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Welsh based photographer
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Why I always go prepared for any photo opportunity
22. Jun, 2015
This weekend I had plans to do some photography at Llandaff Cathederal for background research towards my dissertation. I am looking at the history on how church use has changed over the last 500 years, so any oportunity to visit a new church or cathederal is always welcome. I really love architecture especially old churches so it is really good for me to be photographing something I like. I can never travel light, the one thing I need is always the bit I left at home, so it's easier to take everything just in case.
As we arrived we could see a group of young people wearing St Johns Ambulance uniforms. Because I prefer not to have people in my work we decided to go round the back of the cathederal to look for detail shots. The gravestones were beautifully carved and I was pleased with my shots. I also notice the outer areas of the cemetery were overgrown, which gave me a contrast from the well kept, cared for part by the cathedral. Feeling really pleased with my work we went back to the front doors, there were people every where!
It turned out to be an investiture for the St John Ambulance, all the younger members were lined up to form a welcoming guard. Next thing you know who should arrive but the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones, the the Bishop of Llandaff and numerous other dignitaries. There is no way I could have predicted this would happen, so I was glad that I did bring all my lenses. I could easily have decided to just bring the wide angle, just think of the chances I would have missed.
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First Photo Exhibition
23. May, 2015
As part of the second year of my degree course we have to arrange a pop up exhibition of our work. We have hired a room in a gallery in Carmarthen for the week and have our private viewing this evening. This last few days have been a bit manic making sure that everything is perfect. The advertising has been done posters distributed and the work is all in place. I even managed to make use of the mini shopping trolley, its a perfect size for my business cards. all we need now is to open the doors.It is quite exciting and more than a bit nerve wracking, there is no more we can do now but wait.
Summer adventures to plan
11. May, 2015
I have been really busy in the past week finishing my cinematic project so I haven't been doing much of my own work. I have 2 lots of wedding photos to edit, so I think that has got to be next on my list. As soon as I can I'm going to go to Skoma Island toget some puffin shots.
Its one of my favorite places to visit in the spring, you can't find a better spots to watch the funny little birds comming in to land. They are really fast moving so it takes a lot of practice to catch them in flight, I might be lucky to get a couple of decent shots. In the mean time here's one I did earlier!.
I have so many places I want visit this summer, there are to many to mention, hopefully the weather will be good, otherwise I'll have to settle for studio work.
When is a shopping trolley not what it seems
4. May, 2015
A it can be seen from some of my previous blogs I have been working on a cinematic concept project based on displacement. Some of my work has included bottles and some a shopping basket or a trolley. There is another aspect to some of this work which I have not discussed. The shopping trolley in the images is a fake (and no I did not use photo shop!) As you can see its easy to get it slighty wrong!
My secret weapon is a pair of minature trolleys and a tiny replica basket that I bought especially for this project I think they cost me about £7.50 in total not bad expenses for a series of at least 12 decent images with much more potential.
I intend to carry on with this over the next few months, its cheap, a not to heavy to carry and has been great fun. What more could I want, apart from a helicopter to air drop me into some of the wilder locations.
Being creative with slow shutter speeds
3. May, 2015
This weekend I headed up to the Vale of Neath to one of the waterfall walks searching for a stretch of river with a slow swirl of water to use in my concept photography. I found two or three areas, but one had really deep water and was over the far side out of reach. I finally settled on a shallow stretch with plenty of flat areas for the tripod and got started.
Because I was using my 10 stop filter I caluculated my shutter speed before I started, once you've done it a few times its easy to remember the basics. I have used the same starting point for a while, as it seems to work for me, I know if my normal is 1/60th of a second I can use either 15 or 30 seconds. I always focus the camera before I add the filter because unless it is a very bright day my camera can't cope. The only other thing to mention is the shutter release, if I forget it I use the self timer, this is the only way of avoiding camera shake.
The only other equipment I took with me was my small bag of man made items, this time I used one of my empty bottles. I had the idea of floating one in a slow flow to catch some movement. After tying a length of thin elastic so it did'nt float of down the river, I threw in my bottle. I spent nearly three hours working, and ended up with about 20 reasonably decent images, not a bad result.