Sunday 8 July 2012

A Taste of the North... (part 2)

I felt it in my fingers. I felt it in my toes.
The Lake District was all around us...and it was indeed Wet Wet Wet...

Tuesday 3 July 2012

A Taste of the North... (part 1)

Me again, hello!

So, as you may or may not know, in October I'm going to become a temporary Northerner when I go to study at Durham University. In a desperate attempt to acclimatize myself to the incessant winds, constant blizzards and eternal twilight that comes with going further north than Birmingham, I thought I'd go to the Lake District for a few days with two of my friends, Ross and Thomas (Hi!).

Get that name dropping - not only do I have friends, I have more than 2 of them! Bet you're jealous now.

Anyhow, when we turned up the Lake District was, miraculous, not only sunny but HOT, SUNNY and even NICE WEATHER. I was pretty sure it was just a ruse. Anyhow, we used out first full day there to go for a brisk walk, up Striding Edge on a small hill called Hellvelyn.



Yup. He looks about how I felt, standing at the start of Striding edge. It's very much an edge. Badly named though, because Striding is a bit hard. It's more...well, climbing really.


Ross and Thom there, taking centre stage.Thanks guys.What you can't see is the VERY steep, deep and ... fleep ... drop that they're looking down! Here's the ridge from a different angle...


Yup. Remind me not to do that on a windy day...

Anyway, here's the view from the top. With Ross trying to work out the name of EVERY peak within sight.

That's a nice looking tarn. Not very red, which is strange if you know that it's called "Red Tarn". Here's a barefoot man on a rock, waaaaay down below.

That's right - it's Ross and his friendly reflection. I should probably rotate it so that the horizon's straight, but I've already put the picture up now so I won't. You live and learn. Finally, for now, here's the way back down - we chose Swirral edge, a much less scary (but still steep) walk:

Very nice.

Anyhow, you may have noticed the GORGEOUS weather...suspiciously gorgeous. Ominously nice. Beautiful. SURELY there couldn't be any surprises on such a short gallivant*. Surely...


TO BE CONTINUED...


*Pretty sure this counts as a real word. 

Monday 18 June 2012

A brief Jubilee recap

Now that Jubilee fever appears to have passed safely, I can put up some photos from East Bergholt's bunting heavy diamond jubilee weekend celebrations! Although the first one is mercifully flag free: it's my mum with an umbrella!

Corking stuff. It was certainly raining enough.

Every year on the bank holiday Monday, East Bergholt hosts the annual pram race, in which teams of people dress in various outlandish costumes to run around the village in prams for charity. I love the countryside. Anyway, here's a line of bunting, and my mum again - this time on the wall outside my house, with added centurions.

Fortunately most of the bunting appears to have passed...there was DEFINITELY an excess of it though. In tribute to the bunt skills of the East Bergholt residents, here's another line of bunting, this time leading to the village sign itself. Don't say I never get you anything!




I think I might enter that one in the most hotly anticipated photographic competition of 2012: The East Bergholt Horticultural Society Photography competition. Literally several people are likely to enter, and this one passes for "an East Bergholt scene". It's certainly a representative amount of bunting.

Ta for now,

J

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Sidmouth!

Hello!

I'm in Sidmouth staying with my grandparents, for a very short holiday indeed. It is, however, a short holiday with a tripod - I did some tripoddy things (technical term): here they are.


Tripoddy thing number one (above) is something I'll try and replicate next time it rains...actually I didn't have a tripod for this one, which meant I had to use a much faster shutter speed than I'd liked. I would also have liked the people to be much closer to me on the prom, but unfortunately they were going the other way...what I do like is the reflected light from the lamps on the floor, which is why I couldn't replicate the shot the next day. Here's hoping for some rain! (**5 minute break while Josh hides from the Devonic lynch mob**)

That was from Sunday night when I first arrived here...I went back again on Monday to try and replicate it, and found not only that it wasn't dark but also that it wasn't wet. Shocking. But I had my tripod, so I thought I'd do some photos anyway, because that's the way I roll. Here's a landscape taken with a telephoto lens:

Not the most groundbreaking shot ever perhaps, but I think it has a certain charm to it. Something with much more potential is image number three below:



It's far from perfect, but you can see what I was trying to do with the first photo...combine these two and you'd have what I was going for. This time the couple are just where I wanted them - nice and prominent, heading blurrily down the prom. Unfortunately, it falls down on all the other fun points. Even though I took them at the same time, the rain clouds yesterday meant it was much darker - which meant the lights were on. As well as that, the floor in the first picture is soaking wet, which gives a lovely lot of fill light and some nice pools of light against the blacker background.

My aim is to come back another night this week and achieve that - I know what I want to do, I've just got to do it!

So let's hope for some rain...

J

Monday 11 June 2012

A Triumphant Return...?

Hello you.

Guess what...blog's back! Bring out the champers!


And yes, that is my own champagne. Consider my student loan thoroughly blown (Big discounts at Sainsbury's - thanks to HM for having been married a long time the same weekend I had my final exam). Yes, after a long exam break, I'm announcing that I hadn't forgotten about this place at all! It may be a month since I last put any pictures up, but never fear - you can subject yourself to many more of my photos over the next few months! Altogether now, Three Cheers...!

I don't hear cheering. I'll let you off.

This time.

Anyway, seeing as my exams are gone now, you may have guessed that I've finished at Southampton University - awesome place, it must be said, and many thanks to the awesome people who awesomeised my time here. Awesomely. Ta very much.

Next year brings pastures new up north int' Durham...until then, lots of photo time awaits...get in. Meanwhile, here's a tribute to Southampton, and 60 years of having done something - I really should find out what all these posters dotted around are...

 
Enjoy. More to come tomorrow from Sunny Sidmouth.

J

Tuesday 1 May 2012

"Wildlife" Photography

In between finishing my dissertation and panicking about my Hilbert Spaces coursework, I took some photos! Whilst in Thetford Forest with assorted family, family friends, family friends families and so forth, I thought I'd get some nice shots of the local wildlife.

Firstly though, the lesser spotted "Liverpool Street Pigeon"...it took a fair while to get him to stand in the right place so that the tiled floor pulled your eyes into the picture, but there were enough chips lying around on the floor to use as bait.





And some more London dwellers: Portrait style. Although I still think it counts as wildlife photography...sorry Rach!




One more for luck - this one works best with Madness singing "It Must Be Love" in the background...it's difficult to get a more soppy picture! I didn't do the soft-focus on purpose, it was just that somebody had decided it was a good idea to relocate the entire North Sea to Norfolk all at once. Wet is not the word.*







Anyway, I did get some proper wildlife, but I'll save that until after the Hilbert Spaces deadline.

Ta ta for now,

J

*Wet is, in fact, the word.

Friday 27 April 2012

Spring has Sprung!

Evening all,

Just a quick one tonight - I've just submitted my dissertation, so some celebratory sheep are clearly in order. Also tulips - who says I never get you anything!

These are both from before I came back to uni last week - it's been so hectic I haven't been out with my camera. Never mind though, I'm off to Thetford Forest this weekend so will make sure I get some pretty pictures for you...whoever you may be!

Anyway, sheep:

Aw, isn't the little lamb lovely! As for the tulips in my front garden:


Ta da! Anyway, I'm going to bed. Night!

J

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Lines

Everybody likes lines. Here's some partly imaginary lines with things at the end!

First up, a field.
OK, there's nothing especially interesting going on here, I just liked the repeating pattern of the furrows. They do give the picture a real sense of depth though, as your gaze is drawn from the front of the image into it to the houses in the distance. If there's a vanishing point, it's on roughly the top right third where the lines seem to be leading - I was trying to get more of a glint from the car parked there, but as it is there's just a highlighted spot. On the other hand, the next photo has a lot more going for it, photographically speaking...

Yes, it's a ladybird! And it's not just a ladybird, it's clearly a ladybird that's going places. When you first see this picture, you're drawn to the contrast of the red insect against green tree, and that's exactly where all the lines are leading. I took this as an attempt at seeing different ways of guiding where whoever's looking at the photo (that's you) looks. In addition to the contrast in colour, if you look at the out of focus area, you'll naturally be drawn back towards the sharp area on the top right third. The strongest line in the photo is that of the branch, and the eye follows it from bottom left upwards towards the ladybird...it gives a real sense that that's where it has come from, and that this is an insect on a journey. It's not quite Everest, but to the ladybird it could be something close...

Anyway, work time.

J

Sunday 15 April 2012

Some Unusual Cropping

Evening.

The more observant of you might have noticed that most of the pictures I post are in the same aspect ratio, and those of you with rulers and way too much time on your hands might know that it's 2:3. That's the ratio my camera takes photos in, and I tend to not stray too far from this. Here's a bit of an experiment - a few birds in some funny aspect ratios.


This photo looks almost as though it's 4 shots of the same bird at different points in flight. Unfortunately I'm not that clever - it's just that there were A LOT of birds about at the time. I have no idea of this particular aspect ratio - I just chose it because it fit the birds in.

Finally, one of the girls - I'm never short of an omelette when I'm home in Bergholt for a holiday. This one had a bit too much white garage on the right hand side for my liking, so I changed to a 4x5 crop. Partly because it worked, and partly just because it's a nice combination of numbers that I've wanted to try for a while.


There won't be many posts over the next few weeks - too much work and revision to be doing for a while, so I probably won't be out with my camera much. I'll write a few now though, and then stick them on a timer. Ta ta,

J

Wednesday 4 April 2012

A Very Desaturated Recap

So, following yesterday's horsing around one of my friends suggested trying the second, very mediocre, horsey picture in black and white as a high contrast thing. I don't want to give away names, so I'll call him  "Mr. Wood". No, that's too obvious. "Callum", that's better. Well I thought I'd give it a go and here's the result:
If you missed the first attempt, you can see it here (hopefully.)

It's still not amazing, but I think it works better than yesterday. Obviously the main difference is the colouring, but to be honest that bright grass only pulled the eye away from the horse. Now it stands out boldly against the darker trees, but the cloudy sky has gone from overcast to white. Nice. Thanks "Callum"!

I thought this might be a good opportunity to go back and look at some other mediocre shots to see what I could do if I blackandwhiteised them. Yes, that is a word.

First, this shot from the New Forest back in march. This DEFINITELY works better in black and white - I'd kept it in colour before because of the movement captured in the red flash, but actually if anything the train looks even faster in B/W, probably because the door and windows are all less defined.
Finally, the rubbish boy next to a lake on a misty day. I tried this one in black and white at the time, but wasn't a big fan because of the way his jumper contrasted with everything else. This time, rather than going for full black and white I figured I'd try just desaturating everything apart from the red. It definitely brings out the contrast a bit more, but I left a hint of colour still which you can in his skin tone and in the grass. The heavy mist stops the trees on the other side of the lake looking coloured, as they were fairly desaturated anyway. So still not a stunning image, but better than before I think.
Anyway, now I should really do some dissertation. More photos soon - feel free to stick your email address in the box on the right hand side if you fancy getting a wonderful automated email after the morning after I've posted something. There are worse things to wake up to, honest! It's near the top on the right somewhere, if memory serves.

Right, work.

J

Tuesday 3 April 2012

One for the horse lovers...

Laptop is back in action, so more photos again today. It's a compare and contrast - one corking photo of a horse (makes a good desktop background, by the way) and one incredibly mediocre one.

First off, the cracking horse (in Suffolk, of course!):
I'm liking that one...different to the standard "horse in the middle of a field, placed in the bottom third, edge of the field running along a third, horse miles away in the distance" type photo you often get. Probably in the New Forest.

Oh.

Well, it's OK. But nowhere near as much spark as the first one. Frankly, the horse looks bored. I don't blame him. He's probably seen the photo.

Anyway, now that Laptop is alive, there will be more photos to come soon...spoiler alert: probably not horses.

Have a great Easter,

J

Friday 30 March 2012

Don't Panic!

Don't Panic! My laptop may have stopped working. Slightly. Just a bit. Well, totally.

So no new photos until at least next week when I can get a good look at it...maybe one that I find lying about on my hard drive if you're (un)lucky. Sorry!

J

Sunday 25 March 2012

East Bergholt

More countryside shots of East Bergholt today - got to love that rural feeling. Here's the Donkey Track again:


Gorgeous evening sunlight could make a cracking shot out of pretty much anything, and Constable Country is pretty picturesque anyway to be honest. I like the way the trees look red, almost autumnal. Definitely summer today though - my flip flops prove it. Anyway, here's some primroses:
Now you know it's the countryside - look, trees in the background! Wild flowers! The singing of the birds in the trees! Small woodland creatures singing songs and holding hands in the undergrowth!

OK, one of them may have been made up. Not telling which.

I had a few goes with different apertures to experiment with how focused I wanted the trees in the background to be - at first they were too blurry and there was no context whatsoever. I like to think I found the pleasant middle ground.

I'll take some more exciting photos soon, I promise - I'll take loads of photos when I go on holiday somewhere exotic...which may be a while. It may have to be East Bergholt again - maybe some portraits, or a photo of an escaped puma...

J

Thursday 22 March 2012

Bright Colours! Must be Suffolk

What's that you say?! A picture which isn't a dismal train under overcast skies?! Well, it can only mean I'm back in Sunny Suffolk, surely!

That's right. For those of you haven't guessed from all the bits about Suffolk in the previous paragraph/title, I'm back in East Bergholt - and where there's East Bergholt, there's sun! Sometimes. OK, quite rarely. Anyway, here's some flowers:

These are the flowers my Nana got for Mothers' day - I took this photo on Monday. Unfortunately, that afternoon she was admitted to hospital with a suspected minor heart attack - don't worry, she seems better than ever now, although they are keeping her in for observation until after the weekend. So the photo of these flowers doubles up as a tribute - get well soon Nan!

I also wanted to show you this shot of THE donkey track, iconic East Bergholt icon since ever. I am still yet to see a donkey on it though. It took me sodding ages to get the starburst effect coming off the sun, so I hope you appreciate it!

That one was taken yesterday afternoon, and I've got a few more from the same shoot that I'll upload in the next few days. Until then, I need to go and write about why Husserl is wrong. Which I should be doing now. Can I count this as part of my essay?

No? OK then. In that case bye for now,

J

Sunday 18 March 2012

Trains

I went to the New Forest on Friday, partly in the hope of getting some stunning pictures and partly in the hope of getting a stunning pub lunch. At least one of these things happened...

If anybody wants to know a brilliant food pub in Brockenhurst, do let me know.

Unfortunately this isn't a blog dedicated to the amazing Ringwood beer-batter, so you get to see some patchy shots of a train instead. Sorry! 

Monday 12 March 2012

More Suffolk Publicity Shots

OK, these are actually Essex, but taken in the general direction of Suffolk. It's the thought that counts.

These are the last photos I'm going to put up from my first weekend with my camera last October, at least for a while. New stuff coming soon, honest! At any rate, these shots are of the Stour Estuary at Manningtree in the early morning. Well, it was about 7.30, which is early for me! They're more about me testing the settings on my camera than about anything clever compositionally, but I think they've both got a certain charm to them.
One day I'll go to this river and there will actually be a decent level of water in it...I've been assured that it does fill up, it just never seems to do so when I'm there!

See you soon,

J



Saturday 10 March 2012

A Close Knit Group

OK, I know. No bad puns as blog titles. I'll try and remember in future, although I'm definitely not making any guarantees...

Being as we're a mere nine months away from Christmas, here's something to get you in the mood. I don't really think of this a Christmas picture anyway, which is my excuse for putting it up here. I just like all the contrasts - soft and solid, old and new, austere and playful. Where there's a contrast, there's a photo.


At any rate, it always makes me smile. And if that's not a good reason to take a photo then I don't know what is.

J

Thursday 8 March 2012

A Brief Stroll in the Country, part 2

This is another photo from that same shoot when I first road tested my camera. I like the subtle flash of colour in the clouds, and the reflection in the lake. Minutes after I took this the sky lit up with a gorgeous sunset, but this shot's nicer - no whopping great tree branches in the way, for a start.
Basically, Suffolk is awesome. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

J

P.S - This post is in no way sponsored by the Suffolk tourist board. Although if they're out there, I'm more than open to offers...

Wednesday 7 March 2012

A Brief Stroll in the Country, part 1

I figured that we needed some colour after those dull, misty, things last weekend, so here's Sunny Suffolk! These were taken last autumn on the first weekend that I got my DSLR - they mainly work because I was in the right place at the right time for the light! Beautiful countryside though.



More to come later - thought I'd heighten the suspense with the old shots while I go and take some more photos...

J

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Misty

I've never really taken photographs in heavy mist before, so when I went over to Southampton common this weekend it was with somewhat mixed results. The three pictures below are fairly representative though - very drained colours, detail lost in the background, but with the opportunity for some interesting effects.

Photographing this path from the middle of nowhere allowed me to get a lovely, strong line. I don't do an awful lot of black and white shooting, but the colours in this scene were so muted that I felt they only served to distract from the other elements. I especially like the way that the perspective draws the eye towards the couple on the path - you move from the distant, blurred background down the path to reach them in perfect clarity. This picture, for me, is all about the way that mist wraps around you, and leaves you in your own little world.

Sunday 4 March 2012

Southampton Common, 1992

Old things are interesting. That's a fact, especially in photography. And, even though 1992 isn't that long ago, there's something quite fascinating about this old marker slowly eroding in the corner of Southampton common. It marks the capping of an attempted well, which eventually reached some colossal depth (which I can't remember) over the course of about 80 years, without ever finding the water they were looking for. And after all that effort,  the well was capped over and sits forgotten under a lot of long grass and a very heavy slab of rock.

Saturday 3 March 2012

...and Evening!

Hello again! Hopefully, it's now dark outside and I'm busy elsewhere doing something constructive with a saxophone. So, for your calm, relaxing Saturday evening enjoyment, here's a rainy night drive along the M25. Don't say I never get you anything nice!
























I don't know why I like this shot - but it's got a nice atmosphere that brings to mind sitting in the passenger seat with the heating turned up full, something nice on the radio and someone else dealing with driving through the rain. There's just long enough a shutter speed to get the lights reflected in the spray from the car in front, and the blurriness just brings home that sleepy feeling of dozing off in the front seat for me. Bliss.

J

Morning...

I've found the time delay posting for releasing these blog posts...so here's an experiment. If you can read this, and it's not 1am on Friday night, then it's probably worked. With any luck we'll have a more nocturnal shot later.

This one's from the back garden of my house in Southampton, winter sunlight coming through tree branches.

More, with any luck, this evening.

J

Friday 2 March 2012

James before America

So, my friend James has just left to America for a semester abroad. Here he is last week in the pub round the corner, before he started spelling "colour" without a u. Staring soulfully at an empty glass...I'm saying nothing.


Have a great semester James, don't work too hard...

J

Thursday 1 March 2012

Colourful Graffiti and Monochrome Dogs

What's that? You can't have a photo blog with only 2 photos? Fine. Here's some more. They come from a category I call "Colourful Graffiti and Monochrome Dogs". It's a niche...

Colourful Graffiti

Monochrome Dog

The first proper post


Hello. Welcome to my blog. I'm a bit new to this (read: have never had a blog in my life) but I wanted somewhere to showcase some of my pictures. I know I'm no photographic Picasso at the moment, but with any luck over time you'll start to see an improvement in my photos.

If you don't like cheesy speeches, skip the next paragraph.

Dear friends, I hope you'll travel with me on this journey of discovery as I try to work out more than the basics of "AV", "TV", "M", "ISO" and so on and so forth. Together, we can truly learn something about what makes a photo great (or at least OK), and perhaps all learn something about ourselves on the way too.

OK, exaggerated cheese over. Picture time! Apologies if this one doesn't come out formatted too well - like I said, I'm learning the layout. This is a sample of the pictures I've taken over the past few months - too many to put them all here, but from now on it'll be updated frequently.
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So, photo number one. Of 10,000. This is going to be a long blog...this is one of the first photos I took with my new 600D, it's a footpath near Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk.
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I know, I know - a fairly random leap to photo number two. This time it's the tree in my back garden in Southampton - again, last autumn. We'll get to modern day soon enough.
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My final photo for the moment, and also probably my favourite so far. A leaf in the early morning sun at Manningtree, Essex.


That's all for now. Although having said that, there'll probably be another post in a few minutes when I remember that I've got a blog.

Bye!
J

A Work in Progress...

Bear with me. I'm tweaking things.

Let's see what happens...