At Port

I recently went on an free evening course with Media Workshop around Southampton to photograph Urban Landscapes. It was an excellent night, where I learned a lot from the course organisers, composition, white balance and the colour temperature. For a free course as Media Workshop are a funded community charity it was excellent and if you are close to Southampton and interested in photography, then look them up or join their facebook group.

Pinnacles

Lines

Hobbes on the Bike

I recently took a week out and headed off to Dartmoor for a solitary retreat of writing with the intention of getting a short story done for my soon to be released shorts tales book on Kindle, and kick start a novel off.  I took along a certain desk toy from work who has been come to be know as Hobbes. (Yes I would like to be like Calvin and spend my days with an imaginary tiger, what of it?) So decided to do a little photography project as a break from words and try and capture similar aspects of the comic strip using my camera phone and a photo app called ‘Pixlr-o-Matic’ for Android. I wanted a sense of home video and memories, try and bring a little life to Hobbes

So please enjoy this bit of fun.

Hi Ho Silver

Hobbes at the River

Hobbes hunting sheep

Hobbes meets a horse

Hobbes at the Cottage

Hobbes ate some funny mushrooms

You can find more images from Dartmoor here

But the natural trend for Google+ is bringing together creatives from across the globe. I placed a few photographers into a new ‘circle’ and as time goes on and now I feel part of photographer clan, more than Facebook or even Deviantart managed.

Voodoo

One of the main photography areas I have become very interested in is taking photos with your phone, call it Droidography or iphoneography, it amounts to the same thing, maybe phoneography. Or we could go out on a limb and call it photography, just because it does not involve an expensive SLR or the latest point and shoot does not mean it is any less valid as a creative form. All this timed quite well with my new HTC Sensation as my first Android phone and I have become more experimental and more active with this than I do with my SLR, often being stuck indoors due to logistics of lugging it around.

Isaac Watts

I have found I am looking for photographs in different places with my phone, the SLR often giving the default photography mindset and so ending up with the same photos as everyone else. But maybe this unprofessional little camera phone can teach the older ‘SLR’ brother how to have fun again.

Garden

Decay

Demon

And if you made it this far, I still have currently 150 Google+ invites which you can find here  – https://plus.google.com/i/I9h-n_4joCo:5XEjmVkSZtE

and a list of some photographers to add to to your circles  (it’s all about the circles)

Dixon Hamby (street photography)
James Brandon (Digital Photographic School)
David Atlee (Me, a mish mash of photography)
Laura Peischl (addicted to iPhoneography)
Claire Grigaut (photographer)
helen sotiriadis (photographer, architect)
Colby Brown (Fine Art Landscape)
Victor Bezrukov (street photography)
Dave Powell (Tokyo street photography)

It's not about you anymore

Well very much not live and quite a time since the muddy fields of Glastonbury, but finally have got round to posting some of the images from Glastonbury 2011. To save the worry of losing or covering in mud (plus a logistics issues of riding a motorbike) I took my little point and shoot Canon SX130 si which is a wonderful camera for the price (don’t let Nikon know I said that). It has the option to have full control over apature and shutter speed, etc. But also some fun modes to play with, and this reason was why I decided the Canon over a Lumix, it just felt more fun and I would play with it more. So one of the modes is ‘Colour Accent’,  where you can decide on one colour to show in the photo, the rest black and white. So had a lot of fun with this in amongst the mud, music, arts, mud, wellies and mud. Did I mention mud?

Watching the Gig

Hotrod Flights

Blue & Black

Insect

Rust Helmet

You can find more from Glastonbury at my Picasa account or on Google+

Stornoway Harbour

Whilst in Stornoway, I had the opportunity to try some time-lapse photography, setting the camera up at a window in the Coastguard Station to take a photo every minute between low and high tide.

Next posting live from Glastonbury, well OK not live and more from my flat, rather than a field in Somerset,

Callanish Stones

I only had about twenty minutes to get as many shots as I could, but even with in that short session I was greeted with rainbows amidst blue skies, could not of ordered a backdrop more perfect.

Stone Rainbows

The Four

One of the things that struck me about many of the stones is how human they seemed, often being slim compared to the stones of Stonehenge. You can see how the myth that they are giants turned to stone for refusing to convert from old beliefs came  about. This human shape was apparent even more so in the shadows where more than one cast a hooded figure.

Shadow

Stone

Once again, a big thank you to all those who enabled me to take some great photos and experience the Island as much as possible in such a short time.

Cairn

Halo

All too often you viewed the landscape through a filter of rain or mist, subduing the mixtures of greys, greens, browns of the land. Bringing a strange gradient to the varied levels of the ground. Then the sun would break through bringing deity like illuminating beams and multiple rainbows.

Grades

Sun

The Island landscape is steeped in a rich history with a heritage of the Norse, myths of fairies and Blue men who lure sailors into the sea. Peat cutting as a source of fuel is still active, creating almost natural symmetrical lines in the moorland.

The Cut

The Blackhouse

Thrift

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Isle of Lewis and I thank all who took the time to show me around the island. My next posting continues on the Isle of Lewis, but one particular feature being the ‘Callanish Standing Stones‘. One of my favorite shoots so far where the elements all combined for a fantastic display.

Till next time

But I will say, using filters and a digital camera is alot easier than loading and processing infra-red film, which has to be done in total darkness. I found it amazing to comprehend how you could capture heat, we have all seen the rescue cameras used to find trapped people, that is the extreme end of the infrared scale which is more about the heat, where this is the other end (think your TV remote, the singal sent is not so much thermal, but still infrared). It helps to understand that all waves are light waves, including sound, radio, etc and it boils down to how we can detect them. Some we can sense with eyes, ears or skin, others we need technology, radio and television waves, etc. All these waves bouncing around carrying so much information is quite mind blowing when you think about it.

Grave Flowers - Southampton Cemetery

I  was first inspired by infrared photography from a book I caught randomly in a book shop somewhere ( I think Brighton), one of magical discoveries as you browse randomly. The book was Simon Marsden’s Journal of Ghost Hunter. At first I thought it was one of those generic ghost hunting books, but upon opening it I was greeted with so much more. Pages upon pages of atmospheric imagery from across the globe, my imagination going supernova. This was ghost hunting with results, it showed how photography could do more than just capture what you see, but captured atmosphere and the imagination.

Fountain, Versailles, France - Copyright Simon Marsden

The above image in one my favourite. It brings the statues rising out of the water to life as the tones of the grass and tress merges with the statues, making them more alive. It really made me think about my photography and rather than try and capture what was there, try to find more, be it real or not.  It was all about the fairy tale for me suddenly, well more the ghost story, but you get the idea. I got the pleasure to meet Simon Marsden at a Halloween talk on his photography and was very chuffed when he spoke to me about the Stone Circles (below) photo I took on Dartmoor and had seen on my website.

Stone Circle - Dartmoor

Infrared photography easily takes the mundane and makes it mystical, which is something I have not done here. I think that is another project to write up on the glass board of stuff. Anyhow, more photos below and till next time.

Angel - Southampton Cemetery

Worth Matravers - Seacombe

Headless Boy - Southampton Cemetery

I ended up spending alot of time at the wolf pen, after a casual wonder with odd photographs of owls, otters, butterflies, wild boar and various deer. The wolves were not really upto much, just relaxing in the sun.  As time drew closer to feeding they became more active and you could see the interaction of the pack. Once the lumps of meat were tossed over the fence the wolves took their time as the pecking order of alpha and beta came into play. The official hierarchy was still in question and this showed in how the wild animals approached their meal. It was during this time I got the best shots as they circuited the fence line and the hunting instincts revealed itself in their eyes.

You may notice a regular blurred pattern in some of the images, all the shots had to be taken through wire fencing and I was glad of decent zoom lens on the DSLR meaning I could focus past them to almost remove them from the shots.

Stalking

Running Wolf

Waiting

Hunter

So click on the RSS feed, add me to your news feed or bookmark me and come on back ya hear!

This collection of photos were taken at Southampton Cemetery and Common during the big cold snap of 2010. It was an incredible atmosphere, real ghost story stuff.

The Trees - Southampton Common

The Graveyard - Southampton Common

The Path - Southampton Cemetery

Dark Figure - Southampton Common