Steve Boote

 
 

CHILD LIKE

Friday, December 4th, 2009

CHILD LIKE

And so it was, having to try out the ST550’s child setting, I was kind of struggling for a subject. My son is 14 and he deemed himself as being far too mature to participate in this experiment. No matter how childish and immature I rate myself, I hate being the ‘wrong’ side of a camera so that ruled me out. My last hope was my nephew.

Ahhh yes, young Mikey. At 2 years of age an ideal candidate, this was gonna be a cinch, or at least it should have been. Trying to get a 2 year old to stay still long enough to get a blur free image should in theory not present a problem, more so when you consider the smiling clown that animates away on the front of the ST550 to help hold their interest. Well I hate to admit defeat, but after somewhere in the region of 20 shots, young Mikey decided that on this occasion running around with teddy was way to much fun to help me out in my hour of need.

With the clock ticking away I was thinking I had no chance of uploading anything using this very inventive setting, when a very recent trip to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne came to my rescue. I had arranged a shoot on the island with a group of friends, whom despite being no teenagers are always up for a hoot and now I seized my oppourtunity. They are all aware that I carry the compact with me on every shoot, for those just incase oppourtunities and when I called for a group shot, this bunch of non camera shy, wannabe models were only to happy to oblige.

Out with the 550 and a quick tap on the touch screen to select the required mode and I was ready. I have to say that despite my reservations, this group of mature people were reduced to laughing Hyenas as the clown’s face done his thing and kept the gaze of his captive audience. A questions and answers session was to follow and these folks were genuinely impressed with the child mode this little compact has. My family has never increased this quick as I now have 9 more kids to add to my album.

kindest regards to you all, Steve

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Summertime

Friday, July 31st, 2009

SUMMERTIME

English summertime.  Where else in the world can you experience cloud, rain and gales, in August and on a regular basis?

I was caught in monsoon like rain a couple of hours before taking this shot and I remember thinking, “thats it, no photography this evening,”  but as fate would have it,the better half came to my aid.  Normally I would be oblivious to my huffy moments through being stuck in the house, as I guess she just puts up with me, but on this occassion I must have been spoiling an episode of Home and Away, or Neighbours for the cry of “just get yourself out, it might not be raining somewhere else” came billowing from her mouth and believe me, when she speaks like this, I obey.

In the car within seconds, I headed about 35 miles north to a wonderful stretch of Northumberland coast at Howick.  It’s a place I know really well and a place I frequently return too.  There’s something about the sky during and especially after a good storm.  The clouds seem to take on wonderful shapes and the atmosphere lends itself perfectly to a good bout of photography.  While the Mrs was tucked up infront of her Aussie soaps, the GX20 and I were fully enjoying the sights and sound of a full on English summer.

If anyone was to dismiss Marge and Harold Bishop, et al as mindless soap opera characters, you now know different.

have a great summer and don’t forget the brolly ;)

regards Steve

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Rewards

Monday, July 20th, 2009

REWARDS

You’ve probably experienced the same recently, rain, rain and more rain, I can’t remember seeing so much of the wet stuff. It’s been a real pain as it has limited my time spent on touring the countryside looking for fresh shots, oh and believe you me, I can strop with the best of them when I’m stuck indoors.

With all this recent bad weather in mind I was still determined to get out and try my luck, so with the alarm set for 2am I tucked myself in bed, crossed everything I could and prayed for a nice sunrise. Beeeeep, beeeeeeep, bang on 2am and I was up and ready in seconds. My chosen destination was Saltwick Bay, a wonderful stretch of coastline on the North Yorkshire coast and a place steeped in history, from shipwrecks to the infamous tale of Bram Stokers Dracula, penned just a mile or so north in Whitby. Full of hope and optimism I set off south and was excited as the stars twinkled high above, a sign that the clouds of recent days had finally started to move on. A friend had told me that a recent bout of activity at Russia’s Sarychev Peak volcano, has resulted in some wonderful lavender colours around sunrise/sunset and I can only assume that the gorgeous tones in the sky as I neared Whitby were a direct result of this. Despite the sunrise being 2 hours away, there was a colour to the sky that you don’t normally get at this time, things were looking good for a change.

On arriving at Saltwick Bay I must confess to being like the proverbial ‘kid in a sweet shop’,  the whole ambience of the place and the wonderful colours and tones to the sky were superb. I had plenty time too pitch camp and find some compositions, so I headed to the south end of the bay where the wreck of the tragic fishing boat the Admirable Von Tromp, lies next to the submarine shaped rock formation known as Black Nab. It’s a scene that has been shot a million times but I had to have my go, everything seemed right. The tide was starting to retreat, the colours as I mentioned were beautiful and there was a great stillness to the morning.

I was about to reap my rewards. After days of rain and being stuck inside,things had turned out for the better and I for one could not have been happier.

Until the next time, I hope you too get your rewards.

Regards, Steve.

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In her shoes

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

MARSDEN BAY

To this day I still don’t know why I bought my first compact digital camera. As it happens it was a Samsung, 6 million pixels and silver. I guess that whatever the reason was, I’m now very pleased I made it. I loved to take my dog for a walk along the river Tyne with my new trusty compact in tow. I’d snap away without much thought of composition but still I found I was really liking this new experience. It was inevitable that I would start to think a little more about what I was doing and not too far down the line I bought a bridge camera,things were now gathering pace, accessories started to follow, a tripod,some filters, editing software etc etc…

And so it was, I had to get a DSLR. You see I felt I had to compete with all the wonderful photographers I had seen on flickr and other photo sharing sites and a new camera was the way forward. I decided upon a Samsung GX10 as my first ‘proper’ camera. It ticked all the boxes, a great pixel count and weather proofing were important to me and this was an ideal choice. I loved it, so intuitive to use and it delivered the goods image wise. So imagine my excitement when the GX20 was announced, I now knew I had to have this new toy, especially with live view and a much higher pixel count. Of course with a new camera you have to have new accessories so a battery grip was aquired which despite the increase in weight, was one of my best purchases. I could take literally hundreds of shots and never have to worry about changing batteries in the dark, inevitably a new tripod was to follow and I could see the other half’s face contort with every package that the mail brought, still if i was happy surely she must be, I know I would be if I were in her shoes.

The image above was taken at Marsden Bay during a wonderful recent sunrise. The huge sea stack is Marsden rock which had a wonderful arch attached before mother nature and gradual erosion took its toll, but its still a great setting to spend an early morning.

Until the next time, take care

Steve.

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Time to leave

Monday, July 6th, 2009

TIME TO LEAVE

This is probably one of the very few times I’ve said to myself  ”Steve, it’s time to leave.”  The thought of coming home early, (albeit forced upon me) is one of the worst things I can imagine when being out on a photo shoot.  There are simply not enough hours in my day for me to appreciate the spectacle of the natural beauty that surrounds us and trying to capture its beauty via that shutter button.

Family and friends think I’m mad when I set off at 2am heading for what I hope to be a ‘perfect’ sunrise, or sitting under the protection of an umbrella as a violent storm unloads its cargo from above.  But to me and no doubt endless other photographers, these are must do things.

So that leads me to the title of this shot.  For once I must have realised that my brain should rule my heart and I’m rather pleased it did.
Just seconds after taking this the mother of all rain storms descended, I would love to have stopped but no matter how well prepared I am, a canoe is not on my packing list.

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