Category Archives: Photography

Welsh Wales

Posted on by

Canon EOS M6, 100 mm, ISO 200, 20 sec @ f/11

Last Sunday I did something I haven’t done in a while and attended a photography workshop. This was organised by Cambrian Photography Limited in Colwyn Bay and run by Paul Sanders. It was actually called a Fujifilm X-Series and GFX workshop but the initial blurb I saw on Facebook suggested that (a) you don’t need to own a Fuji camera and (b) you need to arrive with an open mind and a liking of cake. Two ticks for me!

The night before I was umming and ahhing over what to take and decided to persevere with my lightweight travel kit. I haven’t used the 5D Mk1 at all since getting the M6  back in August but I still have use of all my lenses thanks to the adaptor.

I ended up packing the M6 along with Canon’s EF-M 22mm f/2 STM,  EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake  and EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. As it happened I only used the 100 mm lens throughout the day.

After a decent bacon and sausage buttie at Blod’s Cafe I wandered over to Cambrian and met some of the other attendees outside the shop. We were soon ushered inside to where others were waiting and after a brief introduction by Paul we set out.

The plan was for long exposures on the beach in the morning and macro at Aber Falls in the afternoon. We ended up at Penrhyn Bay for the long exposures which was fine until I realised I’d forgotten my tripod adaptor! Duh! Fortunately I was able to borrow a tripod so eventually took a few shots. Finally after trying for months I managed to make good use of my mist filter. Normally the effect ends up looking forced and unnatural but I think this time it helped things. Speaking of filters I decided that I really did need to equip myself with a hard ND grad filter rather than my soft grad for use in such scenarios where the horizon is pronounced.

After a couple of hours we headed to a local cafe, The Loaf for lunch. Another attendee, Jonathan (a fellow Lenswork subscriber), and I sat with Denis and Fre Hocking over an enjoyable long lunch.

Suitably fed and watered we headed out to Aber Falls. I don’t particularly enjoy macro but there were more opportunities for long exposures in a little stream or of course at the waterfall itself. I chose not to trek to the falls but to potter around by the stream near the car park.

The day was well organised, and very relaxed. We overrun by a hour or so, likely due to the extended lunch break but no-one was complaining. It was a great day with lots of assistance being offered by Paul and the whole Cambrian Photography team. Being Wales it obviously rained during part of the day but it was at the very tail end and didn’t spoil anything.

Circular – Part 1

Posted on by

iPhone 5SE

Something a little bit different this time. My daily commute involves Merseyrail’s Wirral Line into central Liverpool. The trains normally travel with such frequency that I’ve never bothered learning the timetable so I quite often have a few minutes kicking around on the platform whilst the right train turns up… Recently I’ve been using that time to play with an app on my phone called Circular or Circular Tiny Planet Editor to give it its full name. This is great little app by Brain Fever Media that allows you to apply a number of weird and wonder effects to a photo. Some of the results are pretty psychedelic and until the image is saved, completely reversible. It’s great fun, but a word of warning – the effect on portraits can be less than flattering!

Captain FJ Walker

Posted on by

Canon M6, 100 mm, ISO 100, 1/4 sec @ f/8

On the Liverpool waterfront at Pier Head is a statue of a quite remarkable man, Captain Frederic John Walker DB DSO *** Royal Navy (1896 – 1944).  Walker was responsible for sinking more German U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II than anyone else, and had this statue unveiled in 1998 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The statue is in memory of Walker, the men of his 36th Escort and 2nd Support Groups and all those who fought in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-45.

I have taken a few pictures of this statue but I wanted to try something different, inspired by the words and attitude of Paul Sanders during a talk he gave at Digital Splash last week. I decided to try massively overexposing on a bright day. Instead of the correctly metered 1/50 s, I chose to use 1/4 s, completely blowing the sky out and rendering the statue in a way I think looks similar to a pencil drawing, the close crop enhancing Walker’s determined look.

Other than desaturation and sharpening the picture shown is as taken.

Patterns of Pompeii

Posted on by

Canon M6, 22 mm. ISO 400 & 800, various speeds @ f/4 & f/8

Consider this – it is quite possible that in a little under 2000 years’ time your current home or place of work will be part of a world famous heritage site, subject to the annual footfall of millions of tourists all fascinated by your ancient way of life. What would those tourists find? It is hard to imagine how the effects of long term decay or massive destruction might alter the buildings we see around us now. Factors would include the materials used during construction, the type of destruction suffered, environmental factors such as enduring weather patterns, etc…

For approximately 11,000 citizens of the Roman town of Pompeii in Italy, life came to an abrupt end in August of AD 79 courtesy of Mount Vesuvius. Over just a few days the whole town along with several others in the region, were obliterated by a massive volcanic eruption that buried the town with up to 6 m of volcanic ash. The impact of this total devastation was to create a remarkably well-preserved time capsule that was left undisturbed for some 1500 years.

I visited Pompeii in September 2017. Challenges of photographing there include…Continue reading→