My Photographic Adventures

366 Project for 2012

2012-01-03T03:02:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write a blog post for a while now but I am so busy with a very active crawling, moving baby that finding the time to do everything can be difficult.

As we turn over into a new year I have decided to do a photo a day project to try and make me pick up the camera more and try out different styles of photography and some new subjects. I started on New Years Day and have been posting my shots on my Flickr photo stream but I realised I could also put them up on my blog to encourage me to come in here more often.

So I am posting my first two photos as a catch up and will post each shot each day as I upload it to Flickr. There will be 366 shots in total as this is a leap year.

001 / 366 -The Only Popper the Didn't get Popped

002 / 366 - New Year De-Clutter

I already have a couple of ideas for today's shot so we shall see if they work when I try to shoot them later. The big question is if I can keep coming up with plenty of ideas to last the whole year......wish me luck I might need it!

Don't forget you can also follow my photography through Flickr and also via my Facebook Fan Page

Thanks for reading - all comments welcome and appreciated.

2011-11-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Every year towards the end of October the travelling fair comes to town to coincide with the local firework display. It stays for around two weeks and for the past couple of years I have tried to go and take some pictures but haven't made it for one reason or another with the camera. This year I was determined to make sure I made it there and get some photographs.

I headed down on a Thursday night knowing it would be slightly less crowded but busy enough that the rides would operate quite regularly. Armed with my camera, tripod, shutter release and wearing a warm jumper off I went! It seemed to be a little bit smaller than in previous years but there were still quite a few decent rides to get pictures of. Setting up my camera on the tripod I attached my remote trigger and I knew this would help reduce any camera shake which is important when doing long exposure shots. I wanted these to come out as well as possible as I knew I may not get another chance to try again.

Some of the rides were better for producing light trails than others and as is always the case with this kind of photography you never quite know what the end result will be which I think is one of the reasons I like it so much. I was very happy with the shots I got while I was there......

The fair isn't just about rides though there are all the other little things that make up all the fun of the fair - hot dogs, hamburgers and candy floss and hook a duck to name just a few. I tried to make sure I got a good mixture of pictures not just of all the fast, loud, whirling rides...

So they are my pictures from the fair, I really liked being able to try something different with the camera, hope you enjoyed looking at them all.

Once again I have been considering starting a 365 project as I think it will encourage me to pick up the camera every day and get me taking more general pictures again. Hmmmmmmmm maybe I might start one tomorrow?

All comments welcomed and feel free to share my blog with anyone else you may know who is interested in photography and might enjoy it.

Thanks for reading!

Summer is here and it's wedding season!

2011-08-09T03:02:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and once again with it has come a number of weddings. After last years record breaking seven weddings which we had been invited to as guests this year seemed slightly quieter with just three summer weddings booked in our diaries.

The first was the wedding of Cheung and Kim, held in Elstree it was just over an hour and a half drive for us which wasn't too bad. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great as the heavens had opened depositing quite a lot of rain and so there was no chance of outdoor photos however the couple worked their way around it by having some shots indoors.

Kym looked stunning in her white dress with diamante detailing to the bodice and Cheung looked very dapper in his suit. After the ceremony they served some Chinese style finger foods and then the newlyweds cut the cake, a gorgeous white chocolate sponge cake with sugar flowers, which tasted delicious.
We then moved on to a local Chinese restaurant for a meal - I don't think anyone could say they didn't have enough to eat as there was plenty of choice in the ten course menu. - our bellies were certainly full after that!

Here are a few of my favourite photographs from the day....

Thank you to Cheung and Kym for inviting us to share your special day.

The next wedding was just a week later, Rob & Lisa's day was held at a lovely venue in the countryside. They had planned to hold the ceremony outside but once again the weather had other ideas as just as the guests were arriving it started spitting. Within just a few minutes the heavens had opened and there was very heavy rain so plan B was put into action and the ceremony was moved inside to what looked like a converted barn.

Lisa looked beautiful in her wedding dress which she designed herself and had made by dressmaker Wendy Benstead Costume and Clothing, based in London (www.wendybenstead.com). It was exactly the kind of dress I would imagine Lisa to wear - very floaty and quite Grecian in its design.

Lisa was beaming as she walked down the aisle and Rob looked proud as punch when he greeted his bride. Unfortunately the rain had turned torrential outside and was creating a lot of noise but the couple made sure they spoke a little louder when taking their vows so all the guests could hear them. After some welcome drinks we enjoyed a lovely three course meal which was delicious and then came the speeches. I think Rob, an Arsenal fan was impressed with Lisa's present to him, a personalised letter from Arsene Wenger the clubs manager.

Luckily the rain stopped later on in the day and it brightened up which meant we could all mingle outside and the couple could have some outdoor shots after all. They even had a rainbow appear which was quite apt as Lisa loves rainbows and anything multicoloured - it couldn't have been more perfect.

These are a few of my favourite photographs from the day....

Thank you to the new Mr & Mrs Boucher for inviting us - we had a fantastic time.

The final wedding was that of Simon & Jenny, held in Stratford-Upon-Avon the weather was much kinder and the sun even poked it's head out. The wedding ceremony was held in a beautiful church followed by a wedding breakfast and evening reception in a nearby hotel.

Jenny looked radiant as she made her entrance. Her smile said it all as she walked down the aisle and there was a lovely moment when her father lifted her veil as she got to the altar to meet her husband to be.

The ceremony was lovely with a selection of hymns and a brilliant reading of a Pam Ayres poem. There was also a beautiful rendition of "Your Song" by Elton John performed by the brides brother on guitar and a young lady singing the lyrics. After the register had been signed the couple made their exit to greet all the guests outside the church.

After the service the bride and groom and family stayed at the church for photographs and the rest of the guests made their way across the road to the hotel where we were met with a welcome drink of Bucks Fizz. The newlyweds joined us for more photos and the throwing of the confetti.

The day was quite a relaxed affair with a delicious barbecue and then dancing in the evening to the disco - everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and it was obvious the new Mr & Mrs Bunyard were having a great day from the constant smiles on their faces.

A few photographs I took on the day....

Thank you Mr & Mrs Bunyard for inviting us to share your day.

As you can see it has been a busy summer so far. I'm working on a number of things at the moment including a brand new website which is work in progress but should look great when it is all set up. There is also a possibility I may be upgrading my camera and accessories - lots of exciting stuff going on which I hope to share with you all soon.

Anyway that's enough for me - thank you for reading, as always comments are appreciated and if you don't already follow my blog then I always welcome new followers.

Little Person = Little Spare Time = Less Photography

2011-05-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

It has been far, far too long since I updated my blog! In fact I realise just how long it has been when I came on to update it today. Due to the poor winter weather and the entering the latter stages of my pregnancy I hadn’t really done much in the way of photography and this of course had meant I didn’t have anything to update my site with.

Anyway as we entered 2011 we were looking forward to our new arrival and most of our time was spent trying to get the house sorted and ready. Then on Friday 25th February we had a bit of a shock when at 4.27pm I gave birth to a little boy weighing just 6lbs three weeks and two days before my due date. We named him Jack William and since he arrived life has been a complete whirlwind – 9 weeks have just flown past so quickly and only now are things starting to calm down a little bit.

I have to admit that when people said to me that once the baby arrives there would be no time for anything I never really believed them but it is true, the days go so quickly and trying to keep up with everything is difficult. Unfortunately this has meant my photographic excursions have had to take a back seat for the time being – I’ve missed the Spring flowers and the Bluebells this year but I am not that bothered as there will be other years to photograph them but I will never be able to recapture Jacks first year of his life.

The one thing I’ve made sure is that even if I can’t shoot anything else I will make sure I take as many pictures of Jack as possible and so my camera has still been kept busy getting photographs of our little man. Here are a few of my favourites so far…..

I hope that over time I will be able to get out and about with my camera a bit more but for now I am concentrating on being a mum and spending time with our gorgeous little boy, I will get him saying Canon before you know it!

Hopefully I will be back soon with some more stories of my photographic adventures but I just thought I’d let you all know I haven’t deserted you completely. Until then happy snapping!

Thanks for reading – comments always welcomed.

My First Couple / Engagement Shoot

2010-12-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

I love taking portrait pictures, it’s probably one of my favourite styles of photography and one that I would love to do more of.

Recently a couple approached me about wedding photography as they had been recommended by someone that knows me and were interested in finding out what I could offer them as a package. We arranged to meet so we could discuss the wedding and I could take a few shots of them together in the style of an engagement shoot, something which I have been waiting to do for ages.

We arranged to meet at a local lake on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. As their wedding is in October we decided it would be nice to have a kind of autumnal feel to the photographs with the changing colours of the trees. The lake itself can be walked around in about 30 minutes so I suggested a leisurely stroll round with a few stops along the way for some photographs.

I have to admit I was pretty nervous, having never taken these kinds of shots before and also this being the first time I had met the couple Debz & Chris but they were really friendly and soon we were chatting like we’d known each other for ages.

The lake is surrounded by trees and grass and has a couple of nice little bridges which make a really nice setting for photographs. We stopped at the first bridge where I got a few nice shots.

We then walked round the lake and took some photographs underneath one of the large trees. It was a very sunny day considering it was the middle of October and this made the shooting conditions quite difficult with some rather nasty shadows but I think we were all just pleased that it wasn’t raining!

Debz came up with the fantastic idea of her and Chris having a bit of a fight with some of the fallen leaves, these made for some great pictures – these were really fun to shoot and it showed in their faces.

I tried to vary the style of the pictures and was pleased at how natural they both were in front of the camera, especially as Debz had commented how they hadn’t had very many pictures taken together which weren’t self portraits shot at arms length. It was nice to catch some really natural moments of them together and these are the shots I am really pleased with.

The lake really was a good choice I think as it offers such a lovely backdrop to these kinds of shots. It was a relatively quiet day given the good weather conditions so it was nice to be able to pick and choose where we could stand to try and get the best views.

When you get round the bottom end of the lake there is a really nice area which is brick semi circle that is kind of a watching station for walkers to view the wildlife at the lake. I’d had the idea of trying a few pictures using this as a focus when I was planning the shoot and I think they turned out pretty well.

After a while we had done our lap round the lake and I had managed to get a good amount of different pictures, I felt it had been a productive day and that I had managed to some shots that Debz & Chris would hopefully like. Time for a well deserved drink in the nearby pub although it was soft drinks only for me!

I have tried out a few different effects and editing on the finished pictures as I am still experimenting with all the things you can achieve in Lightroom, once I had completed this I was able to present the couple with their images. I was really pleased with the way they turned out after such harsh sunlight and I really enjoyed the whole experience so many thanks to Debz & Chris for giving me the opportunity to try this kind of photoshoot.

A couple more of my favourite pictures from the day

These kinds of shoots are definitely something that I will be offering as part of my wedding packages from now on as I think it is a great way to meet the couple and work together to do some test shots prior to the actual wedding, plus the couple get some lovely pictures to treasure in the future.

As always I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog, please leave a comment to let me know if you have enjoyed it – I always like to hear from my readers.

Urban Exploration of an Abandoned Brickworks

2010-11-16T01:35:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since I have done a post on here so time for a catch up and to let you all know what I've been up to.

We have had an extremely busy summer this year - 5 weddings, 2 festivals, our own birthdays and my friends hen do - time has just run away with me and I've not found the time to spend on my blog so I apologise for my absence. It has been a very pleasant summer with lots of lovely events to attend though,so I'm not complaining - better to be busy than bored.

So I thought I really should come and do a post but it's taken me ages to decide what to write about as there has been so much going on. In the end I decided to tell you about our second Urban Exploration trip on which we checked out an abandoned brickworks. My last post about our first explore was well received and I thought some of you may enjoy reading about our latest one.

The brickworks was set up in 1897 in a place a which was then called Wootton Pillange by B.J Forder and Son. Over the years they merged with a number of different companies including the London Brick Company which went on to become the largest brickworks in the world in 1936 employing 2000 staff and producing over 500 million bricks a year. In 1984 the London Brick Company were then taken over by Hanson and by 2005 there were only 230 staff manufacturing 135 million bricks per year at the plant which still stood on the same site but the village had been renamed Stewartby many years ago. The brickworks closed it's doors for good in 2005.

The brickworks is not far from our hometown so a short drive led us to the site which is absolutely massive, a lot of open spaces inbetween the many different outbuildings and the main manufacturing plant. We circled the site in the car trying to locate a suitable place to access the site but it appeared to be pretty well secured with massive piles of bricks stacked up high over every open gap in the outer perimeters - a few laps almost left us a bit stumped and we even considered heading home. We decided one final scout round and then we would admit defeat - luckily we spotted a group of lads who looked as if they had just come off the site so we pulled over and asked them if they'd just been in the brickworks. Looking rather spooked (and a little worried) they eventually gave us some pointers after we'd convinced them that we were other explorers and not undercover police officers!

After a bit of trapsing we were on the site and it was at this point we realied just how open and difficult this site was going to be to explore. It was going to take some fast thinking and even faster footwork, we needed to keep our wits about us and my heart was absolutely racing as we made our way to the nearest building to us - what appeared to be a huge shed.

When we got to the building it was obvious that it had been used to house different kinds of bricks and it looked as if people came in to order certain products from here. There were still piles of bricks scattered around and other strange looking things like huge rolls of roofing felt still wrapped up and intact.

Also inside the building was a small room which looked as if it had been an office or workers tea room. As with a lot of abandoned places it almost looked as if the staff just walked out and left all their stuff there, dirty cups sat on the table, calendars were still pinned onto noticeboards and the workers coats and personal items still hung in lockers. Order books were there on tables which probably hadn't been written in for a number of years but almost looked as if they had been used yesterday......

The site, having been empty for a number of years was now unfortunately starting to show some signs of vandalism, one of the perils of leaving a building disused. Urban Explorers do not advocate or encourage vandalism and are in fact very much against it - mindless idiots ruin these places for those of us who just looking enjoy at the demise of a building and photographing the desecration caused by the elements for pleasure rather than a pointless love of totally trashing a building for no reason. One of the outbuildings had blatently suffered an arson attack because the most of the roof had burnt away leaving just a few chared timbers and a half torched shell - this had been sectioned off by security patrols for obvious reasons. Some doors had been kicked off some of the outbuildings for no reason than just boredom.....

We made our way to the next buiding which looked very similar to the first, obviously another housing area for bricks awaiting sale or transportation to buyers. Most of these buildings seemed to be laid out the same with a main warehouse area and then a small office or tea room, each one had more and more personal items housed inside them, these were the areas I enjoyed exploring the most.

We then decided to try and get across to the main building where the manufacturing of the bricks took place. This was approximately 400 yards from us across a vast open space with a clear view from the security hut, it was going to be risky and the only thing for it was to basically run as fast as we could – not easy when carrying a camera bag! Now running is not my strong point but upon the count of three I ran as fast as my little legs could go and was glad to have made it across to the building without detection.

Once over to this, the largest of the buildings we found huge high ceilinged buildings housing lots of machinery. Inside there were piles of bricks which had collapsed into the main area of the building smashing through machines as they fell. This building was like a maze of internal rooms all jutting out to the sides, with a main processing plant slap bang in the middle.

Again a lot of the rooms looked like they had once been offices as there were personal effects from the workers hanging in lockers, empty mugs which once held tea and coffee sat on the desk and even lottery tickets pinned onto noticeboards……

Everything was covered in a layer of white brick dust which highlighted how terrible the working conditions must have been for those employed here, you could almost taste it in the air and this was years after the workforce had left, I could only imagine what it would’ve been like with all those machines working at full pelt in their heyday.

We kept finding room after room, all of which just looked as if everyone upped and left suddenly one day without any warning, the whole remaining workforce leaving at the same time not stopping to pick up any of their possessions along the way.

In one room which was obviously used as an office there were shelves and shelves of box folders lined up. On the desk a file were what looked like architectural plans and technical drawings of previous contracts just left gathering dust – it always amazes me that documents like this are just left and not disposed of or kept in an archive somewhere but often when exploring you see files of such papers, or personal records still in the building you are looking around.

It was hard to picture how the plant worked in its operational days, there was so much to take in, so many pieces of machinery that still stood in situ obviously not used for years but still dominating most of the building. It would’ve been interesting to see the plant in operation although I don’t think I would’ve liked to work there!

We decided that we should probably leave soon as we had been inside the brickworks for a good three hours, there were so many more areas we could’ve tried to look around as the site is so huge but thought it was best not to push our luck so we headed back towards the car running across the open areas as fast as we could again! Anyway a few more pictures for you……

This was definitely a worthy explore and one that I enjoyed – especially as it was totally different to the last one we did last year. I’m hoping that we will get to do another one although am not sure when that will be due to a few other things going on with us at the moment – we are expecting our first baby, due in march 2011 so I think maybe climbing in and out of abandoned buildings may be off the menu for me for a while.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this and looking at my pictures – feel free to leave a comment as I always like to hear from my readers. If this is your first visit to my blog then I welcome any new subscribers and hope you will return in the future. Remember you can also 'like' my work by joining my fan page on Facebook just look up "Photography By Sharon Curran" in the search box.

Thanks for visiting

Sharon

If You Go Down to the Woods Today

2010-05-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally sprung and we have seen lots of really lovely warm sunny days over the past month or so. This is my favourite time of year – the brighter mornings and evenings, the flowers all starting to bloom and best of all warmer weather and hopefully less rain. This is also a great time to get out with the camera due to the extended daylight hours plus there are plenty of photo opportunities when it comes to the springtime flower displays.

Unfortunately I missed the daffodils this year but I was determined after seeing some photos of the bluebells in bloom last year that I would try and make sure I got some nice shots of them. I had already researched some of the best places that they grow locally, it was just timing my visit right so that the flowers were out and catching them before they close as they don’t remain open for very long – this would depend on the weather. After a rather rainy Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday morning the sun decided to poke its head out for a while so my husband and I quickly grabbed our cameras and headed off on a mission.

We headed up to a local area called Linford Woods which is has a number of trails and things to explore. The wood originally covered approximate 100 acres but due to development and the building of local housing has now been broken down into smaller areas of woodland popular with locals and visitors to Milton Keynes.

We parked up in a small car park and started walking along one of the many pathways to try and find a nice opening with lots of bluebells. There were plenty growing along the edges of the pathways in small clusters but I was looking for something a bit bigger.

You may recall the song “Teddy Bears Picnic” which starts off with the line “If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise” I always think of that song when we go here because whilst walking you will encounter some of the weird and wonderful sculptures among the woodland.

These sculptures are made out of tree stumps and branches which have fallen from the trees and have been hand carved into various shapes and styles.

Quite often the sculptures can be found in places you wouldn’t necessarily see straight away like up in an actual tree or off the beaten track in small pathways which go behind the trees and then back onto the main bridleway.

Every time we come to the woods we find different carvings. The last time we came we even found one of Rupert the Bear which was really good. This time we found snakes heads carved into the end of felled branches and the gorilla, Buddha and owl you see in the images above.

After walking for a while we came across a really nice area where there was the perfect spot for some photographs. With a nice clearing in the trees and a huge amount of flowers covering the ground – this would do nicely.

I decided to climb right down onto ground level in an attempt to get a good angle. After a few days of rain the ground was a little boggy but I didn’t let this stop me. I was determined and just waded through the mud to get the shot I wanted.

A little further on there was another nice area but we were separated from it by a water filled ditch. Not one to be deterred my husband grabbed a quite lengthy thick log and placed it over the ditch – it was a bit hair raising walking along it to get across the ditch as it was covered in moss and quite damp and slippy from the rain but we managed it and I was glad I did as I managed to get my favourite shot of the day.

The flowers literally covered the ground as far as the eye could see, a glorious blue carpet stretching across the woodland floor teamed with the fragrant aroma of the bluebells in the air it was a magical sight. This is definitely one of the reasons I love spring so much.

After taking a few shots we precariously made our way back across the log, amazingly I didn’t fall in the ditch quite a feat for someone as clumsy as me! By this time the sun was definitely being shrouded by darker clouds and we decided to head back to the car and home for a nice cup of tea.

If you ever visit this area I would recommend a trip to these woods. A lot of people just think of Milton Keynes as a concrete town, full of roundabouts when in actual fact there are lots of really lovely places like this where you can walk and explore. You just need to know they are there to appreciate them.

I’m hoping now the days are longer I will be able to venture out with the camera a bit more. I have lots of very exciting plans over the summer at which I should get some fantastic photographic opportunities starting with the wedding of two good friends this coming Saturday. Although I am bridesmaid I will still be trying to take some photos during the day to mark the occasion – let’s hope the sun decides to grace us with its presence.

Thank you all for reading and subscribing to my blog it is very much appreciated. There should be plenty of updates coming over the summer as I have a very busy diary. I also have a couple of things bubbling away in the background which I am quite excited about so hopefully I will be able to report back on those soon.

All comments welcomed as always. Thanks for reading!

Practical Photography DSLR Skills Course

2010-04-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody.

So Spring is finally here and the flowers are starting to bloom, after such a cold and rubbish winter it’s nice to finally see some sunny days although I think it’s a bit early for short sleeves and vest tops I am definitely pleased to see the better weather emerging as it means I will be able to get out and about with the camera a bit more.

I recently signed up to a free photography course run by Practical Photography Magazine. The DSLR Skills course aims to teach you different techniques over the space of six months, each month’s module focussing on a different theme. You do need to purchase the magazine each month but they ran a special six month subscription for £10 which was great value as it is usually £3.99 per issue. We are now into our second month and so far I am enjoying the course.

Each month you are set a basic homework task which you must complete plus an advanced homework task which is optional. I’m trying to make sure I complete both homework assignments each month as it should push me that little bit more.

Last months basic homework task was to take a shot of pedestrians using a short shutter speed which would result in a slight blur to the people as they walked past. Sounded easy but in actual fact I found this quite difficult – mostly because it required the use of a tripod and as soon as people see one of those they avoid you like the plague! I tried various locations including outside our local shopping centre which resulted in me getting my first request to leave for taking photographs. In the end I submitted this image of two local businessmen for my basic homework assignment piece.

I wasn’t overly happy with the image but it met the required elements and I wanted to make sure I had time to also have a go at the advanced homework – Urban Light Trails. For the advanced homework we were asked to take a photo using long shutter speeds to capture light trails from traffic – the required element was that it should be shot in an urban environment and include a building or buildings in the shot. I love light trails and had previously tried them before so this was my prefered element of the first module.

I went to a familar spot to pratice above the A5 on the way out of Milton Keynes. This particular spot is fantastic for getting some lovely long exposure trail shots but as much as I loved the images I got I couldn’t really use any of them for my homework piece as they wern’t shot in an urban environment. This is one of my favourites……

So I had to put my thinking cap on and think of somewhere suitable in town to try and get a shot which I could submit for my homework piece. This was easier said than done – due to the grid system in central Milton Keynes the buildings are set away from the roads which meant getting a decent shot with an urban building in the frame along with some traffic trails was pretty difficult.

I tried a few locations but wasn’t happy with the results. So on a last chance outing I decided to head up to a different area and found what looked to be a pretty decent place and this was where I ended up getting the photograph I submitted for the advanced homework this image of the Xscape building in central Milton Keynes.

I would’ve liked the trails to have been longer and brighter but overall I just liked the colours in this image and the starbursts on the street lamps plus I thought the Xscape is an unusual shaped building and the curves contrasted well with the lines of the road.

So we are now onto module 2 which is based on ‘Still Life’ not something I have really had much experience of before so I have been looking forward to trying my hand at it. The basic homework is to take a household object which could be anything from a knife and fork to an ornament or a hairbrush and take a still life picture of it illuminated by natural daylight only.

Having thought about the kind of item I wanted to use as a subject I came up with a few different things to practice with. I have been quite suprised at the results and how well they have come out. I have got four pictures which I’ve shortlisted to choose from……

For this picture I used an Angel of Patience statue that my friend brought me placing it near a bright window in the lovely sunshine on some black card. I really like this shot, the simplicity of the statue works well highlighted by the window light.

For this shot I initially tried the egg cups on their own but then tried it with eggs in them and I like the way it has come out. I like the contrast between the dark side of the eggs against the sides which are highlighted by the window.

For this image I took a metal statue of a fairy and again placed it facing the window. The focus is very soft in this picture but I think it fits in with the subject, the lighting is quite soft and dreamy too.

Lastly I took a speaker for this shot and placed it near the window. I like the differing textures and patterns in this image from the grill on the front to the shiny rim on the outside.

They are the four pitcures now I just have to decide which one to go for, luckily I think any of them will meet the brief so at least I have a few options. If you have a favourite please leave me a comment and let me know. I still have to do the advanced homework which is to create a still life using artificial light creating a shadow as part of the shot and I may use one of the statues to do that so I’m considering submitting the egg shot for the basic homework.

So this is what I’ve mostly been doing and so far I’m enjoying it. The course is still open to join if you are reading this and would like to know more you can find out about it here http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/DSLR-Skills-2010 . If you are already taking part in the course you may like to know that I have set up a designated Flickr group for anyone taking part – we have almost 200 members and it is not only for sharing images that you have taken but also getting feedback and critique on them, there is also a discussion area. Please feel free to join us at http://www.flickr.com/groups/dslrskills2010

Anyway thats about all from me – I’m off to look for household objects for my advanced homework! As always thank you for reading and happy snapping!

Benjamin's Photoshoot

2010-02-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

For those who have been reading my blog for a while will know that back in November I took a few shots at Benjamins Christening. Ben is now 6 months old and I'd arranged to go and visit his mum for the day and take some pictures while I was there.

The drive up to Manchester was rather rubbish as the weather couldn't quite decide what it was doing but I soon arrived at my destination. Unfortunately Ben was teething and was a little grumpy but with the help of his play mat I managed to get some nice shots, helped by the natural daylight coming in through the window.

He is so active now pulling himself around and starting to learn how to move accross the floor so keeping up with him was sometimes quite difficult. He is a proper little poser though stopping every now and then and just giving the most perfect look - it was just making sure I was ready and waiting when he did and unfortunately I missed quite a few shots but this is the joy of photographing children you never know what they are going to do next.

Bens mum showed me how he loves playing in his Jumperoo, his face was a picture but it was impossible to get a shot whilst he was bouncing up and down. After a while he was a little tired out so he went off for a little afternoon nap which seemed to do the trick as he came back a lot more smiley. By this time it was dark outside and so I got to test out my new flash which I'd only recently brought, this was my first time of using a hotshoe flash and I really like the difference it made to the pictures.

I got some amazing smiles from Ben which I caught on camera and some really cheeky little faces too. I especially love the expression in this next picture.

All too soon it was time for bed and for me to head back home. The drive back was atrocious as I got caught in a blizzard and in some of the worst fog I think I've ever driven in during my seventeen years of driving so I was definitely glad to get home. I don't want to put up too many pictures as these are a bit of a taster of them for my friend and her boyfriend but I can't resist putting this last one up as I love it - I just hope they will too.

I'd just like to say many thanks to Colette and Dave for letting me take some photos, Ben is definitely one of my favourite subjects to work with as he is such a happy, smiley little boy. I really hope that you both like the pictures.

Next weekend we are off to a wedding and I am going to be taking my camera with me to try and get some shots so I should have some more photos to share with you all. As always many thanks for reading, your support is appreciated - please feel free to leave comments as I enjoy reading them.

A Winter Wonderland

2010-02-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

Have had a lot of stuff going on over the past few weeks but I realised I hadn’t updated my blog for quite a while so I thought it was about time I picked up my camera and headed out to get some shots. Trying to find a subject was proving to be difficult though what with the dark nights and busy weekends but I was given the perfect reason a few weeks ago.

As we entered 2010 along with it came some of the coldest weather the UK has seen in a number of years and the first snowfall of the new decade. When I awoke and I looked out of the window I was greeted with snow covering our street, just like a lot of the country.

Luckily for me my workplace was closed and I ended up with a day off. Instead of curling back up in my nice warm bed I decided to don my polka dot willies, gloves, hat and scarf and head off in search of some photographic opportunities.

One of my favourite places in Milton Keynes is the Peace Pagoda and I have been wanting to get some pictures of it in the snow for a while now so that was where I headed. The roads had not been gritted and were pretty atrocious but I just took it nice and slowly – after all there was no rush snow like this was not going to melt in the 15 minutes it would take me to drive there.

I got there in one piece and parked up the car, as I left it parked solitary in the vast snow covered car park I hoped I would be able to get it back out but hey I’d deal with that when I left! Off I walked along the deserted pathway usually full of people walking their dogs stopping occasionally to take a picture.

The snow was light and fluffy just like icing sugar, perfect fresh snow which had been sprinkled overnight from above. There had only been a few people walking along here as their footprints stood out imprinted into the white blanket below me. You could clearly see the pathways which had been more popular with pedestrians…..

I carried on walking and carefully climbed the steps, popular with photographers but hardly recognisable covered in snow apart from the handrail running up the middle. When I reached the top I looked and the trees created a lovely frame to the footsteps running up the middle of the snow covered ground.

As I reached the usually green grassy hill the I was greeted with the crispest blanket of snow covering the whole whole area. It looked almost magical. There wasn’t a soul in sight something I have never seen before as this area is usually bustling with people – joggers having their daily run, people walking their dogs, couples out for a stroll…..never have I seen it totally empty, just me and my camera.

This is where you find the Peace Pagoda. Officially opened in September 1980 the Peace Pagoda is a central part of the Japanese Nipponzan Myohoji Order in the UK. This is where Buddhist monks hold ceremonies to mark specific occasions such as memorials for the Hiroshima victims among others.

Unfortunately the sky was totally white, obviously more snow waiting to fall held within it so I didn’t get the picture I was hoping to achieve but the Pagoda looked so beautiful I couldn’t resist. Typically later on that day the skies cleared into the most beautiful blue colour which was the exact picture I wanted to get.

As much as I love snow pictures they can look a little samey so I’m not going to post a lot of shots as one looks very much like another but one thing that did strike me is how a sprinkling of snow can make something that would ordinarily look pretty boring look totally different like the branch of a fir tree.

So simple but yet for some reason I really like this picture.

Now the snow is starting to melt and it doesn’t look anywhere near as beautiful as it did a week ago. I think that most people are starting to get rather fed up with it now and will be glad to see the back of it. Unfortunately for some reason the UK really doesn’t seem to cope well with snow even though it seems to be a more regular occurrence, we could definitely do with some lessons with some of the countries who are seasoned pros at dealing with it.

Anyway after my expedition out in the snow I’ve realised how much I’ve missed picking up my camera, even though it was freezing cold it was nice to get some nice pictures before all the snow got trodden into slush. Afterwards I went home and enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee………while my husband decided to top up his tan in the back garden…….

This blog is late going up as I’ve been so busy – I promise to make sure I update my blog more regularly from now on!

With that I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read, subscribed and commented on my blog in 2009 your support is very much appreciated. I’d like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year and that I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2010.

My First Childrens Photoshoot

2009-11-05T01:34:00.000-08:00

As autumn falls over us with a blanket of brown and gold leaves on the floor it appears my opportunities for getting outside and taking photos is diminishing with every passing day. Almost gone are the lovely sunsets of a few weeks ago and it seems that each day becomes drearier and colder outside and the evenings are darker earlier – boo! As someone who loves spring and summer, autumn and winter are my most dreaded times of the year and I have a feeling that this year we are in for a harsh one.

Because the evenings are darker it means I am less able to get out and to take photos after I finish work as by time I get home and sort myself out the light is fading away faster than an Olympic sprinter off the starting block, so that only leaves the weekends for possible photographic outings. This would be fine except weekends are precious as I am sure most people would agree and I find that when Friday evening comes I have so many things I want to do and only two days to do them all in before the working week starts again. This sometimes photography has to take a back seat at the weekends so I can fit in everything else or because our unreliable English weather throws a rainy day our way which thwarts any plans I may have had for a trip out with the camera. I do love photography but I don’t love getting wet!

Last weekend though I had the perfect opportunity to put my camera to some use, by arranging to do a photo shoot of a friend’s son. He had recently celebrated his first birthday so I offered to do the shoot as a present as I thought it would be nice to try and get some lovely pictures to commemorate the occasion. Plus I could then try my hand at children’s photography and get some shots for my portfolio. If you’ve read my blog before then you are probably aware I like to try all different kinds of photography and this would definitely be different to anything I’ve done so far.

Having looked up on the internet about what kind of settings I should be aiming for and hints and tips on how to get the best results I packed my equipment bag and headed off towards Nottingham where the shoot was taking place. After a nice easy drive I arrived and acquainted myself with my subject Shay a lovely smiley young man with a great personality. Once sure he seemed comfortable with me I slowly got out my camera and started taking a few shots.

There was a slightly shaky start which was to be expected as Shay hadn’t met me before, but after a short while he really settled into it and was pulling pose after pose for me and even gave me a demonstration of his dance moves every time some music played, which was extremely cute. He seemed to feel more comfortable with me using the camera around him as after a while he just ignored what I was doing and carried on as he would normally playing with his toys and bounding around the room.

I was aiming for a nice natural photo shoot at home in his own surroundings, using nothing other than the available natural light rather than a more manufactured set up as personally I feel the candid style really suits this kind of photography as you can really capture the child’s personality when they are just being themselves. Shay was just the perfect subject as was such a smiley happy boy and he has such a great little character.

Now I’m not going to put too many of the pictures on here as I am still in the process of sorting through them all and I don’t want to spoil it for the parents as they are still to see the full set of images that I took so I’m just going to include a final picture which I think is one of my favourites from the day.

I really enjoyed doing this shoot, so much in fact that I would love to do some more and I’m in the process of putting together some advertising leaflets to try and get some bookings for children’s photo shoots. However to any of my friends that’s may be reading this through Facebook who may like me to take some pictures of their little one (or ones) please contact me as I am looking for a couple more children to photograph to add to my portfolio.

I have to say lastly a massive thank you to Liam and Loz who allowed me to come and take pictures of Shay – he is one adorable little chap and he was a pleasure to photograph.

As always thank you for reading – all your comments are appreciated. If you are reading this through my website then don’t forget you can become a follower of my blog – it only takes a couple of minutes.

2009-09-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Urban Exploration (also known as Urbex) is the hobby (some might say sport) of exploring derelict buildings, underground bunkers, disused hospitals, asylums, schools, subterranean tunnels, abandoned factories and other such forgotten structures or pieces of land.
My husband is into Urbex and has visited a few different places including an abandoned lunatic asylum called Cane Hill and a hospital called Hellingly. Ever since he told me about the places he has explored I’ve been intrigued and have been looking at pictures of other peoples Urbex visits on the internet as I find them extremely interesting.

It is a common belief by most people that those who are into Urban Exploration will break into buildings to gain entry and is it assumed that any resulting damage inside the buildings such as graffiti, mindless vandalism and even arson is caused by them. However this, in the majority of cases is not so, serious Urbex enthusiasts abide by certain rules such as no breaking and entering, no vandalism or graffiti and no stealing. A well know phrase adopted by lovers of the hobby is “Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints”.

Most mindless damage to these buildings is actually caused by drug addicts bored teenagers, yobs and trouble makers who use empty premises as a meeting place. Those into Urbex usually have just one aim, to quietly look around the inside of abandoned and derelict places to see the architecture inside and the amount of decay caused by disuse, occasionally taking photographs to document their visit.

On Sunday my husband told me we were going on a secret photography afternoon. I had no idea where we were going when we headed off in the car and once we got close my husband told me that we were going to look round an abandoned nursing home a moderately short distance away from our house. My first reaction was a mixture of fear and excitement, having only ever read other peoples reports I had no experience of my own to go on – I was entering the unknown in more ways than one.

The building we would be exploring was built in around 1934 and was originally used as convalescence home housing inured war veterans and patients from the local hospital recovering from operations – there was also an adjoining mental hospital wing. The building itself is apparently listed however permission has been granted for redevelopment in early 2013.

The first problem of the day was actually finding the place; my husband had done his research and had armed himself with some directions. We programmed in the sat nav but when it said we had arrived at our destination there was no sign of the place, Google maps kept taking us past it too. After a few drives backwards and forwards we saw a possible access point and parked up. The actual building was nestled in amongst a forest so we made our way through the trees and soon we saw the grand building and were assessing the area. Hiding in the bushes we stayed well clear until we knew there were no security guards patrolling the site then seizing our chance we legged it towards the building.

We were in, we’d got the hard part out of the way, now the exploring could begin, my heart was beating ten to the dozen, a mixture of excitement, fear and anticipation sweeping over my body. Once inside we were met with a variety of rooms with a corridor separating them down the middle. The place was a mess, stud walls smashed to pieces in places, every window was smashed, there was peeling paint, graffiti tags sprayed all over the place, certain rooms had a large amount of fire damage inside obviously by junkies or arsonists since the building closed in 2006.

It was obvious that this place had been easily accessible for quite a while due to the amount of damage. After our trip I did a bit of research on this building and found a few other reports from people who had done previous Urbex visits to the site it was amazing to see how rapidly the building had gone downhill since the last documented visit I could find which was just 8 months ago.

We explored the ground floor, treading carefully as we went because of the amount of rubble and debris over the floors. By time we got to the middle of the building my heart rate had more or less returned to normal, I was starting to get into it and was really enjoying looking round. In the middle of the building was a large staircase starting on the ground floor at what I think may possibly have been the reception area and leading up to two further floors. My husband went into a room while I was taking some shots of the staircase…..

When I looked round I spotted what looked like a figure in the distance. Unsure of my surroundings I couldn’t quite work out if it was actually my reflection in a mirror or if there was actually a person there. I stopped and looked for a possible hiding place but I was right in the open with no place to hide away. My heart jumped into my throat at this point after all I had no idea who this person was and here I am in a rather eerie deserted building. I whispered to my husband that someone was coming and he quickly appeared from behind a half demolished piece of plasterboard which at some point would’ve been a wall. It turned out that there were in fact two people, walking towards us from the other end of the building.

The two figures reached us and it turned out they were two teenagers, I don’t think they were Urbex enthusiasts as one them a girl aged around 16 /17 said she was local to the area and that the place had become a bit of a hang out for the local teenagers (culprits for the damage quite possibly) after a brief chat we said goodbye and went on our way and we didn’t see them again. I must admit for a couple of seconds I was rather scared when I realised there were other people in the building – aaah well at least it made the visit a little more exciting!

We continued to explore and found a door with a hole kicked in the middle of it. My husband havingbeing more experienced took the lead and climbed through the hole, we came to a room with a few pieces of old furniture which had Christmas decorations strewn all over the floor – obviously used to give the residents some seasonal cheer. There were a variety of old records scattered across the room, some still in their original sleeves and some vinyl’s smashed on the concrete floor – classics like Elvis Presley unplayed for years with footprints all over them.

Through another door at the end of this room and we stumbled across another room which looked as if it was once the kitchen area, maybe the old gas cooker and tiled walls gave its identity away.

It was at this point we found this amazing piece of graffiti which luckily had evaded the spray cans of the taggers across the tiled wall. Now I know that graffiti is a nuisance and costs millions of pounds to clean up each year but personally I have to admit that as much as I hate stupid tagging which has no point or skill to it I do love seeing graffiti like this. To me these kinds of pictures created with spray cans are amazing pieces of artwork using a different kind of canvas and I love looking at them, I had to take a picture of it as it would’ve been rude to the artist not to have done.

So after taking in the kitchen we carried on as there was still so much to see. There wasn’t a piece of glass in tact and the whole building was completely wrecked inside, there were doors hanging off and faded curtains half hanging, ravaged by the tests of time and the elements streaming in through the gaping crevices where once window panes had been. We walked up the stairs to the top floor; the staircase was quite well preserved apart from the lack of front to the building which had mainly been all glass windows previously. When we got to the top floor the right hand side of the building had obviously been torched and suffered a huge amount of fire damage.

However the corridor to the left had remained untorched (for now). The picture above and the picture below are actually the same corridor but separated by the landing at the top of the stairs, the fire damaged one above leading off to the right and the non fire damaged one below leading off to the left – you can see the difference in the two.

I love the picture above; I think it looks so eerie with the curtain blowing in the breeze which ran throughout the building. I certainly don’t know how people explore these buildings at night it was spooky enough during the day!

By this point I must admit I was starting to think we were pushing our luck, we had been inside the property for well over an hour and so we decided to head back to the car. Looking back now I wish we had looked round a bit more as there was still plenty left to see but I think my nerves were starting to get the better of me a little – after all this was my first time exploring in a totally derelict building.

It was a really enjoyable experience and I am definitely glad we did it, I found it really interesting if not a little nerve wracking at time and a little scary but I would definitely like to go and look round another derelict building in the future it’s just a case of finding a place to go now.
As always thanks for reading and lease leave a comment if you have enjoyed it.

Big Cats - Last Page

2009-09-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

Now for the final part of my visit to the WHF.

This is a little overdue; I have been so busy that this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write it up so firstly apologies for that but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

The rest of the day was free time for us to walk around the centre and go back to the animals we wanted to get some more pictures of – except the leopards as they are so quick and unpredictable you can only visit them with a keeper. I had a walk around and revisited some of the cats that I had already seen to try and get some additional pictures of them starting with the Pallas cats then working towards the tigers. This is when my favourite part of the day took place.
When walking towards the main tiger pen there was a solitary tiger in an enclosure and he was laid down right next to the fence and when I say right next to the fence I mean literally against it. Realising this was the perfect opportunity as there was no other visitors anywhere near me I very quietly sat down next to the fence right next to where the tiger was sitting and said hello to him. I couldn’t quite believe that I was sat about 6 inches away from a tiger chatting away to him telling him how absolutely beautiful he was!

The next thing I knew just as my own cat at home would do he rolled upside down onto his back and pulled in his paws in towards the centre of his body and let out a little noise, not quite a purr but quite similar to one. So I slowly got out my camera and took a couple of shots……

After a couple of minutes he rolled back over and lay against the fence so I took the opportunity to get a close up picture of his eye……if you look closely you can see my refelection in it.

He repeated this about four or five times, rolling onto his back and posing for me some more before rolling back and relaxing again. He kept making these little noises exactly how my cat does when she is ‘talking’ to me but obviously a lot louder than my pet does! It was such an amazing experience – I mean how many people can say they had a ‘chat’ with a Tiger?

The very last animals I met on my visit to the WHF were the Kings of the Jungle – the Lions. They have three lions at the centre Tiny, Kafara and Manzi who are all brothers who were born at Woburn Safari Park, the brothers had to be moved to as the from Woburn as they already had resident male lions in their pride.

Now admittedly on the day of our visit the lions didn’t really do much except spend most of the day asleep in the sun! Occasionally they would get up for a short while to turn over or have a yawn with their huge mouths but most of the day they seemed like they hardly moved.

The African lion is the only big cat not endangered, being listed as a “threatened species”. This means there are some restrictions in international trade of lions and their parts. Lions are found through out sub Saharan Africa inhabiting savannahs, grassy plains and open woodlands. Their life span is on average 15 years in the wild with captive lions living up to their late twenties.

Lions are the only social member of the cat family living in groups known as prides consisting of related females and their young and 1 – 2 males. It is the females who do most of the hunting, running at a maximum speed of 30 mph over 50 yards. They are 1 of 4 of the big cats that can roar. It is said that a lions roar can be heard over 5 miles away. The biggest threats to the lion population in the wild are poaching and hunting of the animals and through disease such as canine distemper and FIV which is the feline version of HIV.

Another group of people came to the enclosure who were being shown round by a keeper; they weren’t a photography group as they didn’t have cameras. They may possibly been a group of people who were attending one of the afternoons for animal adopters to visit their chosen adopted cat. The keeper explained that lions like the smell of lavender; she then got some lavender oil out of her pocket and applied some to the back of her hand. More or less immediately one of the lions (I think it was Tiny) jumped down off his wooden platform and came over to the fence. He started rubbing himself up against the fence the same way a household cat rubs itself up against the furniture – he loved obviously really did love the smell of the lavender oil. The keeper then let us stroke the lion through the bars which was fantastic! The fur on his body looked as if it would be very smooth but it was actually very wiry and his mane was really wiry and dry not at all how I expected it to be, not that I ever really expected to ever get to physically stroke a lion!

Before I knew it the day was over and it was time for me to start the drive back to Milton Keynes, I must admit I didn’t want the day to end it had been amazing from start to finish. It wasn’t just about the photography for me but I actually ended up enjoying seeing the cats close up and hearing about the work the Wildlife Heritage Foundation are doing at trying to save these spectacular big cats from possible extinction.

I am definitely going to be returning to the centre again, they run photography days throughout the year and I know that the Talk Photography Forum are planning on running some more days next year so hopefully I will be able to make one of those. I would definitely recommend the photography days for anyone who would like the opportunity to get up close to these animals for themselves – the money raised also helps the centre pay for the upkeep of the cats that reside with them so it goes to a worthwhile cause.

I’m also considering adopting one of the cats through the adopt an animal scheme run by the WHF. For £50 a year you can adopt a cat of your choice and you get invited to visit the centre on adopter’s day so you can see the progress your animal is making.

For more information about the Wildlife Heritage Foundation please look at their website http://www.whf.org.uk

So that brings my big cat’s diary to a close but before I go I want to share with you my favourite picture from the day……

Please if you have enjoyed reading my blog feel free to leave a comment they are all most appreciated.

Big Cats Day - Part 2

2009-09-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

In today’s blog I will be continuing with my visit to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation and the Big Cats photography day I attended there last weekend.

The next cat we met was Malawai who is a Serval. These smaller cats live mostly in South Africa, they have bold markings, long legs and tall oval ears. Avid hunters they use their ears to detect rodents even those which are burying underground, their long legs allow them to see over the top of tall grasses.

When hunting Servals will sometimes pause for up to 15 minutes with their eyes closed, they can jump almost 10 feet off the ground and can quite often be found catching passing birds. We were told by the keeper that Malawai kills anything which gets into his enclosure from mice and rats to low flying or birds resting in the shrubbery – basically if you are a small animal which gets in this guys pen your lucky to get out alive!

The biggest threat for Servals in the wild are humans who hunt them for their coats which are then sold as young leopard or cheetah coats, however they can survive well in the presence of humans and are sometimes tolerated and encouraged to live near farms as they help keep the rodent population under control.

We then had a break for lunch so a chance to take the pictures I had already taken off my memory card just in case anything happened to them and also to give me some more space for the afternoons antics as I knew we still had plenty more cats to see.

The first cats we saw in the afternoon were the Cheetahs, Pepo and Mephisto two males who live in separate enclosures. Pepo is the older of the two at 9 years old and was a successful member of the breeding programme having fathered 10 offspring he is now retired and will remain at the WHF.

Mephisto is four years old and was born at Safari de Peaugres in France he came to the WHF in January 2008 after an attempt at getting him to be a partner to a Cheetah at Paradise Wildlife Park failed, possibly as he is still quite young. He was bought to the centre to try and mature and learn something about Cheetah life from Pepo. Mephisto is nervous of everything on the site including the ducks on a pond next to his enclosure.

Pepo’s favourite pastimes include relaxing in the sun and chasing the trains which pass the site of the adjacent railway line – he did this a few times while we were there and it showed just how quickly these cats can run.

Cheetahs aren’t as endangered as some of the other cats at the centre but still work is being done to get the captive animals breeding so that some of them can hopefully be released back into the wild. Now it’s off to see the newest additions to the WHF the pumas.

Valentina and Viktoria are two sisters that came to the centre in September 2008, they are settling in really well to their specially adapted enclosure. Pumas are also known as Cougars or Mountain Lions, they can differ in colour and size and can be found in a variety of habitats from mountain forests to swamps and grasslands. Valentina is the more shy of the two Pumas at the WHF choosing to stay out of the way for most of our visit and hiding behind some of the cubby holes that have been created for the cats to sit under in their enclosure.

Pumas usually hunt alone and will stockpile their food if large enough in dense undergrowth, returning back to it over several days. They are a similar size to a Leopard and can easily catch prey as large as a cow or a horse due to their powerful and muscular bodies. In the wild when hunting the Puma uses it powerful hind legs to lunge at its prey and can jump in excess of 40 feet. Viktoria was especially good at demonstrating this by jumping for us a number of times in her enclosure to catch her food.

Numbers of Pumas living in the wild are most at risk from hunting and trapping by humans which is unfortunately the case with a lot of these big cats. This is one of the things that saddens me about the human race is that it seems intent on destroying everything beautiful about our planet.

After meeting Viktoria and Valentina we were taken to meet Petra the resident Lynx. A medium sized cat who is very powerful she starred in a children’s TV programme called “Brilliant Creatures”

Petra is a very intelligent cat and is always ready to play games with her keepers, she is able to jump 4 metres in the air to grab a piece of meat from the end of a pole. In the wild Lynxes would live in a wide ranging area from the Southern European Coast to the Artic Circle, their big feet and long legs mean they are adapted to travel through deep snow.

In some areas the Lynx is a protected species however in other areas they are hunted for the legal fur trade. The Lynx is also sometimes killed by farmers as if food is scarce they will take farm animals to feed on. In harsh winters the loss of animals for the Lynx to prey on can also cause a problem to the species. Petra doesn’t have to worry about this as she tucks into her tasty pigeon…..

Lastly on today’s blog are the Snow Leopards. By this time the sun had come out and was blazing away, it was absolutely sweltering and a lot of the cats were taking shade to keep cool and having a little afternoon siesta and the two Snow Leopards Ranschan and Mizi were no exception.

Mizi was having a snooze up on her treetop platform and even some fresh chunks of meat couldn’t tempt her down so while everyone else was concentrating on the keeper trying to get Mizi down to the ground I spotted Ranschan in his enclosure wide awake and headed off to get some shots of him. He was obviously quite sleepy but he did pull the cutest pose ever for me.

These leopards would usually be found in some of the world´s most remote habitats, ranging from China, Nepal, India, Kazakstan, Mongolia and the Gobi dessert. A protected species, numbers are estimated to be between 3,500 to some 7,000, due to the cats elusive secretive nature, their classed as endangered animals on the Worlds Conservation list.

It was so hard looking at some of these animals to believe that they had the inclination and the ability to kill but if I needed any kind of reminder it was from this moment when Ranschan decided to show me the size of his teeth!

I’m sure that his dentist bill isn’t cheap with those huge incisors!

Well I think that’s enough for today, I still have one more animal to tell you about and a lovely story from my day but I‘ll leave those till next time but I hope you have enjoyed todays post.

P lease if you have taken the time to read this then leave a comment it only takes a couple of seconds to do and they are all most appreciated.

Big Cats Photography Day - Page 1

2009-08-26T04:23:00.000-07:00

I love cats, all kinds of cats from your average household moggie to the beautiful big cats that live in the wild. Over the weekend I got to combine my love of cats with my love of photography by attending a Big Cat Photography day organised by the Talk Photography forum.

The day was taking place at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent. A charity which is UK based who are working hard to ensure that the big cat species of the world are protected from extinction. They are an active partner in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEP), as well as setting up education programmes for the people that share the habitats of these wonderful cats. The WHF is also raising awareness and funding for big cat projects around the world.

Having checked that I had a good supply of fully charged batteries and empty memory cards on the Friday evening I got all my camera equipment prepared for an early start on Saturday morning. Up at 6am to get ready before leaving home to travel down to Kent I was so excited about what the day would hold, I’d read such great reports from people who had previously attended the WHF I couldn’t wait to get there and experience it for myself.

After a nice easy drive I arrived at my destination in plenty of time and grabbed myself a drink from the refreshments tent. I met up with a few other members of the Talk Photography forum and introduced myself to a few of them who had already arrived, I was also asked to sign an indemnity form and read through the safety guidelines – basically I was signing away my life, if I got eaten it was all my fault! Once everyone was in attendance we had a short safety briefing – do not put fingers through the bars (really?) do not poke the animals etc seemed like common sense to me but we all know that not everyone has that in abundance!

We would be shown around the centre animal by animal and be given time to take plenty of photographs as we were there. The warden would give us information about each one and would answer any questions we had. First off we saw the Pallas Cats – these had a small head and a long tail. They look not very similar to a household cat in the face but have a lot of hair which comes out from their neck towards their face.

They have two Pallas Cats at the WHF Tula is female and Wei Shand who is male. The species is near threatened, it is unknown how many of these cats remain in the world but a lot of this species are killed by humans each year due to poison put down on farms as a side effect of rodent control. These little cats looked very cute but can actually be quite vicious; they have the most beautiful faces though.

We then travelled to see the tigers. In total there are ten tigers currently residing at the WHF we visited Indy, Puna, Asu and Bawa who all share a very large enclosure. Indy is a hybrid tiger which means a cross breed (Bengal with Amur) and came to the WHF from Paradise Wildlife Park where she was hand reared in her early years.

Puna is a Sumatran tiger, the smallest of the species and came to the WHF from Heidelberg Zoo where she had been hand reared. When she arrived at the centre she had forgotten how to be a proper tiger and so she was housed with Indy in the hope she would pick up the animal instincts she would naturally possess in the wild. Puna is playing a vital role in keeping the gene pool of Sumatran Tigers alive in captivity as an active member of the breeding programme along with Nias who she is paired with – they successfully produced two cubs in 2008.

Asu and Bawa are the two cubs born at WHF in July 2008. At a year old they are almost the same size as their mother but still display the playfulness of cubs. It is hoped that once they reach 18 months Asu will be moved on to another facility to become part of their breeding programme. Unfortunately Sumatran tigers are critically endangered and may disappear within the next 10 years this is why breeding centres like this play such a vital role in the conservation of these magnificent cats.

The picture below shows just how tall the tigers are when they stand on their back legs – these are actually the smallest types of tiger but they still stand at a good height when they stand up like this.

Due to the sheer amount of breeds of big cats housed at the WHF I’m going to break my blog down into separate parts as I want to make sure I do each animal justice so my last section for today will be about the next species on our visit – the Amur Leopards.

We saw four of the Amur Leopards on our visit – Artur and Xizi the breeding male and female and their two male cubs Argun and Anuy who were born at the WHF in October 2008. Artur has to be kept in a separate enclosure to his mate and offspring as if he was to be placed in the same pen his natural instinct would cause him to try and kill the two cubs.

The Amur Leopards are the world’s most endangered species of cat and this breeding pair are at the fore front of the conservation work at the WHF. It is estimated only 35 Amur Leopards remain in the wild and it is envisaged that some of the off spring born in captivity under the EEP programme will be released into the wild in the future to try and stop them from becoming extinct.

These cats certainly were the liveliest of the day. We had been warned that they could stretch their full front leg through the cage, and they were very likely to do it, we were to be on guard at all times and if the keeper shouted “get back” we had to move faster than lightning! Xizi especially would run straight towards us with a loud growl and a snarl which made for some great pictures.

It was very difficult getting pictures of them as they just didn’t stand still plus trying to hold a camera, check the focus and get a shot with one eye whilst keeping the other eye open for a leopard charging towards you with it’s rather large teeth heading straight for you is a mean feat I can tell you.

One of the cubs was so absolutely adorable as he made a little squeaking noise rather than a growl at times it was hard to believe that these animals are so deadly and dangerous. The keeper was able to feed Argun and Anuy through the cage and they even gave his hand a little lick though he said in a few months there will be absolutely no chance of him being able to do that…..funnily enough he didn’t try and feed Xizi by hand.

Even though Argun and Anuy are only 10 months old they are a good size and not much smaller than Xizi. This picture shows just how big their paws and the length of their claws – I certainly wouldn’t want to mess with any of these guys!

The Amur Leopards were stunning animals, the power in their bodies was spectacular and they are amazingly beautiful, almost mesmerizing. I certainly hope that the work being done by the WHF and the other centres in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme can go some way to help protect them from extinction as it would be such a loss to the animal kingdom.

Anyway that’s it for today. Tomorrow I shall tell you about some of the other animals we met on our visit to this amazing place. I will also be uploading more images from the day but please bear with me as I have taken 700 photographs and need go through them and decide which ones I want to upload to my gallery.

Many thanks as always for reading – all comments appreciated are most. I hope you will check back to read my next instalment once I have written it.

All the Fun of the Fair

2009-08-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

So the beginning of a new week is upon us and as usual I’m wondering where the weekend went, Mondays just come round far too quickly for my liking! This weekend we were quite busy but I still didn’t get everything I wanted to do ticked off my list.

On Friday evening my husband Dave and I took a trip to the fair, there was a travelling fun fair in town and I wanted to go and try taking some long exposure shots of the rides. I love the kinds of pictures you can get from them with the trailing lights in different colours creating a blur accross the dark sky. I did a bit of reading up before we went on what kind of settings I would need to use as it would be my first attempt at this kind of photography and it would also give me a chance to try out my new remote shutter switch which was one of my birthday presents.

When we arrived at the fair I was a little disapointed as it was quite small, there were only a few rides and most of them were aimed towards smaller children, were quite tame and they didn’t look like they would give the kind effect I was looking for. There was a Twister/Switchback, Waltzers and a ride which has a long seat where the riders sit in a line and swings from left to right before finally going all the way over the top and back down the other side. We were there already so I decided I may as well have a go!

My first attempt was at the Twister. I set up the camera on the tripod only to discover that I seem to have lost one of the securing bolts! Luckily this didn’t render the tripod useless but it’s something I need to sort out sooner rather than later. I had a play with the remote shutter switch and it was really easy to use, definitely something I can see myself using in the future.

I got myself all ready and then I just had to wait for the ride to start moving which took a while as it was quite quiet. Once it started I just tried a variety of different settings to see how they altered the resulting photographs. Even though the pictures from this ride have come out quite well I think you get a better result from the rides that tend to go up in the air rather than the ones that stay at eye level. Here are a few of the shots I took, you can see how they vary.

As you can see the longer exposure creates a series of coloured trails from the lights on the various parts of the ride.

This wetted my appetite to try some shots of the other ride as I had a feeling it would give a much better effect, the ground was quite uneven and these could do with a bit of levelling in Photoshop but you get the general idea.

As you can see the lights on this create a circular effect as the ride goes up and over, the second picture has a shorter exposure so the circles aren’t totally complete. I much prefer this effect than the trails on the Twister – what do you think?

Lastly I tried taking some shots of the Waltzer – my favourite ride. This didn’t really create many trails due to the lights being fixed and not moving with the ride. I did get some nice star shaped bursts from the static lights though.

After this I decided to pack up the camera and enjoy the fair by going on the Waltzers. As it was almost the end of the evening the ride seemed to go on for much longer than usual and by time we came off both Dave and I were staggering around and feeling dizzy hahaha!

Now I’ve had a bit of a practice and feel a bit more confident about which settings I need to use I definitely want to try this again but next time for a full evening shoot. The next time the fair comes to town will be the end of October time ready for the local fireworks display, it will be better then as it is a much larger fair with better rides so I am already looking forward to that – hopefully I will be able to get some better pictures next time.

I shall update you on the rest of my weekend tomorrow as I think that’s enough for today. As always thank you for reading and please comment if you’ve enjoyed it.

My First Published Photograph

2009-08-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

I tend to use Flickr quite a lot as it is a good website for sharing your pictures with others. A few weeks ago I had a message from a website called Schmap via my Flickr account saying they had shortlisted one of my pictures and asking if I would be happy for it to be used in their online Leeds Guide.

Schmap is a website which publishes free travel guides for Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They currently have 199 guides available on their website including individual city or island guides. All the guides are accessed on their website but can be printed using their downloadable software.

The request came from the Managing Editor, Emma Williams and it clearly stated that they offer no payment for publication; this of course always opens a can of worms with professional photographers. Whereas I looked at the request as a way to get more coverage for my photography a lot of other people have told me that you should never allow someone use of your image for free. However I am in no way a professional photographer, this is not my business but something that I see as an enjoyable hobby and just being approached for the use of my image is reward enough for me at this point in time, although in the future maybe I will reach a stage where I personally feel I can ask for a fee.

After a bit of consideration I decided to respond with a yes, after all there was no guarantee they would actually decide to use the picture anyway. I went away and had a very enjoyable weekend at a birthday BBQ for me put on by some friends and didn’t think anything more of it. When we returned home on Sunday I had received another message from Emma telling me that they were pleased to let me know that my picture had been included in their Leeds Guide – my first ever published photograph and hopefully not my last!

The photo was of a National Trust property called Nostell Priory in Wakefield which is where some friends of mine were thinking of getting married next year and is shown above. Not one of my best pictures in my opinion however I am very pleased to have been included in the guide and it was a really nice surprise to have been asked. It has also given me a bit more confidence and has spurred me on to learning how to really make the most of my camera and improve my pictures. To me at this point in time that is more important and rewarding than a monetary payment.

I’ve added some of my favourite photographs I have taken to the site - you will see these at the bottom of the page. If you would like to see a larger view of any of the images just click on them and it will take you through to my Flickr page. As always please feel free to leave me a comment if you wish, I like reading them either on here or on my Flickr images.

Over the weekend I am hoping to get out and about with my camera and take some shots I want to test out my new lens and get some practice before the big cats shoot next week.

Happy Thursday everybody!

Hello!

2009-08-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

This is my first post on my blog so if you are reading then thanks for stopping by.

Last week it was my birthday and I turned thirty five. I started thinking about where I am in my life and where I want to be by time I’m forty. I realised that as much as I have a great life with a fantastic husband, a great family and amazing friends I sometimes feel that I haven’t achieved much with my life so far and that I would like to use the next five years to change this.

Since buying my first SLR camera in February of this year my interest in photography has increased. When asked if there was anything I would like for my birthday by my husband some new equipment for my camera was on the top of my list. So as part of my presents I received some great accessories for using with my Canon 40d – a new memory card, remote shutter switch, cleaning kit and a variety of different filters. I am sure these items are going to come in very handy and I’m looking forward to testing them out.

I also decided to treat myself to a new lens using money received from my parents and opted for the Canon 55 – 250mm IS which arrived this morning. At the moment I have two lenses, the 17 -85mm IS lens which came with my camera which gives good results but sometimes the lack of zoom frustrates me somewhat and the 50mm 1.8 EF lens which I find is great for doing portraits. Later on this month I’m going on a photography outing to the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Ashford to shoot big cats and I know that I really need a lens with better zoom to get the best pictures I can, this is one of my other reasons for purchasing the nifty two fifty. I’m determined to get some great shots while I’m there and hopefully having this lens will help.

My photography is definitely one of the things I would like to work on over the next few years. I have a few other things I’d like to do but at the moment they are simply ideas in my head rather than actual plans so for the time being I’m going to concentrate on my photography and see where that takes me. Tonight I’m going to start uploading a few images onto my site and working on my galleries so I should have something to show you all soon – hopefully you will be back to check them out.

That’s it for today – many thanks for reading. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!