Author Archives: Tim

Not So High Tide

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 22 mm, ISO 100, 122 sec @ f/22

Unbelievably it’s getting on for a year since I last spent the afternoon down near the river to photograph the rising water levels as the Mersey approached high tide. Today I had the opportunity to do this again, and since the weather was nice it seemed daft not to. The fact that there’s a fantastic pub pretty much on site has nothing to do with it..! Last time I visited I was making do with a 3-stop ND filter to slow the shutter but this time I was armed with the Big Stopper I had previously coveted. It was also a first chance to use my new low-profile Landscape Polariser, also from LEE.

Unfortunately although I had determined it was high tide, I hadn’t paid enough attention to notice it will be Neaps in a few days so the water level was quite low. The trials and tribulations of being an amateur photographer never end it seems!

New Brighton Lighthouse

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 17 mm, ISO 100, 0.4 sec @ f/22

I did something I haven’t done for a long time this morning – got up with the intent to take some early morning shots. After doing a bit of research with Tides Planner to determine that it would be low tide at New Brighton at around sunrise – 06:32, and then with The Photographer’s Ephemeris, I decided that the sun (should it play along) would be nicely positioned to take a picture of the lighthouse at New Brighton…

So at 06:00 I arrived at the site and positioned myself, fired off a few test shots and waited. There was an encouraging gap in the clouds through which the sun was scheduled to appear and at around 06:45 it decided to make an appearance, lighting up the lighthouse but unfortunately not the sands. The result was a nice but unnaturally yellow-looking lighthouse, hence the conversion to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Prior to converting I had initially used Color Efex Pro 4 to apply a Midnight filter that I played with slightly. Whilst I like the effect I don’t normally use it but had last night been reading an article featuring Paul Sanders in Light and Landscape Magazine where a couple of his images had a similar feel. Unlike Paul however I had to rely on post-processing to get the effect. After a while I decided the effect was a bit too heavy handed – probably down to my fat fingers – and reverted to straight black and white.

Childcare in Agbogbloshie

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 23 mm, ISO 800, 1/60 sec @ f/5.0

Over the Christmas period, myself and Chrissy visited Ghana in our capacity of Trustees of Partner West Africa. We once again wanted to visit a lady named Amina who provides a safe haven to children during the day whilst their mothers work at the local market.

We admire her efforts greatly and try to assist with little bits here and there for her when we visit with Inusah from VWA Volunteer West Africa, by taking her items like rice, nappies, biscuits and general food items to help with looking after the children.

For me it was fascinating to see some of the same children who were there last year, and how, if at all they had changed. Compared to another group of children we met at the nursery we sponsor, there was very little change – no doubt due in part to the lack of stimulation and the limited facilities that Amina can offer. Nevertheless, kids everywhere love a load of balloons and we soon had some (but not all) smiling kids showing off their balloons to one another.


Amina’s house is long and narrow, and quite dark with a strong source of natural light coming from a narrow entrance along with a few shafts of light coming in through holes in the corrugated roof. I shot using ISO 800 with a low power flash. Focal lengths ranged between 17 mm and 29 mm. All images were tinted in Lightroom using a Warm Tone profile downloaded from the wonderful Lenswork.

Volunteering in Africa

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 27 mm, ISO 200, 1/13 sec @ f/4.0

I wrote a couple of posts over at Partner West Africa about a place in Accra, the capital of Ghana called Agbogbloshie. Known locally as Sodom and Gommorah, the place really has to be visited to be believed.

A strong contender for one of the most polluted places on Earth, the 4 acre slum is home to around 40,000 people. The prospect of earning a living attracts people and despite the obvious hardships, the place is a thriving and bustling suburb with a steady stream of new arrivals.

For women, most of the jobs are at the nearby market where they earn money by working as porters, carrying purchases on top of their heads in a large bowl. This is a double-edged sword however – they need to work to earn a wage but they also need to look after their children.

A local lady named Amina offers a facility in her home when the mothers can drop their child off in the morning and collect them after work. They pay Amina a basic fee and Amina provides a safe haven.

A local NGO, VWA Volunteer West Africa has sought to provide assistance to Amina in the form of food and nappies for the children she looks after. Some of the funds raised by Partner West Africa fund these efforts.

As a Trustee of Partner West Africa I was lucky enough to visit Amina in December 2014 with Chrissy, another Trustee, pictured above with one of the little children who make use of Amina’s facility.

Sarsia

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 17 mm, ISO 100, 180 sec @ f/22

Had a wander over to East Float again this afternoon to try out the big stopper filter. I also used a Lee 3ND soft grad filter to help balance the sky against the boat’s hull. Final conversion to black and white done in Silver Efex Pro 2.