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.

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.

Tranmere Oil Terminal

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 28 mm, ISO 100, 120 sec @ f/22

At long last I’ve got myself a Lee Big Stopper filter, so I popped down to the river near the Tranmere Oil Terminal to try it out. The tide was at it’s lowest so I was able to get well down the jetty. Unfortunately as the water was so far out it wouldn’t feature prominently! Still as I was taking some pictures the tide started to rise and the water moved in. This was the best of the bunch – not brilliant but OK for a first attempt, and it’s smoothed the water out quite nicely. Converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Rising River

Posted on by


Canon 5D, 17 mm, ISO 50, 6 sec @ f/22

I’m fortunate enough to live in a location that has lots of interesting old industrial features, one of which is the jetty and abandoned pier at Rock Ferry, on the River Mersey. The is sited next to the Tranmere Oil Terminal and there’s invariably something of interest going on, be it a tanker moored up or the tide coming or going. For a while I’ve been meaning to try some long exposures and finally got a chance to make a visit that coincided with the tide coming in.

The effect wasn’t quite as I intended but I think I might have to splash out on a Big Stopper from Lee Filters for that… Still it was a welcome early finish and a break from the office!