Into the Clouds | Weekly Photo #82

First up, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and during these testing times, managed to take some time out and relax over the last few days. I’m writing this the day after Boxing Day having had way too much food and drink and taking what seemed like hours to build some Harry Potter Lego with my youngest. Although quieter than usual, we made the best of it and ended up having a nice couple of days.

Fujifilm X70 | 18mm | 28 Seconds | f/8 | ISO200

Although not quite as festive as last week’s photo of the Cartier store in New Bond Street, I thought I would round up the year with another photo of London taken just before Christmas a few years ago. If you look closely you can see the white Christmas tree over the river, underneath The Shard.

While in London I, I was travelling very light and had with me the great (and sorely missed) Fujifilm X70 camera. The X70 is a compact, pocketable camera with a fixed 18mm lens that took great quality photos which I’ve since sold to help fund my Fujifilm X-T30 but I long for Fujifilm to release an updated version as I would be first in line.

It was a misty, atmospheric morning with some low hanging cloud and after taking a few photos across the river, around More London I headed over Tower Bridge to take this cityscape vista of The Shard reaching up into the clouds. Along with the X70 camera, I had the Manfrotto PIXI tabletop tripod and a round screw-in Hoya 10-Stop filter so I used these to capture a 28-second long exposure which helped to smooth away the ripples in the water, soften the clouds and simplify the overall scene. Having re-processed the image for this blog post, I’m now really happy with the results.

Next week, I plan to release my yearly review of some of my favourite photos I took/released during a rather unconventional 2020 so keep an eye out for that on my website in the coming days.

Lastly, I just wanted to spend a moment to thank you all for your support throughout 2020. I know it’s been a tough one for so many people and I hope my posts have brought some of you just a tiny distraction from all the goings on and I truly appreciate the positive messages of encouragement I received from some of you throughout the year. It’s those very messages that push me to keep writing when my own motivation needs a little kick up the proverbial.

So, here’s to a 2021 that’s full of renewed hope, freedom and above all else, good health.

Happy New Year.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

A London Christmas | Weekly Photo #81

As I did last year with this photo of the famous Covent Garden Christmas tree, I wanted to share another festive themed photo so I re-edited this one I took last year along New Bond Street in Mayfair of the classy Cartier building wrapped in a bow.

Fujifilm X-T30 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/20th Second | f/4 | ISO800

I had planned to share a photo of London at Christmas featuring some lights or decorations taken this year and I did manage to make a trip into town to shoot around the West End before the restrictions were severly tightened around the city but I’ve not had time to sort through the photos I took so I checked back on the photos I took last year and found this one only partly processed and effectively abandoned.

I’m not sure if this is common amongst all photographers but even through this photo was taken over a year ago, I can somehow remember the morning vividly and seem to be able to recall where and when I took almost every photo in my collection. I remember walking from Green Park Station just as the rain started and wishing I had remembered a hooded jacked or umbrella but as I was on my way to work, I couldn’t just stand there taking photos getting soaking wet so I had to find cover and wait out the heaviest of the rain.

Once the rain had cleared, I walked along New Bond Street and stopped directly opposite the decorated Cartier store so, I grabbed the camera to take the shot. Even with my wide-angle 10-24mm attached to the camera, I knew this would be a tough shot to take as with my back against the wall opposite, I could only just fit everything in and having to point the camera upwards meant I needed space around the building to straighten the verticals in post processing so, I wouldn’t really know if the shot would work until I got it back home and started editing the photo.

If I remember correctly, the reason the photo was never quite finished was I just couldn’t get the lines to look even close to straight using the geometry tools in Lightroom but this time round, I had the guided upright tool at my disposal so I could now tell Lightroom what lines needed to be vertical and which were horizontal and like magic, the picture was straightened but with very little space to spare on this 3:2 crop. The remaining post-processing was cooling down the colour balance, desaturating the strong blues and reds and brightening up the iconic London Phone Box in the foreground.

I’ve spoken before about revisiting older photos as new tools and editing skills develop, you never know what potential you have lurking in your archive so I definitely recommend checking back on partly edited photos (you can filter these in Lightroom) to see what photos you thought had potential but couldn’t quite get right. As time passes, your skills will have developed and the software you use might now have a feature that solved the issue like it did for me.

It’s been a strange old year and one that most people will want to, but probably won’t ever forget so, with all that’s going on in the world, I do hope you can put that to the side just for a short while and enjoy the festivities as best you can.

Merry Christmas.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Zigzag | Weekly Photo #80

I took this photo a couple of months ago while I was exploring a new part of my local forest just as autumn was kicking into gear. I came across this funky looking tree while down in a bit of a valley and was drawn to how the trunk zigzags up from the ground and continue to do so all the way along the branches making it really stand out in this area of woodland.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 86mm | 2 Seconds | f/10 | ISO200

After spotting the tree and deciding to take the picture, I had to find the best spot to shoot it from. Although it may appear straight forward to just wander around to find the best angle, it gets a bit trickier in the woodland because as you move around, all of the elements change. The best angle of the tree may mean a more distracting background or the best distance away may mean you end up with other trees obscuring the view or encroaching into the frame. So, although I would have preferred it if the two trees on the left of the frame were not overlapping, from where I was standing, this was simply the best composition available to me at the time.

Speaking of those trees, I purposely kept them in and to the left to ensure the composition was balanced across the scene. To exclude them would mean placing the zigzag tree in the centre of the frame and I didn’t like that idea and I thought the moss-covered trunk nearest the camera added some more character and enhanced the feeling I was after.

Once I had the composition, I set up my Fujifilm XT2 camera and 55-200mm lens on the tripod and importantly, placed my circular polariser on to the end of my lens. The circular polariser is perfect for a scene like this as it takes off any glare and reflection from the trees while at the same time giving the green moss a real punch and with the green and blue ambient tones, it gave the overall image a cool, dark mystical feel which I like a lot.

I took a few different versions of this composition from landscape to portrait and even zoomed right in to capture the strong lines created by zigzagging branches which turned out really well. I might share it on this weekly photo series in the future. We will have to see.

With the festive season now in full swing and the lights up around a relatively quiet London, I plan to head into town this week to see if I can capture another Christmassy photo and if all goes to plan, I will share it next week. In the meantime, why not pop by last year’s post of the large Christmas Tree in Covent Garden.

Take care of yourselves!

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Cloudburst Over London | Weekly Photo #79

I hope those of you that follow my blog are enjoying the mix of urban cityscapes, landscapes and woodland photos I have been posting lately. I hear a lot about how photographers should have a level of consistency in what they photograph to build an identity and to a certain extent, I do, as I only shoot landscapes (both urban or natural), but I feel as a photographer, its far more important I take photos for me first and if others enjoy the work I share, then that’s a rather significant bonus. That’s why I try to split my time between the city and the natural landscape as for the time being at least, I love to shoot them both.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 21mm | 1/15th Second | f/6.4 | ISO320

This week I want to share a pic I took just a few weeks ago from the 36th floor roof terrace atop London’s Sky Garden. I try to pop by once or twice a year and capture some new views of the city as it’s a fantastic vantage point to photograph London and once again, I was not disappointed.

Check out these two photos I took from the same spot during a previous visit to the Sky Garden:

• London in the Mist | Weekly Photo #13

• Good Morning London | Weekly Photo #37

While up there, I could see a curtain of rain over to the south-west, resembling a cloudburst with the rain visibly falling from the sky and it was coming my way. Getting closer and closer by the minute, it worked its way across the city and with the dark moody clouds stretching out towards me, I knew there was a photo available to me, but that was only half the battle won. This was a technically tricky photo to capture!

Like most rooftop locations in London, when you visit the Sky Garden you have to be prepared to shoot through the rather grubby glass so to avoid dirt and spots showing up, I had to keep the aperture on the wider side at f/6.4 which also helped let in more light as the glass and dull moody weather meant the scene was a bit dark and the wider aperture allowed me to keep the ISO down at 320 which in turn helped keep the photo a little cleaner while still shooting handheld due to the restrictions on using tripods.

I composed the photo the best I could with the River Thames sweeping around the frame towards the rain and moody black clouds but being careful to avoid the building stricture from encroaching into the frame. It was tricky because I had to avoid the window frames and reflective light from between the panes of glass which, even a lens hood couldn’t resolve but once I had everything aligned, I took the shot.

I spent a few minutes taking some more photos, including a front facing photo of The Shard across the river which I really like and will share soon but within just a few minutes, the rains came and the winds increased so the viewing platform was closed for the evening and I had to make my way back inside.

Taking photos of London is usually all about the city streets, river and architecture so when the weather itself can play a part in my cityscapes like this, the story changes and the city steps back into a supporting role to allow mother nature to take the lead in an otherwise man-made, urban setting.

Until next time.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Misty Dawn | Weekly Photo #78

One of the things I hear quite a lot from people I talk to or the photographers I follow is that the restrictions on movement many of us have had recently means we have spent more time exploring and photographing local places we once might have overlooked and I think that’s one of the reasons for what appears to be a bit of a woodland photography boom that’s been happening. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea and might not always have the wow factor of the iconic location-centric landscapes but with a woodland in some form on most people’s doorstep, it’s an accessible genre of photography to try and I find it a great motivator to get outside, learn a new subject and most importantly, enjoy some peace and solitude while surrounded by mother nature.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1/3rd Second | f/9 | ISO200

Having only starting this year, I still consider myself a novice when it comes to woodland photography, being able to see compositions, understand how the light interacts with the plants and trees and how to translate a scene that is pleasing to the eye into an interesting photo that tells a story. Like most genres of photography, there is no substitute for practice and experience and with woodland photography I lack on both counts but that doesn’t daunt me, it’s what motivates me to learn, improve and take photos that I would be proud to hang on my wall.

This photo was taken in my usual Sussex based woodland hangout in September. I’ve visited many times this year but given its size, I’ve yet to explore it all. On this occasion, I was on an early morning walk with my youngest daughter, who seems to be as excited to explore the great outdoors as I am so whenever possible, I gladly bring her along with me.

As we arrived at the car park, the forest was surrounded by dense fog with just a few metres of visibility and too thick to take any woodland photos. Frustratingly, after an hour or so, the sun began to burn through at rapid speed and it took only around 15 minutes to go from thick fog to a clear sunny morning, so I had time to capture just two photos which included some atmospheric mist and this shot of the Scots Pines amongst the ferns was the first.

I was drawn to the arrangement of the trees and the branch that seemed to be arching over the darker void in the background which adds some depth in the photo. By now, the sun was casting a defused light through the mist and onto the trees adding some life into the scene so I stepped back around 20-25 metres, mounted my 55-200mm lens to create a nice tight frame around the scene, being careful to avoid the bright sky and fired the shutter.

I wish I could say that all the work for this shot was done in camera on location but I would be lying, the photo still needed a bit of work in Adobe Lightroom to adjust the tones and colours to better reflect the conditions I experienced while taking the photo. I guess with time, the need to correct or improve in post will reduce as my on-location woodland experience increases.

Until next week

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Under London Bridge | Weekly Photo #77

Whether I’m photographing the high rises in the city or a misty woodland in Sussex, I tend to have two approaches to taking photos. On one hand, I will pack a bag with a selection of lenses, filters and a tripod and plod around my location, usually with a particular shot in mind usually coming away with a handful of photos of the given subject. On the other hand, I might be travelling light, with a single lens with me, where I just head off on a photo walk with the camera in hand and no fixed agenda, hunting for compositions as I go.

For more info about my gear, including my lightweight setup, check out this post: WHAT’S IN MY CAMERA BAG (2020 EDITION)

Both approaches have their pros and cons, such as when I have my tripod, I tend to slow down, spending more time in a particular location, maybe working on some fine art long exposures, or just waiting for that nice light to come to me, whereas when traveling light, I can be more agile, cover more ground and seek out more unique compositions as I go and it was during one of this photo walks in the city while traveling light that I took this photo of The Shard from underneath London Bridge.

Fujifilm X-T30 | XF10-24mm | 13mm | 1/50th Second | f/5 | ISO160

This photo was taken back in February while I was having a wander with the camera before heading into the office. I had with me my pocket rocket Fujifilm X-T30 camera and wide-angle 10-24mm lens which is a fantastic combination allowing me to travel light, stay agile and use the wide-angle lens to seek out and emphasise the dynamic shapes created by the city’s fantastic architecture.

As I passed under London Bridge just after the sun had risen, I stopped to have a play with the lines and shapes that frame this view of The Shard across the river. Along with London Bridge on the right-hand side, on the left, there is a metal staircase leading up to the road level and by getting in between these two and carefully framing the shot by resting the camera on the handrail, I snapped away and captured this shot.

In my last post here I talked about how I try to balance the composition and if you can imagine that the metal hand rail on the bottom left wasn’t in the frame, there would just be lots of empty space resulting in too much visual weight in the top right of the frame which just wouldn’t work so having both the bridge and the stairs frame The Shard from opposing corners, it solves that problem nicely. In addition, I particularly like how the triangle created by the underside of the bridge mimics the shape of The Shard but in the opposite direction creating a healthy amount of visual tension in the composition.

It was a very productive morning and I came away from the shoot with a nice crop of photos which happens every now and then when the conditions, the light and my photographic eye are in sync and it absolutely makes up for the many times I walk away from a shoot without any good photos at all.

Until next time.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Colour Wheel | Weekly Photo #76

I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been just over a week of what some are calling “Lockdown 2” here in the UK. In reality, it’s not quite as strict as the lockdown back in March as the restrictions are concentrated on indoor venues and we are still ok to venture out alone or with the family to spend time outdoors. This is good news for the majority of us who like to spend time outdoors and importantly those that need it as spending that quiet time out, alone or with family and away from life’s distractions and stresses is incredibly important when keeping your mental health in check.

What it does mean is that I won’t be visiting London for a few weeks while I continue to work from home. staying out of the city is the right thing to do at the moment and that side of my photography will just have to wait. In the meantime, I’ll keep rummaging through my photo archive for photos of London to share with you and speaking of which, here’s a shot of the London Eye I took before sunrise back in January, which, incidentally, feels a lifetime ago now.

Fujifilm X-T30 | XF16mm F2 | 16mm | 9 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO160

I took this photo while out on a pre-sunrise shoot in Westminster during a mild, but rather windy morning in January. I wanted to capture a photo of the London Eye along with these colourful lights from a slightly different composition that I had seen before. The main issue I have with photographing the London Eye from Westminster Bridge is that the composition is hard to get right and you often end up lots of the visual weight on the right created by the buildings over at County Hall but a lot less going on to the left of the London Eye which leads to an unbalanced frame, so, as I stood on the bridge, I wanted to find a way to add some interest to the left-hand side and create a more balanced composition.

After a minute or two, I spotted the floating platform on the nearside of the Thames and importantly, the lights were on so I could use the contrast it created as a feature in the frame. By placing it on the left-hand, lower third of the image, it added that much needed balance and interest to the composition I was after. I set my small tabletop tripod upon a flat section of the wall that flanks the bridge and with my wide 16mm prime lens attached to my Fujifilm X-T30 camera, I dialled in the settings and took the shot. I wasn’t after a super smooth long exposure as I still wanted a little texture in the water so I went for an exposure time of 9 seconds which was just long enough to help flatten the water a little to make it appear less busy and emphasise those colourful reflections.

As I did in a previous post, I have annotated the final image which I hope will help demonstrate my thoughts on the composition and what I was trying to achieve.

I hope you find these annotated photos useful and as ever, I would love to hear your thoughts so drop me a comment below

Once I had this photo of the London Eye in the bag, I walked across the bridge and managed to capture another shot with the telephoto lens looking in the opposite direction towards St George Wharf just as the blue hour was starting to show. You will find that photo here City Glow | Weekly Photo #40.

I’ll be back with another photo next week but in the meantime stay safe and be creative.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Remembrance | Weekly Photo #75

I normally release my weekly photo stories every Monday morning but I’ve posted this week’s photo a day early as I wanted it to co-inside with Remembrance Sunday here in the UK and pay my own small tribute to this incredibly important day. I appreciate not all countries will observe Remembrance Day but hopefully everyone will appreciate it’s not about who did what and who’s cause was just, it is about remembering those that were lost to war and conflict throughout history regardless of the country they were from. It’s not political, it’s a mark of respect.

During World War One, most of the fighting took place in Western Europe and the previously picturesque countryside was turned into lakes of mud as they were repeatedly blasted by bombs and fought over. The landscape was bleak and nothing could grow with one notable exception, the bright, red Flanders poppy. This hardy flower managed to grow in in the thousands across the otherwise desolate landscape. In spring 1915, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by this resilient flower and wrote the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 71mm | 1/6,000th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

Back in June this year, I was on the hunt for locations to photograph a poppy field down here in the south east of England and I stumbled across this spot in Dover, beside the South Foreland Lighthouse. Located along the historic white cliffs, it’s a beautiful place with stunning views across the English Channel so along with another photographer buddy, we arranged to meet at sunrise to take some photos.

We arrived just before sunrise and quickly realised the sun would be rising in the direction we were shooting which was good in terms of getting some beautiful backlight on the poppies but it presented a challenge with photographing the lighthouse with so much dynamic range. We spent a bit of time wandering around the field, looking for some good compositions and once the sun had risen and moved a little over to the right, the dynamic range was a lot more manageable and I was able to get the scene exposed without the need for filters or exposure bracketing.

I took a number of shots while playing with the depth of field and as I reviewed the photos once back in Lightroom, I settled for this photo with the lighthouse rendered nice and sharp and the focus gradually dropping off as it got closer to the camera. Even though it’s clear what the flowers are, I just feel the out of focus foreground is easier on the eye and softens the overall scene.

Being such an iconic location along the white cliffs of Dover and such a recognisable symbol of remembrance and hope, I’m so pleased I was able to take it and share it on this important day.

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

~ John McCrae, 1915 ~

“Lest We Forget”

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Autumnal Woodland | Weekly Photo #74

Along with a trip to the Sky Garden in London, this week, I’ve been out and about on the hunt for some autumnal woodland scenes in my local forest. For the last few years, London and urban cityscapes have been my main focus and as such, autumnal colours never really played a big part in my photography but since venturing into the world of woodland photography, capturing those autumn colours has been high on my photography to-do list and as the colours only last for a couple of weeks, I’ve been travelling into the forest as often as I can to take my own autumnal woodland photo.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 105mm | 1/8th Second | f/6.4 | ISO320

So, on this particular morning, I set out while it was still dark and arrived at the car park just as the sun was rising and headed off into Ashdown Forest in Sussex. Unfortunately, as much as I hoped, I wasn’t blessed with a calm, misty morning, but I was still confident that even without that beautiful defused light, I could still seek out a woodland image that featured those bold, autumnal colours I wanted to capture.

My aim was to follow a pre-determined route through the woods and just photograph what caught my eye and an hour or so into the shoot I came across this spot that was full of these copper coloured ferns and orange and yellow leaves spread right across scene. It had just the kind of seasonal colours I was after so out came my tripod to set up the shot. The leaves appear to flow through the image from right to left until the point they arrive at the brighter silver birch trees, purposely placed on the left hand third to act as the main focal point and add some contrast to help break up the colour and give the eye a place to rest.

The challenge I had when taking this photo was the strong wind that was blowing through the forest. With the low light and gusts of wind, there was no way I was going to get a completely blur-free image so I deliberately kept my ISO lower at 320 and just embraced the motion blur that was captured in parts of the image, particularly around the ferns in the foreground.

So, with the circular polariser attached to break through any reflective light and give the scene an extra punch of colour, albeit at the cost of an even slower shutter speed, I took the shot.

Back in Adobe Lightroom, I worked on making a feature of the colours, being mindful not to move those sliders too far to the right and with a slight crop to remove a few distractions near the end of the frame, I was left with the final image you can see here.

I know photography like this is very subjective and this photo will no doubt split opinions, but I guess many of my photos do. If we all liked the same thing, life would be boring but I wouldn’t be staying true to myself and my photography if I just posted what I thought people wanted to look at. The only brief I have is to take photos I like and want to share and if it’s received well, that’s fantastic, but if not, then there is always next week’s photo to look forward too.

The weather forecast for the south of England is looking particularly wet and miserable this week and although time is running out, I remain hopeful that I will get another opportunity to head into the woodland and capture those autumn colours once more before they disappear for another year.

Cheers

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Rainy City | Weekly Photo #73

Here’s a familiar view of London, grey, dull and pouring with rain. For some, it’s a cue to get indoors to keep dry but for crazy people like me, I think it’s a great time to be wandering the streets with the camera, seeking out some creative photo opportunities.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF23mm F2 | 23mm | 1/250th Second | f/2.8 | ISO200

Before I head out with the camera, I tend to check the forecast so I‘m prepared for weather like this but as they say, you can’t predict the weather and nor it seems could any of my weather apps, as on this particular afternoon, there was no rain forecast, so I wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion. Although I was lacking a raincoat, the good news was that I had my weather-resistant Fujifilm XT2 and XF23mm lens with me so even though I was going to get wet, my camera would keep on shooting without me having to worry about rain affecting the gear. So, with the rain falling, I set off towards the city to capture a few shots.

I spotted this view as I wandered towards London’s Bank station and although I was already familiar with the composition, the rain-soaked road added an opportunity to be creative and play around with some reflections. As I worked to refine the composition, I had great fun jumping in and out of the road to avoid the busses so it took a few tries and although I was soaked through, I got the shot I was after.

My aim was to use the huge 22 Bishopsgate building as the main focal point and place it on the left hand third. I also wanted to introduce some colour by using the London bus on the right and at the same time, keep the camera close to the ground so that the reflections were prominent in the foreground. As it was quite dark, I was shooting wide open which enabled me to keep the shutter speed up at 1/250th second and keep the ISO down at 200. Keeping the ISO low helped keep the shot clean of too much noise and the wider aperture and shallower depth of field helped keep the raindrops visible in the foreground but soft enough so they didn’t appear too distracting.

Back in Lightroom. I opened up the shadows just a bit on the right-hand side to brighten up the red bus so it stood out a little more. I also introduced some contrast in the foreground to emphasise those reflections and finished off with some tones and grading adjustments.

In between chasing some autumn landscape photos closer to home, I’m back in London for an evening shoot tomorrow so looking forward to seeing what shots I can come away with.

I’ll talk to you next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Late Summer | Weekly Photo #72

London has been my main focus of photography for a number of years now so photographing the natural landscape without an architectural focal point is all a bit new to me. I’m rediscovering nature again and trying to work out the best time to photograph the seasonal changes and seek out local places that have photographic potential is a challenge, to say the least, but one I’m certainly enjoying.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 18mm | 1/50th Second | f/10 | ISO200

Although there’s not much in the way of dramatic landscape locations down here in the relatively flat South-East corner of the UK, there’s still plenty of places for me to explore and take photos. There’s one particular place I’ve visited far more than any other and that’s the Ashdown Forest in Sussex. This beautiful area made up of part heathland and part woodland has an abundance of places to explore and is where I took this photo during a sunrise shoot a few weeks ago.

It took me a couple of trips into the forest before I got the right conditions for the shot I was after and when I did, it all came together with a cracking sunrise and some atmospheric mist across the low-lying ground. It’s not perfect as I had a few challenges, in particular, where to stand to get the best composition. You will probably notice the green fern in the foreground. I could have waded into the heather a little so it wouldn’t feature in the frame but I didn’t want to damage the wildlife (leave it how you found it!). I also would have preferred the sun slightly further away from the right edge of the frame but if I shifted the camera any further to the right, then the brighter area of mist down in the valley would be too close to the left edge. I couldn’t really win and as the sun had already cleared the horizon, time was not on my side and I had to take the shot. Although it’s not technically perfect and I had to compromise somewhat, I still really like the atmospheric mood and gorgeous light in the photo.

I used a wide-angle 10-24mm lens to take this photo and although this gave me lots of depth of field, being so close and focusing on the heather rendered the background soft and out of focus. To get a sharp image from front to back, I had to focus bracket this shot. While using all manual settings (exposure, aperture, ISO, white balance) I took three exposures, the first focused on the foreground, the second towards the middle of the frame and the last focused on the background. Later, in Photoshop, I used the “Auto-blend Layers” option to focus stack the three layers together to create this single image which is sharp from front to back.

It’s great to be out in the natural landscape, relaxing, recharging and keeping active and it doesn’t get much better than on mornings like this when the conditions are just beautiful. With Autumn just about to kick in, I’m looking forward to getting out there with the camera to see what photos I can take and as ever, if I capture anything worth sharing, I’ll post it here soon enough.

Check out a couple of recent blog posts featuring photos taken in the Ashdown Forest.

On Location Photographing Ashdown Forest with the XF23mm F2

Forest Bliss | Weekly Photo #58

Until next time.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Venetian Light | Weekly Photo #71

This is one of the most famous views in Venice and one I absolutely love. The winding Grand Canal which cuts through the city, lined with those iconic red and white striped mooring poles and architecture that spans a thousand years topped with traditional terracotta tiles. All of this leading to the main focal point of the domes that belong to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute or known simply as the Salute. Translated to Saint Mary of Health and finished in 1681, this 17th-century church was built as a votive offering to commemorate the end of a terrible outbreak of the plague and needed an astonishing one million wooden piles driven into the ground to support the weight of this ornate stone structure.

“To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.”

— Alexander Herzen

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 39mm | 1/20th Second | f/9 | ISO200

This photo was taken during my second visit to this jewellery box city in October 2018. I took a wider shot of this view from Ponte dell'Accademia with a single gondola on the water which you can find here Weekly Photo 11 | Solitary Gondola and as I said in my previous post, I got a bit lucky with the river traffic as I only had to wait around for 20 minutes before it cleared for a short while, allowing me to snap a few different shots of the city.

It was getting towards the end of the day and at this time of year, from this vantage point, the sun was going down almost directly behind me so the scene I was photographing had some gorgeous defused light falling on it as the sun was slightly obscured by a thin layer of cloud. Although being in October meant it wasn’t as busy as during the summer months, there was still plenty of people on the bridge and with the light levels getting lower, my shutter speed was getting slower and getting a sharp photo handheld was getting tricky. I could have opened up the aperture or cranked up the ISO but to get the best quality and depth of field, I used a small table-top tripod and rested it on the thick wooden rail that lines the bridge so I didn’t have to compromise the photo at all.

In my previous photo, the focal point was the gondola in the foreground but for this photo, it’s the Salute so I zoomed from 18mm to 39mm to bring the domes forward and make them more prominent in the photo. The diagonal line created by the buildings that line the canal on the right-hand side leads the eye in nicely to the Salute and the darker slither of buildings on the left help frame and add balance to the composition.

Considering how busy Venice can get in high season, the lack of river traffic and the cooler diffused light falling onto the buildings gives the photo a sense of quiet making the city seem almost sleepy, so I tried to respect that mood and reduce the contrast and colour saturation in post-processing. I think it worked out pretty well.

Until next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Blending Light in London | Weekly Photo #70

I cannot wait to get back up to St Paul’s Cathedral with my camera again. I love the 360-degree views of the city it provides and no matter how often I go up there, the different times of the year and the changing light conditions mean that there is always a fresh shot to be taken.

Fujifilm X-T30 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1.7 Seconds | f/6.4 | ISO160

I’ve talked about photographing from St Paul’s Cathedral in a couple of previous posts here:

• Western Towers | Weekly Photo #24

• Square Mile | Weekly Photo #59

For this photo, choosing a focal length was easy. I wanted to take it as wide as possible to capture the top of the roof and Western Towers so I used my XF10-24mm wide-angle lens on my Fujifilm X-T30 camera. No tripods are allowed at St Paul’s cathedral so I discreetly used a small table-top tripod I carry in my lightweight kit and rested it between the pillars that surround the Stone Circle to ensure the photo was sharp in these low light conditions.

What I particularly like about this photo is how a potential ordinary, monochromatic photo of the city is brought to life by taking it at just the right time to ensure there is enough ambient light to capture lots of detail in the buildings and sky but late enough for the city lights to add areas of interest and separation into the scene. Some situations will require a technique sometimes called time blending to get an effect like this. You take two photos of the exact same composition but at different times. The first photo to capture a brighter scene with lots of details and the second when it gets darker and the city lights are turned on. The two photos are then later blended in post-production so it shows the lighter scene with the city lights, like the photo here.

Thankfully, I was able to capture all the detail I needed in a single frame and later in post-processing, I focused on emphasising the brighter orange lights and desaturating the strong blue tones across the entire photo, all using the HSL sliders in Adobe Lightroom. There is one thing that bugs me though and that’s the big spotlight near the centre of the image. It’s too dominant and distracts somewhat. I tried toning it down a little but otherwise, I’ll have to accept it as part of the scene I was shooting.

I’m looking forward to getting back up to capture London’s rooftops and have already booked to re-visit the Sky Garden viewing platform next week. Fingers crossed I get a keeper and if so, I’ll be sure to share it here soon enough.

Cheers

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

London Light | Weekly Photo #69

I’ve been able to travel into London with the camera a couple of times over the last few weeks and although the city still has a sleepy, quiet undertone to it, it felt great to be up there creating images again. I spent some time wandering London’s streets and along the River Thames and thankfully came home with a few good shots that I’m sure will be shared on this site soon enough. With the pandemic situation heading in the wrong direction for us here in the UK, the shackles are getting tighter and restrictions are increasing so it might not be long before opportunities to photograph London dry up once again, so, I’ll try to get back up there for more socially distanced photo trips as often as I can.

Fujifilm X-T10 | XF35mm F2 | 35mm | 1/600th Second | f/5.6 | ISO200

This is a pre-pandemic photo taken from the roof terrace atop the Garden at 120 on Fenchurch Street which happens to feature in my Top 5 Rooftop Locations to Photograph London.

It was taken while I was in London having an early spring day out with the family exploring London and having dinner. We decided to visit a few rooftop locations where we could grab a drink and take in the views so after visiting the Sky Garden, just down the road, we popped along to the Garden at 120 to have a look around.

As it wasn’t a photo trip, I had with me the since retired Fujifilm X-T10 camera and 35mm F2 prime lens. I now use the X-T30 for such trips which is the same size and form-factor as the X-T10 so it’s a perfect, lightweight combo for trips like this where photography isn’t the priority but if needed, I have the gear to capture a photo if an opportunity such as this presents itself.

It must have been about 3 in the afternoon by the time we arrived up at the roof terrace, but because of the time of year, the sun was still relatively low in the sky providing some nice contrasted light across the rooftops and it’s that light that caught my eye and the little voice in my head said: “take the shot”.

Instead of writing about the photo, I’ve decided to start including an annotated version of the image in some of these posts to help convey my thoughts about the image and what motivated me enough to press the shutter button.

Back in Lightroom, I went to work using the HSL sliders to bring down the blues in the sky and across the scene, allowing the light and warmer tones across the image to take centre stage without the harsh daytime colours taking over.

What do you think of the annotated image? Does it help convey my thoughts and approach when taking the photo? I hope so.

Stay safe everyone and talk to you next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Beachy Head Lighthouse | Weekly Photo #68

I reckon I’m not the only person that does this but when I visit specific locations such as Beachy Head Lighthouse here, I research just a little about it. Not just how to get there, when the best light will be but also why it was built, who built it, how old it is, what stories does it tell. Apart from finding the history of places like this fascinating, it changes how I look at the subject and how I might photograph it.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 18mm | 1/15th Second | f/13 | ISO200

Back in 2011, the owners announced they couldn’t afford the £27,000 needed to repaint the Lighthouse and declared it would be left to fade back to a granite grey colour. That would have been the case if it weren’t for a sponsored campaign which raised the funds and had the structure repainted. Read more on Wikipedia here. When I edited this photo, I knew how close lighthouse had come to losing its colour, so, in post-production, I made sure to spend a bit of time focusing on the lighthouse so those fantastic, vibrant colours remained a feature in the final image.

Photographing Beach Head Lighthouse

A few months ago, after checking the low tide times aligned with sunset, a friend and I set off along the rocky beach near Eastbourne in East Sussex to photograph this cracking coastal subject.

For tidal rivers and coastlines, I use an app called My Tide Times which tells me the high and low tide times for a given location. The app is available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

After about an hour of dodging rock pools and clambering over boulders, we arrived at the lighthouse and began hunting around for compositions. My intention was to use the reflection of the lighthouse in the pools of water left by the outgoing tide to create some foreground interest but as I wandered around, I found this layered composition with the rocks anchoring the image in the foreground, the pool of water and reflections in the midground and to top it off, a cracking lead-in line taking the eye from the bottom left corner, diagonally across the scene towards the lighthouse.

Along with the trusty Fujifilm XT2 camera, I had both my 18-55mm standard zoom and wide-angle 10-24mm and although the wide-angle would have emphasised the rocks in the foreground, I decided to keep the standard zoom for this shot as a wider angle would have pushed the lighthouse too far into the background for my liking and I didn’t want to confuse what I deemed the main subject of the shot.

Dialling in an aperture of f/13 to keep the rocks in focus, with the camera mounted on the tripod and image composed, I went about taking the photo.

Although the sky could have put on a bigger show, I’m still pretty happy with this photo and in a way, the more subtle colours mean the lighthouse stands out that little bit more.

After an hour or so of shooting, we noticed the tide heading back in and with a long walk back around the beach and up the cliffs, that was our cue to start heading home.

Until next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

3 Minutes in London | Weekly Photo #67

One of the reasons I like to take long exposure photos of a cityscape is that not only can it help to simplify a potentially cluttered image by blurring out distractions, but in the right conditions, it can also add a sense of energy, movement and dynamism into a scene and that’s what I think I’ve captured in the photo shown here.

Fujifilm X-T10 | XF10-24mm | 13mm | 180 Seconds | f/9 | ISO200

I took the photo from Tower Bridge in London late one evening in Summer 2017. It was back when the Fujifilm X-T10 was my primary shooter which I used along with the wide-angle XF10-24mm lens to take this photo. I don’t often shoot quite as wide as I’m usually left with lots of distortion in the architecture that lines the river, but I think it works quite well here. The wider field of view allows more of the sky to be included and gives the impression the moving clouds are spreading apart as they get closer to the camera, creating some strong lead-in lines that bring the eye back towards the middle of the frame.

Along with an aperture of f/9 and ISO of 200, I used a 10-stop Formatt-Hitech filter to reduce the light hitting the sensor and stretching the exposure all the way to 3 minutes giving the river a smooth, glass-like look and those streaky clouds in the sky.

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Church of our Lady | Weekly Photo #66

This is the Dijver Canal in the picturesque city of Bruges, Belgium. Taken from the Wollestraat Bridge, located just along the river from the more popular view of the Dijver Canal as it zig-zags past the pretty Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel, I took this photo while on a photo walk on a clear summer’s morning in the city.

For a longer read with lots of the photos I took during our weekend in this beautiful city, pop over to my On Location post here: On Location Photographing Bruges.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 17mm | 1/13th Second | f/11 | ISO200

Anyone that has been to Bruges or has seen photos of the city will probably be aware of the popular viewpoint along the canal, right in front of the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce Hotel but even though I visited the spot during the day, at sunset and sunrise, I couldn’t get a shot I was happy with from where most people stand. The composition didn’t work for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty scene and popular for good reason but a good view does not necessarily make a good photo. To me, it felt unbalanced, lacked a foreground and the hotel was too dominating in the scene.

I wasn’t defeated. I knew there were some good photos to be had along the river, I just needed to explore, look for compositions that I did like that also reflected my style of photography. I didn’t have to wander for long and before I knew it, I had captured some photos I was happy with. Two of them have already been shared in this Weekly Photo series (see links below) and the third is this image looking along the canal towards the bell tower in the distance belonging to the Church of Our Lady.

As I crossed Wollestraat Bridge, I decided to photograph this charming scene as I liked the balanced composition with the bell tower on the left and the hotel on the right. Both sides of the canal lead the eye nicely into the photo towards the tower and the reflections in the water add some great foreground interest. If I had to change something, I would remove the cars along the left-hand edge of the frame as they are not really in keeping with the rest of the photo, but they are quite small and not overly distracting in my opinion.

Onto the tripod went my Fujifilm XT2 and wide-angle XF10-24mm lens and I went about capturing the photo you can see here.

As mentioned above, this is the third photo of Bruges I’ve shared in this Weekly Photo series from a trip I took back in 2018. You can see the other two photos using the links below.

Wollestraat | Weekly Photo #8

Dijver Canal | Weekly Photo #32

I don’t buy into the opinion that when visiting popular spots serious photographers should avoid taking those postcard shots. In fact, I don’t buy into telling other people what to photograph at all but when I do visit places like this, I’ll often grab the postcard shot first and with that saved to the card, I am free to explore and hunt down other unique compositions. You won’t always get the shot you had spent time planning for, there are too many variables we landscape photographers have to deal with to guarantee a perfect photo but when it doesn’t go to plan, try not to be put off, instead of feeling deflated, take advantage and search for other, unique compositions. You never know, you might come away with something you are much happier with.

Talk to you next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Bankside | Weekly Photo #65

Looking back through my last 64 Weekly Photo posts, I see that I’ve never included a photo of this composition with the Millennium Bridge leading to St Paul’s Cathedral, even though I have photographed it on countless occasions and come away with a few decent shots of it, so, after giving it some thought, I think I now know why I’ve not shared one to date.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 21mm | 71 Seconds | f/10 | ISO200

You’ve probably heard this quote, or a variation of it before: “Perfect is the enemy of good” which is kind of how I feel about photographing this view in London. It is one of the most popular views to photograph and for that reason, there are so many excellent versions of this image out there. Over the years, I’ve repeatedly visited this spot to capture something better, more epic than I have seen so far and the problem with that is the chances of doing so are, in reality, pretty low. I probably visit this spot every other month when I think the conditions look good to shoot in so when you think about it, that’s only 6 times a year. I want to capture a long exposure, similar to this composition, but with a bit more drama. I want the clouds heading towards or away from me to create some strong lead on lines that mirror the bridge. So far this is the closest I have come to getting that shot.

I decided to share this photo as a bit of a lesson for me really. I have been so caught up in trying to capture the photo I envisage in my mind, I have wrongly dismissed some of the other good photos I have taken, so, it serves as a bit of a reminder to me that although the holy grail is to capture the perfect shot at a particular location, I need to appreciate and not dismiss the photos I capture along the way.

I took this photo in July 2019 while walking around Bankside in London. Hoping for some favourable conditions, I headed to this spot in front of the Tate Modern, which provides this great composition of the Millennium Bridge which leads the eye over the River Thames towards St Paul’s Cathedral. For this long exposure shot, I used my Fujifilm XT2, XF18-55mm lens and my Formatt-Hitech 10-stop ND filter. As there was quite a lot of cloud cover, the light from the sun would come and go so I needed to wait for a large enough gap in the clouds to take this shot while the sun was hitting the bridge and dome.

At this time of day, the area is still busy with locals and tourists, especially during the summer months, so, another advantage of using the 10-stop filter and taking a long exposure is it will blur all of the people crossing the bridge out of the image. With my aperture and ISO dialled in (f/10, ISO200) I got a 71-second exposure making it appear that nobody was crossing the bridge while the shot was taken. In reality, there were plenty but luckily no one stopped for a selfie while crossing.

Although I really like this photo, the clouds lack the definition and subsequent drama I was looking for which means I’ll certainly be returning again soon. It’s possible I’ll never get the image I’m looking for, but I guess that’s part of the game we landscape photographers play. We are slaves to the elements and let’s face it, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing, right?

Until next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

London's Burning | Weekly Photo #64

After a couple of weeks away, having a much-needed break from adulting, I’m now back and eager to get out again with my camera. I did manage to venture out a couple of times while on holiday but judging by the photos I’ve seen on social media, it looks like I’ve missed some fantastic misty sunrises as a result of the extremely hot and humid weather the UK has experienced recently. I’ll be heading out this week on the hunt for some misty woodland landscapes, so fingers crossed I get some favourable conditions of my own.

Fujifilm X-T30 | XF35mm F2 | 35mm | 1/20th Second | f/10 | ISO160

This is the third and arguably my favourite photo I’ve shared on the Weekly Photoblog that was taken during the same morning back in January this year. I was travelling light with just my Fujifilm X-T30 and a couple of small prime lenses while photographing along the River Thames and More London.

I’ve said it before that, while I normally carry a heavier backpack with a few lenses, filters and a tripod, etc, I will often ditch the weight and take my ultra-lightweight kit into London as it allows me to stay quick and nimble as I search for new, interesting compositions and you can’t get much smaller and lighter than Fujifilm’s F2 prime lenses.

It was a predominantly cloudy morning during this shoot but after capturing a few blue hour shots of Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast (see the links below) I noticed some warmer light peeking through some gaps in the cloud so as my optimism for a great sunrise increased, so did my pace as I headed to London Bridge to take a shot of this classic composition of HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge. The good thing about taking photographs from London Bridge is that it has a rather wide ledge, making it a perfect platform for my small table-top tripod. In theory, I could have opened up the aperture by a few stops to increase the shutter speed enough to hand-hold the camera but as I had the tripod with me, I could keep the aperture slightly smaller at f/10 to maintain a larger depth of field and a slightly sharper image.

It seemed to come out of no-where but all of a sudden, that small area of light I’d seen as I was walking towards the bridge exploded across the sky like a raging fire. I kid you not, I haven’t enhanced the colour, it really did look like this. Luckily, I had already lined up the shot, ensuring the ship and bridge were dead-centre in the frame as no sooner as I had taken a few landscape and portrait photos, the light disappeared behind a cloud and the fire was out, which was my cue to pack up and head to the office. After a successful morning shoot, I couldn’t wait to see how these photos looked back on the computer.

As the sunrise was so epic, the resulting image was very bright with deep oranges and magentas. These days, I tend to like a more desaturated photo so, in Lightroom, I dialled back the saturation to help tame those bold colours. I didn’t want to take too much away as like I said before, the scene really did look like this and I wanted to stay true to the image I captured. Apart from that and along with some of my usual edits, I used the radial filter to selectively brighten the darkest areas of the image as with so much backlight, the foreground was quite dark. Overall, I’m really pleased with the final shot and I said above, it turned out to be my favourite of the shoot.

If you missed the other two posts from this particular morning, you can find them here:

City Blues | Weekly Photo 34

First Light at More London | Weekly Photo 44.

Until next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.

Misty Moat | Weekly Photo #63

This is Bodiam Castle, a 14th century castle located in East Sussex. The castle, originally built to fend off the French in case they invaded during the 100 Year War is now owned and managed by the National Trust and a popular tourist attraction here in the UK’s south east.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 11mm | 1/20th Second | f/10 | ISO200

I’ve wanted to photograph Bodiam Castle ever since I first visited these medieval ruins around 15 years ago and given that I live only 60 minutes’ drive away, I’m a little ashamed it’s taken me so long to finally do so. Over the last few years, I’ve been focused on photographing London and only in the past few months have I been venturing around the UK’s south to scratch the photographic itch.

In late May I finally put it right and drove down into East Sussex for a sunrise shoot at Bodiam castle with a fellow photographer. Depending on the conditions, I had two plans lined up for the shoot. If it was cloudy, I would grab the 10-stop filter and capture a long exposure of this view along the bridge that crosses the moat and if the sky was clear, there was a good chance of mist across the water to add the required interest in the scene. As you can see, I was greeted by the latter.

As the sun was rising, I got the tripod out and mounted the Fujifilm XT2 on top. For this shot, I used the wide 10-24 lens to get more of the foreground in and help emphasise the converging lines along the bridge that lead the eye straight to the castle. Just as the sun’s warm light started to catch the side of the castle, I went ahead and captured this shot here.

I’m really pleased with this photo although I can’t help but wonder how it would look as a long exposure image with lots of clouds streaking across the sky. Well, I guess I’ll have to pop back there soon to give it a try. Oh well :-)

Until next week.

Trevor

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This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.