Kingfisher
Really excited at the moment as one of my images (shown above) has been nominated for The Societies Nature Photographer of the Year award. The awards will be announced on Saturday evening at the Societies Convention Dinner which sadly I am unable to attend. So fingers crossed!!!
For some while now I had been wanting to try and shoot a Studio Session using the same kind of lighting techniques that was used in the 50’s for Hollywood Style Fashion Studio’s. They used very hard lighting with very short shadow transitions. I had seen some old images in an old Picturegoer magazine and I have tried to recreate the poses and lighting styles that was actually used then. I have to say I found it a lot harder than I had thought.
A selection of images from the day.
Hollywood Style Lighting showing hard shadow transitions
I was recently asked if I would like to photograph a local band by the name of Isles at Jagz in Ascot.
Never having tried live music photography before I jumped at the chance. I took my Canon 1D MK1V with me rather than the 5D as I knew that I would need to use high ISO, particularly as I would be shooting with available light. I threw a number of lens into the bag, a 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, 24-105mm f4 and a 70-200mm f2.8 but stupidly I forgot my wide angle 16-35mm f2.8 which was a big mistake.
I liked the idea of giving a retro feel to the shoot and wanted to try some funky angles and treatments to the finished images. All the images were finished using Lightroom 3 and I have used a number of their preset treatments like antique light. I think if I had had the wide angle lens I could have got more extreme perspective. Oh well next time maybe.
Any feedback greatly appreciated.
Katrina & George Cristy at the Norton House Hotel
Had a fabulous day today photographing Katrina Cristy & Jamie Fraser’s wedding in Edinburgh. What started as a miserable wet day turned out to be a really sunny day which made exposure a nightmare. They are a lovely couple as were the whole of their family. The wedding reception was held at the “Signet Library” in the middle of Edinburgh , a truly great location.
Mr & Mrs Jamie Fraser on the staircase at the Signet Library
Katrina & Jamie being piped into the Signet Library
Skomer Puffin
For the forth year I am back in Skomer again. It is a truly wild but beautiful place. Sadly the weather has not been so good this time but once again the birds are just great. Managed to see a number of Little Owl’s as well as a few Short Eared Owls. For the first time ever I saw a Common Buzzard flying over the sea. Poor thing was being mobbed by gulls and Jackdaws. With over 60,000 puffins currently on the island taking pictures of them is not that difficult except when they are in flight.
Amber
Good studio session yesterday with Guildford Photographic Society. Myself and another colleague hired two models and had two complete studio setups. We had 11 members who came along and had a great day getting to grips with the whole studio scene. I managed to sneak a few shots in especially as I had never worked with Amber before. the ladies a true professional.
Short Eared Owl in flight
Today I ventured again over to Papercourt Meadows to try and capture a short eared owl in flight. Having arrived at 2:30pm it was completely dead until around 4:45 and then we got the first show. The place has become so well know with birders and photographers there must have been 30 or more standing around.
It is incredibly frustrating as it seems that no matter where you stand the owl’s seem to be in another part of the meadow however on this occasion two of them decided to fly in my direction. At that point I was somewhat taken back and struggled to actually get the bird within the view finder. This was made all the more difficult as I was using a 500mm fixed focal lens with a 1.4 extender on a Canon 1D mk 1V so the focal length was 910mm making the field of view really small.
I did manage to capture this one that is reasonable and I like the way the setting sun was shining on the owl’s face.
Had a superb studio session today with a great family.
All in all the kids were very obliging and the whole thing was wrapped up in 45 mins. Now that’s a result!
As always it pays to have backups of everything as when I went into the studio prior to the family arriving I found that one of my flash heads decided to expire.
Slight panic as that particular head had my big soft-box’s which meant that I wasn’t able to use a soft box. In the end I swapped out to another head and used a shoot through brolly.
I used my 1D Mk 1V with a 24-105L F4 Canon lens. Set the main light at f8 with the background lights at F11
I have recently discovered an area close to where I live where there appears to be approximately 6 short eared owls living.
From local birding contacts they appeared to have arrived some time in early November.
Yesterday afternoon I decided to head out and see if I could get any shots. Unfortunately the lighting was not great and although I saw a number of the owls they were quite a long distance away.
I think these two images are the best of the bunch.