I've decided to change things up a little bit on my website, nothing too drastic just a small change in how I present new work. Rather than quietly uploading new images to the 'latest work' gallery, I thought it might be nice to introduce a selection of them on a blog post and say a few words about how and why each shot came about… I'm going to have to think carefully about what I upload now so hopefully less rubbish will slip through the net!
Earlier this month I was running a 1-2-1 workshop at Thurne on the Norfolk Broads, although the skies were far too clear for spectacular dawn colour, we were treated to a nice covering of mist. The conditions proved too good to resist so while my client was exploring different compositions I took the opportunity to grab a shot of this scene. While I'm pleased enough with the results to include it here there care a couple of things that niggle me. The first is that I couldn't find an angle that included a clear reflection of the mill without affecting the boat and moorings. The second being the angle of the windmill's sails, if they were rotated clockwise slightly we could have seen all four of them and the angle would have lead the eye nicely to the boat but we can't have everything!
The next new addition is from Pin Mill, an interesting place on the shores of the River Orwell in Suffolk. I call it a 'place' as it's hard to define. There isn't a mill and it's not a village, there is a pub, boatyard and a cluster of charming cottages. Being close to home it's perfect for catching a summer sunrise without having to get up at 2am. In fact this is from a sunrise visit in July that I have only just got round to processing. Sometimes images are easy to process, I know exactly what I want from them and can't wait to get stuck in. Others, like this one, sit in the queue for as long as long as it takes for me to feel inspired.
You'll find this and more of my images from the Suffolk coast here
The last image for this post is an old favourite location, the lighthouse at Dovercourt, a spot on the Essex coast that I have been visiting since I first became interested in photography. On this occasion I had actually been planning a trip to the north Norfolk coast but as the weather forecast deteriorated so did my enthusiasm and when a friend asked if I fancied popping over to Dovercourt in the morning I grabbed the chance to spend longer in bed and less time driving. As it turned out although the sunrise didn't happen, the sun did break through the clouds just enough to create this interesting sky and emphasise the ripples in the sand. I knew straight away it was going to work well in black and white so switched my camera preview to monochrome and started searching for a suitably dramatic composition. The challenge being to make the most of the foreground without rendering the lighthouse as a spec in the distance which is prone to happen with a wide angle lens.
You'll find this and more of my mono images here
So there you have it, my latest new work. As always let me know what you think, would you like to see more info or more images and less info etc.?