Category Archives: Photography

Port of Liverpool Building

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Canon 5D, 25 mm, ISO 100, 240 secs @ f/11

The Port of Liverpool Building or the former offices of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board is one of the ‘Three Graces’ on the Liverpool waterfront along with the Royal Liver Building and the Cunard Building. Although neither the most famous nor the biggest of the three, to my mind it’s the best looking of the three buildings, with the only problem being the number of people wandering in front. Fortunately a suitable exposure time can help remove those who walk in and out of the shot. Note how still those sitting on the benches on either side of the image must have been during the 4 minute exposure…

Along with the now regular warm toning, the inevitably converging verticals caused by the wide angle were corrected using Adobe Lightroom. I would have preferred the symmetry of the clouds to be aligned with that of the building but hey ho – there’s nothing less predictable than the good old British weather!

Lunchtime Stroll

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Canon 5D, 28 mm, ISO 100, 480 sec @ f/11

I took a stroll along the waterfront in Liverpool at lunchtime today. It was a fantastically bright day with a slight haze that produced a flat uninspiring light. I specifically wanted such conditions as I was intending to make use of my latest toy – a LEE Filters 15-stop Super Stopper.

I was hoping to get a shot of the Beatles statue with the Liver Building in the background, but I think even the Super Stopper would struggle to make the persistent tourists disappear such is their volume. Additionally the sky was rather grey with very little interest so the filter’s effect would be wasted.

So instead I wandered round and found Canning Dock looking particularly serene. A 0.6 ND grad filter gave a shutter speed of 1/60 sec that converted to an 8 minute exposure with the Super Stopper.

Of course the one downside of shooting long exposures at lunch time is that by the time you’ve found a suitable spot, the available time means one or two shots only before it’s time to head back to the office!

An Unfair Advantage?

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Canon 5D, 40 mm, ISO 200, 3.2 sec @ f/5.6

For the first time in a while I managed to get out with the camera and spend an hour or so wandering round. I came across some playing fields and spent some time exploring. Next to the playing fields is a a cemetery and completely in line with the penalty spot and the centre of the goal is a large stone cross, perhaps offering divine intervention and an unfair advantage for any believer about to take a penalty…

I’ve had a couple of ideas for a project to start working on and there are irons in fires so hopefully something will happen, or even ‘kick off’ to use relevant terminology but I’ll just have to wait and see…

As an aside this image is actually my first attempt at HDR, generated from 5 images and merged within Adobe Lightroom. I’m not normally a fan of the overly synthetic look that HDR delivers but it seems to be OK here. The final image was then adjusted using the LW Warm Tone template from LensWork Online. I absolutely love this tone and spent ages trying to match it until I discovered it was available to download!

Out of Europe

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Canon 5D, 40 mm, ISO 800, 1/4000 sec @ f/9

On 23rd June 2016 the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union. In a quirk of fate I happened to be in Istanbul that day, a city that straddles The Bosphorus Strait and as such both European and Asian continents. In a feeble effort to mark the occasion I decided to take a trip to the Asian side of the city and take a picture of Europe from the outside.

The journey was made on the Marmaray underground system from Sirkeci on the European side to Üsküdar on the Asian side before heading back across by ferry.

Canon 5D, 40 mm, ISO 800, 1/15 sec @ f/8

I hereby declare that day to be both the start and end of my photo-journalism career!

On the trip I had taken a reduced set of equipment and stuck with a single lens – my Canon EF 40 mm f/2.8 STM pancake in an attempt to satisfy a ‘single focal length’ challenge to myself, inspired by Sean Tucker. The results of the challenge were somewhat varied which is fine by me as I am happy to continue learning.

Ha’way the Waves!

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Canon 5D, 28 mm, ISO 100, 247 secs @ f/16

In my efforts to capture a decent long exposure with the Big Stopper during a recent trip to Roker, I was forced closer to the water’s edge for two reasons. First I could only attach the filter to my 17-40 mm lens and secondly in order to ensure there were no distractions, the wide angle lens would only be suitable if I got between said distractions and the water.

I found a great little spot at Roker Harbour where the water came quite close to the pavement so I didn’t even have to get sand on me or my equipment – always a bonus! As I was setting up there were some nice shafts of light coming through the clouds so I stuck on a polariser and 0.1 ND grad and took a few shots. I then added the Big Stopper. I calculated I needed a 128 second exposure but it looked too dark once completed.

The sun was continually breaking through and then being covered by the clouds so I then experimented at 180, 240 and 360 seconds. My initial preference was the 6-minute exposure but after consideration I chose the 4-minute one above. It’s slightly over the time as my fat fingers hadn’t released the shutter properly. I think I’m getting there. Some additional foreground interest would help I think – a couple of decent sized rocks or posts, but I included the water’s edge to compensate for the lack of those.