Tree between Curbar Edge and White Edge

 b&w, landscape, trees  No Responses »
Jan 072013
 

Tree between Curbar Edge and White Edge

According the weatherman there was going to be plenty of sunshine almost all day in this part of the Peak District. It even looked like there might be a chance of some decent light first thing in the morning. We weren’t the only ones labouring under this misapprehension – we passed a number of people stood next to their tripods, cameras pointing down into the valley at Curbar and Calver and in the direction of where the sun might cast its first rays if it were to make an appearance.

It didn’t spoil my fun though – the intended destination was the scattering of trees that appear before Curbar turns into Froggat Edge. I’d photographed these trees before but the conditions this time were nowhere near as favourable as my previous visit, so instead of taking any colour shots I opted for a couple of medium format black and white shots and a few with the IR converted Canon 350D.

The 350D really is the most shocking piece of trash by modern standards – I bought it secondhand and it’s well worn, some dust is trapped under the IR filter and needs cloning out of every shot and it only really produces acceptable images when used with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (which itself is hardly the standard bearer of the Canon lens range). Despite all this though it’s occasionally an absolute gem for monochromatic images like this one – on cloudy days the mild IR filter cuts the contrast between the sky and the ground and provides a slightly different look from a normal desaturated/greyscale image and with the 50mm lens it produces pixel perfect images.

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or ArtFlakes.

Towering Winter Trees

 stock images, trees  No Responses »
Dec 242012
 

Towering Winter Trees

When I bought the lens that this image was made with (the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fish eye) I had intended to spend the whole winter using it for shots like this, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan. It got used a few times and, as correctly predicted by a number of people, it went back in the box (until being rediscovered for use on my infrared camera).

Prints, posters, cards available from photo4me or Redbubble. Other prints/prices available on request.

Available for licensing on Getty

Tree, Brownie Six-20 Model C

 b&w, film, trees  6 Responses »
Oct 072011
 

Tree image from Brownie Six-20 Model C

What started with the relatively cheap purchase of a Canon EOS 5 (which I considered to be an old camera at the time) now seems to have become an expensive habit, with me mulling over the purchase of small colour processing kit capable of taking 5×4 film.

This seems crazy to many people – myself included until recently – with the usual phrases including things like “you can do whatever you like with digital”, “each shot is free with digital”, “you can see what you’ve taken straight away” being trotted out frequently. All of these are of course valid points, and I have no intention of putting my digital kit away but there is something inescapably fun about film. Maybe it’s actually using the cameras themselves that is fun, I don’t know – what I do know is that unless I need digital quality results I find myself choosing a film camera to take with me when I go out now instead.

I was slowly working my way through all the different types of film I could find (although I tend to prefer B&W as I find it hard to get excited about colour film) and also enjoying the different characteristics, and faults of the various cameras when I suddenly remembered the old Box Brownie. The Kodak Six-20 Brownie Model C, made between 1946 and 1953 – surely it wasn’t possible to still get film for it?

A bit of searching led me to http://www.photosupplies.co.uk/ who offer 120 film respooled for use in 620 cameras. Not only that, but they also provide affordable, more than adequate quality processing (which is more than I can say for my local camera shop)

The image above was taken on my first trip out with the Box Brownie, taken on Fuji Neopan Acros 100 and processed by http://www.photosupplies.co.uk.

Ilford SFX200

 b&w, film, filters, tutorials  No Responses »
Jul 042011
 

Ilford SFX200Ilford SFX200

Images: left – SFX200 film with no filter, right – SFX200 film with Cokin P003 Red filter

Not too long ago, inspired by the work of others (and in order to plot another point on the Stages Of A Photographer graph) I picked up a second-hand Canon EOS film camera. I managed to get an EOS 5 from ebay for around £25 including postage – I had been wanting to pick up an EOS 3 but £100 seemed a little too extravagant. I could also have bought something more fashionable, but as a first tentative step into the world of film it seemed a sensible choice – I can use all my lenses and it works pretty much the same as my main camera, the 5D (although there are some inconvenient differences, such as the lack of dedicated Depth of Field preview button)

I put a couple of films through it to see how I got on, and got them developed locally (and cheaply). Unfortunately the results were pretty poor – lots of scratched prints – but it also seemed that how I metered for digital wasn’t appropriate for film. There were some nice images though, so undeterred I decided to try again so I ordered 4 B&W films at random and it just so happened that one of these was a roll of Ilford SFX200.

I hadn’t really read anything about the film when buying it but whilst casually researching the films before they arrived I noticed that it had “extended red sensitivity” and “using a deep red filter skies can be rendered almost black and most green vegetation almost white”. Reading a bit more about the film I couldn’t really find out any solid facts about using it – although had I found the flickr group earlier I could probably have got my questions answered – so I decided to document my limited experimentation with it so far here.

Kit used:
Canon EOS 5
Canon 24mm f/2.8 lens
58mm filter adapter – as the lens has a 58mm filter thread
Cokin P Series Wide Angle Filter Holder (BPW400A) – I could have used the standard 3 slot one but as I was going to be using film and not digital I didn’t want to be relying on the need to crop the edges if the adapter was visible. (Because the viewfinder isn’t 100% there is always the chance that you don’t see the filter holder through the viewfinder but that it is visible in the shots)
Cokin P003 Red Filter

Notes:
I was using the square Cokin P-Series filters because I already had them. Kood also produce the filter accessories (adaptor, holder), which are generally cheaper than the Cokin ones.
A screw-in Red 29 filter will perform the same function. (A Red 25 filter may also be used but the effect will be slightly less strong)

Without filter/With filter comparison:
The images at the top of this page were shot at the same time (well, within less than a minute of each other) in identical lighting conditions – bright sunlight. Ok – the composition is slightly different, which doesn’t make it a 100% accurate comparison, but my slight change of position will have made only minimal difference to the exposure.

TTL metering was used for both images, metering set to Evaluative. The Red filter has a filter factor of 8, meaning that it absorbs 3 stops of light, so bright sunlight really is necessary for taking shots hand-held. Normally when using the red filter with digital I would shoot at ISO400 but as I was using this film for the first time I decided to use it as its rated speed. ISO400 obviously gives a bit of extra leeway with the aperture setting and I found that I was shooting at f/8 and f/5.6 at less than 1/100s here. Even though statistically 1/50s should be fine with the 24mm lens I still like to shoot a bit faster, so I was expecting a few blurred shots from the roll (but was happily surprised when they were all ok)

As you can see from the images above (left, SFX200 film with no filter – right, SFX200 film with Cokin P003 Red filter) there is a marked difference in the tones when using the red filter. It’s not quite true Infrared as a) the red filter still lets a lot of visible light through and b) the film doesn’t record far into the infrared spectrum, but it’s quite a strikingly different look and one which I far prefer to the 650nm digital conversion that I have.

For a more authentic Infrared effect you could use an IR72/R72/Cokin P007 filter – however this is a very dark filter and it’s virtually (if not) impossible to compose and focus with the filter on. For the time being I’ll be sticking with the red filter as the film camera is a relatively inexpensive thing of fun for me – I’m not quite ready to stick it on a tripod and take it seriously.

Tree, Win Hill

 b&w, landscape, trees  1 Response »
Apr 282011
 

Tree, Win Hill, Derbyshire

Whilst getting to choose your own wages is probably the best thing about working for yourself, being able to escape to do something fun when the workload isn’t too hectic comes a very close second. On one such less than hectic day Dan and I decided a trip to the Peak District would be the best use of our time and arranged to meet up with Al Brydon for a moderately paced photographers stumble up and around Win Hill.

This was taken towards the end of the walk, as the sun was disappearing behind cloud and the general mist that had been present all day.

This work is available at redbubble along with selected others

If moody pictures of trees (and moody pictures not of trees) are your thing then you’d do well to check out Al’s Holgascapes book or his work on Etsy. He’s too good – I hate him.

Tree in Cressbrook Dale

 b&w, trees  No Responses »
Feb 202011
 

Tree in Cressbrook Dale

Not many blog posts recently – not because of lack of enthusiasm but due to lack of time. Unfortunately earning money has to come before gallivanting around the countryside in all weathers (most of the time)

This shot was taken on a Sunday afternoon walk around Cressbrook Dale in early January with the talented and extremely pleasant Mr Al Brydon (http://www.albrydonphotography.co.uk/ or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Al-Brydon-Photography/329360448276)

I’m often tempted to try and fit all the subject into a shot, but since I took a break from using the wide angle lens I’ve been concentrating more on using longer focal lengths (40-50mm) and trying to crop scenes to make the most of interesting light and detail. Here I liked the curve made by the tree and its shadow, how the winding path filled up the left of the frame and how the branches on the left of the tree extended to fill the sky.

This work is available at redbubble.

Fallen Tree

 landscape, trees, water  No Responses »
Feb 022011
 

Fallen Tree

No matter how many times I visit this location I always seem to find something new, or a slightly different variation on past themes. I guess part of that is down to making sure I leave a couple of months between visits, so each time it looks slightly different – if I go anywhere too regularly I just end up with infinite variations of the same shot.

A simple shot, taken minutes before the sun disappeared over the horizon behind me, trying to make the most of the great light and the extraordinarily still water.

Purchase print at redbubble

Ancient Tree At Dawn

 landscape, stock images, trees  No Responses »
Nov 192010
 

Ancient Tree At Dawn, Bradgate Park

No matter what time in the morning I get to the park (on the mornings I can bear to drag myself out early), I always seem to be at this spot not long after the sun has come up. The low light often looks so good on the gnarly textures of this old tree that I have to stop and get a couple of shots.

This image and a number of others are available for licencing on Getty Images

Brocks Hill Country Park

 landscape, trees  No Responses »
Feb 072010
 

Brocks Hill Country Park

A couple of old shots again today, as I continue working though last year’s images with a view to making some of the better ones available as prints (and just generally sharing some of the others that had been languishing on my hard drive).

These were both taken on an overcast afternoon on a footpath just outside Brocks Hill Country Park in Oadby, a few days after I’d got my Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens. I find it hard to ignore the combination of crops, tractor tracks and trees and many of my images from this time were similar to this, as I tried to find a composition I liked (and I imagine there will be a few this year also).

 

Brocks Hill Country Park

Purchase print at RedBubble | Photo4me

Bradgate Park in Winter

 landscape, sunrises, trees  No Responses »
Feb 022010
 

Bradgate Park in Winter

A small amount of snow just before Christmas gave me the ideal excuse to get up nice and early on a Sunday morning to go to Bradgate Park. When I arrived, long before sunrise, there were only two sets of prints leading into the park from the Old John car park – someone taking their dog for a walk.

The sunrise itself was rather uneventful – a cloudless sky, a bit of a glow and then the sun appearing – not really my favourite. Perhaps I could have made more out of it if I’d prepared (or had more imagination) but it was pleasant enough just to be there in the fresh snow.

While the light was still good I headed to one of the places I’ve been meaning to visit at daybreak for sometime and got the shot above. This is just as it was taken – no filters, no post processing, just good old fashioned sunlight.

Purchase print at RedBubble | imagekind

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