Autumn hits St Paul's Square
Like a lot of people, I think Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours, the leaves turning to golden oranges and browns, the low sun illuminating the early mornings and the cool crisp air. It really is a special time of year. It also helps if you're lucky enough to live by quite a few trees that shed there leaves and create a carpet of colour all around them.
St Paul's Square in Birmingham is one of those places and it is beautiful at this time of year. So when I woke up earlier this week and saw the sun was out, I decided to grab my camera, run out and try to capture some of it's beauty. Autumn is a photographers dream but it doesn't last long so get out there and get snapping!
Gear Review - Lowepro Flipside 400 AW
With my ever accumulating pile of gear and a strong desire to carry as much of it as possible I decided it was time to invest in a 'proper' camera bag. After much research, I decided on the Lowepro Flipside 400 AW - I may be giving the game away a little but... I was not disappointed! This bag is great and after finding quite a deal on Ebay, I am very pleased with my purchase.
The inside of the bag is cavernous and can easily accommodate two camera bodies, a long lens, a selection of smaller lenses and a host of other items thanks to the large front pocket and side pockets. The clever little bag also has internal pockets for your memory cards, internal padding that can be adjust to make room for whatever gear you need to pack and a rain cover tucked into the base for when things get wet. Though I must say, I think this bag does a great job of defending your gear against lighter rain showers.
One of the best features of the bag and what gives it it's 'Flipside' name is the way the bag opens. The zip is tucked against your back to keep sticky fingers out. This also helps when accessing your gear as the bag can be rotated in front of you and opened without putting the bag on the ground. However, if you do, it is easy to access the bag in an upright position to avoid putting a dirty bag on your back.
Any criticisms? Not many, one thing to be wary of is how you pack the bag, being careful to 'balance' the weight evenly so the bag does not try to slip of one side. The other is the tripod straps, I found that strapping a tripod horizontally across the top of the bag is the best solution though you do have to be careful walking through doorways! These are very minor criticisms that really shouldn't stop you from considering this bag - All-in-all - I would highly recommend it - 8/10
Analogue Revolution - Shooting film
I was fortunate to be born in a time before digital cameras and my early experiences in photography were shooting and developing 35mm film. So even though I have invested heavily in 'digital' - it is always nice to go back to shooting in film. My chosen weapon? An old Prakitca BCA - With a few different lens but notably a 50mm prime. There is something very satisfying about actually 'winding on' a film camera and being limited to around 36 exposures per roll of film, it really makes you think!
Throughout the Autumn and Winter, I will be shooting around Birmingham with the old Prakitca and experimenting with different films, settings and approaches to my photography. It goes without saying that I will update you all with the results so make sure you check the blog or my Facebook page to see the results!
Birmingham on Fire - Wire wool Photography
I am always happy to try something new with my photography. I particularly enjoy it if there is an element of danger! Sometime ago, I had my first attempt at 'Wire wool Photography' this is a form of light-painting.
The process is quite simple. Find a dark environment, put some wire wool in a steel whisk, set it alight and spinning very quickly around your head! Set your camera to a long exposure, around 10-15 seconds and record the chaos!
Each little spark that comes away from the whisk send a trail spiraling off and creates these spectacular images that are full of action. I particularly like to do this by water to maximize the chaos as the trails can be picked up as reflections in the water.
It goes without saying that there is an element of risk with this kind of photography. You must be aware of your surroundings and have plenty of water to hand should things go wrong. If anybody out there would like to try this or has any question, feel free to contact me for some advice. As ever, find more of my images on my Facebook page and remember, safety first kids!
Snow Hill Station and it's surroundings
I am always looking for interesting areas of Birmingham to shoot. There are many common places such as the Library of Birmingham that a photographer with a spare 30 minutes will run to to get some great shots (and as luck would have it, I have some coming up in my next Blog post!).
However, there are certain areas that sometimes get over looked and I think the are surrounding Snow Hill Station is one of those. I chanced my arm and went to the top of the multi-story car park above Snow Hill and grabbed some shots of the tower blocks, streets and view back down to St Chad's Church and Queensway (and even had time for some long exposures whilst there!) - Let me know what you think.... Check out my Facebook Page for more regular posts.
The Golden Hour...
Photographers know all-to-well about the importance of good light and summer is a constant battle between the hard light in the daytime and the glorious 'Golden hour' in the morning and evening when the light is a lot softer and warmer. As many of you will know, I regularly shoot cars (more Here) and the golden hour is perfect to accentuate the lines of a car.
Last Thursday, I was frantically shooting a Citroen DS4 with my good friend Paul for Motor Verso and hunting for the good light. We could see the sun was setting and flitting with the clouds and in the hope of capturing the last of that nights sun we took the car to the multi-storey car park by Birmingham Markets. After convincing a security guard to let us have (literally) 5 minutes to go to the top floor we caught this glorious sunset and even though I was meant to be shooting the car, I couldn't help but shoot our great city!
A Canadian adventure....
I recently had the amazing opportunity to visit Canada for a couple of weeks. I was travelling with my girlfriend and we would be staying mainly in Vancouver, a place that I have long wanted to visit. Our journey would take us to Seattle and Whistler where we took in some awesome sights. Here are a few of the shots, more to come very soon.
Things to come...
I have just returned from a two week stint in Vancouver and Seattle. Two incredible places, though I have to say that Canada with it's beautiful scenery, completely blew me away. However, I will be talking more about that in future blogs.
I have, however, returned completely refreshes and reinvigorated with a lot of plans for my photography. I will still be wondering the streets of Birmingham and taking the usual architecture/street kind of shots, though I will be throwing in a few 'other' types of photography, so watch this space... or keep an eye on my Facebook page for updates...
Cleveland Dam, Vancouver, Canada
Architecture in Birmingham
It's no secret that I love my city. Birmingham has a lot to offer and not least is it's interesting array of architecture. Ranging from the Parisian style architecture of Corporation Street through to the modern, glass front Beetham Tower, it really does cater for every taste. One particular favourite is the 'love it or hate it' Selfridges building, if nothing else, it makes for a fantastic photographic subject for us photographers :) - Feel free to share and see more on my Facebook Page
Selfridges, Birmingham
Photo Walk Birmingham - 27/04/14
Just a quick thank you to all those that attended my first eveer photo walk, hosted by me! It was a great day and I think everybody enjoyed it? We started by exploring around The Library of Birmingham and through to Victoria Square. We continued down past Birmingham Cathedral and on to Snow Hill.
We took our time, took in a lot of the details of what was happening around us and shared our ideas, techniques and had a laugh along the way. It is certainly something I will do again so if you would like to join us, keep an eye on my Facebook Page for more details. Here is a taster video created by my good friend and Motor Verso Editor - Paul Hadley... Enjoy...