Blue Skies

As you'll see on the little side gadget thing I have taken some new pictures. Had to pretty much force myself out of the door to get them as the light was shocking. Soon as I stepped out the clouds lifted and the cotton wool clouds came out to play and I ended up with a few decent shots for a National Trust Competition at Clumber Park.

Now when I first started off taking photos I always wanted a clear blue sky. Well you do don't you? You think of a summers day or a beach in the tropics with a perfect blue sky and think "wow! that will look stunning in my photo". But very soon you learn that solid blue skies are just as bad if not worse than a flat white sky. At least with a flat white sky they can look half decent as a black and white photo. With a solid blue sky there is no contrast and worse still no interest!

I'm a big sky fan and love to see drama in a sky. I even like con-trails left by the jets but that seems to be pretty frowned upon by the competition judges. Even when they have been placed in the perfect spot - one example was as a beam of light out of a lighthouse for a competition on communication. The judge didn't get it but 17 out of 20 wasn't too bad.

Now autumn and soon winter will be on its way we will get gloomier skies but we will also be getting the low light that us photographers love. So keep your eyes on the sky and soon as the drama starts to happen get that camera out. If it is just plain blue skies get the BBQ out whilst there is still some warmth left in the air!

Hay Bales

Flipping heck I got one!

Weather like this it's time to....

Clean the camera kit. Yeah it's pretty rubbish out and I have a day at the coast planned tomorrow. Sadly not a photographic day but if I can sneak off for a dawn shoot I will do. Anyway with weather like this and still a massive lack of hay bales I'm putting my time to use constructively and cleaning the camera kit.

Quite a few of my students now have DSLR's and a couple of lenses. We mess about with aperture a lot and suddenly when we are hitting F22 they are noticing the good old dust spots. So I have now built into the lessons for this year a little bit of camera cleaning advice and how to change those lenses in a way to reduce the amount of dust entering the body.

Right for now have a snap of some corn fields - I got an email telling me this isn't corn from an American follower of my work. Good old English eh?

Lack of shooting

Well it has been a few days since the camera has been taken out of the bag for anything decent. A short trip out to Matlock was had on Sunday but more for a day out than any photography. Fingers crossed the camera will be taken out with me later today. Like to try some shots of round hay bales - saw some coming home on the weekend and just hope they are still there!

Saying that the sky is pretty flat at present but it could make for some interesting heavy skies after a bit of PP.

Just Starting

OK so I thought it was about time to start dropping in a few bits and bobs about what I am doing with the camera. I have 4 weeks left before the courses start again at college so hopefully there will be time to go out and get some decent shots taken.

I'm on a really hunt for round hay bales at present. They sure take them in quickly after the floods in 2007. Some new wind turbines have popped up locally too so fingers crossed some shots of those will be taken soon.

I also need to work on the Photoshop side of things. Have 10 weeks worth of instructions to write in the next few weeks. The class are getting pretty good at it too so some more complicated things this time round - mind the Out of Bounds session was pretty intensive for a lot of them!

Anyway here is a shot of some turbines from Lissett, near Beverley with a nice summer sky above them...