Monday 15 July 2013

Pembrokeshire Landscapes

Back in May/June I was in Pembrokeshire and caught up with some landscape photography. Having been there several times now I know my favourite spots. Pembrokeshire though is not predictable, the weather can change quickly and so the motto is be prepared and be patient.

So... the first morning followed one of the coldest nights I've experienced there with ice forming on the tent. However this greeted me as I came out of the tent around 6am which more than made up for the uncomfortable night.



I'd been meaning to photograph King Arthur's cromlech at sunset for a while. The story has it that it was placed to look out West towards the setting sun and I really wanted to try and embody this. Whilst around the site I was met by the most majestic white horses which really added to the mystery of the place. Spending some time there it's clear that the cromlech would also catch a good sunrise. Here's the final image I went with.


Also on my list was some Highland Cows, I love the mop of hair that falls over their faces. They remind me of a mop topped teenager. "Uhhhh wot, clean my field and get a haircut? Life is soooo unfair."



For some reason I've nicknamed this one Boris... ;)

I have previously mentioned my admiration for Ansel Adam's and it featured in a previous blog post back in March here. With the Moonrise, Hernandez shot in my mind I really wanted to capture something similar. It was whilst hiking up to Carn Llidi a little after dawn that I noticed the moon still present in the sky. It took a lot of scrabbling around in the gorse and thistles to get into the correct position. Then as I did someone popped up on the ridge line. I got a few shots in the bag with a view to editing them out if I needed but after a few minutes they left and I got what I wanted. I call this Moonset over Carn Llidi.


The hike to Carn Llidi was part of my plan to capture some panoramic shots. Whilst up there I had a great view of Ramsay Island and decided to give a stitched photo of it a go. This meant I had to dig out the 200mm lens due to distance. The image below doesn't do it justice, the high resolution version has masses of detail when zoomed in, boats approaching the island, sheep, buildings, sheep and even some sheep. This would look super and as a large piece of wall art in a corridor.



Lastly I really wanted to do a little bit of slow shutter photography that made you feel in the sea.


So there we have it, a quick selection from Pembrokeshire. You can see more of my landscapes here:



Sunday 21 April 2013

Jade

When I was presented with the opportunity to work with Jade I had quite a few ideas I wanted to try. In all I only had about 30 or 40 mins shooting time so we had to work quickly.

My Holga was a new toy and I'd had a play with it outside and already realised it needs buckets of light and the viewfinder is so dim it's difficult to compose a shot. Then there's the focusing, or more to the point, the lack of focusing and that assumes you can actually see your subject. So.... it would be rude not to take it to the studio wouldn't it?

A Holga shot

After a few headshots to settle in we shifted to working with my tux and tie.







Another Holga shot




 The full set of final images can be found on my website here.



Saturday 20 April 2013

Clevedon Pier

I've had this set of images sitting on the back burner for awhile. Back on Saturday 30th March I got myself down to Clevedon Pier quite early. I don't usually do early, I had a late night shooting the night before and the pier faces west so no chance of a sunrise to tempt me. Anyway I did, I was up at around 05:30hrs and did the 90 mile drive in good time.

The images are also available on my website here and my Facebook page here.





You can see a larger version of this shot where you can scroll in left to right for more detail. Click here

Friday 19 April 2013

Mutha Humbucker

Back at the end of March I had the opportunity to shoot a covers band based in Crewe called Mutha Humbucker at their rehearsal studio. The band play covers of 80's up to modern day rock. The full set of images can be found on my website here or on my Facebook page here.

Here's a couple of sample images.


We were graced with the most gorgeous sky so took the opportunity for a few outside group shots.



And here's the guys with their serious faces on....


Go check the band out at: http://www.muthahumbucker.com/

Ladies and Latex

I recently worked with a great makeup artist (Catherine Enwisle - sorry if I have forgotten someone) , models, jewellery designers (All Girls are Magpies and Nia) and photographers on a shoot featuring Lady Allura's latex.

The full set can be found here on my website or here on my Facebook page.



Lauren

Sammy


Misstery

Roxy

Emma

Friday 22 March 2013

Favourite Landscapes From 2012 & Early 2013

So... I restarted my blog late in November last year and guess what? Zip diddly nada since :( It's about time I wrote something so I thought I may as well start with a round up of my favourite landscapes from 2012 and early 2013 to bring us up to date in that genre.

I've always liked the work of Ansel Adams and currently part the way through one of his books. Up until writing this post I hadn't really noticed his impact on my own work but now I think it's obvious.

Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist  (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984), best known for his monochrome photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park. You can see his work here: http://www.anseladams.com/

Moonrise, Hernandez is one of his most well known photographs. Below are three of my favourites.

MoonriseHernandezNew Mexico 






Bear in mind that Ansel Adams would have been lugging huge glass plate camera's around Yosemite utilising mules and helpers. This is a far cry from today's lightweight digital camera's and tripods, yet we still complain about the weight! 

Below are a few of mine. 


















Friday 14 December 2012

Sensual and Feminine

I'd been meaning to shoot a soft and sensual theme for awhile and had a very definite idea of what I wanted. I already knew what I wanted the model to look like, the style of the images, the poses and the general emotion within the image. I was really happy to have the opportunity to work with Fawna on this project. Fawna was really easy to work with and got behind the concept from the get go due to excellent pre shoot communications. Editing the images from this project is still ongoing but for now here is the current album and below are two sample images.