After Dark

With the nights drawing in and darkness falling earlier each night I find the idea of going out with a camera quite appealing. Here are few shots taken over the last 4 evenings

SUN Awards

Went up to Manchester on Thursday evening for the annual SUN Awards do and was pleasantly surprised to find I had won the award for best location shot. Thanks to Nick Jones from UK Locations who sponsored my award.

This is my winning entry.

And a couple more from the same shoot

Scotland

In September Sheila and I decided to take a break and head up to Scotland. We started on the Hebridean island of Mull, then over to Skye to visit family and finally on to Durness and Cape Wrath, right up on the top left hand corner of mainland Britain. Here are a few holiday snaps.

Climber

This was a nice job. I needed a shot of a climber in a great location. This is Gary Wheeler, a very powerful climber and vertical access expert. We shot him climbing on Stanage edge in the Peak District. The only problem was that the background didn't work very well, so I patched in a shot from the northern tip of Skye taken on New years day. 

White Peak

The Peak District is split geographically into the White and Dark Peaks. The White Peak is made up of limestone dales and undulating pastures, while the Dark Peak is all gritstone edges and high heather moorland. These images are from the White Peak.

Esmond Tresidder

I've known Es since he was a toddler. A keen runner (and climber) from an early age he soon started to enter the fell races that take place in the Peak District during the summer. It wasn't long before he was leaving his dad Rob and myself way behind. In May this year, after a couple of earlier attempts, he nocked 15 mins of the record for the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye. His finished time was 3hrs 17min 28secs. 

This is a shot of him training on the path above Baslow Edge. 

An apology

I new when I started this blog I would find it difficult to keep it up to date and sure enough as the summer got busy I let it lapse. Well now is the time to amend that and post some of the projects I've been working on.

The first was to photograph a golf course. I needed to shoot at sunrise (05.30am) and one of the problems with strong directional sun light is heavy contrast that a camera can't cope with. So I use a technique called exposure blending. With the camera on a tripod, I take 5 exposures from massively underexposed to capture the highlight detail, to massively overexposed to capture the shadow detail. Here is the end result.

Burbage Valley

I went for a walk yesterday along the Burbage Valley. It's situated in the northern Peak District just outside the Sheffield city boundary. Being a wide gritstone valley and quite high up it makes for an exhilarating walk on a grey windy day. Here are a few of my shots.

Paralympic Athletes

Another of my projects for this year is paralympic athletes. The guys featured here are the East Midlands Wheelchair Rugby Club "The Marauders." Fourth from the top is Mandip Sehmi a member of the British national team. You will notice how battered their wheelchairs get. Not for nothing was this game previously called "Murder Ball." A truly inspirational bunch of athletes who were a pleasure to work with. 

Migration

This isn't exactly a new picture, but I was reminded of it yesterday while out for a walk in the Peak District. I had been photographing butterflies for a client and after they had chosen their images I had quite a few left over. It was later when standing on Gardoms edge above Baslow, gazing over the Peak District that the butterflies came back to me and I imagined them migrating over the hills. More like a flock of geese than butterflies. So I shot the landscape there and then and later on built up this picture. It was fine tuned by my friend Jack Lowe,  a photographic retoucher who runs a digital services studio in Newcastle.   

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Paid a visit to the YSP on Saturday. It's a place I always find rewarding and inspirational. The Noguchi exhibition in the underground gallery didn't excite me too much unfortunately but I did enjoy Sophie Ryders sculptures outside by the Camellia house. They are large bronzes or galvanised wire sculptures of a mythical figure with a womans body and hares head. Also there is always an eclectic display around the park with work by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Elisabeth Frink, Helen Escobedo and loads more including Eduardo Paolozzi well known to Londoners. I still reckon Andy Goldsworthy's exhibition last year is my favourite.