Photography

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Origins Of Inspiration.

I’ve mentioned before (probably several times) that I learn’t my photography by spending many hours exploring and shooting out and about on the Somerset Levels here near my home in the South West of England.

Now you’d think after spending so much time exploring one area I’d have had exhausted any kind of inspiration the area had to offer but this could not be further from the truth.

Today I spent a beautiful spring afternoon walking with my family on Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve on the heart of the Somerset Wetlands near Glastonbury.

Exploring an area I had not seen or at least remember seeing for many years it once again made me remember why I fell in love with photography as a teenager and why I still love my home here in Somerset.

A few times during those early years I wondered if I should head to London to live and assist which was and still is the route many others take to try and further their photography learning and careers.

I didn’t take this route preferring to assist (albeit for a very brief time) closer to home and base my business here but have an agent to represent my work in London.

I now realise this was probably the right choice to make.My main inspiration in those early years as a photographer came from the landscape that surrounded me and had I decided to make the move to London I suspect I’d had fallen by the wayside without that inspiration to keep me motivated to shoot and continue my interest in photography as a career.

Photography can be a tough business with long periods of little shooting but plenty of work behind a desk marketing or retouching.

Getting out behind the camera and back capturing the things that first inspired us to pick it up in the first place can charge us up creatively and give us a fresh boost of enthusiasm which we all are in need of every now and again.

The images here where shot for pure fun on my iPhone but also serve as a reference to the places I’m now planning to return to shoot sometime in the next week or so.

 

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Photography Vision, What Are You Saying ?

Next time you pick up your camera to shoot what’s in front of you why not pause for a second to ask yourself why ?
Why are you drawn to shoot what is in front of you? and what are you looking to convey in the image? Why bother ? I can hear you saying
Well asking yourself what makes you tick when you pick up a camera can reveal a lot about yourself and that unique thing called vision that we all posses but can rarely explain.
This is not only an enlightening exercise to do but can help you understand and develop your vision further which in turn can allow your images stand out from the crowd from everyone else’s.
Your vision is made up of your personal experiences of life growing up and is constantly evolving as we grow and experience more in our daily lives.

My own work compared to several years ago has in the main changed tempo as I tend to seek out quiet moments (probably due to having a hectic home life with 3 young kids :] !) Most of it is captured in colour (as it always has been) and I use colour to help convey the scene as I saw and felt it rather than show a neutral or faithful colour balance.
I prefer slightly longer lenses where possible and look for clean uncluttered compositions often shot under soft light as opposed to contrasty direct light which I sought out in my early work.
I could go on but I don’t want to bore further about my vision but I think you can see it can be an interesting exercise to do.
Why not sit down and print off some of your favourite images and see if you can find similarities running through them and if so write them down.

Maybe you will find that most of your favourite shots use motion,soft back light and subdued colours to convey what you captured and these could well be a few of your tools that you use to express your vision.

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Abandoned Airfield

As I have mentioned in other recent posts we have had a significant amount of snow here in the U.K during the last few weeksThe other night the cold clear sky promised a stunning sunset so I decided to brave the cold and set out to take some images at an Airfield called Merryfield. I chose this location not only as it was within walking distance from my home (using the car was not an option) but also because I knew the light would be beautiful and in an ideal position for the image I had (very loosely) planned in my head.
Merryfield Airfield was opened in 1944, and used during the second world war by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. It’s still used today for training helicopter pilots but this particular winter’s evening all was very quiet and presented quite an eerie atmosphere
As the sun dropped so did the temperature and in the distance I noticed some icy cold mist starting to build and roll towards me across the deserted runway which further added to the atmosphere.
It was a thrilling sight viewing this mist build up backlit against the golden setting sun and I was so transfixed I forgot the cold temperature being only concerned with watching and capturing everything happening before me.
The position I took up to capture the image shows the Guard Hut at the entrance of the airbase and the view across the historic runway complete with mist and fading winter light.

As with most of my Digital Photography I don’t care to purely document a scene but to represent it as I saw or felt it .Sometimes this can involve removing objects,compositing new elements into the scene or simply manipulating the colour.

With this shot I did all of the above including enhancing the mist to make it stand out better.I also decided the wind sock would be better suited a little further to the left than where it was originally placed within the scene.

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