Richard Graham Photography

With my upcoming trip to london next month, iv been looking more at urban landscape photographers. I found Richard Graham Photography very interesting specifically the London photos he does (altho i have included some of his New York work as well). All of his London images are in black and white, something iv always been interested in. If there is no colours then the viewer is drawn to the shapes instead. Colours tend to distract from image. 

I intend to take photos in black and white down in london.  Post process them later on in photoshop.

I realize a lot of the photos i may take down there could possibly fall under the category of architecture. This being dew to the amount of buildings in London. The photos i have included here from Richard's work are of both architecture, and landscape. I do like the idea of photographing architecture, particularly older buildings. So if i am able to somehow incorporate this into my landscape photos then i will be happy.

I like Richard's image of the Thames with  the London Eye, along with Big Ben in the background. The water is in the lower third of the photograph, then the bridge on top of that with The London Eye to the far left of the image. Then Big Ben is in the centre of the image, which is relatively small, dew to it being a lot further away than the London Eye. The photo could of been taken on a gloomy day because of it being turned into a black and white image. You don't necessarily need to wait around till sunset, or get up for the sunrise to get an image like this, because all the colour has been taken out, so its difficult to tell which time of day it is. Its more the shapes and contrast in the image that the person is dawn to. The first thing i noticed in this picture was the London Eye dew to it being the most dominant part of the image, it stands taller than the rest of the buildings on the horizon. My eye then travels right along the bridge to Big Ben, in the middle of the photo.

Another of his photos which i like is the one of Millennium Bridge, with St Paul's in the background. My eye follows the bridge from left to right, then ending on St Paul's in the background. I also noticed that there is no clouds in the sky, which if there were may be distracting from the two main subjects. 

Iv seen quite a few photos of St Paul's, and the Millennium Bridge most of which were taken a night, which i think look really stunning.

Example of similar image http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.extrospection.com/archives/2003/09/112_1281_London_Millennium_Bridge_By_Night.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.extrospection.com/archives/2003/09/london_millenium_bridge_b.html&usg=__fcHH8HaPuZSmPqSd5k9j3OWFPXM=&h=467&w=700&sz=83&hl=en&start=21&sig2=Ze8foaVpvSX6SqiKcRvX6w&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=YjiWriaWvYJugM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlondon%2Bat%2Bnight%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den-us%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=67SrS5uDL9L34AaFrai5Dw 

This is something else which i hope to be able to try when I'm down there, id like to take a photo of the Thames at night, with the London Eye in the background all lit up. I don't yet have a tripod ( if i did, i don't fancy trekking it with me all round London) so i will try to rest the camera on a ledge over looking the river, and use a remote shutter release to activate the shutter, so not to blur the image with camera shake.

http://www.richardgrahamphotography.com/photographs/

New Landscape Photos

Today i went out round Tamworth with the aim of getting some good landscape photos which i might possibly use in my portfolio. I had a few rough ideas of what, and where i was going to shoot. Tamworth has two rivers running through it, so i headed over to the castle grounds to try to grab a few shots by the riverside. I was hoping to get a few photos with the castle in the background, or maybe some of the bridges they have going over the river.
When i got there the sun was out, which was great because it lit up the bridge over the water better, along with the castle. I managed to get some good shots with the river, the bridge and the castle in the distance. Then the sun went behind the clouds so i had to keep adjusting my shutter speed to avoid under exposing the images. I kept my ISO at 100 all the time, so i got the best quality images i could.
I then was going to head over to the small nature reserve in Fazley, to try and get some photos of fields, with the birds sitting on the lake. As i walked over there i noticed the old skate park was empty, so changed my mind and went over to grab a few shots of the park instead. I thought this would be good to include in my portfolio, as its an urban landscape rather than a rural one. All of my photos Ive taken previously have been rural.
All of the walls have been covered with graffiti, leaving the park very colourful, which is something Ive wanted to include in my images. I like bright colours. I took the photos from low down near the ground, to make the ramps n rails appear bigger. Also leaving room to include the various images in graffiti on the walls. I managed to get some of the best shots of the day there.
Next to the park theres a lake, a few ducks and geese like to hang around the water so i tryed to take some photos of them. I was able to get good shots of them while they were near the edge, but when they went a bit further out, my lens was unable to zoom far enough to take a good photo. If i had a telephoto lens, this wouldn't have been such a problem. 

I managed to get some good shots of the geese standing on the waters edge looking out onto the lake.
I will add the photos from today onto my Picsa site for you to view. I have also editied a few over on my Flickr page.
http://picasaweb.google.com/118081212741511551550/TamworthLandscapePhotos#

David Ward Landscape Photographer

Iv been looking at the work of David Ward. I really like the images he is able to produce. Some of the images are very simple and seemingly easy to reproduce. One photo is simply a path leading out into the water, leading the viewer eye straight up the photo. It uses soft light, which makes the image seem more peaceful. 

Not all of his photos are like this, some are cleverly composed. They make the subjects appear larger than they are, or he uses reflections in the foreground to move the viewers eye across the page. One photo when i first saw it i thought had a hole in the rock, but in-fact it was a pool of water, David had used the reflection of the sun as the foreground. 

Most of his images show the sun off to one side, this uses the rule of thirds, making the photo more visually pleasing, other than just placing the sun in the centre of the photo.

One photo shows a tree to one side, with a mountain in the background as a stream flows through the middle of the image. When you first look at the photo your eyes immediately drawn towards the stream, which then leads your eye up the photo towards the tree, then at last your eyes settle on the mountains in the background. I find the tree to be the main focus point of the image, dew to it being the most unusual part of the photo. I also like the colour of the sky, the dark blues give the feeling of cold, it looks as tho a storm is about to begin.

http://www.into-the-light.com

Richard Childs Landscape Photographer

Another photographer iv been looking at recently is Richard Childs. Looking at his portfolio i find a lot of his images quite cold. There is a lot of blues, grays and whites in his photos, which gives off the feeling of cold. This is not to say i don't like his photos, because i do, i like the emptiness of the images, they seem quite peaceful. 

The majority of his photos seem to be taken in Scotland where he lives. Scotland appears to be a great place for landscape photography, iv seen some amazing photos taken there, and Richard Childs is one such photographer who can capture the landscape greatly. 

He able to include seasons in his photos fairly well, mostly winter and autumn, this probably dew to Scotland not having much of a summer. Some of the photos in this blog entry include autumnal images along with winter. I like the colour of the leaves in the woods and the colour of the wheat in the fields, i feel it adds warmth to his images. Without these focus point in the images, his photos would look a lot cooler.

In one of his photos the focus points is a wooden path weaving in and out of the trees. I love the shape of the path, and how it disappears into the distance. The curve of the path is in contrast to the straightness of the trees. It loosens up the image, making the viewer follow the path right up to the top of the photo. Its in Black and white, so theres no colour to distract from the shape of the path, keeping it simple.

http://www.richardchildsphotography.co.uk

Joe Cornish Landscape Photographer

After looking through a photography book (Working The Light) that Steve gave me last week, i made a list of photographers work in which to look at. Iv recently been looking at the work of Joe Cornish. 

I liked the simplicity of his images, mostly using one main focus point in the image usually a rock or log. The majority of the photos involve water somehow, generally using the coast the photograph. The uniqueness of the rocks on the beach make for some interesting focal points in his photos. Id like to include a costal landscape in my portfolio, but dew to my location, it proves difficult to just go out and do it. I know a great beach in wales i visited last year near cardiff. Im planning on going to Cardiff in the summer, and i intend to vist this beach again, so its a shame i wont be able to include the photos i take there in my portfolio.

My favorite images are the ones taken at sunrise or sunset, i love the colours in the sky. After trying to photograph these type of images myself, i have found that i prefer the sunset to have broken clouds in the sky, because i find  it more visually pleasing. The light tends to bounce off the scattered clouds producing different shades of oranges, reds and yellows, which i think makes for a great photograph.

I love reflections in photographs, it can make you look twice at an image. Joe uses reflections in some of his images, like the ones at the top of this post. It shows the rocks reflected in the water pooling around them, along with the clouds in the sky with the sun shining through. I think it can add to an otherwise boring photograph, if you use the reflection to create something more interesting to look at. In one of his images he also uses the suns reflection of the rocks which are in the foreground, i think this adds more warmth to the photo.

http://www.joecornish.com

Possible Portfolio Photos

Heres a link to my Picasa page showing you 50 or so photos which i might be able to use in my portfolio. http://picasaweb.google.com/118081212741511551550/PossiblePortfolioPhotos#
These are not final, just what i have taken which i feel i may be able to include in my final portfolio. I intend to take a lot more in the coming weeks. Im going to try to include urban landscape photos along with rural ones.

Photography ideas

After talking with Steve this week, i have decided to go out and try to take some panoramic shots. Ill have to check out a tripod from college as i still don't have my own yet. I may go out and try it without a tripod, but i doubt this will produce decent images. Ill take a few test shots to see which works. Hopefully ill be able to stitch them together in photoshop later on. I will take several shots using portrait, then take some in landscape, both of the same scene.

I will do this in a couple of weeks when i have the tripod from college.

London Trip

Next month I'm going down to London for a day, with my friend who's back from the USA for a couple weeks. I'm hoping to be able to take a few good shots of the city. This will be a good opportunity to get some images of an urban landscape. If i do manage to take some good shots i want to be able to use a few of them in my final portfolio. I'm only going for the day so i will have limited time in which to take photos. Were generally pretty good at cramming as much as possible into one day, so i don't doubt i will come away with some good images. Mainly dew to me being overly organized about things.

Im aiming to get several black and white photographs, altho i wont shoot them in black and white in camera, ill do it later on in post production. If all goes according to plan we will go on the London Eye, so this should provide a good opportunity to photograph the whole of the city.

12x20 Camera

This is an image of a 12x20 view camera. I couldn't post it in the comments so Im adding it to the main blog.