't have been able to take this shot had i been on my own as i had the great voice activiated flash holder to make these shots happen.

being honest i was hoping to go a bit more in depth with this update but as its now 2303... i should go to bed. i'll do some more stuff on my nextpost that will go through my shots from suffolk!

all the best

Sunday 7 June 2009

Haewood Hill Climb

Harewood Hill Climb-16

Another weekend and another trip out with my camera. Harewood holds a number of hill climb events each year and this was my first visit. I was shocked at the vast array of car and also the potential for some amazing photos. At the moment i am still learning and the number of different shots i could have taken in some ways made it difficult to focus on the shots i wanted from the day.
At the outset i was hoping to have a try at panning, this is a technique i have only had the opportunity once before to really try. Unfortuntley my plans of finding a long and flat ish straight.... as i found out quickly, hill climb doesn't lend itself to long straights! this meant i had to make use of my 70-200mm 2.8 and this seemed to work out well.

Harewood Hill Climb-10

I did take a lot of the panning shots but i seemed to have problems getting the focus correct, in changing over to my more traditional shots i feel the results were better. hand holding at 1/60 is not easy with a 2.8kg lens on the end made it difficult. next time i will have to take my monopod and have another go.

Harewood Hill Climb-13

I think i need to start being a little more technical in these posts..... but as i'm half watching the apprentice i have an excuse!