Monthly Archives: May 2014

An adventure with rainbows

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Wales

f/11, 16mm, ISO 100, .5″

We’re just back from a short trip to Wales.  I have a lot of images to upload but thought I’d start with the most recent, from last night. We found a super sunset spot for Lilly, our camper van, looking over Freshwater West beach, Pembrokeshire.  I was so busy looking West that I almost didn’t notice a rainbow appearing behind us.

Wales

f/11, 16mm, ISO 100, .8″

It just got better and better as the setting sun turned the clouds pink.  By the end, I’d had a good soaking (well, you can’t have rainbows without rain) and I was very glad of my camera’s weather seals.  We loved what we saw of Glamorgan and Pembrokeshire and have already agreed to go back as soon as we can.

Wales

f/11, 16mm, ISO 100, 1.6″

By the way, the small triangular structure in the first shot is a seaweed drying hut.  More on that anon.

Precious landscape on the brink

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Surrey landscape
On Friday, I enjoyed a trip out to Three Farms Meadows with my friend, Tony Antoniou.   The landscape here is special because Surrey is a heavily populated county.  Open spaces like this are rare and ever more under threat.   Three Farms Meadows in Surrey
I cannot hope to convey the joy of stepping through the gate onto this vast, open, empty landscape.  We spent an hour up there, in the company of skylarks, bees and a pair of red kites soaring overhead.Surrey landscapeSadly, Three Farms Meadows is under very real threat.   2,500 new homes are planned for this site.  I understand how desperate the housing situation is in this crowded little country of mine.  But still, I cannot help but dread the loss of this precious place.  The price seems too high.

Two lights in one day

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infra red and mist

One day last month, I managed to get out to Chatley Heath during some early morning mist.  The forest of towering scots pines looked spooky in the mist so I gave this image an infrared style treatment.  By the early afternoon, the mist had burned off and colour returned.

Chatley Heath

I love going back to familiar locations and discovering how their mood changes with the season and the light.

Lifeboats and heroes

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RNLI

Last week I had the chance to pop down to Selsey and photograph the RNLI’s Lifeboat station.  It is an imposing structure, with its long gangway linking it to the shore.  I have always been fascinated by the story of lifeboats.  Perhaps my interest lies partly in the fact that a good portion of my first twelve years were spent at sea, even encountering a lifeboat on a particularly foggy day off the Devon coast when it was a very welcome sight indeed. The story of the lifeboat service is full of daring deeds and sacrifices.  I have often wondered why the BBC, or indeed, Hollywood, has failed to make a drama about it.  Still, to this day, the lifeboats are manned by volunteers, people with day jobs who feel it right to offer their service in aid of those in peril on the sea.

If you are interested in maritime history, you might enjoy this blog: Map of Time.

Photo essays and projects

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seascape

4″, f/11, 35mm, ISO 200, Big Stopper and circ. polariser

The internet has, mostly, been a marvellous thing for enthusiast photographers, not least because images are readily available for our viewing and educational pleasure.  Although there is still nothing quite like seeing an image in print, we no longer need to buy a magazine or go to an exhibition for our daily dose of photo inspiration.

Wreck on Bognor beach

1.6″, f/7.1, 70mm, ISO 200, Big Stopper and circ. polariser.

As most of us have realised, however, volume does not equal quality and discernment is a skill we must develop to become better photographers.  One of the difficulties in our way is that fact that most photosharing sites, like Flickr and 500px, reward the high-impact, stand-alone image.  Often, subtler images, that reward a more lingering gaze, are overlooked in the frenetic world of internet attention spans.

Groynes on Bognor beach

2″, f/8, 70mm. ISO 200, Big Stopper and circ. polariser.

Recently, I have found myself enjoying Adobe’s image-sharing site, Behance, not only because overall the standard of imagery is high, but because Behance is geared towards projects rather than stand-alone images.  This is where the professionals hang out and, perhaps because they tend to be working on commissioned projects, the site abounds in sequences of images, connected visually and creatively into cohesive wholes. If you have not yet found Behance, I recommend a visit.  Just select photography from the ‘creative fields’ drop down menu and soak up the gorgeousness.

West Sussex seascape

20″, f/11, 70mm, ISO 50, Big Stopper and circ. polariser.

Inspired by what I have been seeing there, I have started to make sets of images, linked by style, subject or even colour.  The five images posted here were all taken on the same day last week when I had to be in West Sussex.  The weather was stormy, with sudden bursts of bright sunlight in front of heavy skies, so I decided to exploit that changeable feeling, deliberately using a variety of shutter speeds to capture the sea’s mood.  By afternoon, the weather had eased but I attempted to carry the morning’s colour palette into the afternoon’s shoot, at Selsey Lifeboat station.

West Sussex seascape

1/60, f/11, 16mm, ISO 50, Big Stopper and circ. polariser.

Incidentally, the second image is of a wrecked portion of WW2 mulberry harbour that has been rusting away on Aldwick beach for seventy years.  Believe it or not, I grew up literally a stone’s throw from this wreck but have only now bothered to photograph it.  Sometimes we overlook the things closest to us.