Breakfast Collection

A couple of shots from Saltburn that caught my eye today as I was wandering round...

The Tide Will Always Change

So it's half four in the morning as I drag my arse out of bed, I hastily make a cup of coffee and shove a bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes down my throat. My gear is already packed, done the night before in preparation and after I load my Landrover I'm off for the short drive to the surf break.

The charts were looking good, the wind was right, the evening before had, according to a mate, been cranking, so all was looking right for a good session. The one thing against us is that the tides were small. As a result of this I couldn't get as close as I would have liked to for some good action photographs. Even the 500mm I had couldn't pull the surfers in close enough for decent frame filling action pictures, this was a shame, but the distance, due to the tides and the fact that this location is a difficult position to shoot from at the best of times for a good angle forced me to look at other options.

So to that end I decided to concentrate on some wider and more, hopefully, atmospheric shots to show the environment that the guys were surfing in. Before I made my way to the reef I set up a couple of off-camera flash shots that I needed for a project I have started recently. I posed up a couple of the best surfers in this area - Fraser Camfield (sitting) and Robbie Hildreth (standing) and with a single flash on a stand triggered with a pocket wizard I shot through a brolly and took their pictures.

I

The light was cracking. You can't beat morning sun light shining through early morning cloud cover for surf photographs - it just looks great! Especially at this location when, due to the way the wave breaks, it ends up being partly backlit by the sun. There was a brief period, only lasting a few minutes where the light took on this weird green cast as it shone through the clouds and reflected on the water and that gave everything a very surreal appearance.

Even though it is a bit of a cliche, a good sillo shot always works well and as I saw two other surfers walking over the reef I went into a position that would allow me to take one as they walked towards the waters edge.

Every surfer knows the value of stretching the muscles before a surf and I shot this picture below as he goes through his stretching routine. Initially I wanted to be closer but by the time I had made my way over closer to him he would have more than likely finished so I shot from where I was and in hindsight this was a better call as it shows his surroundings more I think.

Photographs of the paddle out to the line-up always work well here but again due to the distance I had to make the surfer more visible and this was best done by getting the picture as he crests one of the waves in the set. The hazy golden background against the dark foreground wave work well.

The surroundings at this particular break are awesome and make for great wide shots and really place the surfer in the environment which is exactly what I was after. Although this shot below was taken on the 500mm so I'm not sure if it falls exactly into a 'wide shot' category?!

As we walked back over the reef I was confident that I had some decent pictures. Not many action pictures this time due to the state of the tides but that's the way it goes - the tides will always change. But it did allow me to work some different pictures than I might have done and on the whole I'm pleased with the results.

Saltburn Beach Clean

Last Sunday saw the 'Beach Clean' take place in Saltburn by the Sea in Cleveland and was well supported by over a hundred people. The event, part of a country wide clean up initiated by the environmental group Surfers Against Sewage (http://www.sas.org.uk/) brought surfers and members of the local community together to collect litter and rubbish from the beach, dispose of it and leave the beach cleaner.

 THE GROUP PHOTO HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Please email for further information on obtaining a copy of this photograph

 The Group Photo

This Saltburn event was organised by Nick Noble owner of the Saltburn Surf School - (http://www.saltburnsurf.co.uk/) and long term supporter of Surfers Against Sewage with money being raised through donations and all proceeds going to Surfers Against Sewage.

The clean up operation managed to collected 65 bags of rubbish, a car tyre and an old fridge door!

Afterwards a barbecue was held and enjoyed by many, and everyone remained in good spirits despite the cold and rain.

Josh Noble tucks into his burger

 

Simon (Poo-man) Palmer

 

Families gathered to collect the rubbish

Beach Clean

 

Gary Rogers on the beach

  

The pile of rubbish starts to build

  

 Old tyre discarded on the beach

These Beach Clean events take place at least once a year in many towns up and down the country and are well worth supporting to help keep our beaches clean from pollution and rubbish and to help protect the environment. Visit the Surfers Against Sewage website - (http://www.sas.org.uk/) for details on this and other events you might want to become involved with.

Copies of the group photo are now available from Saltburn Surf School soon, sized at 15" x 10" and priced at £15.00 with £3.00 from each sale going to Surfers Against Sewage.

Shooting from the Train

Berwick upon Tweed

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Durham City

Edinburgh

Just back from Edinburgh and even though it was out of the main holiday season and there was bad weather pretty much every day, there was still plenty to shoot  - at least when you're not in the pub!

As mentioned before in other posts, when visiting places like this or just shooting generally, I think travelling light is the order of the day leaving you free to wander round unhindered. I was using my primes as usual - I had a 20mm 2.8, a 50mm 1.8 and an 85mm 1.4, a couple of D3's and that was pretty much it. 

 Edinburgh Castle

Despite recent problems about shooting photographs in public places and how panic stricken the police, public officials and members of the public become as soon as you raise a camera to your eye it was refreshing to find that I didn't encounter any of this in Edinburgh. Probably because it is such a popular tourist location and as such photography is very common, so one more person with a camera didn't raise any concerns.

National Scottish Gallery

If I had been there in the height of the season or if the 'Fringe Festival' was running then pictures would be everywhere but you have to go with what you have and it's part of the challenge to keep your eyes open to the pictures that you pass, it develops your eye and that can't be a bad thing. From busts in the Scottish Museum to homeless guys on the street.

 

Homeless man on Edinburgh street

There were a lot of homeless people on the streets and some people find photographing them to be intimidating but I find if you go about it in the right way then you have fewer problems. I don't mind at all giving them a couple of quid but I always offer it so they can buy a brew or something rather than a payment for pictures. As long as you don't patronise them and you ask if they mind having their photo taken then your generally going to be alright and after I have done shooting I don't mind staying around to have a chat for a few minutes.

International newsagents

This International Newsagents caught my eye simply because of the huge variety of newspapers from all over the world and in many different languages that were on display outside the shop but I had to wait with this picture framed until someone walked out of the shop with a paper in hand to bring it together.

Scottish War Memorial

The Scottish War Memorial inside Edinburgh Castle was a quiet and austere room in which all the usual trimmings telling of military sacrifice were visible. The above picture of one of the carved walls was taken at 2000 ISO in a very dark corner of the room, amazing results from the D3 and something I could never have done with my D2x!

Busker on the street in early evening

This street entertainer was one of only a very few this time although I can imagine that in the height of the summer every corner will be occupied, another shot taken in low light and once again these guys are more than happy to have their pictures taken - he was actually really good aswell.

 

Phone boxes

 

Plasma ball in the Camera Obscura Museum

Man on his mobile

 

Statue of Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. He was one of the key figures of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' and the author of a number of books on economics namely 'The Wealth of Nations'. He is widely regarded as the father of modern economics. Now in case your astounded with my knowledge of Scottish economics thinking I am a font of knowledge on the subject I have to confess that I knicked this info from Wikipidia, but a bit of background info never hurts. It's good for the captions.

View over Edinburgh streets

Repent!

This guy was walking along with his placard and a picture just had to be taken, he wouldn't let me get away without asking me..."Where are you from....?", I replied with, roughly, where I live, but then, fixing me with a stern gaze he asked me in a very serious tone... "BUT, where are you going?" and pointed to his placard!

Ah well, at least I know.

Redcar

Copyright - The Digital Economy Bill

Seriously though, who thinks up this stuff???!!

As if the 'industry' isn't struggling enough!
Rather than me listing everything here, follow the link below to read about this, not long left before it comes about.
http://copyrightaction.com/forum/uk-gov-nationalises-orphans-and-bans-non-consensual-photography-in-public

What can be done about it?
Realistically - probably nothing!
We all know how it works...unfortunately.

However, you could send a letter to your MP to get him/her to vote against the bill....you never know?

Example of letter to send to your MP...cut n' paste and change as required.
http://copyrightaction.com/digital-economy-bill-mp-letter-template

How to find your MP...
http://www.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/mps_and_lords/alcm.cfm

Hopefully they may see common sense (maybe even apply some?)
Worth a try.

Photo Therapy

There is something very liberating with photography when there is no brief, no deadline, no editor, no customer, no 'message' to try and push out, no other bullshit relating to work, no office politics and all that crap and you can just turn up somewhere and wander around and shoot pictures as and when you want and of what you want.



I seem to have spent the last few weeks photographing nothing but dead soldiers at RAF Lyneham ( http://ianforsyth.blogspot.com/2010/01/white-tent.html ) and I was getting fed up with that so this weekend I wanted to get away and Weymouth in Dorset on the South coast was where I found myself today after driving for an hour or so from Salisbury for a bit of a photo trip. I had no plan and no photo ideas I just wanted to get out, see what turned up and shoot some pictures - you could call it photo therapy!



Another great thing about doing this is that I can get the primes out, leave the bulky zooms behind, and travel nice and light. For this jaunt I was with two D3's, a 20mm 2.8 on one and an 85mm 1.4 on the other and my 50mm 1.8, which is always with me in my small bag, and that's about it. I'm a firm believer in shooting primes when possible, not completely from a 'quality of the image' point of view, because most good, fast zooms are great quality, but for your own progression as a photographer.



If you shoot primes your composition will improve, guaranteed, you develop your 'eye' better and it forces you to think about your photography more and you do see pictures in a different way, occasionally you might miss a picture you see or you may really have to work to get into position - but what you gonna do - if it was easy everyone would be doing it!

There is always plenty of 'stuff' to shoot in a coastal town and usually, as it was here, when out of season, you can get a whole different perspective especially when the crowds of holiday makers and tourists have yet to descend on the place.



So if you get the chance, get out and about for some photo therapy, leave all the heavy gear at home and travel light, forget about 'new camera' this and 'new software' that and all the rest of the crap that seems to occupy the thoughts of people every day and concentrate on taking some pictures, learn and develop your skills and think about the photography.

World Press Photo Awards

The results came out today...Ah well, there's always next year or the year after that....

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=20&Itemid=257&bandwidth=high