'I Do'

A close up capture from our latest wedding. There were so many lovely handmade craft details to photograph on the day, and this is one of our favourites. It's always a great idea to look out for quirky little details like this, as they can really add to the album when the photographs are presented to the couple a few weeks later.

This image was taken by Julian Clune with a Nikon D300 and Sigma 24-70mm F2.8

'I Do', Nikon D300 with Sigma 24-70mm F2.8, ISO 200, F4.5 @ 1/640 sec, + 0.7

'Barrel Roll'

The sixth and final image capturing insect and flower interaction. A Green Bottle Fly feeds on the flower of the herb Mint. It's only when you really get up close and personal to these energetic little insects that you appreciate just how beautiful they are, the iridescent green of the fly's thorax and abdomen glistening in the low evening sun as it busily goes about its business.

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8, Handheld. ISO 800, F5 @ 1/200 sec, E.V. + 0.3

  The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper with a print size of 16 x 12 inches. It comes double mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £100

Wide Open and Greeting the Sun

A beautiful wild Cornflower soaks up the rays as the sun beats down on a hot August afternoon.

I try to take my close up and macro shots outdoors whenever I can, using only natural light and possibly a reflector. Patience and a tripod are often needed in these situations and it's also a good idea to use a trigger release to avoid unnecessary camera shake. I isolated this particular flower from the others by moving in close and using a Nikkor 105mm macro lens. This allowed me to fill the frame with the subject and leave a bit of empty space to the side without encroaching on anything else which may have been distracting in the final image. I find that by placing the subject off centre the composition is more pleasing and the viewer's eye can wander around the image more easily.  

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8 Macro lens. ISO 800, F8@ 1/20sec

Fire in the Grass

ISO 200. 1/320 sec @ F5.6. +0.3 E.V. Tripod with cable release. 

A newly emerged vibrant red Montbretia 'Lucifer' flower photographed after a light rain shower. Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8mm macro lens.

Hitchin' a Ride

The fifth in a series of six fine art images depicting insect and flower interaction. A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee feeds amongst a spray of Crocosmia on a warm August afternoon. Some of the flowers were past their best but this Bee was determined to take every last bit of pollen that it possibly could. On closer inspection a tiny white mite can be seen underneath the bee's wing, clinging on to the insect's fur and hitching a lift to a new flower where it will likely hop off and wait for another bee to land, and unknowingly transport it to a new nest. Once there, the mite will feed upon wax, pollen, nest debris and other small insects, but it is thought that the majority of mites don't cause any harm to the host, and that they can actually prove to be beneficial in most instances.

The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper with a print size of 16 x 12 inches. It comes mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £90


       

Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight 16th August 1980

I had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my Dad and join the Royal Air Force. Some of my earliest memories were seeing him dressed in the smart blue-grey uniform which he would be wearing when returning home from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire where he was a navigator on 51 Sqn. He always looked very smart and I was immensely proud of him. He was posted to RAF Coningsby in 1978 and although I was upset that we would have to up-sticks and relocate to Lincolnshire, leaving all my friends behind, this was somewhat tempered when he told me that the Lancaster was based there and I would be able to go and see it. It had always been my favourite aircraft from a very young age, and knowing that I could visit the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight filled me with much excitement. Imagine my elation when he announced that not only would I be able to go and see it, but he was going to be flying as Navigator on the Lancaster as a secondary duty. This meant that I could be taken inside the aircraft and have a good look around, (it's amazing how cramped and confined it is).  Furthermore, for my 11th birthday I had my very own flypast straight over the house with the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane in tight formation. The sound of those six Merlin engines thundering ever closer towards me and my mum as we stood there waiting, is one of those moments in life that neither of us will ever forget. Unfortunately, as a child I had developed asthma and so there was no chance of me joining the RAF, so when I finally left school I really was at a loss as to what to do with my life, and it has taken many years to have finally found something that I truly love, my photography.

On the 16th of August 1980 my dad was part of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight which was undertaking several displays in the Midlands area. Here is his account of that weekend and the stories behind the photographs you see here.

"We were a loose formation of Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane when we flew from RAF Coningsby to RAF Alconbury, a short 30 minute hop down to the USAF base in Cambridgeshire, on Saturday 16th August 1980, where we landed, ready to display a little later.

When we took off, we went straight into the full display, which took about 15 minutes, and then departed for Birmingham city centre, where we were required to overfly a tall civic building ( I can't remember which), but I do recall my relief seeing lots of people on the flat rooftop waving at us, so it must have been the right one.

We continued to our destination, Coventry, for the annual Air Pageant, but had been asked by the Coventry Evening Telegraph if we could orbit the cathedrals before landing at Baginton (Coventry) airport. As we arrived over Coventry from the northwest, the light aircraft which had been chartered by the Telegraph photographer took a picture of our loose formation over Highfield Road, Coventry City's football ground (match in progress). More on this picture later. Interestingly, the aircraft had considerable difficulty in keeping up with us, as our speed of 165 knots was more than he could maintain for long, so he was lucky to get the shot. In fact he lost us as we later approached the cathedrals for the all important pre-briefed aerial picture. Luckily, a cameraman on the ground managed to take a snapshot of the 3 aircraft as we passed over the spire of the old Coventry Cathedral.



The BBMF flying over Coventry Cathedral

The importance of this flypast lay in the fact that this was the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and the old cathedral had been bombed to a shell during the Coventry blitz of November 1940, but with its 300 ft spire somehow untouched and remaining defiant.

We landed 5 minutes later at Baginton where, after taxying to our parking spots, we shut the aircraft down and were soon greeted by a couple of officials. I can't remember whether they were RAFA representatives or air display staff, but they very kindly presented us with a large cake commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The picture, with the Lancaster as backdrop, shows crew members from the left:

Flt Lt Grant Taylor, Spitfire Pilot
Flt Lt Suzie Harrison, Ops Officer RAF Coningsby (supernumerary crew)
Sqn Ldr Jim Willis, (with sunglasses) Lancaster Co-pilot
Sqn Ldr Jacko Jackson, (cutting cake) Lancaster Captain OC BBMF
Flt Lt Malcolm Gardner (self), Lancaster Navigator
Sqn Ldr Dennis Crowson, (arms behind back) Lancaster Flight Engineer
Sqn Ldr Paul Day (aka The Major), Hurricane Pilot
BBMF Engineering Officer (name unknown)

The BBMF crew being presented with a cake commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Battle Of Britain 

As an aside to this story and, on the face of it, completely unconnected, I need to mention that my boyhood best mate, Clive Cartwright, who like me had always wanted to join the RAF as aircrew, had joined the Air Training Corps, as I did, when we were 13 years old. We grew up together in the ATC,and although I eventually joined up, Clive didn't manage it, but instead remained as an adult in the ATC, and in fact had just been commissioned in the RAFVR Training Branch. Sadly he died in 1972 (aged 30) as the result of a tragic accident during an ATC display, before he could take up his commission. Clive's favourite aircraft had always been the Spitfire, and it is this aircraft that connects the story to the picture over Coventry. Our HQ, 8F(1st City of Coventry) Squadron ATC, at the rear of Frederick Bird's school, appears in the picture. It is the white building on the edge of the school sports field, directly beneath the Spitfire's propeller, and it is uncanny that the photographer took the picture at that exact moment. Clive was also an avid supporter of the "Sky Blues", playing at home, 33 years ago almost to the day.

Flying over Coventry City Football ground 'Highfield Road'.

Squadron Leader Malcolm Gardner"




     

Yellow is the Colour

While travelling up to Coventry a few weeks ago for my Nan's Birthday, I decided to take my Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8 lens, as I knew her garden had a wealth of beautiful flowers that would be in full bloom, providing a mass of colour. I left most of my equipment at home, deciding to travel light, so this meant shooting without the aid of a tripod, something I rarely do when shooting close-up and macro. The beauty of the Nikkor 105mm F2.8 is that it employs vibration reduction, which allows me to shoot at a much slower shutter speed than would normally be necessary, and still capture sharp images. The mass of large yellow daisies at the top of the garden proved great subjects, and I isolated one near perfect specimen from the rest and blurred the background to provide a dreamy yellow backdrop.

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8: ISO 1600, 1/640 sec @ F5

The Silent Grandeur of Lincoln Cathedral

The magnificent Cathedral of Lincoln stands at the top of a steep ridge that runs for over fifty miles, from the Leicester border near Grantham to the river Humber. Building of the Cathedral commenced in 1088 and when finished it held the title of the tallest building in the World for some 238 years, until 1549 when the centre spire collapsed never to be rebuilt. It can be seen for many miles across the flatlands of the Lincolnshire fens and is a truly imposing sight.

The Cathedral is an often photographed landmark, the castle square probably the most popular place to stand and capture an iconic image. But I always try to shoot from a different angle or wait for adverse weather conditions to develop before I try and portray the building in a different light, something the viewer may not have seen before. My post entitled 'A Room with a View' captured the Cathedral from the bottom of Steep Hill on a cool Autumnal evening as a storm rolled menacingly overhead and can be viewed here, http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/a-room-with-view.html , it is the view that greets all visitors as they walk towards the Cathedral from the city centre.

The image below was taken one early January afternoon while out for a stroll with my camera. It had been a reasonably nice day but as the light began to fade, the fog started to shroud the Cathedral's spires and everything became still and silent, the only signs of life being the warm orange glow emitted from the light in the little coffee shop situated in the Cathedral grounds.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8: ISO 1250 1/60 sec @ F5

On Clouds of Wild Marjoram

The fourth in a series of six fine art images depicting insect and flower interaction. A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee feeds amongst a large cluster of Wild Marjoram flowers during a warm early August morning.

The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper and the paper print size is 16 x 12 inches. It comes mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £90

A Little R 'n R

The third in a series of six fine art images depicting insect and flower interaction. A wasp finds refuge for the night amongst a field of  purple thistle.

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 105mm F2.8. Tripod with cable release

The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper and the paper print size is 16 x 12 inches. It comes double mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £100

Shooting the Bride's Wedding Bouquet

During a wedding shoot I always like to try and get a simple and elegant photograph of the bride holding her bouquet. The bouquet is something that the bride will have helped design with the florist and she will have it with her throughout the day, so it is important to capture a detailed image at some point where possible. I like to take the photograph after the ceremony has finished, the formals have been taken, and everyone is a little more relaxed, usually when myself and Julian have the bride and groom to ourselves. I ask the bride to hold the flowers as she would throughout the ceremony and by doing so, the pose is nice and relaxed. By almost using the bride's body as a backdrop and cropping in tightly, the bouquet is nicely isolated from any distracting background clutter and the resulting image is lovely and simple. Using a wide aperture at such close range gives a very shallow depth of field and can result in a dreamy ethereal effect.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8. ISO 1600, 1/2500 sec @ F4 

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8. ISO 200,  1/400 sec @ F6.3

  

Refuelling

The second in a series of six fine art images depicting insect and flower interaction. A Hover fly feeds on a delicate and beautiful Cornflower during the height of summer.

The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper and the paper print size is 16 x 12 inches. It comes mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £90

Dabbling in dog photography

Photographing dogs isn't something I do on a regular basis but as well as being good fun it can really help in honing my skills with a camera. Sometimes at a wedding shoot it's important to capture the action as it's unfolding, not staged or set up, just candid images as people go about their busy day. This can often involve setting the camera to continuous focus to allow it to track the subject moving from side to side across the frame or towards the camera, all the time making sure the focus point remains sharp. Of course practising this technique while at a wedding isn't practical, so spending a few hours with erratic fast moving subjects can be a really good idea and help boost confidence come the big day.

Raven, a young boisterous Black Labrador. Nikon D3s with 24-70mm F2.8. 1/320 sec @ F2.8 ISO 800 

Raven: Always be prepared as dogs like this don't stay still for long. Nikon D3s with 24-70mm F2.8
1/2000 sec @ F2.8 ISO 800 

I usually activate nine focus points in the centre of the sensor within the camera, set an aperture of F4 and an ISO sensitivity that will allow a shutter speed value of at least 1/320 sec, enough to freeze the action. Auto ISO is fantastic in these fast moving situations as you can set the minimum shutter speed you want the camera to shoot at and it will automatically alter the ISO setting accordingly. Any slight cropping of the image can then be carried out in Photoshop afterwards. The latest breed of Nikon cameras, in particular the D4, are fantastic at following fast moving objects. It nails the focus pretty much all of the time and missed shots are normally down to my error and not the limitations of the camera.    

Pumba: A lovely portrait of an Alaskan Husky.  Taken whilst on holiday in Sweden Nikon D70 with 18-70mm F3.5-F4.5
 1/50 sec @ F4.5, ISO 500 +O.3 E.V. 

On Final Approach

I love the fact that as we go about our busy lives, so do the millions of insects and butterflies, industriously flitting from flower to flower looking for their next nectar hit. Most gardens hold dozens of insect hot spots, each one a miniature airport, the airspace full of buzzing creatures flying to and fro. Just knowing that this is happening all around us each day during the summer months fills me with joy. I hope by showing these flowers in a different light that it may help persuade people to protect our wild spaces and encourage them to look at wild flowers positively, and not just as intrusive weeds as they are so often seen.

'On Final Approach'

Starting off with what will be a portfolio of six images of wildflower, habitat and insect interaction, 'On Final Approach' a Honey Bee lines up to land on a Rosebay Willowherb flower. The image is printed on 275gsm photographic paper and the print size is 16 x 12 inches. It comes double mounted in a rustic glass fronted 20 x 16 inch frame and is strictly limited to 100 pieces. The price is £100

Beautiful in Blue

A few months ago I was given a packet of Cornflower seeds by my girlfriend and they were sown in my parents' garden next to a bed of Petunia flowers. The seeds grew quickly and in the last week or so have started to bloom. They really are beautiful, the head of the flower about the size of a 10 pence piece and a lovely deep blue colour, fading slightly as the petals are bleached by the sun. What has been especially interesting to observe is how the hover flies have totally ignored the Petunias and made a beeline straight for the diminutive and somewhat straggly Cornflowers. Proof indeed that we should all spend a little more time and thought when selecting plants and flowers for the garden.

Nearly ready to greet the World 

Beautiful in Blue

Both images were taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikkor 105mm F2.8 lens. A tripod and cable release were used in both cases.

The top image 'Nearly ready to greet the World' was taken outside and at quite close range, probably no more than 8 cm, so any breeze causing the flower head to move was quite evident through the viewfinder. Patience was the key here.

The image 'Beautiful in Blue' was taken inside after a heavy hale storm had broken the stem of the flower. A small glass container was used to prop the flower up and helped to add a bit more depth and interest to the image. Thankfully, wind was not an issue with this shot.

A truly beautiful little flower.