mcfade's photo blog

Ebbing enthusiasm for photography?

2009-01-19T23:03:00.004Z

Before I start, I'll just clarify that my enthusiasm isn't ebbing, but quite a few people I've talked to online seem to be going through a lull. I thought I'd try to work out what may cause this and attempt to provide a few suggestions.

First of all, the causes...

* Subject familiarity - this is where you have concentrated on one genre for a long time.
* Too high standards - this is where you've "mastered" a subject and know exactly what you want, and if conditions don't allow you to "better" what's been done before, you don't see the point in going out.
* Technique frustration - you just can't seem to get the shots you want and give up
* Idea droughts - you head out with the camera full of enthusiasm, but you just can't find anything that grabs or inspires you.
* Being held back - sometimes the people you go out taking shots with may have different ideas and goals that stop you chasing your own ideas.
* Not enough time - work and family commitments mean you appear to have too little time to take and process photos.

Well there's a few reasons I've experienced or heard of for people letting their camera gather dust.

I know lots of landscape photographers who have had a good few years carefully honing their skills, watching weather forecasts for good light, perfecting their processing techniques to make the most of a beautiful landscape. It's probably the most popular subject in the hobbyist domain; you get out somewhere nice, fresh air, exercise, photographically relaxing (no people issues or movement to deal with) and you can usually get "something" from the shoot; so it's no surprise that that it's popular.

But I think from the very nature of it being undemanding photographically, you do loose that feeling of progress after a while. The technical side does take time to mature, but once you've worked out where to focus, which filters to use and that F11-F16 is probably best, there's not a lot else to do technique wise.

So that's a classic example of subject familiarity creeping up on you.

I've had that with landscape, but the bigger problem I had was Too High Standards. When I was starting out I'd go out in all conditions, flat light, rain, storms and sunshine because I was learning and it was new and fun. Then as I progressed, I was more aware of the light conditions to the point where I'd just not bother to go out unless it looked like we were going to get fantastic light. Heaven knows how many shots I've missed because I thought the light wasn't going to be of a good enough standard, then an hour later it'd changed and I'd missed it. There is no such thing as bad light, just a poor choice of subject in the available light!

So the cure for these closely linked problems is to broaden your horizons, to branch out into 2 or 3 genres that can be practiced in different circumstances.

For example...

If you're a landscaper and not having much luck with the weather, if you took up street candids as a second skill and maybe still life as a third, you'd then have 3 bases covered.

Landscape for good light
Street for greyer days
Still life for when it's raining or too horrible to go out.

Technical Frustration is common when learning how to go from full auto on the camera to Av, Tv and M. It's also there when you first use filters, when you take shots for HDR, when you first convert RAW files, when you get a speedlite for the first time, and when you get second speedlite to try some off camera flash work.

I see people getting inspired from work they've viewed on the web, then getting annoyed with themselves when they can't re-produce the effect. They can spend hours, days and weeks trying to perfect a "look", but I'd question whether this is the right way to go about your photography.

First off, the best way of getting around Technical Frustration that I've used extensively is the "experiment till it clicks" technique. It's what it says on the tin. With digital exposures being effectively free, we can learn from trial and error, from being curious and experimenting and seeing what happens. Rather than spending hours trying to emulate a Dragen portrait, a portrait style which already exists and will soon be out of fashion, why not get out there with your camera and try new things. Go out into the garden, you don't need to travel to do this.

Learn about focal length effects by standing a coke can on your dust bin and shooting from your widest angled lens to your longest. Then do the same, but start off with your widest lens close to the can so the can fills the frame, then as the lens gets longer, move backwards so the can stays the same size... see what happens around the can.

Put your camera on a tripod and shoot the same can at all the different apertures on your camera and see how the background blur changes to sharpness as you get smaller apertures.

When you learn this way, the technical side of things becomes embedded in your subconscious mind so it becomes like second nature - it's a bit like driving a car. You can talk whilst driving because the skill is subconscious, were it not you'd have to concentrate so hard on changing gear, using the pedals, indicating etc. that you'd not be able to talk.

Idea droughts hit us all, writers get writers block and sometimes we just don't see anything we think is worth taking a photo of.

The cure for this is to give yourself a project. A purely personal project with the goal of producing a series of prints or even a self publish book at the end of it. Books these days can be as little as £10 so it's not a pie in the sky idea any more.

If you're lacking inspiration, this project will give you a reason to go out and take photographs whilst you wait for your "mojo" to return.

Being held back does happen when people who meet regularly are either at different levels of skill or want to pursue different areas of photography. This happens from time to time, it manifests it self with you going to places you'd probably not choose yourself or waiting around for ages when you're ready to move on.

The cure for this is not to stop going on shoots with your friends and find a new set of friends! As a hobby, photography is often more enjoyable with 1 or 2 others to talk to when on a shoot - and they can become models in shots that need human interest!

What I'd suggest if you feel you're being held back is to try to get out alone with the camera, maybe at lunch times or in the evenings, and in that time do something you want to do, but something that you know the others probably would not buy into. Make some stunning images from the outing and show them to your friends - this may well ignite a flame of enthusiasm in them and inspire them to give that subject a try.

It's certainly more friendly than abandoning people.

If they are holding you back because they work slowly, then that's trickier to cure, but I'd suggest some coaching in technique could help speed them along. Talk them through what you do and see if it sinks in - maybe they are metering incorrectly and struggling to get the exposure right and taking loads of shots. See what the issue is and see if you can help - and if not, either put up or.. well... lessen the frequency of your activity!

Not enough time is the perennial excuse for just about every hobby failing. It means that you've lost enthusiasm to such an extent that you're not actively looking to pursue your hobby.

The converse is this... when you're full of enthusiasm you will have your camera with you more often than not, you may take it with you at lunch time and see if there's anything you can photograph on your way to the sandwich shop. Then on the way home, you may take a detour through somewhere pretty or where there's wildlife to be found. you'll clear a day a week/fortnight to meet up with friends to take photos...

In other words, when you're in the zone, you're constantly looking for reasons and time TO DO your photography, when you loose your mojo, you stop looking for these opportunities.

So the cure... well most people have a lunch break. Take your camera out then. Most people commute to work - you can stop for 5 minutes on that journey and take photos then. Walk the dog? Then take the camera with you. Working away from home - you'll be bored in the hotel at night, so go out after dinner and get some shots if its a safe area.

It's best to get a buddy though - someone you go out with that's on the same wavelength. It's then a bit like having a training partner at the gym. Even when you're nor up for it, you go to the guy so as not to let down your buddy who will need your help on the weights, for example.

So there's some common reasons for stopping taking photos and some practical solutions that have worked for me over the years.

The main thing that keeps me going, and I cant emphasise this enough, is to keep moving on, progressing, trying new tools, techniques and finding out things for yourself as far as possible.

Photography is the perfect hobby for many personality types, but if you are the curious and creative type, then don't stagnate - there's always something new to try.

The New Book!

2008-10-28T20:30:00.002Z

Well it's been a long time coming, but at last I've compiled my book on Yorkshire.

Click here to take a look....

It's a 120 page book with pretty much 120 photos and very little text. I like to let the images do the talking, so to speak.

The difference between this and the Leeds book is that every photo has a caption, so you're not in doubt as to where it is!

It's a smaller 10 by 8 inches, so the soft back one can go on sale for just £20.

It's really a culmination of 4 years of learning about the county, how to take photos and find my own style. Feedback from the proof has been very favourable, people seem to olike the heavy saturated colours and broody skies, as you often don't get that in books.

Also, I've included a section on industry, just a small one, that has shots of Drax and a few other "eyesores" that I've tried to make stunning shots from.

It's out there on sale now anyway - if you're not in the makrket for buying it, please take a look at the "preview" anyway, any feedback on that will be really valuable.

One way to improve your photography...

2008-05-01T17:37:00.000+01:00

In my role as a critique team member on Ephotozine, many people ask me how to improve their shots. I think there are many many answers to that question, loads related to technique, technical issues, getting the right light and being in the right place at the right time.

But in a lot of ways, you need to work out what you're saying with a shot, and maybe why you're saying it too. What I've advised before, on a few sites, is that you should think what you'd write in the "About" or "description" box of a photo sharing website, or in a letter to an editor, before you take the shot.

Say it in your head.

Be honest to yourself

If you really can't think of anything interesting to say, you will have an un-interesting shot. So do something about it, don't take the shot.

You can:-

* move on somewhere else
* zoom in
* get higher up
* get lower down
* do a long shutter speed to create movement
* do a fast shutter speed to freeze everything
* Try a bit of fill flash…

Then after you've done that, again mentally read what you'd put in the about box. Explain what you've done technically and why.

* why did you use a wide aperture?
* Why did you go for a 2 second exposure,
* what were you trying to achieve?
* What was the bloke in the shot doing, can we tell from the shot or does it have to be explained? if it has to be explained, then the photo isn't working.

In essence, I'm saying that to get a good shot, you need to know why you're doing it really. Or at least be able to communicate to yourself what the elements of the shot are doing, if they're adding to the shot, just consequential, setting the scene or a main focal point. If you can't say that to yourself, then no one looking at the shot will be able to work out what you were trying to do. You end getting the odd fantastic shot by chance, rather than by design.

So undoubtedly you need to learn the "how" of photography till it's second nature, that's a pleasure to do and takes time. But to really improve you then need to concentrate on the "what" and the "why" of every shot.

Power Stations in 2008

2008-04-29T18:59:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since I last blogged, mainly cause I've been busy with the
band and out taking photos.

My Leeds project has come to a pause for the time being, it was ideal whist
the sun was setting at 5:30, I cold dive into town after rework and get a
valuable hour of shots in, the head home and process them all evening. Now the
light's here longer, you're out later, you've not got the time to process reams
of HDR files, so I've decided on a new project to motivate me over the
summer.

Power Stations.

An odd one maybe? But I can see 3 of the biggest in the
country from my bedroom window, and over the years have got some classy shots of
the sun setting behind the plumes of steam, creating fire-like clouds that
reflect in the near by rivers.

This one is a shot of Drax, Europe's biggest coal fired station and supplier
of 1/7th of the UK's electricity. It's also got 2 carousels of 6 cooling towers
which gives a little extra interest for the photographer. I pulled into the side
of the road to get the steam and saw there was a huge pool of water just in a
field, so had a wander in and was blown away by the reflections. Quite special
as you can see.

Quite a different view of Drax here - this is about 2 miles up the road to
the nearest M62 junction, I was trying to get the light poking through the oil
seed rape in the foreground.

In fact, one of my objectives is to show how close crops, be they cabbage,
wheat, barley or oil seed, coexist with these monster power plants. How our food
is going to be affected by the pollution they pour out. Here's a shot of a newly
planted field which is very close to Drax.

I'm also going for the dramatic mono statements too, here's shot of
Eggborough from a long way away - 200mm lens, F32 and 5 seconds.

This one is Eggborough from pretty close up, got asked to move on by the
security guards after this, I guess I look like a Muslim terrorist, sure they
all have bags of Pork Scratchings in their boots too.

Here's one of Ferrybridge from close up, this was 30 seconds so the steam can
smooth and dissipate a lot more.

So this is something I'll be popping out to capture on those nights where it
look nice out. You need some kind of focus with photography to keep the interest
up. The first years will be all about learning your craft and developing your
style. but now I'm, into my 4th year of serious learning and I've covered my
local are many times, I need something to keep the fire burning on those nights
when I really would rather sit indoors and watch telly.

What's your project for 2008?

In Print... my Leeds shots in a lovely book

2008-04-13T20:40:00.002+01:00

Leeds

The Architecture of...

By Adrian Wilson

Book Preview

Many months in the making, at last my book, simply entitled "Leeds" is on sale.

it's 108 pages, one shot to a page, no words just fantastic images of Leeds city centre.

Go take a look - buy one if you're impressed!

DIGITAL SLR USER

2008-03-26T17:19:00.002Z

Just thought I'd mention that I'm the subject of this magazine's "Big Interview" in April's edition.

Or is it May...

Well it's the next one to come out anyway

London of course

2008-01-29T20:06:00.001Z

When I was looking for a suitable IT course to go on through work, London sprang
to mind for 2 reasons.

Firstly I've not seen my mate Jamie for 3 years, and a few others for a good
while, so it's about time I went down.

Second, I really wanted to take the camera out for a shoot - it's got the
best architecture in the country and loads of it, so what better for an
architecture tog than a night there?

Well maybe a sunny evening with a long sunset - but being January, this'll
do.

I met up with a guy called Luis I met through www.ephotozine.co.uk
in Piccadilly Circus, then worked our way down to the national gallery, Trafalgar
square, Whitehall, Westminster abbey and parliament, the Thames and London eye
and finally to the centenary bridge looking back to Westminster bridge.

Four and a half hours, lots of HDR and some classy-ish results.

My main issue was that I'd lost my cable release, so had to hand-trigger the
shots! It's taken the edge off a few, but when large, it's not that bad. I can
spot it, but I'm sure most would not.

So the shots..

This one's a classic front on shot of the national gallery, love this building,
huge facade, sprawling wings, makes you proud to be English

This one's the gallery again, a HDR of 3 shots covering 6 stops. the bright
light is a pain, but what can you do? Also, the church of st. martin in the
fields would be better without the scaffold!

Here's the last shot of the night, a RAW from the centenary bridge which runs
parallel to the Charing Cross rail line.

A shot of the third most iconic thing in London, after Tower Bridge and
Westminster (or is the Eye now third?)

A beefy phone box down by Westminster. The top of this thing was huge, on
seriods, compared to what we used to get in provincial england. I tried to get
both towers in the shot and deliberatley dodged the road sign to show you where
we are.... if you needed any promptring!

If you want to re-create this, stand just below the statue of Boudica and
you're in the money. A HDR of 3 shots

Top left of trafalgar square as you look up from whitehall, the shadows are
people walking through my HDR shot - inconsiderate b'stards!

This is facing directly away from the centre of the national gallery, the
people sat still ehough for 20 seconds for an HDR to be made, cheers folks

And finally, I couldn't quite get a landscape oriented shot from where I was
stood, to improvised - the diagonal line in compositional terms can state
"unease" or "instability", so I thought it amusing to make
it look like the huge Eye was unstable!

Well that's a few of the shots I managed when down there with Luis.

That's one thing people seem to forget about photography, with the web and
photo upload sites booming, photography has become a social thing to do - I'm
pretty sure that with a few days notice, you could get a meet going anywhere in
the UK - so next time you're away on business, tell people where you are on a
forum, you may get a fun character like Luis to tog with for a night... or even
me!

A new bridge in Leeds

2008-01-13T14:05:00.000Z

I was out with a fellow photographer called Richard the other night, getting some HDR and RAW shots in Leeds when he mentioned this new bridge down by all the new flats on Wellington Street.

So we headed down there, you can get to it from the riverside next to the new entrance to the station by wetherspoons.

It's a curvey number, reminiscent of the Gateshead Milennium bridge, only very small and doesn't appear to tilt when ships come in!

These first 2 shots are with my 80-200 F2.8, taken from a little way back with a wideish aperture so that I got the foreground to blur a little, espcecially the decking.

The blue tones come from lowering the colour temperature - you can do this by setting the whilte balance to Tungsten on your camera.

And finally the shot of the deck - this is really low with a 17mm lens, the blues are done in the same way as above

2008 - a dull start....

2008-01-13T13:33:00.000Z

Well a new year and a new grey sky to look at. It seems to be sod's law that we get nice days midweek when I'm stuck behind a desk at work, then at the weekend it's just dark and horrible. Well at least it is today anyway.

And yesterday!

The last 2 weekends have been so-so around Leeds, pretty sunny last weekend, but I've always wanted a classy shoot around Swaledale. It's one of the more northern of the Yorkshire dales, Teesdale is the next up and I think most of that's in Durham, so swale may we ll be the most northern. All that means is that it takes longer to get to and costs more in juice!

Last week I got to Richmmond, all very nice. then I drove up towards Muker and Reeth and saw the light fail, the warmth abandon me and the rain start to fall. Now as a photographer, I really should have turned back and went with the light, but I had a mental picture of what I was after - I'd been on multimap looking at roads and things for decent viewing points, so went on.

Annoyingly it rained harder and harder, the roads I found had fantastice views as planned, only of cluds rather than the barns that adorn this magnificent valley.

Ah well, there was light in the next valley - wensleydale.

A more famous valley, what with the cheese, Hawes, Hardraw Force and Aysgarth Falls. But my light wasn't to be seen, when I got to the top of a cold lonely pass, I could see sheets of rain filling the rivers and streams. There was a little light over in the next valley, Wharfdale, but to get to that would have taken too long and sunset would have come and gone. So I just drove slowly and took photos out of my car window - getting out would mean wet lenses and a drenched me!

After a while and rejoining the main leyburn-hawes road at Bainbridge, I was resigned to going ho9me having blown another £25 on diesel for nothing when I saw a sign saying "semerwater 2 1/2 miles".

I'll have driven past that sign 10 times in the last 3 years and never thought anything of it, but at a loss, I thought there was nothing to loose.

Over a steep hill and there it was, Yorkshire's biggest natural lake sat glimmering in the dusk light. it's nothing like a lake district lake, it's more the size of Blea Tarn than Coniston, and the surrounding hills are gentle rather than the screes of Wastwater.

At the top of the hill was a good shot looking over the whole of the valley, but when you get to the bottom there's a little more to play with. First there's the bridge, a humped backed little stone affair, it reflects well in the slow outlet water.

Then there's lot of bushes and trees reflecting in the still waters.

A little further there's 2 stones in the water, boulders 1/2 submerged.

Near those is a landing platform for boats, this was hauled ashore for the winter, so made quite an interesting diversion. And a little further still, there was a fence wandering into the water and a part sumberged gate.

Quite a bit really, and a lot of it is within my style of landscaping, using perspective and reflections along with colour so set a scene.

That kept me occupied for a good hour till it was almost pitch black, then I headed home.

So a lost day was recovered in the end, I think most days can be rescued if you're willing to stay out, try something new, discover places and just be persistant. For me, the only thing that stops me doing that is a hangover, you've got to have perfect conditions to operate effectively and enthusiastically with one of those!!

Lets hope for some better conditions soon eh?

Bowland Fresh - A calendar Project

2007-11-20T22:08:00.001Z

It's late november 2007 and I've just been asked by one of my best friends if I can pull together a set of around 40 shots for a calendar to promote his milk marketing business.

It's an honour of course, he's bought shots off me before to decorate the office, but we had time to choose those and I went out on several shoots to get the right shots. This one's requires shots appropriate to each month, killer shots that you'd want to adorne the walls of farm houses throughout Lancashire.

The thing is, I go to lancashire to see family and get drunk, not to take lovely shots - so most of them are of my brother looking bog eyed, dad pouring wine, John Conners doing Keepy-uppies with a foot ball or some calves licking my hand.

So I've been looking through the archives and there's a few of the shots in contention from the last 2 years. It's not easy - I've kinda got to a look and style that I want to promote with my lakes and yorkshire shots, but I've never really had time or the inclination (or the weather to be fair) to follow my usual techniques.

It's a tricky one really, the shots around Malham are right up there with my best, there's a fantastic wintery shot of the Tarn that would do for a winter month, but they're in Craven, not Bowland. Sounds a bit like Middle Earth really :-)

So these shots, are they giving that rural dairy feel?

Would you go for more cows?

Or maybe more recogniseable land marks?

It's a tricky set to get right - and with a day job that you get to in the dark and leave in the dark, there's no chance to go and get more shots.

Ah well - hopefully I'll get the 12 killers that I need, and the rest can fill in the gaps!

Thing is, this is far far more interesting than the day job... if I could only pay that mortgage doing it :-)

A photo book on Leeds....

2007-11-15T00:34:00.000Z

Just stumbled up on a site called http://www.blurb.com/ which seems to do very nice books. I've seen similar ones on Photobox, but they don't look as professional - the paper in them is quite thin and you really don't get that lovely glosy finish to them.

Anyway, the thought of actually authoring a book... it's a little daunting, but I think for this one I'll probably let the pictures do the talking.

I've had a search around for Leeds and there doesn't seem to be that many of them out there. there's the usual stack of books with "Leeds from the air", or Leeds in 1890, but nothing really spelling out what's there today. I've been on a mission to get as many shots of the place as possible, using HDR as well as traditional, so I think I may have a reasonable original pile of photos to go at.

I've just got 95 useable shots, and have hundreds more to revisit - and a few days off work to go compile some more - just watch, it'll be dark and horrible tomorrow!

I'm pitching at the luxury end for starters - they aint cheap, £40 to get 1 printed etc. But I want something nice for my self and to show off to mates, so it's a present, if anything else comes from it, then I'll be happy. If it really takes off, there are bulk discounts.

Then again, I may get pissed off with the software that the site provide and just give up... or maybe I should really write it in Adobe Acrobat format so I can print it anywhere...

who knows, just quite exciting thinking of having a book with my name on it!

Making the most of the mundane

2007-11-06T22:27:00.000Z

I'm sure many photographers don't bother getting their kit out unless they are in a particularly beautiful area, many are guided by the instinct to copy beautiful images they see in magazines or from photo-sharing sites.

In fact, on such sites I've grown tired of seeing the same images done over and over again, one "pioneer" has seen a shot and taken a beauty of a shot, then droves drive to that spot, find the holes where the pioneer's tripod legs were and wait for the same light.

There's nothing wrong with this, it just means that you're being unoriginal and not really carving yourself a niche.

Leeds Olympic Pool

I've started to revist areas that I've walked past previously, taking a second look at what merits these locations have. This has been in Leeds, I've done the town hall and some of the more famous builsings to death now, so I've wandered off the beaten track in search of unseen gems.

All buildings, not matter how hideous, were designed by someone and will have particular merit - it's just a case of finding the right angle, the right light and right post-processing to get a unique image.

Office Block on Wellington Street

I'll repeat that...

Unique Image

Not something you find much of these days, and that's the challenge.

Or maybe it's the easiest thing you could do with a camera, take a shot of something mundane, something people walk past every day without a blink of an eye, and create something from nothing.

The easiest thing in photography is to copy a well trodden landscape, one of the hardest is to capture the essence of a personality in a shot, that takes a lot of practice and people skills.

Unknown Building in Leeds that I used to walk past each day

All I'm suggesting is to open your eyes to your surroundings, take shots of things unusual things, try HDR and distorting the image, or maybe a zoom burst, a long exposure to blur cars - there's a huge pile of new techniques to learn about - all of which can transform the mundane into the magnificent.

Darkness - Perfect for Photography?

2007-11-05T19:00:00.000Z

I'm sure there are many outdoor photographers who lament the changing of the hour and the fact that it's dark before you get home from work.

True, you miss the sunset, you don't even get the long afterglow purples and blues, it's just black and thats your lot.

So hang up your camera bag, shoot macro or get the stuidio lights out till the spring?

You can do, or you can spend £10 and get some coloured Gels from EBAY, a flash and a torch and go outside and paint the darkness whatever colour you like!

It's best to go out in pairs, or more, for many reasons:-

safety - people do mug you for cameras
holding torches - when you're chaing lenses etc in the dark
extra lighting - 2 people colouring the world can be useful
emergencies - you are scrabbling around in the dark, you may fall or hurt yourself

The photos in this blog are from an abandoned petrol station we found in Yorkshire. It's truly derelict and full of broken glass, but also full of intersting shapes and objects to cast colour on.

A shot in normal daylight would just be a boring shot of a ruin, but when painted in progocative colours like red and blue, you get a different world appearing.

The top shot is looking though a carwash to Dave on the far side. I painted the majority of the scene with my Speedlite 550EX and a blue/red gel, then took out my Maglite and focussed it to a spot, and coloured Dave green.

This shot is a documentary of a shot Dave took - in the dark, you can move around freely infront of the camera, you'll make no impression on the exposure so long as you don't have a torch on or glowing eyes! Here I was stood in 3 positions, he then used his flash to colour me in each spot.

The technicalities....

Well we're talking long exposures, so you need a camera with bulb setting and a cable release to keep it open.

You need a tripod

Shoot with your lens reasonably wide open, if you're on cheap lenses, best keep them sweet at around F8 or 7.1, otherwise they loose sharpness. If you're on a decent lens, then you can open up of course.

Focussing... well some focus in infinity, but I tend to shine a torch on the thing I want in focus, use the AF to focus for me, then switch to manual focus so it doesn't change.

Once you're happy, then just put the camera in bulb and walk around with your gel over the flash, and flash away.

The main thing to bear in mind is that this is inexact - I usually do 5 or 6 minutes, then curiosity gets me

Have fun

An hour to kill....

2007-10-25T00:08:00.000+01:00

I met up with Sprotty and Martin for a spot of Pizza last night, they do them 1/2 price at BRB in Leeds so you can pig out for very little...

Having had a long weekend I thought it wise not to go on the booze, so drove in with the camera kit in the boot of the car, I thought I'd grab a few more HDR's of the city centre before the hours go back and I'm completely screwed for any light in the sky after work.

6PM is a busy time, but right now the sky has just that hint of colour even without a good sunset. I got this shot of the market just by waiting a few moments at a crossing - all the people disappeared and traffic sropped, I got a shot at 2 seconds, 8 and 0.5, and moved on - they are HDR by the way.

I've put the full colour version and the sepia "victorian" shot up, it's something that works quite well in this area of town as it's all victorian - leeds was pretty darn small before her reign anyway.

I think I'll be doing it again, just cause instead of walking to the bus, watching telly or just killing time at home (or cleaning the house, god forbid) I managed to get several shots of iconic buildings that I'm going to present to the city council and hope they go for them.

Not sure whether to do the colourful ones or sepia... or just both :-)

Just go out and DO it!

2007-10-19T20:06:00.002+01:00

When the lottery started back in 1997 or thereabouts, people kept saying "you've got to be in it to win it". It was a tad annoying but true, though at odds of over 14,000,000 : 1 I wasn't that fussed and to this day have still never bought a ticket.... I let my mum do that :-)

It's a bit like photography in a way - these last few days have had some supberg sunrises and sunsets, the light's perfect and the trees are getting that autumnal colouring that looks fantastic on any shot.

But I've been dilly dallying, thinking that the light's poor and there won't be a sunset. Then as I'm watching telly in my south east facing living room with my evening meal on my tray, I see a blindingly red sky with herring bone clouds to die for.

Bugger!
Big Bale - Just 10 miles away....

Well tonight I wasn't being beaten and had a quick snack and drove to somewhere close, pontefract race course, and had a go. The light wasn't ideal, the sun was poking through a letter box hole in the clouds for a while and it caught the edge of Xscape nicely painting it a deep orange colour, but there was no light on the trees, foreground or anywhere of interest to be honest.

But it was a still night, the lake was calm and mirror like, there were swans abound, the power stations were producing an amazing cloud, a huge steam triangle in the sky and the sky gradually went through several pastle shades till it was dark.

Keepers - I got a good 15 that I'd hang on my wall. No where near as dramatic as ones I got in the summer, but different - the sun position was behind different trees too.

Eggborough Power station from the A19
- just 20 minutes away

I guess the moral does apply - had I just sat and watched the weakest link, I'd be 15 decent shots down.

But I think it goes deeper than this - if you're not in there taking shots, you can loose inspiration and drive to go out and be creative. You end up with your camera gathering dust for months at a time because you've got out of the habit of getting up and going out. You end up waiting for meets or for someone to organise something to spur you on.

Pontefract Racecourse
15 minutes away - no effort to get to, would
you be bothered if you knew you could
get a shot like this?

I've chatted to mates who have this lull and cure it by buying some new kit. I've done this too - buy a new toy and yes, you go out and use it for a few shoots and it's magical. But once it's become an establised part of your kit bag, the p-zaz has gone and you're back where you started.

I'd say the best course of action if you're in such a lull or if you've found yourself, like I have this last fortnight, thinking the light's not really good enough and making excuses not to go out, just get your kit bag in the car and drive to a location fairly local and just DO it!

You may come back with your first front page of a photography magazine, or you may come back with a bunch of grey, flat shots, but it'll have made you think photographically and hopefully seeded a few ideas for next time.

Wheat Field near Eggborough
You don't need a famous,
well trodden location to
inspire you, you never know
what you'll get!

A new pair of legs maybe?

2007-10-18T21:52:00.000+01:00

I tend to take photos of stuff that doens't move much, so I pretty much always use a tripod and have always recommended to people that they get one and a decent head.

Recently I got a new pair of legs, the old ones needed a good over haul and the parts alone were pretty pricey so I decided on an upgrade.

I decided to go for the Manfrotto 055 Xpro legs, these were hot off the press with a swanky new centre column arrangement that allows you to take the column from vertical to horizontal in one swift move.

Now this may seem a little OTT for most people's use - how often have you needed to go horizontal? Be honest? ever?

Well for me, I need to get really low with my shots - part of my style is to have a sweeping forground that leads you into the shot. I often have the camera around 6 inches off the floor to catch reflections in the puddles or to get the composition I'm after.

When the column's vertical, the lowest you can get is around 18 inches, so I now just flip the thing sideways and the legs go flat to the floor.

Would I recommend it over the cheaper 055 PRO?

Yes - but only if you do low shots or Macro.

For macro you could benefit by the horizontal movement getting you in closer to the subject I guess.

But if you're a straight down the line "shoot from standing up" kind of photographer, just get the normal one.

Photography - the best way to explore your area?

2007-10-15T20:49:00.000+01:00

Ever since I got my Ixus back in 2003, I've been keenly looing for nice things to photograph - itr started off as things, the bus stop in the morning was popular as were the berries on the shrubs that surrounded it. I'd often take shots of the bus as we moved and then of the grave yard as I walked back home after a night in Leeds (I live next to Morley cemetary).

Not long after that I got the 300D on new years eve 2003/4, I instantly went in search of somewhere to use it - Dewsbury!

M62 near Dewsbury, Jan 2006

I'd never been and stopped there, gone round it before, but never had a reason to actually park up and go take a look. I took some shots, had no idea what I was doing, but it was a start.

The point of this post isn't how I developed as a photographer, but what I've seen in that journey. I'm no war photographer and have never really shot junkies jacking up, but I've discovered more of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and Northumberland than most people who live there.

Places like the north york moors, pickering, scarborough, staithes and whitby are not on the usual route map of a single 30-something clubber from Leeds! But I've been to them many times. I know virtually every road off the M62 within 30 miles of my house and can often predict what will look good on a night these days. Certain light suits the power stations on the M62, big fluffy clouds will be nice at pontefract racecourse.

Before photography, I know leeds city centre and had been to the centre of most biggish towns only when I needed to.

Now I know them inside out through walking and drivinv in search of something unique, an image that no one else has got, something people pass un-noticed if you like.

So don't think photography is all about walking with your tripod to a well worn spot (looking for the place the last photographer stood), but drive somewhere you've not seen before, think about the scene you're looking at and see if you can create something. In the process you'll get a mental map of your region, you'll know where to go when the weather's a certain way and most of all - you get to explore your local area and become an expert.

Leeds is starting to pay off

2007-10-12T20:33:00.000+01:00

Quite a nice email arrived on wednesday, there's a party from Leeds going to China next week and they need 4 shots for presents - guess what... they are 4 of my shots.

I've ordered them from Photobox as I've no time to get to ProAm, stag do this weekend.

I'm a little worried about the postal strike... so went for the courier postage. I've been saying all week that I wasnt' bothered about postal strikes and never use the service any more... ah well.

I'm not so sure where to go for frames - I've been getting the big ones done professionally, but these little ones will fir ready made ones - there's 2 10*8, an A4 and a square 8*8.

Had another shoot at the town hall last night - with Dav this time, it was amusing as he's suffering from Cropped Sensor-itis, as in we both had 17mm lenses but he was having to walk miles away to get the hall in the frame. He's working on getting his wife to let him have a 5D - I took some prints up there afterwards and I hope it's helped his cause!

I've been doing my HDR's using JPG's as it's infinitelty quicker - the colour temp hasn't always been fantastic, but when it went dark last night I decided to go "Tungsten" on the white balance - really pleased with the sky colour. A fantastic cobalt blue. This is my fave so far.

I'm after making Leeds look cool and modern, so these tones seem to give it that edge, even though alol the buildings in this shot are over 100 years old.

A few tips on how to improve your photography

2007-10-08T23:53:00.000+01:00

Someone asked me for a few tips on how to improve their photography so I jotted a few notes down. In a way, I think the only true way to improve is to shoot things you like anyway and devote time to thinking about photography when you're not actually out taking shots - it's building an awareness in a way.

Here's what I said...

For practice, find something inanimate and accessible, I like architecture and landscape cause they're always there. You can shoot at those all day, they don't get bored
Be ready to go out at any time - have your kit ready (ish) and some batteries on charge. The less effort it takes to go out, the more likely you are to go out.
Find a location close to home where you can exeriment safely - where nice people walk dogs, not where junkies do their deals.
Shoot things that genuinely interest you - and interested you before you got into photography. These will hold your interest for longer, and by going to them, you'll be killing 2 birds with 1 stone too.
Gradually learn the technical side of camera control - how shutter, aperture and ISO work together etc. and what effect they have on a shot. e.g. work out why you'd use ISO1600 over ISO100. Don't get too bogged down at first though, it's important but getting tied up in calculations can put you off and you'll loose interest.
get the right kit for your chosen subject - architecture/landscape is best with a tripod, portraiture it's not needed, but a flash is useful. Just get what you NEED though - not blow the mortgage
when walking constantly look at your surroundings and mentally frame shots - look for compositional elements and think what lens or other kit you'd use to capture the scene.
do not assume upgrading kit is the key to better shots - only upgrade when you truly feel you need to (e.g. get a 5D if you're doing huge prints or low light work, get a 1D if you're out in the rain a lot etc.).

Just a few ideas I had anyway

Too many shots.... where do you start?

2007-10-08T19:49:00.000+01:00

I've got literally hundreds of shots of Barcelona and Leeds of which many have potential - some are just snaps and many more than those are utter dross!

The thing is that I've become incredibly picky with such shoots, out of the 6 gig of Barca shots, I think I've looked through them once, converted a few RAW files, created lots of preview HDR shots and then just become incredibly unimpressed with them all. I'm not sure whether it's some kind of self filtering, similar-shot-overload or just a rise in my photographic "bar"?

I really like these sort of documentary shots, it's our waiter in Placa Reial, taken on my birthday a few weeks ago - shows a warm summer night, a bit of bustle in the back ground and some subtle lights.

I think using online photo upload sites (as I do) becomes a double edged sword in the end, sure I learned a huge amount from using them, mainly Ephotozine, but now I seem to find myself looking to create shots that will "do well" on such sites. Shots like the one of our waiter would just die on there, maybe it's not even a "stock shot", who knows?

I took this one of Nou Camp Stadium to show how big the large stand is compared to the 3 green keepers at the bottom - tells a story, human interest and pretty colourful. Would people on a photo-upload site go for it? I doubt it.

The truth is that any commission or sales I've had tend not to be the super-dooper WOW HDR shots, nor the dark broody seascape, but the light airy landscape. Ok, the city council have bought an evening shot off me, 15 second exposure which does make Leeds look an extemely cool place. But in general, what goes well on photopoints or usefilm doesn't always sell.

This shot of the lowry just used lucky light and some ND grads to stop the sky burning - pretty simple. Photography Monthly bought it to advertise their recent "Urban Colour" competition.

I think the main problem with these sites is that we're trying to impress fellow enthusiasts by using new techniques and techologies, rather than using the tried and tested rules of composition.

Don't get me wrong, technology used in the right place is definitely the right way to go - I love HDR for architecture - but you can't beat getting that great image to pop up on your camera's screen rather than to have to crop and process to within an inch of its life!

So I think I'm going to force myself to look through the Barca shots again and produce a library of bright, sunny, jolly and happy daytime stock shots now :-)

The Leeds Project - 4th October

2007-10-05T11:19:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in a previous ramble, I've been asked to get some shots of Leeds with a contrast, so I thought that the light/box area was ideal as it's next to the cathedral.

So I got this shot when out with Dave last night.

I was after a really contemporary look, so used a 17mm lens wide open to get the most modern car there in as foreground - the mini may now be german, but it looks quite cool.

It's a shot of 3 exposures, each 2 stops apart. Then combined in PHOTOMATIX to make a HDR file, then tone mapped and I did a little medding in Photoshop to get the mono look.

Since I've discovered batch processing of HDR's in photomatix, I've started to do more and more of it as it takes a lot of the donkey work out of the task.

Last night I did around 100 HDR shots, that's 300 exposures. If I did those by hand, I'd still be here next friday - but the batch went off and created the 100 HDR files and 100 "average" jpg files (for preview purposes - I bin then if they're rubbish).

Also, I've started doing just 3 shots using Auto Exposure Bracketing on my 5D - that means you don't have to dial in any settings between shots, just click your cable release 3 times and move on.

All this makes what was a painful novelty into a realistic and speedy way of getting a good result.

I also went to Brimham Rocks yesterday - using grad filters there is a no-no cause you get black topped rocks. HDR there is perfect and I'd recommend you try if if yo're ever up there.

Global photo sales!

2007-10-03T22:25:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago, Leeds city council bought one of my shots to give as a good will present to the president of Iceland - which was rather cool.

It was a shot I took in jan 2006 when out with Mike Cook and Steve Bowden in Leeds. I got it whilst the light was good, obviously Steve was stuck in traffic at the time and missed the shot altogether!

Anyway, they've just bought another one for the Bulgarian ambassador today - so looks like I may have a decent customer there.

Given me an insentive to get some original and exciting shots of Leeds - been out with Dave Hirst from Halifax honing my HDR techniques and they do seem to like the more friendly versions of the shots. Not so keen on the ones that look like the middle of a WW2 blitz though.

The one I've sold them was a plane shot, just a polariser - no ND grads even! It's appeared in Itchy Leeds magazine and also in the online lonely planet guide to Leeds :-)

Gorilla Pod Tripod

2007-10-03T22:02:00.000+01:00

As an alternative to the usual manfrotto 055 legs, I needed something light and found the Gorillpod on www.7dayshop.com, so thought I'd share my thoughts on it with you.

I used it on a recent trip to Barcelona with a 5D and 24-105, quite heavy kit, so I went for the largest available at around £30.

I also used an angle finder as they are often low to the ground and a cable release to avoid knocking the thing over!

I bought a little Hama head for convenience and weight, the combination was fine when the camera was in landscape orientation, but when in portrait, the head and pod just slowly moved downwards - a lighter camera would be fine ov course.

It was useful in churches where you can get it to hang onto pews and the like.

All in all , it's nowhere near as good as a real tripod, nowhere near, but ideal for travel shots when it's a bit dark or for HDR.

I can't see myself using it when I've got my manfrotto available, put it that way :-)

But on a day trip when travelling light, if I've got the camera, I'll have the gorilla too!

Barcelona with a camera

2007-10-02T16:21:00.000+01:00

3 trips to Barcelona in the bag, none of which were photographic trips it has to be said, but I had cameras.

The first one was with an IXUS, the second when I had my 300D with the 24-85USM and the one I've just returned from with the trusty 5D and 24-105 (with the 50mm f1.8 in the bag).

It has an awful lot of scope for photography - the old town has loads of little corridor like streets which over hang like the shambles. Exposing for these is tricky as they are dark yet have bright ends or skies, so something's got to give! I usually get a burned patch as you're really after the street than the bright bit to be exposed.

I'd say La Seu is a must - get a little tripod or gorilla pod, you can take photos inside. It's rammed with people, bloody annoying.

Around La Seu is pretty, there's a few things like the gothic bell towers and the squares that really work

Near by the ramblas is full of people shots - the clowns do want money, do learn to be quick, get a fast focussing lens. I didn't really bother with these much as they've been done to death to be honest.

Placa de Catylunya is better at night as is the Passeig De Gracia - they've got fountains and when lit up are most impressive - during the day they're often just turned off! There's Casa Batillo and La Pedrera up there and they are just bizzare creations, especially the latter. Just amazing what you can do with stone and an imagination.

The most impressive thing you'll see if the Sagrada Familia of course, Gaudi's masterpiece
. Done this 3 times now and it is progressing reasonably quickly though there's still 20 years to go. The stain glass is in place and casts fantastic colours inside the temple. Climb up the towers - rest and take a shot regularaly! The views are amazing.

Park Guelle is a stunner but suffers from people being drapes over all the things you want to photograph, get off the beaten track up top and there's lots of plants, lead lines and interesting stone work. If you want the lizard, then you're in for a wait

There's other places, so many in fact, but if you just did the Gaudii stuff, you'd fill a long weekend (assuming you eat and drink at some point!).

Go to the beach, nou camp, montjuic, monserrat, girona, mnac - all have great views and all very different from each other.

but most of all - enjoy the tapas and sangria!

Resurrecting "wishy washy" HDR shots

2007-10-02T15:59:00.000+01:00

Lately I've been capturing a lot of shots with a mind to use HDR and tone mapping to get the sky and foreground looking balanced without having the problem of filters making trees and chimneys dark.

Here's a shot of Leeds town hall - it's an "average" HDR, a lot to work with, but ultimately, it needs more UMPH!

I use photomatix to do the mapping, it's fairly hit and miss really, and getting that "real" feel is very tricky to get right. The main thing to bear in mind is that light smoothing is your friend. All those cartoon like shots you see will have lightsmoothing at around 0 or lower. I usually have it a about 1 or even a super-smooth 2.

The thing is that after you've done that, things become a little wishy washy, edges don'e seem to strong etc.

Don't panic, you can rescue it in Photoshop.

I tend to duplicate the washy layer, then run a filter on it (or somne adjustment layers even) to get an uber-contrasty shot. Usually mono or sepia too. Then I merge all layers to 2 layers - the original background and all the new stuff on a second layer.

The intricate bit is to now play with the blending modes between the layers, then fade the second layer in/out to get teh feel you're after.

So from the shot I started with I played around with transformd and skew to get the verticals more impressive and got the result to the right.

It's not dodge/burh, but layer blending you shuld try - d+b leaves edges and nasty thing like that, it can be obvious.

Use the Gradient tool on layer masks to subley change things.

The blog starts here

2007-10-02T11:57:00.000+01:00

Never easy to think of anything to say in a first blog entry, so I shall just say hello, complain about how cold England is compared to Barcelona (where I was yesterday) and then head off to get some prints done for Leeds city council.

I'm sure they will get more interestiug than this at some point

Ade