Cricket in the Twilight on the Vine, Sevenoaks

Cricket on the Vine

The Vine Cricket Ground in Sevenoaks, Kent is the second oldest cricket ground in the world and is still in regular use today. It was gifted to 'the people of Sevenoaks' by the local Lord of the Manor on the understanding that it is used for playing cricket.

The difficulty with this shot is the failing light (not that it stopped play!). I wanted to keep that feel of approaching night but without it just looking too dark. The strong low sun from the side was casting nice shadows but has given us a washed out area on the left of the image.

All in all, I'm happy with this photo because it captures the feeling of a traditional English summer's evening that I felt when I was there taking it. However, I'm sure others won't like it because they don't have that memory of actually being there. When working on a photo it is hard to divorce yourself from the reality of the setting and be able to judge the image solely on its own merits.

More Photos of clouds

One day recently produced a set of clouds that looked totally unreal even when stood looking up at them in the flesh.

The rays of light shining through them looked like something out of a movie or an image that someone had photoshoppped.

I couldn't  help standing and staring at them for a few minutes. Usually when you take a photo of things like this the magic of them isn't captured in the image and they're a bit of a disappointment but this time pictures looked like the real thing.

The mysterious moon

The moon is an awkward thing to photograph. Due to the way our minds work the moon always appears bigger than it really is. So when we try to photograph it the results often disappoint but the moon appears to be tiny in the photo.

Longer lenses and a good tripod can capture some impressive shots of the moon but I actually like an image where the moon isn't the main focus but it appears in the sky as a tiny white orb. In a way it brings some scale to the picture and gives a sense of our play in the universe. It breaks us out of the bounds on the photo's border and reminds us that there is more out there than we are seeing.

This photo of a tree in silhouette could be far out in the country, away from civilization but, in fact, is on a hill overlooking a large town in the South East of the UK. A 30 minute train ride from central London. If were slightly higher and able to look down beyond the hedge we would see the sprawl of houses, shops and industrial building in the valley below.

A continuing obsession with clouds

Long before I became interested in photography I was obsessed with the patterns and colours of clouds in the sky. Their brief and transitory nature made me yearn to some how capture their beauty before disappeared.

However, I realised that the true beauty is in that passing nature of the clouds. It is a brief moment in time that must be appreciated, there and then, for what it is. No image can ever really do justice to the sky and whenever I have tried to capture it the results have always been disappointing.

That said, I often can't resist snapping certain cloud formations and the interplay of light with the ground that they create. Now I try not to capture the moment as it truly was but to create something new and pleasing in itself. I still try to take a Zen-like approach to the clouds themselves and bask in the moment before they, or I, have to go.

Impressive and easy HDR on a smartphone

I've previously shown some images that I've taken on my smartphone and they're ok but, in almost all circumstances, I would prefer to use my SLR. The smartphone comes in handy for a quick snap or a test shot but usually I feel I'm missing out on both quality and features.

However, I'm really impressed with the HDR feature on the Galaxy S3. With no more effort than selecting an option it produces a decent HDR image in one hit. To achieve the same results on my SLR I have to mess around with exposure bracketing and complicated editing to achieve the same results.

Here are a couple of quick snaps that are unedited/untreated save for reducing the image size.

First the normal shot:

Then the HDR:

This shows the real use of the HDR function on the smartphone - getting a more acurate image in difficult light conditions. The bottom photo is far closer to how my eyes perceived the scene at the time.

Sailing to Arran

These three shots were taken on the ferry to the Isle of Arran in Scotland.

The late afternoon light was fabulous and the scenery stunning but taking photos from the back of a boat presents its own set of problems.

The most infuriating one is that the boat keeps moving no matter what and you can only do much about the angle you can shot from. I was quite high up on the observation deck an the view was passing by me at quite a speed.

With this shot I would have loved to be able to move around a bit an get the composition just right but I only had seconds to snap it as we left the harbour and once it's gone it's gone!

There is always an element of luck with photography as even the best can't control everything. The trick is trying to anticipate things and be ready when that lucky moment comes along.

The Devil is in the Details

I was playing around today with some studio flash units and some wireless triggers.

I took photos of a number of things that were lying around: fruit, spices, bottles, a glass of fizzy water and some coloured chalks.

I didn't have a lot of room to work with an had a pretty basic white backdrop created using a large piece of paper.

When there a so many variable involved it is easy to lose site of the important aspects of photography. I was so busy trying to get the flash settings right (there's no TTL on these triggers) that I didn't spend nearly enough time thinking about the composition or every placing the glass carefully.

As a result you can sea that the glass is twisted in a not so pleasing way, there are specs on the paper background from a previous shot of glitter and I'm not happy with the angle of the shot.

The same can be said for this shot. While I'm happier with the composition (I might try an top down shot next time) it is the state of the chalks and the paper that bother me here. While I was setting up the chalks rolled around and coated the paper and each other with flecks of colour. You can see brown flecks clearly on the yellow chalk.

This was just a trial run but it really does show that you have keep these little details in mind if you want to get the perfect shot. Next time around I will be doing things quite differently.