27. Aug, 2018

This year I have been of travelling round Britain a few times which has been fantastic, I have seen snowy mountains thundering waterfalls and golden windswept beaches. The variety of landscape we have is inspiring, its always great to travel either close to home or further afield. One of my favorite places is Scotland and this year we revisited the Outer Hebrides, last time we flew, mainly because time was limited, this time we drove taking our time. I had never driven through this area and even with showery weather the mountains around Fort William are spectacular. Glen Coe lives up to its reputation, the crowds of tourists are easy to ignore when faced with glowering mountains and sparkling streams. 

A lot of places that are just passed by give enough of a view for me to plan a longer trip in future. I always think of long trips as a way of location hunting in new areas. I don't always get my best photography done but often will revisit at a later date. I will certainly be back in Glen Coe with more time to explore and get of the beaten track. 

6. Apr, 2018

For a long while I sat on the fence about getting a fisheye, on one side was the novelty value and how different it can make your image look. On the other is how often would I use it and would it pay for its space in my already crowded camera bag.

I have a very talented friend from my degree course who has turned it into his trademark, Harry is brilliant at cityscapes and uses his fisheye very effectively along side a really good added colourcast to create stunning and original work. It really depends on what you are photographing, it seems to work well on subjects with some symmetry and a central focal point. This is mainly because the curve is almost undetectable on the central axis, somehow our eye needs something "normal" to focus on to make sense of the rest. When done properly it can really work.

The flip side is overuse on totally unsuitable subjects with the most common error leaving to foreground empty. To much grass, concrete or even sand and a tiny subject in the distance can lead to at best average shots. Unless there is an understanding of how the strange perspective works, I could see this lens more than most, being quickly discarded as a waste of time and money.

I am terrible for being indecisive, and often take months to make up my mind when buying new equipment, but this has probably been the worst. I finally bought my Nikon 10mm fisheye second-hand having made up my mind to have a go at shaking up my architecture shots. I found you really can get very close to your subject which is great for avoiding people wandering in front of you in mid shot, or even worse standing right in the way snapping with a mobile.I still need to work on subject matter but am happy with the first few images and am glad I finally took the plunge.

As always it's about personal choice and research, I found it made me think in a different way about my subject, which is always a good thing.

13. Nov, 2017

A lot of people I speak to feel that there is no point in bothering to use filters because "You can do it aferwards in photoshop, can't you? " The short answer to that is NO! There are lots of times that having a neutral graduated filter can save a complete disaster, for example at sunrise the sky is so much brighter that the land that either you burn out the sky so badly that it can't be saved or have the foreground so dark that it takes ages trying to correct it.The filter works by darkening bright areas to balance land and sky as the sky is nearly always a few stops lighter.

I use Lee filters mainly because the the quality is excellent. Over the years I have tried four or five different brands some very cheap, some a little more expensive. The real issue for me is the colour cast which can be almost impossible to sort out. The other problem is the optical quality, there is no point having a decent lens with a poor filter in front, the image is only ever as good as the lowest spec element in your set-up.

The other reason I feel it pays to use filters is that if used properly they can lift an image from a holiday snap to a fine art print. My favorite filter is the Big Stopper, for those who have not tried this filter I can highly recommend giving it a try. The main advantage is being able to use really long exposure even during fairly strong light, this allows me to photograph running water on up to a 30 second shutterspeed. This changes water to a milky satin ribbon, and clouds to soft  streaks across the sky. 

It isn't a cure for poor lighting or days with harsh contrast, but it can make an ordinary shot look quite beautiful. It is worth mentioning that you still need to work on the basics like composition and exposure, it won't make a bad shot great, but with imagination can be a useful tool. Give it a try you might surprise youself.