Wedding: Kate & Mark

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing Kate & Mark's wedding in Wiltshire.

It was a lovely day (despite being rather cold) and everyone had a lovely time.

The full gallery can be seen here; Kate & Mark

More Northumberland photographs...

These have got toi be my favourite 2 shots from the weekend.

The first photograph is of Bamburgh Castle and the second was taken near Dunstanburgh Castle at Canonball Beach.

Lindisfarne Castle

Dawn Photography

My stay in Northumberland was brief, only 3 days so I had to make the most of it.

I had planned my shoot locations using OS maps and photographs as I knew there wouldn't be time for scouting and I needed to make the most of the short time that I had there.

Each morning I got up before 5am and headed down to a location, determined by tide, sunrise and weather to set up by 6.30am, well before sun rise and leaving everyone else fast asleep.

It was freezing (hence huge scarf, coat and hat in the image below), made worse by being on the open coast line with icy cold winds, but it was well worth it as you will see in posts to follow soon.

This gave me further experience in to what landscape photographers go through on a regular basis to get their shots. I was well aware of this, but I had never dedicated a whole holiday to achieving the shots that I wanted or braved such cold weather but I can fully understand why they do it and the satisfaction that they achieve.

You can see two other photographers just below the castle in the image above, but there were about 20 of us out on the beach that morning!

Seals!

As we were staying 20 minutes from Seahouses, I though it would be rather rude if we didn't go over to the Farne Isle to see the seals, especially as late October/early November is peak breeding season and there would be plenty of seal pups.

The only issue, as per usual, was the weather. The boats wouldn't sail in any more than a force 4-5 and the shipping forecast wasn't looking good for the weekend.

As it turned out, the weather on the Saturday was perfect. The sea was very calm and the wind gentle so we booked a boat.

There were more seals than I had expected, although I was rather disappointed that most of the pups had been colour marked, which wasn't so pleasing to the eye. Due to the time of season, the Puffins had migrated along with may other sea birds so there wasn't a great deal of variety in the wildlife, but it was still well worth it.

I'm fairly happy with the shots that I managed to get, but it is very difficult to take shots of wildlife, especially while bobbing up and down on a boat while using very bulky and heavy equipment!

I love this 300mm f2.8 IS USM L!

I can see the mooooooooon!

Any excuse to play with a new lens :)

Northumberland

Northumberland weekend is finally almost here!

I think I am all set and I have even borrowed a lens from uni; a 300mm f2.8 IS USM L which I can't wait to start using!

I have planned most of the weekend - shoot locations, weather forecasts, routes, walking gear..... fingers crossed the weather doesn't turn at the last moment.

Images to come soon!

New Challenges

Having chosen to focus on Landscape and Wildlife photography, I am finding it far more challenging than I had expected.

The main issue that is causing such a hindrance, is the weather.

I am so reliant upon it, that by the time I reach a location for a sunrise, the weather conditions are often unsuitable despite watching the weather forecasts so closely.

This is extremely frustrating as I am unable to get the images that I had set out to accomplish.

It also feels like a complete waste of time, having got up at 5am to travel an hour to a location and set up in time only to be disappointed for reasons out of my control.

I also feel that I had previously under estimated the necessity of using filters for landscapes.

ND grad and ND filters, I know know are essential for shots and I needed much stronger ones than I had.

This has resulted in spending nearly £40 on two pieces of resin (glass) that are about 4"x4" which seems a little excessive, but after seeing the difference, I don't feel so bad about spending the money.

So, I have learnt a few essential things so far and I am sure there are plenty more to learn too, but I am getting there and enjoying the process.

Landscapes: Malhamdale

Although I haven't written much on here about my current uni projects, I have been up to quite a bit!

I have decided to focus on landscape photography for both the current project and my dissertation so the direction of my work has changed quite dramatically.

It has been quite some time since I last did some landscape photography and it doesn't seem to be coming as easily as it used to. I'm not sure if it is because I have spent the last 18 months focusing on portraiture and model portfolios, using more and more flash lighting and not so much natural light, not to mention that they are nearly two completely different entities with specific techniques and skills to match.

Anyway, I decided to head up to Malham for a day of shooting.

The weather had forecast clear skies at silly o'clock and cloudy with sunny spells for the rest of the day..... they lied!! I was in Malham for sunrise and as the sky began to light up, it was cloudy. Very, very cloudy. Grrr! So that spoilt that plan and none of the sunrise images came out anywhere near how I would have liked them to.

I stayed in Malham for most of the day, and still it remained overcast and cloudy.

After the sunrise location, I headed up to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss (which was just a trickle compared to my last visit up there). By this time it was about 8am and the campers were still hiding away in their tents (not that I blame them)! So while it was quiet, I made a little time to Geocache :) but..... (I was having a very bad day), I didn't have enough signal for my GPS to work! I remembered the location clues and managed to find the cache anyway but I couldn't hunt down the others as the GPS just wasn't playing ball.

After this, I went for a bit of a wander and headed up to the top of Malham Cove along the limestone pavement. It seemed so surreal, all the lime stone running over the fields like a river up to the cove with such an immense drop.

The views were beautiful, it was just a shame about the weather. It would have been perfect had there been a nice sky with huge clouds casting shadows across the landscape.

Fingers crossed for Northumberland!

Jeni's 21st

I recently provided the photography for Jeni's 21st birthday.

I had not covered a birthday before so I was a little unsure of what to expect.

It was a family party so there were people of all ages and the little girl in pink provided no end of entertainment to everyone!

Jeni and her friends headed off for a bit of a drinking session after, to no one's surprise!

The family are all very happy with the photographs too :)

The Sunshine Underground

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours on the set if the new music video for Leeds band, The Sunshine Underground so of course, I didn't say no :)

Because of the short notice of the shoot, I didn't have the chance to work on the whole video which was a shame. I did manage to get a few shots though and I will post more info on this when the video is finished.

There are a few more images from this on my Flickr page.

Anastasia & Tony's Wedding

A few days ago, I photographed Tony & Anastasia's wedding in York.

The happy couple live in London so I didn't have to opportunity to meet them before their wedding day, but the groom is from Yorkshire, hence the choice of location for their wedding and Anastasia is from Russia.

The morning of the wedding, I was starting to get a little worried as the weather really wasn't playing ball. Gale force winds and rain was forecast!

I left Leeds with plenty of time to spare, expecting the A64 to be closed or to be stuck in traffic.

As it was, the A64 was actually quite empty but York was packed. It took me about an hour to get to the registry office!

Fortunately, it didn't rain. The sky's remained grey and the wind wasn't too bad in the city centre so we managed to get the shots that the couple wanted outdoors and they were up for a bit of fun too.

Geocaching

Totally unrelated to either work or Uni, but I have started Geocaching.

I figured I might as well and if I'm going to be doing a lot of walking for my photography, I could do this at the same time and it sounded like good fun.

For those who don't know what Geocaching is, it is basically a game of hiding and seeking hidden treasure (no, not expensive treasure...more like trinkets)... oh, and hiking.

You need to sign up to the GeoCaching website to get the longitude and latitude co-ordinates of the caches (so you need a GPS, there is also an iPhone app).

There are several hundred caches in the Leeds area and thousands more beyond.

Here is a trailer from 'Splinterheads', describing a little more about what Geocaching is, although its a little more extreme that the caches that I know about.

Oh, and I found my first Geocache today - yey!

Photographer of the Year Competition 2009

I almost forgot... this year, I managed to pluck up the courage to enter the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year Competition.

Now, I am under no illusion what so ever that I will win, but I didn't see the harm in entering and thought it would do me some good, not only for confidence but to get my work seen as well.

I entered a total of 6 images under 6 different categories and you can see them on the website here; Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2009

The categories I have entered are; Planet Earth, Fashion, Destination Everywhere, Landscapes, People & Portraits and Black & White).

I have just had a look and I actually have votes on a couple of them! Yey!

If you can spare the time, please have a look and vote if you like my images - it would be most appreciated!

Thank you!

Charlotte - Shoot No.2

I have been talking to Charlotte quite a bit since my shoot with both her and Stefanie. She really enjoyed the shoot and would quite like to do some more modeling (I'm so glad she enjoyed her first experience despite location and weather issues)!

Anyway, in order to get more shoots, its helpful to have a portfolio with a bit of variety and some clear head shots so we decided to do another shoot, mainly studio based.

It was very clear on the shoot that her confidence had increased dramatically. She was a lot more confident in front of the camera, which really showed in her images.

We used a make-shift studio to start with a few different changes to add variety. This was also quite interesting as we had not discussed clothing in great detail and the majority was white!

I was so worried that she would blend into the white background and I didn't want to have to use massive shadows to bring her out.

As it went, it wasn't really a problem at all! I made sure that the background was well lit and gave the impression that there was more distance between Charlotte and the backdrop.

We even had time for a few shots outside, in a more urban setting than I would usually use but it worked well and offered more variety for Charlotte's portfolio.

Full gallery link & feedback coming soon!

Back to Uni - Final Year!!!

I'm just over a week into my third year of uni now and I'm feeling a little bit lost already this year. Obviously, I will still carry on with photography, but its just which area to focus on.

I really want to go back to landscapes and wildlife but at the same time, I really enjoy the conceptual shoots with models. Its really nice to work with different people on a regular basis. I believe that it is very beneficial in order to improve further and I really enjoy it.

However, as with during the first 2 years of the course, I greatly miss the countryside and I just haven't been able to settle comfortably in the city so this would provide more chance to get out on a regular basis.

I will definitely cover landscape and wildlife photography for at least one of my projects, but I'm just not sure about the other. There are benefits no matter which area I focus. I feel that I should follow landscapes and focus specifically there for the whole year to get the most from it, but then I wonder how much time I will have to continue with the fashion side in my spare time...

...I guess I'm going to have to go and buy myself some nice ND's!

Evil Epson

That's it - enough is enough.

I have now lost all faith in Epson.

I had a brand new SX400 Printer and the alignment went after about 2 months, got a replacement... the print heads were knackered.

Josh also has an Epson, so I thought I would borrow that for a few days... the print heads have gone on that too (its only been used twice) and I just spent £30 on ink!

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

The good news...

I'm getting an upgraded printer - a Canon...

This one had better work. If I loose my faith in Canon, I'm going to have to swap all of my camera equipment for Nikon! lol!

Rachel & Josh (Portraits)

This week I did a portrait shoot for Rachel and a couple of shots with her boyfriend Josh.

Rachel was quite comfortable in front of the camera, relaxed and looked natural in her poses.

She photographed so well and wasn't intimidated by studio lighting at all and did some really good face pulling poses too!

Josh however (who hates being photographed), was very uncomfortable in front of the camera. The second I started to lift the camera up to my face, he froze and tensed up.

Nothing Rachel and I tried made much of a difference!

Eventually, he relaxed a little and we tried 'fun' poses as opposed to the more traditional and serious ones. This seemed to help and I the end result worked much better than the forced looking shots.

Tetbury Upton Parish Council's Website

Not my usual line of work, but I have been asked by Tetbury Upton Parish Council to give their website a bit of a revamp.

This project makes a change from my photography work and will hopefully develop my web building skills a little further.

It is also nice to be doing some more work relevant to where I lived prior to university - the Cotswolds.

The current site does its job well but they are looking for something a little more modern in design, while still being very easy to navigate.

The current site can be seen here; Tetbury Upton Parish Council

More to come soon on this...

Rachel (Preview)

A preview shot of my shoot with Rachel - more to come soon!

Jessica & Kady

A few shots from my recent shoot with Jessica & Kady.

Again, I was very lucky as they were both so good. Kady at just 5 weeks, was mesmerised by the lights and Jessica couldn't wait to have her photograph taken!

Stefanie & Charlotte: Model Shoot

Further to the preview post, here are some more shots from my shoot with Stefanie & Charlotte.

Stafanie works as a model and the shoot was primarily for her portfolio. She brought her friend Charlotte with her as she was interested to know about shoots and have a go herself.

Both Stefanie & Charlotte were easy to work with, both really friendly and good fun.

It was quite interesting to work with two models on one shoot too, as I haven't had this experience before on a portfolio shoot.

Stef knew exactly what she was doing - she didn't need any instruction at all and Charlotte was quite resourceful and improvised as well as listening and asking for advice.

They both worked really well together on all levels making the shoot a really good experience.

Despite Charlotte having no previous experience modeling, her confidence built very quickly and it was obvious that she was enjoying the shoot - even with an audience at times as we were shooting in a public location!

More images from the shoot can be seen on my flickr page here; Flickr

Stefanie & Charlotte (Preview)

Last week I had a shoot with Stefanie & Charlotte.

This was the first time that I have shot with two models in one sitting, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect...

But the shoot went really well, apart from a location issue.

In the end, we used a woodland, the canal locks and a folly so there was plenty of variety in both surroundings and themes.

More shots to follow soon...

Tom & Charity's Wedding

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing Tom and Charity's wedding in Leeds.

It was a beautiful day and the weather held out nicely.

Its lovely to see different weddings and Tom and Charity's was very different from any other that I have photographed so far.

They had combined the traditional with the modern extremely well.

The wedding took place in a beautiful, traditional church with stunning arches and Mouseman carved woodwork.

Instead of a traditional white wedding dress, Charity wore a beautiful dusty gold dress with a contemporary feel - she looked stunning.

The reception was held at their home, and there were so many details to capture, even personal messages on the decorations.

The buffet was Thai themed and the wedding cake was a cupcake tower.

I loved the strawberries, their little chocolate jackets must have taken the caterers ages!

Devon

Last week, we headed down to Devon. It was nice to get away for a few days and spend some time in the countryside as well as by the coast.

We spent a day sailing, down the river Dart from Totnes and round to Start Point (by Hallsands, where the village fell into the sea during a storm in 1917). Well, when I say sailing... it was more motoring as there wasn't enough wind to keep any of the sails up!

Obviously, I made time for a bit of photography and I even managed a sunrise at the Daymark by Kingswear.

The Daymark was built in 1864 as a navigational aid for ships entering Dartmouth (as the bay is fairly hidden amongst the cliffs). It stands 25 meters high and is owned and maintained by the Dart Harbour Commission.

We also visited Sharpham Vinyard (very nice wine) and there were some beautiful views of the River Dart leading up to Totnes.

Although it is nice to be home, I have to say that I really didn't miss the terraced houses looming over us and I still can't wait to move out of the city!

Katie & Peter's Wedding

Here are a few photographs from Katie & Peter's Wedding in Elslack, on the edge of Skipton.

Their wedding day was lovely (apart from the rain), but as the wedding was all in one location, this wasn't too much of a problem and there was plenty of space for group shots indoors.

The wedding cake was brilliant - decorated with dolly mixtures and this made a lovely change.

It also really suited Katie's bubbly personality!

A splash of colour...

Its been so dark and dismal lately with all of this rain, I thought that it was time for a splash of colour!

I feel a bit happier now :)