Hester's Way: Take Two

This year I am revisiting Hester's Way and looking at developing my project in order to involve the the community further. I made my first visit yesterday to Springbank Community Centre and once I had introduced myself and explained my project I went back out to photograph the surrounding environment.

This shot is a continuation from last years work.

On my next visit I will be taking model release forms so that I can start to capture the people that use the centre and its resources.

Pigeons!

It's good to be back in Cheltenham again. Lectures started today, but I'm not talking about lectures now. Instead I'm going to show an image I took today on my break between lectures when I went in to town.

Pigeons really scare me but today I plucked up the courage to photograph some.
In the town centre by Starbucks is a little water feature and today the pigeons were using it to bathe in. I climbed up a little way and took a few snaps of the birds at bathtime and this is what I got.

Completely unedited, this was my outcome.

I'm pleased with my shot although I did disturb some of the birds that were flapping about in the puddle of water in the centre of the bowl.

Overpowering The Sunshine

You might have noticed recently how lovely the weather has been with the sun out, blue skies and even some warmth radiating down. I set out in the sunshine armed with my camera and a flash gun in the hope to capture some portraits. I did just that only I made them look like night time images... oooh!

I have put this image in to show you just how beautiful the weather was when I was shooting.

My final outcome. Admittedly this isn't a great photo however I was only testing out what I could achieve. 

I am pleased with the results I got from one small Metz flashead and with minimal experimentation with shutter speed and apertures too. I think this is an effect I might try and use more if I am able to.

Milking Time

Yesterday we returned to Woodlands Farm and visited the dairy. We went to watch the cows being milked this time and I loved it.

Busy working, slight hint of motion in this shot is what I believe makes it work, as it shows the fast movement required to keep up with all of the cows.

A quick portrait in the middle of the job.

This cow was particularly interested in me hovering around the milking parlour taking photos. I love this snap.

I do have more photos to follow, just a few posted here for now as I haven't had time to go through them all. 

Another Portrait...

So this weekend I had a Hasselblad out of the Uni stores and started to shoot a few portraits with it. The portraits I have shot.. or hopefully shot have not been in the style that my final ones will be as this shoot this weekend was just to get used to using a camera I haven't used before. However, the shots I have got I am very pleased with.

In colour:

This isn't the original, I have edited the tonal range slightly, increasing the magenta present.

In Black and White:

Not only did I push the colour out of this shot, I removed the bags under the eyes present in the above photo.

This image was produced with a reflector on the right hand side of the face, If I were to change it again slightly it would be to add a bit more definition to the left hand side of the face where the light coming from the window is bleached ever so slightly. 

Woodlands, Visit One.

I don't know if I've mentioned this project before of not, however today myself and four others visited Woodlands Farm, Chedworth to start shooting for our group project based around Dairy Farming. I had an excellent time and learnt a lot whilst I was there, Nigel Finch is a very interesting man to listen to. We spent a good couple of hours at the farm and received an excellent tour of the facilities, giving us chance to start snapping.

Here are a selection of my images:

Lets start with this animal portrait, whilst I am a little gutted that I cut of the edge of the right ear I am pleased with the shot.

A crowd of University students crowding in to the shed was clearly of interest to the cows as they swarmed to the gate. I'm pleased with this shot and the numbers of cows that squashed in for me.

Then of course we need a cute shot of the calves, this shot I think is good for showing hints of the environment behind them without being the focus of the shot.

Whilst this shot came out darker than I would have liked when taking it I am pleased that it has as it just highlights the one cow who is standing with his peeping over the rest of the crowd.

And to finish...

A portrait of Nigel Finch himself, lit with natural light coming through a small window as he talked to us about his job.

2012 Review

As it’s a fresh start in 2013 and I’ve done so much in 2012 I thought I’d write a post to review my year of work as I know I became a much more confident photographer through a series of projects. So lets look at some favourites aye?

First of all we have Rescued, this was my FMP for college where I decided to investigate how many animals are homeless, stuck in an animal rescue centre. I travelled all over the place with this project and met some wonderful people that volunteer to look after the animals and train them.

I also learned a lot about Photoshop with this project, I rarely use the programme but had no choice here.. Not just to achieve the desired layout for the image but also to correct white balance on many images as I found shooting in the centres I was often working with multiple different lighting set ups. I also fell in love with a particular cat on this project, cat 3 down 4 across – Hank. I’d still adopt him if I could.

Moving on we have my WWII project, my absolute favourite for the year. I’ve always been a great fan of History and in particular war. But I don’t want to be a war photographer. I found people in my village that had been children during World War Two in different locations around the UK and asked them to recall memories of the war whilst I photographed them in the Studio. I was surprised as how well people responded as I know for a long time the war was unspoken of, and some still refuse to recall the difficult time. I was even luckier that they were able to bring with them items that they still owned from the war.

I shot this project on medium format film using a Bronica to try and keep the history alive within the images. The stories I got were incredible and if you want to know of any of the stories please get in touch. Or the link through to the Facebook album has brief details. Above are Betty, Colin and Jim.

But as well as these two projects I have attended and photographed two Protests, most recently #demo2012…

 Attempted live Fashion Photography at Mid Cheshire College Fashion Show which raises money for charity and thoroughly enjoyed it..

Campaigned for a very good friend to try and get him the position of NUS President at NUSNC12 and photographed the entire three days of the conference, learning how terrible my telezoom lens is, more so in low light…

 Plucked up the courage to start asking people for their photographs, which I must say is not in my comfort zone at all…

Got in to university in Cheltenham and shot my first live event with a same day deadline with them at Tewkesbury Mop Fair…

And finally completed my first extended project at university handing in on time, Hesters Way. A project which will be continued yet and hopefully become my first real Documentary…

I have done even more than this but to find out about that you will just have to explore my blog more, or my Facebook page.

I have no goals for 2013 particularly, I just want to keep growing as a photographer and push myself further with work. Oh and finish (if it’s possible to finish a documentary?) Hesters Way maybe.

Pittville Park

It's been bloomin' busy recently with lots of hand-ins and deadlines and oh so much. But today I've had my second hand in, tomorrow is my third and final one. It's gunna be nice then to have a break and relax.

Anyhow, today has been very foggy in Cheltenham but Pittville park looked beautiful in the fog - all mysterious. Even at 3pm.

It took me ages to get this shot of the man walking across the grass between the trees in the fog.

The grass looked so pretty with all the frost on today.

These two lads were having great fun playing in the icy puddle.

This shot was taken much later on in the evening.

I really enjoyed shooting in the fog today, it's not something I've done before properly to this extent so I found it really interesting to see what my camera took in a different speeds.

Playtime

So now that I've finished my Photojournalist project I've been shooting more lightheartedly. I've been out tonight, armed with a torch and a flash gun, just playing around with whatever I had in Pittville Park and James.

Flash first..

This bandstand is beautiful, and it looks even prettier at night when the white is so clearly standing out against the black. 

The depth of field on this shot is what I like the most as the branch fades out and in to the blackness. 

At first I was disappointed with this shot because only the foreground is sharp, it gets blurrier toward the back due to movement. But I've grown to love it (in the space of an hour).

Everybody loves a waterfall. 

Moving on, to the torch!

This shot is very dark but I like the halloweeny, spooky effect it has and the slight blueness of the sky sneaking through. I was actually trying to photograph an old man walking past.

Time for a quick stop for a portrait. I bet you've tried the holding a torch under your chin? I really like this though, even if it is cliché. 

These two I think only work if they are together in a set. Walking up from the tunnel on a long exposure with a torch. 

I know it's not in focus but that's just because it's hard to keep a camera still for 4 seconds. But I like the sky, fading darker and the effect on the trees. 

I don't like this shot, but it certainly makes the difference clear between using flash if no other shot does. 

I know that a lot of these shots are a bit on the rubbish side but tonight I've had fun experimenting, even if it was extreeeeemely cold. Unfortunately, now I must continue with my essay.

Hesters Way Finals

I've finished it. I've handed it in. One project complete.

What do you think? Please tell me!