Tag Archives: UK

Woodland Workshop

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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.

Cornish Coves and Cliffs

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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…