It was a bit of a mixed bag weather wise yesterday, but Ray, Roger, Nigel and Anthony came for a wonder about the bay area. The weather started with hazy blue skies, then clouded over to clear again about 3.00pm – 4.00pm. The clouds came backafter 4.oopm so not giving the best of light to photograph the front of the millenium centre. Due to the haze I think my detail images worked best as the sky seems a bit weak in the wider images. The day was very enjoyable and I hope the others enjoyed it too. We managed 8 hours of photography with the odd pit stop for food and drink, and went from one end of the bay by the docks to the nature reserve next to the St. David’s Hotel. I hope to do a similar event next year, so keep any eye out on the blog, website and via Twitter.

Some more images from the day:

After returning from my 1-2-1 tuition with Tom at Worm’s Head yesterday, I saw these Hay bales on the horizon as I headed into Scurlage. I haven’t seen many of these around Gower before as Gower is mainly livestock and dairy farming. The conditions were still a bit bright, but with the blue sky it was an opportunity to try a few images. Due to the location of the sun and the layout of the bales, the best position for competition was fairly limited so I tried to introduce some variation using different lenses. I think I prefer the image above at the moment, but the image below was a wider view with a 12mm lens. Where I think it fails slightly is in how the bales split the horizon. Ideally any object crossing the horizon should either be well above or below the horizon. In the image they are a bit middling, perhaps I needed to get lower even though it was taken with the camera 1 foot above the ground.

And finally an image of me in action.

You didn’t think I would show a straight image did you? There is a point to this image. In the low light it is very easy to get part of your shadow or that of your equipment in the image with very wide angle lenses so luckily with digital you can check on the spot. So as the sun starts to drop lower in the sky, take care.

I needed to escape the office the other day so I set on a road trip with no planned destination. After a few false starts I ended up at Broad Pool, hoping to get a good sunset as the clouds were looking good on the horizon with space for the sun to get through. As can happen with a lot of days that look promising, at the last stage the light just dies. Low cloud on the horizon completely blocked the sun, flattening the light totally. At this point it is common to believe that the days photographing is over, but quite often the light after sundown is great with bizarrelythe light levels increasing momentarily. The above image has a wide contrast range which needed controlling with both a 3 & 2 stop ND graduated filter. I tried both hard and soft graduations, finding that the harder edge was better even though the trees became a silhouette above the horizon. I later lightened them in Adobe Lightroom.

The recent warm, damp weather has been perfect for fungi and a few were found around Broad Pool. The hay cap shown above were found next to an animal track and looked fairly recent. They are poisonous and cause hallucinations if eaten, so not very good for breakfast!

I haven’t noticed this fungi before when out and about, but this is the classic presentation of the Egg Shell Toadstool. It grows on horse or cow dung and due to this is deemed not suitable for eating. I don’t think anybody wants to try it to see if it is suitable!

Although around all year, the next few months will be the most active time for fungi, so I will be looking forward to finding more. They also give me something to photograph on windy days as the don’t move much compared to flowers!

I spent the weekend with friends near Hitchen in Hertfordshire. They have a Lavender farm close to where they live, so we paid a visit on Sunday. The sight of lavender in rows is quite stunning, but also difficult to get some original images. I wouldn’t claim that any of my images are original and for composition, only use the diagonal leading line as a composition tool. The repeating lines help to strengthen the image further, plus the use of figures in one image gives a sense of scale as well. These were only snaps, so it would be nice to go back fully geared up and in better light conditions, even though the overcast light on Sunday helped reduced contrast.

The farm also had a strip of sunflowers which were past their prime, but were also interesting to photograph.

I originally went to Welsh Moor to photograph the varied and plentiful grasshoppers and crickets on Welsh Moor. The ideal weather for this is high cloud with good light levels; this helps reduce the contrast and gives better details. As usual my plans went astray due to the cloud clearing on my arrival and producing some interesting cloud patterns. As most of you know I’m quite partial to the odd cloud photo, so suitably distracted I wondered off in search of clouds.

I did manage to get back to my original subjects, but most of the images were too contrasty to be of any use. This little Froghopper is only about 5mm long so it was quite a challenge to get it in focus, plus get an interesting composition. At this level of magnification any slight breeze looks like a hurricane in the view finder and as a result only 2 of about 30 images were sharp. It didn’t help either that I was trying to do this hand held as well.

Although the light is quite contrasty in the spider image, I still like the “feel” of it produced by a shallow depth of field, close magnification and a burst of fill in flash. Most of the time we are used to seeing the top of spiders as they scuttle around, so I like the different view point showing some of their different colours and details. I’m not sure what spider this is as I wasn’t able to get to see the other side and none of my guide books show the underneath of the spiders.

Last week I visited Caswell Bay for a few minutes. The weather wasn’t looking that great with low cloud and no sun, but after a while there were a few breaks in the cloud for the sun to shine through. This really lifted the scene and allowed me to make a few colour images when I had initially previsualised some black and white images.

I’m not a great fan of the current trend with long exposures of water, but do agree that it produces images with impact. The slow exposure technique has been around since the start of photography, mainly due to the early, low sensitivity films forcing long exposures. Recently though it has come back into fashion with Michael Kenna and Jonathan Critchley, amongst others, bringing it to the fore.

When I look at water I always see the details of waves, ripples etc. and I like to try and retain some of this when making an image. The other reason that I don’t want totally detail free images that I don’t want to do what everybody else is doing. It is harder, but making your own route is hopefully more satisfying and rewarding in the end. This is summed up in the Poem – The road not taken by Robert Frost

The Kittiwakes continue to do well at the Pier. Most of the chicks are quite well advanced, with most adults with two chicks. There are still some smaller, newer chicks around though, so it is possible to see a cross section of age ranges. I am still continuing to make the more straight images of the colony, but have found the process of making the portrait images quite challenging and fascinating at the same time. I noticed with some of my earlier attempts that the depth of field was so shallow it was nearly impossible to get the eyes sharp. In sunnier conditions the brighter light has allowed more depth of field to be used with a high shutter speed. Unfortunately the adults rarely keep still, so maintaining focus has been difficult. With auto-focus loosing the focus point if the sensor leaves the eye, and my manual focus skills lacking to cope with their movement, it has turned into a numbers game. Some times it all comes together and then it really works well, with pleasing images and the look that I am after.

As well as portraits I have been trying to get some of the interactions between the young, parents and other birds around them. This is proving difficult to get some variation, but overall there is a coming together of the overall behaviour. The young chick above was staring attentively at it parent as it was trying to stimulate the adult to give it a feed by pecking at the adult birds beak. I just like the look on its face.

When it is wet, grey and generally dull with a gale blowing, apart from waves and barnacles on rocks it is generally a difficult time to try and make images. I was having one of those days last Wednesday, where it didn’t matter where I went, I just was struggling to find subjects that seemed to work. I eventually ended up at Arthur’s Stone on Cefn Bryn. Due to the rapidly declining weather I was up there on my own, so when a severe rain storm hit and visibility was reduced to 100m at least I didn’t have to fight with anybody to get the only sheltered spot under Arthur’s Stone itself. It doesn’t matter how good your waterproofs are, eventually the rain gets in, so I was glad for some shelter. I’m actually quite surprised that I was wearing my waterproofs. Normally I forget to take any for me and only carry the ones for my camera and bag!

As the rain cleared a few beams of sunlight came through the clouds and spotlighted some of the landscape. Unfortunately none of them hit Arthur’s Stone, which stayed in rather boring dull light. I knew when taking the images that conversion to black and white would have to be done. The colours were so dull and fairly monochrome anyway, the images wouldn’t work in colour. I like to work with black and white film, plus all the processing and darkroom work. I think that it has a craft feel to it. Unfortunately with my darkroom in boxes at the moment, digital is my only real route to choose from. At least I can now reduce the number of camera bodies that I have to carry. In the days of film I had a couple of bodies loaded with slide and black and white film. This was no problem with the  interchangeable backs with my medium format system. but with 35mm it was a bit of a pain.

I was due to do a 1-2-1 tuition today, but managed to switch it to yesterday due to the poor weather forecast for today. As it turns out the weather hasn’t been as bad as they forecast on Friday, but I’m glad I switched the day. Trying to learn photography when you are wet and damp is not fun, as well as being a complete distraction from what you are trying to do.

Earlier on in the week I was trying to make the best of a bad situation as I huddled next to Arthur’s Stone in a very heavy rain storm. Visibility dropped to about 100 metres and even I would admit that there were no real photographic options at that point, plus I wasn’t that willing to stick my head out from underneath my hood to find out!

The 1-2-1 session was all done on compact cameras, and it was quite refreshing for me not to have to think too much about histograms, aperture, shutter speeds etc. The clouds were quite interesting with them changing shape rapidly except for the one pictured above. It managed to maintain its resemblance to a feather as it travelled across the sky. You should have see the size of the birds that it came from! When working with a compact camera it becomes the best tool to practice composition with as most of the other photographic processes are handled by the camera.

We left Mewslade to try and get a decent sunset at Rhossili, and it looked promosing until about an hour before sunset when the clouds built up above the horizon and completely blocked the sun. A few photographic opportuinities were present, but not the spectacular lighting that I had hoped.

I will be having two FREE open days this year. They will be:

• CARDIFF BAY  Saturday 4th September 2010- meet by the water feature opposite the Millennium Centre at 9.30am

This is not a formal workshop, but more of a chance to meet with me, talk photography and share tips and ideas.

We will make images of the architecture mainly but there maybe be opportunities to try some urban wildlife photography as well. Please bring your own lunch or buy something in the bay from one of the many restaurants. Don’t bring too much gear, but I’ll always recommend using a tripod where possible!

To help give me an idea of the numbers of people planning to come along, please drop me an email HERE or contact me via Twitter.

• WWT LONDON WETLANDS CENTRE  Sunday 24th October 2010 – meet on the bridge outside the centre at 9.30am

I will be attending WildPhotos 2010 this year so I will be in London for the weekend as well. On Sunday I will be at the WWT London Wetland Centre. If you would like to come and join me and have a few hours wondering around this great location learning about bird photography and nature photography in general be there at 9.30am. we will meet outside the centre by the main entrance on the bridge.

The day is not a formal workshop, but an opportunity for photographers to meet, take photographs, talk about photography, swap photographic tips and have a good time.

You will need to pay your own entrance fee to the centre and bring your own lunch or use the centre cafe. Don’t forget to pick up car park token if you come by car. Obviously the main subjects will be the birds, but landscapes and detail images will all be possible. So don’t feel that if you don’t have a long telephoto lens, it won’t be worth coming along.

I have posted a small gallery of images taken at the centre HERE

To help give me an idea of the numbers of people planning to come along, please drop me an email HERE or contact me via Twitter.