Canon M6 25 mm, ISO 100, 5 sec @ f/16

A recently built roundabout near me has red street lighting installed, apparently for the benefit of bats. I thought this would make a decent photo when the conditions were right and today was the day! Heavy fog throughout the day persisted into the evening and I decided to try my luck. I was pleased to see a red glow in the distance as I made my way there and the challenge then became three-fold:

• First, to find a position where the effect of the fog was pronounced enough,
• Next to determine the distance at which other details and colours were neither too prominent nor missing; I think the blue sign in the middle of the image tells us that this is not simply a monochrome conversion.
• Finally, the exposure time determined the level of blooming on the lights and I found 5 seconds to be the optimal time.

In terms of post processing, the image is simply cropped and the contrast increased slightly.

I have called this ‘Close Encounters’ as the arrangement of the light and the their direction reminds me of the spaceship in Steven Spielberg‘s 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Canon M6, 70 mm, ISO 100, 1/160 s @ f/2.8

Recently I was lucky enough to have a 1:1 session with an extremely talented photographer friend of mine, Paul Mitchell FRPS. Paul has been running his excellent Woodland Photography workshops for a few years now and needless to say they are well worth attending if you fancy picking up some tips and tricks from a real Pro.

I chose Savernake Forest as the location and met Paul nice an early on a damp grey November morning. “Perfect conditions!”, said Paul cheerily as we trudged off into the gloomy, muddy undergrowth…

Sure enough the soft light really helped to the extent it was really annoying during those short moments when the sun came out and played havoc with the exposure. One of the things I came away from the day with was the need to get into the moment. To just wait and look. Get into the zone before trying to take any photos. It was a lesson I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day.

I was surprised that for the majority of my shots I used my 70-200 mm zoom and no polariser at all. What witchcraft are these landscapes without wide-angle and a polariser? I did struggle somewhat due to the croppsed sensor but it was nice using my zoom lens as I don’t use it that often due to its weight and size. I even got to christen my new Manfrotto X-PRO tripod head, which coped admirably until Paul suggested I simply loosen the collar on the lens to rotate the camera. D’oh!

One of my objectives for the day was to learn some fieldcraft and I feel like I did. Like passing a driving test I now feel I have enough of a skillset to go out and try to truly learn.I just need to find some nearby woods to visit… Cheers Paul for a great day.

Canon M6, 23 mm, ISO 200, 71 sec @ f/11

Having read about Kynance Cove and that it got incredibly busy during the day, I wanted to make sure I staked my spot, so one morning I arrived there at around 06:30 to find a couple of other people wandering around walking their dogs, another person with a camera who looked to be packing up already and a fisherman who was on his way home, apparently having caught four bass. Kynance Cove is a National Trust site that is absolutely stunning. From the car park it’s approached by walking down. steep path. I didn’t attempt that due to my choice of footwear. However, I wanted to get a high-level shot so that was fine by me. As usual the Big Stopper was brought out to play and it occurred to me that it might be worth trying a panoramic shot. The above image is made of three separate shots, stitched together in Photoshop. I wish I had thought about it a bit longer and taken a fourth as I feel the cottage on the right is too close to the edge of the image. Oh well. Once stitched together, the image had a bit of adjustment including the ever-reliable Lenswork LW Warm Tone treatment. A few days later I went back to the site but could hardly stand up thanks to Storm Ellen that was passing through, and any thoughts of setting up the tripod were instantly dismissed! Instead I retreated to the relative safety of my tent though there were times when I thought that would blow away too…

Canon EOS M6, 22 mm, ISO 100, 1/640 sec @ f/8

Over Christmas and New Year 2018/19 we spent time touring Thailand. We visted Bangkok before flying to Koh Tao for some diving, then getting the train from Surat Thani up to Chiang Mai before driving up to Chiang Rai, then returning to Bangkok for one last night. At the centre of the trip, wedged between time spent in Koh Tao and Chiang Mai was a five night stay on an island called Koh Yao Noi. On Christmas Eve we hired a couple of scooters and spent all day driving round. Stopping for lunch in a tiny fishing village I took a walk along a long pier where a haziness meant the view was was almost fog-like, whilst the sea was a similar shade of blue to the sky and everything appeared very flat. In the distance were some fishing boats whose relative proximity provided the only items of contrast against the background.

Canon EOD M6, 22 mm, ISO 800, 4 sec @ f/8

Late October 2019 saw a lot more rain than usual in the UK – so much so that on Tuesday 29th October saw a number of flood warnings (flooding is expected – immediate action required)  issued by the Environment Agency, including for the River Severn near to Upton-upon-Severn. Since this is now my local area I thought I would pop along to have a look, not having see the Severn in full flow before. Due to other commitments it was almost midnight by the time I was able to get there but needlesss to say the warning was justified and had previously built flood defences not been in place the town and my feet would have been very wet indeed.

Moored alongside the jetty is a large boat called Conway Castle. Normally most of this vessel is out of view, well below foot level. Tonight however the waterline was about two feet above foot level, held back by a wall that had just another inch or so before being breached. The flow rate was scarily fast too, with lots of boiling and swirling going on. Adding to the scary part was the fact that you could only see the immediate vicinity due to the lack of light, but you knew that out there in the dark was a river dooing its best to cause michief and mayhem.

Canon EOS M6, 136 mm, ISO 400, 120 sec @ f/11

After weeks of endless sunshine, the weather finally broke today and I popped down to the sea at West Kirby. At the Marine Lake there were loads of windsurfers whilst out on the estuary a number of kite surfers were taking advantage of the wind. I used a lens I’ve not used for a while, my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM and took a few shots of the kite surfers but there was nothing to write home about so I got the old super stopper out and reverted to type with some long exposures facing Hilbre Island… This time I was able to use my new very hard 2-stop ND grad filter from LEE as well. I remembered to take an umbrella this time to shield the camera from the wind too and it seemed to do the trick. Plus it gave me some welcome shelter as well!

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.

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!

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.

Canon 5D, 100 mm, ISO 200, 1/3 sec @ f/11

Last week my other half had to travel to Sunderland for a meeting so I thought I’d tag along and we stayed in nearby Roker. I was keen to visit as my friend Paul Mitchell had taken (as usual) a stunning photo of the pier there. I was also hoping for the opportunity to take some more long exposures as it’s a form I really enjoy but one I’m finding difficult to master.

Sunrise was  at 05:01 so fifteen minutes before I was set up but was immediately faced with two problems. First the tide was out and to take a shot that showed the curve of the pier nicely I would need to be quite elevated. Elevation wasn’t a problem thanks to the road that ran along the coast using my normal 17-40 mm lens would mean capturing a whole load of unnecessary foreground and lamp posts. Instead I tried my 100 mm lens which framed the image nicely. The real problem was that I then couldn’t attach any of my filters as I didn’t have a 58 mm adaptor ring.

Annoyingly the image, whilst nice, looks to be an attempted straight copy of Paul’s in terms of framing – something I was anxious to avoid! Photographers tend to develop an annoying habit of just copying what is perceived to be a good shot. I want to neither do, nor be accused of that but I think in this instance the shape of the pier and the plethora of encroaching objects meant there was only one obvious way to frame the shot.

Anyway it’s different enough from Paul’s in that it’s not a long exposure, and the cloud cover meant that a monochrome version looks far better than the colour one. Another conscious decision was to include some spray to further differentiate.

The learning for me here was to consider using a long lens for landscapes – something I’d not done in the past. Accordingly I now have an filter adaptor ring on order!