Morston

Just six miles east of Wells-Next-The-Sea along the North Norfolk Coast lies the small hamlet of Morston. Used by fisherman and tourism businesses alike it also provides many opportunities for the landscape photographer from big skies to colourful wooden boats. It's a place I'm going to visit regularly in 2014 as I think there are many beautiful images to be had. Just need these Winter storms to ease a bit.

A small boat at Morston on the North Norfolk Coast

The Albatros

The Albatros, also known as a North Sea Klipper is a sailing ship built in 1899. It was used for carrying cargo between Holland and the Baltic and was in operation until its last commercial sailing trip in 2008. It is now permanently moored alongside the Quay in Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk U.K. where it is used as a B&B and bar. It also serves great pancakes.

This photo taken in early December on a cold still morning shows the Albatros under a blanket of thick fog, home to a number of Starlings and Gulls.

The Albatros

Le Paon Du Jour

The Summer months seem such a very long time ago as I sit here typing this latest blog post in the depths of Winter. But the days are getting longer, albeit very slowly at the moment and in a few short months the Earth will awake from its slumber and the insects and flowers will emerge once again. I am keen to photograph more flora and fauna in 2014 but for now I have posted one of my favourite images from 2013. This has been a successful photograph for me, mentioned and favourited on several blogs and featured on the British Craft site Folksy's homepage.

 http://folksy.com/items/4439911-Le-Paon-Du-Jour-A-Fine-Art-Photography-Print-on-Ivory-Double-Mount 

Le Paon Du Jour - The Peacock Butterfly

Christmas Lights and the Fuji X100

Regent Street

Whilst in London earlier this month mooching around the main shopping areas of Oxford Street and Regent Street, it was impossible not to notice the many bright and cheerful Christmas decorations hanging above my head. They were lovely to see and combined with the general street lights and low cloud, produced a lovely warm and colourful glow in the sky. Wandering further afield, Fuji X100 in hand, I came across yet more lovely colour in both Chinatown and the West End. I knew that the relatively dark conditions would push the Fuji to the max and I would have to bump the ISO up accordingly if I were to capture the night lights accurately. Maintaining a fast enough shutter speed and reasonable depth of field meant that I was quite often shooting with the X100 set at 3200 ISO. This didn't prove a problem at all for the little chap which took it all within its stride. I simply had to nail the exposure in camera to avoid any major post processing afterwards in Photoshop. A combination of Aperture priority coupled with exposure compensation or switching to full manual mode allowed me to achieve just that. As I shoot in raw the only thing that was necessary to adjust once I had the files downloaded and on the computer was to add a bit of clarity and a touch of saturation.  

The West End 

The lovely Carnaby Street

Carnaby Street is one of my favourite areas of London. I love the little side streets and the fantastic independent shops.

One of the many restaurants in Chinatown 

One of the many boutique shopping arcades

Trafalgar Square

This was the first time that I had visited Trafalgar Square. Somehow not as big as I thought it would be but still very impressive, particularly the ever changing colour of the fountain.

I know I keep banging on about how good the Fuji X100 is, ( and now of course its replacement, the X100s ) but it really is such good fun to shoot with. What makes this camera so special is that despite its reasonably small size, it just keeps on churning out superb quality images, some of which I sell as limited edition 16'' x 12'' prints. It's really solidly made and has a lovely tactile feel and because the lens and camera were made from the ground up it produces pin sharp files every time. The fact that it has a really useful ISO range as well as a fast F2.0 lens means I can use it at weddings alongside my big Nikon bodies without ever worrying that it won't deliver the results. And bearing in mind that I shoot with a Nikon D4 and D3s, that's testament indeed.

Around London with the Fuji X100

London is a busy place. A very busy place. For someone like me who appreciates open spaces and plenty of room to move around London can be like hell on earth. I'm not sure why you would want to live in such a congested and noisy place given the chance, but some people love its bustling, never goes to sleep nature and think quite the opposite. One thing it is good for though, even I would have to admit, is the many street photography opportunities it provides. Being so busy the keen photographer is best advised to travel light, preferably with a camera that can be shoved in to a pocket whenever needed. The Fuji X series of cameras fit this bill nicely. I've been shooting with a Fuji X100 for many months now and find its small size a great advantage in such situations as it doesn't sacrifice image quality in comparison to much larger and heavier DSLR's. It also tends to go unnoticed by members of the public as it looks not too dissimilar to the majority of point and shoot type cameras on the market at present. With a fixed 23mm F2.0 lens, ( equivalent 35mm on full frame cameras ) it always manages to capture beautiful, saturated sharp images.

The Underground is always a great place to shoot a bit of street photography as there are normally so many people about, although if it gets too busy you can't really see the wood for the trees. People tend to keep themselves to themselves on the tube, either having a nap or their face buried in a book or tablet computer. This can make for some great images. Just remember to try not to look like some kind of stalker. The fixed 23mm lens on the X100 means you have to get in close if you want to capture images with impact and sometimes this means you can look a bit intimidating and weird. Best just to react quickly when you see a photo opportunity so the 'target', I mean subject, doesn't really know what's just happened.

Taking a nap

Colliers Wood Station 

The Tube

The museums provide some fantastic photo opportunities also, and so many of the people are using cameras of their own that you tend to be largely ignored by everyone else so can happily shoot away. The Natural History museum has some fantastic exhibits and the the architecture is particularly grand providing the opportunity for many photos.

The Natural History Museum

Many lines

The Science museum also provides an opportunity for some great photographs. Because the Science museum and the Natural History museum are right next door to each other it's easy to hop between the two. You probably need at least half a day in either one to truly appreciate what each has to offer so bear this in mind.

It's above you 

Rocket

These are just a few examples of the many places that make good street photography locations in London. There are more great areas like the colourful Chinatown, Soho and Carnaby Street that you may want to venture round so best put aside a week or so, book a room and some cheap travel and get on down there. Just be prepared for the hustle and bustle and you'll be fine.

After the Storm

After the Storm

This is quite a poignant image for me and one I will fondly remember taking. Captured just after the worst tidal surge to hit the Eastern side of the U.K. in sixty years it shows the coast in totally different conditions to those which were experienced just 48 hours before. Norfolk is known as big sky Country and this image perfectly encapsulates that quality. A fiery red sunset, calm conditions and little fishing boats provide the landscape photographer with the necessary ingredients to capture beautiful images, and when you're stood there surrounded by such glorious scenery you can't quite believe such violent storms can possibly happen.

All is Calm

Both Norfolk and Lincolnshire seem to be under a blanket of fog at the moment, the days and nights are both still and grey. While this can make landscape photography somewhat challenging at times with a lack of beautiful warm low light, if you try to embrace the murk and include it in the composition, you can capture some rather striking images.

I was out for a stroll on the sand banks to the Eastern end of Wells- Next-The-Sea with my Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 and Manfrotto tripod one afternoon last week and was struggling for a bit of inspiration. The light was flat and visibility was low. I was looking for interesting details either on the sandy beach or possibly a small boat nestled in one of the many small lagoons that are created during low tide. Nothing was really working for me until I turned back towards the town and saw that the mist had thinned considerably, allowing tantalising glimpses of the quay front and its many boats. The conditions were calm and the boats were casting lovely soft reflections in the water. I set up my tripod and got to work. It can be slightly tricky shooting in foggy conditions because although it may look dull and dreary it's actually more than likely far brighter than you may think. The camera is probably going to underexpose the scene because of this so exposure compensation will need to be used if shooting in Aperture priority, a value of +1 E.V. being a good starting point. I mainly shoot in manual mode when photographing landscapes and also manually focus. I find that this gives me the greatest possible control over the captured image and it also slows me down, something that I feel is very important when shooting this type of photography.

Looking back towards the Quay at Wells-Next-The-Sea.

 

Miranda MS-3

Miranda MS-3

I have to confess that when I first picked up this camera at a car boot sale I was somewhat disappointed with the build quality. It was marked up at £32 but I managed to haggle it down to £20 so thought what the hell and purchased it. This is a Dixon's own camera, not to be confused with the SLR's produced by the Miranda Camera Company from Japan. The Japanese Company ceased trading in the late 1970's and in the early 1980's the British electrical and photographic retailer Dixon's acquired the rights to the Miranda brand and used it on a range of photographic equipment. The quality of the camera isn't up to the Japanese models, it's mainly rubber and plastic and the focus ring is a bit stiff and slow on the Cosina kit lens. But spend a bit of time with it and it starts to grow on you. Easy to hold, quite tactile in fact and the more I used it the more it grew on me. The camera is most likely going to be used in semi automatic mode, meaning the user sets the aperture value and the camera selects the shutter speed, although a manual mode can be selected if desired. LED's seen through the viewfinder help with obtaining the correct exposure and the max shutter speed is 1/1000. There is also a bulb mode. The shutter mechanism works well and makes a positive sound when in operation. I was shooting with cheap Agfa Vista 200 ISO film which isn't the best but does the job. When I received the developed film back from the lab I was quite shocked at just how good the images were. The lens, while a relatively cheap and plasticky F1.8 50mm was obviously pretty darn sharp, the best of the cameras so far in fact. The camera tended to over expose bright scenes slightly so I would need to adjust for this in future, dialing in -0.3 E.V. to compensate would probably do the trick, nothing too drastic.

Overall I was very impressed with the results that this camera produced and it's certainly one I'll use again in the future.    

ISO dial and film rewind dial 

Film advance lever and shutter release button

The plasticky and rather cheeky Miranda MS-3

Nature's Harvest

Winter's Sun

Colourful leaves

A walk in the woods

Leaves burning bright

Indoor Portrait Shoot with Natural Light

I love portrait photography. Getting a shot both you and the subject love is a great feeling and something that they will hopefully cherish for many years to come. I do use off camera flash when I have to but much prefer natural light when I have the opportunity. It can provide a beautiful soft quality to the subject which can be difficult to replicate with a speedlight. That's not to say artificial light doesn't have its place. I do use it and enjoy doing so and you can get some ace results with it. Check out http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/off-camera-flash-portrait-in-flat.html to see what I mean.

If there is a large window available near to where i'm going to shoot a model I will always try to utilise it. The side of the subject lit by the window will provide the main light source and a simple reflector positioned opposite the window will bounce light back towards the darker side of the model, filling any unsightly shadows that may have formed. By moving the reflector you will be able to see the effect it is having and decide on its best position.

Becca 1

The window was used as the main light source with a silver reflector used to bounce a bit of light back towards the models right hand side.

Becca 2

The window's natural light was directly in front of the model with a silver reflector adding a bit of light to the right hand side of the face.

Becca 3

Similar to the first setup. The only difference this time was that the natural light was dropping off quickly so the lamp became the main light source. Any spill from the lamp was reflected back towards the model by using a silver reflector. 

Natalie Gail

Landscape photography can be very frustrating at times. You seem to be waiting an eternity for the weather conditions to become just right and all the elements to gel together. When they finally do you run round like a loon trying to capture as many beautiful images as you possibly can which is surely a recipe for disaster. I have found through experience that taking your time when planning the shot will help enormously when it comes to capturing that special moment. I recce places days beforehand even if the weather is foul as I can sometimes create a composition in my head or check where the sun will be at a certain time of day. I have found that even if conditions have changed since a previous visit I will still have a good understanding of a place and its mood. This can be vital if you only have a few minutes to capture the shot on the day.

Natalie Gail during low tide at Wells-Next-The-Sea

This image of 'Natalie Gail is a case in point. I knew the location well, knew where the sun would be at the time I wanted to shoot and had checked the tide times days in advance. The shot I had in my head required for the tide to be out and the boat to be marooned. I arrived a good 30 minutes before this shot was taken, set up the camera on a tripod and finessed the composition. By the time I was ready to shoot the sun was in the perfect position, just catching the side of the boat and its hull, a lovely reflection in the water. There wasn't a breath of wind and the fog was starting to roll in, the way it tumbles across the image from right to left adds a real sense of mystery and depth. The pair of geese that by happy accident had just landed beside the boat add a neat final touch to the image.

This is the sort of view that is often seen during quiet sun filled days in the depths of Winter on the North Norfolk Coast and being in the right place at the right time allowed me to capture it.   

A Walk in the Woods

I like to get out into the woods with my camera whenever I can. I like the solitude and the peace and quiet, just me, the animals and the birdsong. It's always great to explore new wild places, not that there are many of those left in England. Any time I have the chance to get away from the rat race and explore a woodland I haven't walked through before I take it. I feel like an explorer, never knowing what i'm going to stumble across next. There's a lovely little wooded area near my girlfriends mum's house with windy little paths and a beautiful small river snaking through it which is crystal clear, surely a haven for Kingfishers. The Fuji X100 is the perfect companion for such a walk as it's small and light yet so capable. It's great for wide angle as well as close up and macro shots and woodlands like this provide many great photo opportunities.

Low Winter Sun

Moss covered branches provide great detail shots.