A Photographers Life

How do you do that?

2010-10-22T11:02:00.010+01:00

I'm occasionally asked how I achieved a certain result given the prohibitive conditions at the time, so I thought it about time I revealed a few of the techniques I use.

This image taken on Skye on a grey day in December 2008 was achieved using a method called exposure blending. The camera was set up on a tripod, in manual mode and 5 exposures taken, from well over exposed to well under exposed.

After processing in Lightroom with no adjustments, they were blended together using Photomax Pro. This gives a result which is far from finished, but a glance at the histogram tells me that I have all the detail in shadows and highlights and therefore have everything I need to make a half way decent picture.

The final image after a bit of retouching in lightroom and photoshop

New Portraits

2010-04-15T09:25:00.013+01:00

Smith of Derby have been making clocks for hundreds of years. They also service and restore them, Big Ben included. Here are a few portraits of the people involved.

Norton Motorcycles are now being made in a purpose built factory at Donnington Park grand prix circuit. Stuart Garner bought the name from the American owner last year and the famous old marque is back on the road again.

After Dark

2009-10-22T13:41:00.007+01:00

With the nights drawing in and darkness falling earlier each night I find the idea of going out with a camera quite appealing. Here are few shots taken over the last 4 evenings

SUN Awards

2009-10-10T17:03:00.004+01:00

Went up to Manchester on Thursday evening for the annual SUN Awards do and was pleasantly surprised to find I had won the award for best location shot. Thanks to Nick Jones from UK Locations who sponsored my award.

This is my winning entry.

And a couple more from the same shoot

Scotland

2009-10-10T16:51:00.009+01:00

In September Sheila and I decided to take a break and head up to Scotland. We started on the Hebridean island of Mull, then over to Skye to visit family and finally on to Durness and Cape Wrath, right up on the top left hand corner of mainland Britain. Here are a few holiday snaps.

Climber

2009-10-10T16:20:00.002+01:00

This was a nice job. I needed a shot of a climber in a great location. This is Gary Wheeler, a very powerful climber and vertical access expert. We shot him climbing on Stanage edge in the Peak District. The only problem was that the background didn't work very well, so I patched in a shot from the northern tip of Skye taken on New years day.

White Peak

2009-10-10T15:54:00.008+01:00

The Peak District is split geographically into the White and Dark Peaks. The White Peak is made up of limestone dales and undulating pastures, while the Dark Peak is all gritstone edges and high heather moorland. These images are from the White Peak.

Esmond Tresidder

2009-10-10T15:27:00.002+01:00

I've known Es since he was a toddler. A keen runner (and climber) from an early age he soon started to enter the fell races that take place in the Peak District during the summer. It wasn't long before he was leaving his dad Rob and myself way behind. In May this year, after a couple of earlier attempts, he nocked 15 mins of the record for the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye. His finished time was 3hrs 17min 28secs.

This is a shot of him training on the path above Baslow Edge.

An apology

2009-10-10T14:58:00.008+01:00

I new when I started this blog I would find it difficult to keep it up to date and sure enough as the summer got busy I let it lapse. Well now is the time to amend that and post some of the projects I've been working on.

The first was to photograph a golf course. I needed to shoot at sunrise (05.30am) and one of the problems with strong directional sun light is heavy contrast that a camera can't cope with. So I use a technique called exposure blending. With the camera on a tripod, I take 5 exposures from massively underexposed to capture the highlight detail, to massively overexposed to capture the shadow detail. Here is the end result.

Burbage Valley

2009-06-19T11:14:00.007+01:00

I went for a walk yesterday along the Burbage Valley. It's situated in the northern Peak District just outside the Sheffield city boundary. Being a wide gritstone valley and quite high up it makes for an exhilarating walk on a grey windy day. Here are a few of my shots.

Paralympic Athletes

2009-05-11T13:21:00.007+01:00

Another of my projects for this year is paralympic athletes. The guys featured here are the East Midlands Wheelchair Rugby Club "The Marauders." Fourth from the top is Mandip Sehmi a member of the British national team. You will notice how battered their wheelchairs get. Not for nothing was this game previously called "Murder Ball." A truly inspirational bunch of athletes who were a pleasure to work with.

Migration

2009-05-05T16:32:00.003+01:00

This isn't exactly a new picture, but I was reminded of it yesterday while out for a walk in the Peak District. I had been photographing butterflies for a client and after they had chosen their images I had quite a few left over. It was later when standing on Gardoms edge above Baslow, gazing over the Peak District that the butterflies came back to me and I imagined them migrating over the hills. More like a flock of geese than butterflies. So I shot the landscape there and then and later on built up this picture. It was fine tuned by my friend Jack Lowe, a photographic retoucher who runs a digital services studio in Newcastle.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2009-05-04T11:51:00.014+01:00

Paid a visit to the YSP on Saturday. It's a place I always find rewarding and inspirational. The Noguchi exhibition in the underground gallery didn't excite me too much unfortunately but I did enjoy Sophie Ryders sculptures outside by the Camellia house. They are large bronzes or galvanised wire sculptures of a mythical figure with a womans body and hares head. Also there is always an eclectic display around the park with work by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Elisabeth Frink, Helen Escobedo and loads more including Eduardo Paolozzi well known to Londoners. I still reckon Andy Goldsworthy's exhibition last year is my favourite.

A Portrait of Derbyshire

2009-05-01T11:04:00.012+01:00

Derbyshire is a very diverse county. From the high level grouse moors in the north, through the Peak district National Park to it's industrial belt (think Rolls Royce, Bombardier) and then on to the fertile and flat Trent valley. As a result it's people are equally diverse. This project intends to explore that diversity through a collection of portraits of the people of Derbyshire at work and play.

These 4 images represent the first shoot and are from White Watch, a great bunch of guys from my local fire station.

Welcome

2009-05-01T10:42:00.002+01:00

Well I've finally done it. After months of prevarication my blog is up and running. My intention is to use it as an open journal, displaying some of my work, thoughts and opinions.