We reached the bottom of our intended location just before 5am. It was still pitch black. Experience has already told me and my companion that landscape photography is a game of waiting for the light, not chasing after it. Head torches on and heavy backpacks strapped into place we began our ascent up the path towards the summit. Days before we had climbed this exact route, we were familiar with where we were heading, but even so, in the dark it was all to easy to become disorientated.

The climb was slow and considered. Heavy legs were eased by the first pre-dawn colours in the sky. By which time there was a little more cloud drifting in. On wards and upwards we went, with still a considerable way left until we reached the location we had previously scouted out.

Night sky slowly easing away, the light growing and colours getting brighter we arrived at the small plateau. A familiar boulder sat idol, eager to greet us and share the view across to the Mamores. Pouring a hot drink and slowly setting up my kit, I soaked up the views. Daybreak was slowly approaching, colours becoming more intense. I was ready.

Light eventually poured onto the mountains, clouds stooped in, the occasional flake of snow. Working silently, yet efficiently I found myself lost for words. Transfixed by the sheer beauty and power of mother nature. What seemed like a ridiculously early time to rise and an exhausting climb, bogged down by our bags, didn’t seem to matter now. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, a time when the elements seemed to meet in perfect harmony around me.

An hour or so after the sun had risen, my thoughts turned to my stomach. What I had taken up with me to eat, certainly wasn’t gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but that really didn’t matter. Who could complain about breakfast with such a fine view!!

I completely forgot about using my graphics tablet to draw directly onto photos. I’m glad I found it.

A Cautionary Tale

“Ive been papped, ooh my life is going so well, someones taking pictures of me aren’t I
beautiful, Im going to tell all my friends Im going to be on the world wide intaweb,
life is sweet, Summer summer summertime, the groove is quick and slightly
transformed, just a little break from the norm of all that soft southern style….”
thats what this beautiful weed was thinking in the few seconds before it was
mercilessly uprooted and chucked in a green bin bag, how dare it besmirch
my lawn begone!
……………………..It’s brief fight for survival ended.
And if there are any other weedy type things thinking about firing your
spores over my fence let it be known I will hunt down your offspring and
publicly humiliate it like this one and when I have finished milking it’s beauty
for selfish reasons I will kill it, fact don’t do it !

Shot with a GX20, Tamron 70-300mm macro at full zoom macro, external flash
set on hotshoe, sigma ef 530 summat about super.  iso was set to 400, 180shutter
speed  aperture f5.6  and flash on ttl

I took this image on a white water rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki River in Nepal. These bridges are a common sight along the river and provide a lifeline to some of the more remote villages separated by the raging water and deep gorges. Normally by pointing your camera into bright sunlight you would lose most of the detail you’re trying to capture. However in this instance I wanted to create a row of silhouettes set against the swirling cloud so this wasn’t really a problem. Although originally captured in colour I converted the image to monochrome, which accentuated the silhouettes and contrast in the cloud formations.

Can you imagine the scene ? it’s 1859 First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir John Somerset Pakington is interrupted from his mid afternoon nap, “The French have built what?” he roars “A 4000 tonne iron clad battleship sir” replies a worried looking Commodore handing him a grainy photographic plate, it’s a full 5 minutes before Sir John Somerset Pakington speaks “Get me Isaac Watts immediately” Issac Watts a renowned Naval Architect arrives in a hurry, “Watts build me an Iron HULLED battleship, make it twice as big, a lot faster, make it go further and give it bigger and more guns and build it within three years and double away smartly” “Yes Sir”, replied Watts before doubling away smartly.
Commissioned in 1861, on the day she was launched she displaced 9000 tonnes of water and every warship in the world was rendered obsolete.

My daily trip across Portsmouth harbour provides me with many photo opportunities, this one lasted just 5 minutes, I noticed a weather front settle over the horizon as the sun was setting, a nice hue already had me framing shots in my mind, a tiny curtain of deep crimson appeared in the cloud, exiting the ferry and rushing up the walkway I looked back to see the sky was ablaze, noticing fellow passengers stopping and aiming camera phones I decided I needed to try to make it over to the Warrior, arriving slightly out of puff I took a couple of shots, nah needed to get higher!

At sea level the sea looked great but the impact of the blazing cloud was lost as the horizon
rose up, balancing sideways on a rail and taking a picture with the ST1000 is really easy,

you might look a bit of a plum and a prima donna but it is really easy.

This shot was taken at the top of my road, on my way to a meal with my classmates to celebrate our last ever lesson. It feels like the end of an era, I will finally be leaving university, and that is definitely an odd feeling.

I spent the weekend taking photos at a playwriting conference in Birmingham to celebrate the 20th year anniversary of the course, which was founded in the 1980s by David Edgar. My classmates and I saw to the running of the event, making tea, coffee and generally doing odd jobs. We also went to all the talks and listened to what everyone had to say. Unfortunately, there were disagreements amongst the academics, often quite heated ones, and several of them were rather rude to us before and after the speeches.

It is such a shame that they felt they could behave the way they did. Talking to my peers afterwards several of us felt belittled, degraded and overlooked by some of the ‘names’ there. One of my contemporaries even said that he doesn’t think he wants to carry on to PhD level anymore if he has to be surrounded by people like that all the time.

These people, who have all been in the position we are currently in, were invited back as part of a celebration. They were invited back to commemorate the course and playwriting in general. But most of them spent their time talking and arguing amongst themselves. I’m not sure what I expected to get out of the weekend. The chance to talk to some people with experience in working in the field of playwriting and who have been where I’ve been I suppose, but I didn’t get that chance. Instead I spent the weekend being bossed about and being made demands of by people who felt they had the right to do so simply because they were older and had had a piece of work accepted by the industry.

That said, there were one or two writers who were impeccably behaved, who were genuinely interested in what I had to say and what I was doing. They made me feel comfortable and talked to me about their time on the course or their experiences in playwriting; perhaps I just got unlucky by only meeting one or two of these better behaved playwrights.

It was such a disgrace that we were treated the way we were, especially as we are approaching the end of our course. These people had the chance to inspire us, to show us what to expect as we embark on our own careers, as we are the next generation of playwrights and whether they like it or not, it will be our work that will be gracing the stage in years to come. It’s just a shame they didn’t take it.

This photo for me marks the end of a journey. Not only is it a shot of the end of my road, in a city I will soon be leaving. It is of the end of the day; the sunset, and was taken on the last day of my course. I love sunsets, and more often than not I am without a camera when I really want to capture one. Luckily on this day, I had my ST550 with me; it is so handy to just keep in my handbag as it is so small. I turned off the flash and set it on smart mode to make sure I could keep as much of the colours in as possible. The smart mode is great for quick shots, it requires less faffing about, and it meant I could get my shot and not be late to say goodbye to my friends.

I have just returned from visiting my friends in the French Alps. Whilst there, we went skiing. Now, I can honestly say that I am not very good at all. This was only the second time in my life I have done so. But, after much practice (and falling over) I managed to get better as the day progressed, as can be seen here.

I took the ST1000 with me to the slopes as this shoots video as well as fantastic quality photos. I have never really taken photos in the snow before, so I set the camera to automatic and let it do the hard work of exposure metering, white balance and shutter speed. I was very impressed.

On the way back home, I had a few hours to spend in Geneva where I met up with another friend. We took a walk around the edge of Lake Geneva and were totally surprised at the ice that was caused from the windy weather  the night before. The wind had whipped up the lake and the waves had crashed onto the banks, freezing almost immediately.

Damien

Jérôme

Snowdrops in Spring

Taken near my neighbours home, these Snowdrops are part of a much larger display which were planted by the husband for his wife. The reason he did this was so that she could look out of their bedroom window and see the first shoots of spring on display. They make a beautiful display by the side of the road, and are a joy to behold. I hope you like to see Snowdrops as much as me, the first signs of spring are just around the corner.

The first shot is of my housemate, one of the singers in The July Days - it was fairly easy to get this shot as I was right at the front, obviously. I turned the flash off and set the camera to Smart mode, this seemed to make all the colours stand out that little bit more, giving the image more of a kick.

The second two, being crowd shots, required the flash as the audience were mainly in darkness. I left the camera on Smart mode as I had very little time to keep fiddling with the settings with all the action going on. I was really impressed just how far the flash covered, as I could see a fair distance in each shot.

All in all, the Samsung came in useful as it was less obtrusive than my SLR and was really handy to have at the crowded gig. The whole event was a great night out which I’d recommend to anybody, and The July Days truly earnt their headline spot.