Category Archives: winter

On the beach with the Rolleiflex

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What is there not to like about winter? I fell out of bed at 7:15 and was on the beach at the bottom of the road twenty minutes later – marvellous! In the summer, I’d have to be up at some horrific time to do the same thing (and the light isn’t so good…).

It was lovely to watch and photograph (sort of) the sunrise, seeing the light change and transform the shapes on the beach. I wasn’t too interested in the sun itself, of course, but the patterns of the beach and the water on black and white film will hopefully work.

I wasn’t the only one out there: apart from the perennial dog-walkers, two other folks with cameras and tripods were on the beach. Of course, I felt terribly superior: they had some new-fangled digital camera-thingy, whereas I was using my 60-year old Rolleiflex TLR… and now I’m off home to breakfast (whisper it: and to my digital camera for some family photos later on!).

Photographing Ngoni Namate (in the snow…)

Ngoni in the snow

Ngoni in the snow

I had the great pleasure of photographing a new (to me) model yesterday: the fabulous Ngoni Namate.  When we first met a few weeks ago to talk about possible shoots sometime during the next few months, she mentioned that she would really like some photographs in the snow, were it to snow at some point soon…

Well, providing snow pretty much anywhere in northern Europe is currently not such a big problem!  So we met yesterday, and she spent much of the day in gorgeous dresses in the woods – and she even managed not to freeze to death (for those who wonder what it is about ‘my’ models being cold… no, no, no, it’s just a coincidence, honest!).  This is one of the (unprocessed) snapshots of Ngoni from the day – proper edited images to come once I’ve had a bit of time to go through them (not 15 months for most of them!).

Discount on photo purchases

I’ve just sold some snowy photographs from last winter.  As previously notified on my Twitter feed, up until 14. November I am offering a 15% discount on any of the products on my RedBubble site: when you come to the ‘checkout’ stage, enter the following code in the coupon box, and click the appropriate button to reduce the total price:

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Perhaps you want to use snowy cards for Christmas?  When purchasing multiple cards of the same size (not necessarily the same design) the prices go down by up to 30% – so by using the offer here, you can get up to 45% off the cost of your cards… but this 15% offer expires on 14.11.10, so act now!

Dalkeith Country Park, December 2009

Dalkeith Country Park, December 2009

Note that clicking on this photograph will take you to this image on RedBubble and from there you can explore the other images; or click on the first link at the top of this post.

The beauty of autumn

The beauty of autumn

The beauty of autumn

I love the autumn – the clouds that fill the skies, and the soft gentle light that allows for a different kind of photograph to be taken from the harshness of summer light.  So whereas other members of the family, and colleagues at work are sorry to see the summer days going and resent the autumnal weather and nights drawing in, like a little child I’m getting rather excited at the opportunities that lie before me with the soft diffused light that is the hallmark of this season.  Of course, all the seasons offer something different, but autumn and spring are perhaps the two I prefer, at least in terms of light.

I’m planning a few short trips over the winter into the Scottish hills so that I can benefit from this light in a variety of landscapes, and am also intending to try a variety of film types (b/w print film in particular) as well as the usual digital images.  So interesting times ahead…