Pulpit Rock

August 31st, 2010 § 0

Spent sunset this Bank Holiday afternoon down at Pulpit Rock. With sunset coinciding with a relatively low tide, which doesn’t happen too many times a year (trust me and Mr Tides 3) I headed out the door with the blessing of Metcheck’s prediction of clear skies with a touch of cloud with designs on finally getting something out of this location.

the sermon | pulpit rock

the sermon | pulpit rock

Standing on the sea ledge — there’s not a lot of portland stone left between me and the incoming tide on the far right shelf — I beamed like a small kid as the rock glowed with the last of the sun’s rays, and a few stray clouds rolled in above the lectern like formation.

This shot just reminds me of the quote by James Keivom: “photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours.

I’ve shot at Pulpit Rock 4 times in the last 2 years, and walked away deflated after the elements conspired against me everytime. But not today. Hacking through the New Forest, densely packed cloud loomed above and that “why do I do this again” questioning voice somewhere to the recess of my skull. But, coming into Weymouth, the cloud cleared true to to MetCheck’s predictions, but there was me thinking ach a featureless skies — (sigh) never happy!!

My new Lee filter collection came in handy as well, so far the Landscape set hadn’t been christened yet, but it brought out the color and features in the rock a dream. Marry me Lee filters?

One of 2 more keepers on the SD to post, … maybe tomorrow.

f29

Experiments in Cot Valley

August 29th, 2010 § 0

Recently I took a week out in Cornwall with designs on ticking off a few locations I’ve had on the “to shoot” list for way, way, way too long.

sea mist | cot valley

sea mist | cot valley

Suffice to say the good old British weather had other ideas. Poor weather reigned. In fact, it rained for days, and when it wasn’t pouring from the heavens a featureless monochrome sky hung over the area. Trying to remain upbeat, I spent part of an afternoon location hunting around the Cot Valley for a possible spots, if not for this week, then for next time.

I headed back at sunset after consulting favourable tide tables, but the sun hid itself behind a massive bank of cloud, and the light went diffuse and pallid.

So … i decided to experiment with some long exposure and intimate landscape experiments. Poor salvage from the trip. Alas. Ho hum.

odd 1 out | cot valley

odd 1 out | cot valley

Better luck next time.

f29

Flaming House famous

July 30th, 2010 § 0

Contacted by Roger Whiting a mural artist from Utah today, expressing an interest in using my Flaming House Ruin as the basis for a mural for the Outdoor Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah. Seems the Foundation that approached Roger made special request for the ruin to be included as a part of the piece.

Sweet – and bloody nice of him to ask too!

The work commences this Monday, so looking forward to getting some images to post.

f29

Lax Lee & wide angle hood woes

July 20th, 2010 § 0

I’ve always held Lee filters in very high regard.

The quality and finish of Lee filters is unsurpassed by the likes of Cokin et al. Well, least i thought, until today when my Lee wide angle hood arrived.

After trying to attach my polarising filter realised that the screws threading through the ring into the jhoods plate wouldn’t reach.

On closer inspection, looks to be that the the screws are mis-aligned, punched through off center so that the base of the bellows hood lifts the bottom half of the ring away from the plate.

Back to the shop it goes.

One other gripe (sorry Lee). Is the whilst i love your product range, you could do with some darn information in-box. I’m from the plug in and play generation (and university educated so of average intelligence) but i had to piddle about with screws and facia panels for a good hour before cracking how the 3 filters interacted. A diagram inbox … anyone?

Suffice to say a replacement is on the way.

f29

Online photography magazines

April 6th, 2010 § 0

I get very cynical in photography magazines.

Their content seems to revolve around mastering some skill inside 3 pages. Master landscapes. Master long exposures. Master masks. And so on.

And there little to zero differentiation between photography magazines in terms of content.

So trapped by a bad British winter and mid-buying a house I scoured the net in search of  decent photography based reading.

And lo two were discovered. And they were good.

Outdoor Photographer

Simply the best photography magazine for landscape or nature photographers I’ve come across.

Photography and photoshop techniques tend to be more advanced. Cloning with color or luminosity masks, the zone system for digital are some recent articles.

I don’t mean to be snobbish, those “basic” articles in Photography-everything-monthly have their place. There just seems to be little or nowhere for photographers to grow into once they reach a certain level of understanding — least not in the commercially published arena.

Regular columns and contributors cover philosophy and photographic approach in and amongst staple topics on equipment, and with heavyweight contributions from Art Wolfe and David Muench there’s always a insight to be gleaned from this magazine.

The Big Picture

Not a magazine technically, rather a stream of consciousness photo-blog.

Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, The Big Picture focuses on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about any topics floating around the global newswire.

No politics though, everything is expressed in images with captions.

3 times a week themes are picked from water scarcity, a current war, to Kim Jong il. Whatever is current or topical in the global media, and the photography is world class. A cut above.

The huge diversity of topics brings together many styles of photography as well, landscape, macro, photo-journalism, reportage, portrait and on and on.

Sure there’s no articles to learn from, but just having so many images in one place to digest can’t help but influence upon  your own personal style and open your eyes. And so much diverse genre eye-candy condensed into one easy to consume site is a rarity.

I’m sure there’s more, and i’m going to keep on scouring. Any suggestions, please send them my way.

f29

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