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When thinking of doing a shoot the first thing I will begin to do is my research, whether it be into the location im shooting at, the various bits of kit im going to, or where my models are coming from Research to me is one of the most important parts of photography.


This was proven to me the other day when I went to do a recce for the ME AND MY MOTOR shoot, I had a location in mind, so I travelled down to this disused warehouse, when arriving at the warehouse the building had been renovated and re-opened as a car hire business, so not only was the building being used but where I wanted to take my photos was full of hire cars. This proves the importance of research, for if I had not gone and researched into the location I would of turned up on the day and had nowhere to shoot my photo's. Because I did the recce a week beforehand, I had plenty of time to find and recce a new location. Because of my research this shoot was not ruined.


Research provides all the right information for a shoot to go as well as possible, whether it be weather information or how busy it will be when you get there. All research pays off and I dont go anywhere with out doing it.

Today Ive been playing around a bit with perception, especially with the wide angle lens. My unfortunate subject for the day was my jack russel, not camera shy at all in fact a bit of a poser!


Heres the first image in the running order.

This photo isn't really to my liking, rather boring and not a lot of character is felt through this picture. Unlike this second picture which shows a little intrigue into the camera.

My favourite of the three purely because of the focus and the angle I took this picture at. The final image is more intriguing and easier on the eye, the background also slightly ore interesting.

So I dabbed my hand into a bit of macro photography this morning. I used one remote flash for these images. I had a route around the garden and discovered a world of little insects.


Heres my first attempt at some macro photography, I'm pretty happy with the results.

My favourite has to be the top picture. It turned out rather a dramatic picture, my only one reservation is that I wish I would of made it a HDR image, making the whole body in focus, maybe another time.


Let me know what you think...

I was bored so I took this piccy which I found quite cool!

I then went on to take these couple. Please comment.

But when I Popped out to the country today to take some shots of some horses, I come back with some lovely shots. I'm just trying to build up my portfolio at the moment so anything I can take a picture of I will. I must admit I'm not the biggest fan of horses, so I used a 300mm Lense to capture these, this left enough room between the horse  and me lol. Any how heres the first sample.

Even though this picture shows an intrusive fence line, I still think the overall image turned out rather nice.

The sun started to set just behind the hill so I upper the shutter speed to get a more silhouette effect.

This has obviously been heavily photoshopped, but is one of my favourite of the bunch!

Where's John Wayne when you need him?

Horses use iPods too you know!

So I got my hands on a Canon 5D MKII yesterday, first impressions what a load of pants!


For those of you who don't know this camera is a 21.1 megapixel full frame camera at an average cost of £2000 for the body alone. The one I got my hands on had the 24-105mm F4.0 on it, this lens costs around £750, so this kit should be a nice kit.

I had a little play with the camera, took some photo's indoors using a canon flash, had a play with the menu and had a play with some of the other cool stuff they'd sent in like the wireless photo transmitter.


Taking a photo, the shutter actuation I found to be very load, I know I'm being a little critical but is there any need for it to sound so loud. The exposure meter in the viewfinder is the other way round to the default setting on a Nikon, I couldn't find anyway of swapping this round where-as on a Nikon its pretty simple.


The lens looks and feels a nice lens but only F4.0 on a £750 lens ouch.


Body Build Quality:
For me holding this camera, I was scared of braking it, it feels so fragile its awful. Canon's bodies are very light and don't get me wrong this must be great for photographers who do long time consuming shoots, but with the body being so light, even with the 24-105mm attached to this camera feels very unbalanced, I can put up to a 300mm on my Nikon and it will still be reasonably weight balanced. Another niggle I have is with the shutter speed scroll wheel feeling cheap and plasticky, this feels like it should be an internal plastic cog of a mechanical toy not a shutter speed control.


The Menu:
Very Dull looking, Logo's aren't obvious.The user interface compared to a Nikon's is horrible and all back to front, I have a problem with this camera and many other Canon's. This is the menu buttons. E.g. So your browsing the menu using the little joystick, to then alter a feature in the menu you then have to use the scroll wheel! Why cant you use the joystick? Pointless?



Ok so you've probably guessed by now I'm a little pro Nikon, "maybe" one day I might purchase a Cannon if I see an improvement in build quality, but until that day I think I'll stick with my Canon... Sorry I mean Nikon.

So my latest project:
ME AND MY MOTOR!


 I thought it would be a pretty cool and fun project. Hopefully it will test my creativity. 


Heres the first "test" shot.


THIS IS KARL AND HIS MOTOR


Hopefully each picture will show how each person feels about their car.


Each shoot takes about an hour or two to plan depending on location scouting, so this is a nice simple project to keep me occupied until the end of September, Hopefully by the end I will have 15 Cars and their Owners.


If you wish to volunteer for ME AND MY MOTOR! please get in touch.

More To Come!

These were the other photos we tried, but they didn't work out.

The second in this project Woohoo

THIS IS PHIL AND HIS MOTOR

So what makes a good confident photographer? I believe that to maintain a good standard of photography you need to keep venturing out with your camera and taking photos. This way you become more at ease with your camera and you learn the pros and cons of your own camera.

This has recently got me thinking about a photography holiday, I keep reading about them in my photography magazines that I buy every week and i must say they look very atrractive. Going on a holiday purely to take some beautifull photos of the scenery seems very appealing.
 
I've began my research into where I am going to go and it will most certainly involve camping. Somewhere very picturesque like scotland or wales would suit me nicely, I may look into talor made photography holidays or I may just build my own.

If I am going to go on one of these holidays I want to go with a team of people, becuase I believe it would make a nice video/short documentary. So I am looking for a keen young photographer and someone who has an interest in video.

I believe going on this holiday will improve my photography and be an amazing experience.


What are your thoughts?

So the time finally came when the whole family packs half of the house into the back of a Renault Espace, the rest of the family left early friday morning (5:00am) to be precise. Me and the girlfriend set off on Sunday at 9:00am after many stresses and panic attacks. 

Welcome to the Weymouth-Mobile, you cant see but it was packed to the brim.

On the way down we called into Bristol in a little quaint place called Nailsea where I met my girlfriends Aunty and Uncle for the first time, a very nice family very welcoming. So we stayed for a couple of hours whilst we went for a meal at a local pub. I must say the chicken Roast was deeelish! After that we jumped in the car with everyone else and traveled a little down the road to Clevedon Sea front. We were told the sea was a nice shade of brown... well it was brown alright wether it was nice is another thing... Below are a couple of photos from Clevedon:

To walk along the pier it was £1.50 each, the only reasoning behind this i could come up with is that the pier is very popular with fishermen so the charge is predominantly for fishing off the pier.

After spending a couple of pleasant hours with the extended family we set off for Weymouth, this took another two and a half hours, arriving at weymouth at 6:30pm to the lovely sight of a rainbow.

We have been visiting weymouth now for many years, but I can guarantee that theres something new to photograph when im there. This year I captured a variety of images from some nice macro shots to some sporty action shots.

Heres a little critter sunbathing near the beach. Considering I didn't have a macro lens on me a think the shot came out quite nice.

One vehicle your bound to see by the seaside, the VW Camper-van, this nice little example i spotted in the car park and I had to take a quick snapof it.

One of the Coves we visited whilst in Weymouth, was Lulworth, the day was quite cloudy but still a nice day to sit on the beach with your favourite ice cream. This cove has some quirky little decorations hanging around, this one below was hanging on an outbuilding near the beach, as you can see its made of all the dummies found on the beach.

If you look closely at this picture you will notice the bench seat in the boat has "please keep off" written on it.


Whats the point in that!?

Its always a beautiful sun set by our campsite, this night the sky went a lovely orange.

When the sun reappears in the morning Dorset comes back to life, theres plenty of high viewing points but the best is the one at the top of portland Bill.

Just click on the pictures to see full size.

In 2012 Weymouth is set to host the Water sports for the Olympic Games.
Whilst down Weymouth you will always find some form of water sport taking place.