The Nature of the Catastrophe

Too much information...?

Feathers Flying

We grew used to the way things were, to the dailiness of life... wipe away that blinding layer and renew our capacity for wonderment...

Salman Rushdie, Joseph Anton

And Little Other Care Hath She

As promised, my latest shoot (as James Reynard) with the wonderful Fracture...

 

 

 

 

A Shift In Focus

This creative outlet has, regrettably, not seen much activity for a while - due in part to the increased demands of my commercial photography (a nice problem to have) and partly because I have been working on a brand new blog.

The new blog will still feature tutorials - along with case studies - but is much more business-orientated.

Fear not whimsical surfer, this blog is not entirely dead (if never entirely alive either), and will still be refreshed when I am able. In fact it will become a little purer, focussing entirely on work I create for personal pleasure. The next planned update will feature the return of the beautiful Fracture...

Lavenham and its Church

I suspect the medieval village of Lavenham in Suffolk is most rewarding to the summer day-tripper, but we made our way there on a crisp bloody freezing Sunday in January, which was perfect for photographing the impressive local church (which also yielded literary bounty in the form of a second hand book stall inside).

The layout of the church and grounds is pretty tog-friendly, with a variety of elements that lead the eye to the church itself.

The low winter sun played its part by creating a pattern of shadows along the path.

There was a touch of mist in the air, which encouraged a shot into the sun.

I don't go a whole hog on Photoshop's built in filter gallery, or sfx in general, but wanted to create a more dramatic sky for this vaguely gothic treatment of one of Lavenham's many period cottages. I selected the sky and reversed it for that 'negative' look. When doing this to a selection, a lot of attention is required around the border of the selection to ensure the transition is not too obvious.

No Photoshop tomfoolery in the next image, but I did want to emphasis the slightly crooked nature of the building, so stepped into the middle of the road with a wide angle lens set to its shortest focal length (for maximum distortion) and deliberately slanted the horizon.

Travelling light, I hadn't packed my macro lens, so had to make do with the wide angle at its longest focal length for this shot of frost-covered leaves in the grounds of the church. I left the colours in their RAW state (i.e. muted) and just tweeked a little bit of blue in with a LAB curve in the b channel.

Butterflies at Jimmy's Farm

A few weeks ago the Wivenhoe Photography Group jumped in a car and spent a pleasant Saturday photographing the beautiful and exotic butterflies at Jimmy's Farm. 

 The butterflies live in a purpose built house so the light is not to contrasty, being diffused by the translucent ceiling.

That meant increasing ISO to 400 for handheld shots; I left the tripod at home, not being sure it would be ok to use in there.

Shooting with a 60mm macro lens at f2.8 helped with the low light levels, of course.

The shallow depth of field produced by f2.8 at close quarters also suited the subject, helping the butterflies stand out from quite busy backgrounds.

 I tried a few different angles - it's too easy to focus exclusively on the fascinating and often colourful wings.

Stepping back and framing the butterflies with the surrounding foliage also produced some variety.

 Some lovely soft bokeh was captured when the light came through the foliage in the background.

I thought this fellow deserved the black and white treatment too.

This was probably my favourite butterfly; simple and elegant patterning.

 It was also happy to play ball. Some were more elusive and required some patience before they settled close enough to capture with the 60mm.

Apart from black and white conversions, largely avoided the sfx with this set - the next image being the exception; a bit of my personal version of the digital stocking filter applied.

A reminder of their fragility.

Focus on the eyes.

Colours were pumped up a little in post, of course, to counteract the relatively unsaturated appearance of RAW images. 

I use curves in the LAB colourspace to boost colour, rather than the hue/saturation slider.

 This allows you too boost colour without changing the brightness of the image.

The feeding trays were always a good spot to find one or two butterflies, but I prefered the more natural backgrounds.

A bit of creative use of negative space.

Finally, wings are not the only source of patterns.

King John

Some snaps from the technical rehearsal of the Wivenhoe Open Air Shakespeare production of King John. Shot in St Mary's churchyard on Sunday 6th of June 2014.

 

 

 

More information about performances.