Lit from one side by the constantly busy village hall and on the other by the biggest full moon in 20 years (apparently... though obviously the moon itself is no bigger at all - it's just the same size as before but I guess we're a bit closer to it than we have been for 20 years!), anyway, I toddled down to the church that night (don't ask me which night 'cos it was ages ago now and I don't even remember what I did last night!!), a little uncertain as to how I'd get on. Last time I tried to take photos of a church after dark I nearly died of fright with all the strange noises and rustlings and things tugging at my jacket (turned out to be branches of a shrub but it felt very much like skeletal fingers to my heightened imagination!!). I also felt rather anxious at Auld Mr Soutar's Hoose up on Moulin Moor when I went there after dark, alone, stumbling about the boggy tussocks and trying to ignore the feelings that 'something' was at my back all the time! Barkham Church was a bit different though. This night, the strangest noise came from my keyring... I have a little pig with a blue light torch that shines from it's nostrils and oinks every time you switch it on! The torch was very useful so there was a fair amount of oinking going on, which would certainly put off anything that was lurking in the shadows with any mischevious intent!! There was also quite a noise coming from the party going on at the village hall. Not quite sure what the music was, but it certainly wasn't 'Village People' or any of the other cheesy party tunes we used to try and dance along to! Thankfully nobody came stumbling out of the party, because I'm not sure what they'd have made of a fleece-wearing anorak wielding a flashing oinking pig!! Barkham mad, probably! Rebecca, x http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/ rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
Showing posts with label lowlight photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lowlight photography. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Barkham Mad!
Barkham Church nestles quietly in a little lane away from the hustle of the main village and is typical of the many flint faced buildings in this area. It's really quite beautiful at any time of day, but it is even more so at night I think. 
Lit from one side by the constantly busy village hall and on the other by the biggest full moon in 20 years (apparently... though obviously the moon itself is no bigger at all - it's just the same size as before but I guess we're a bit closer to it than we have been for 20 years!), anyway, I toddled down to the church that night (don't ask me which night 'cos it was ages ago now and I don't even remember what I did last night!!), a little uncertain as to how I'd get on. Last time I tried to take photos of a church after dark I nearly died of fright with all the strange noises and rustlings and things tugging at my jacket (turned out to be branches of a shrub but it felt very much like skeletal fingers to my heightened imagination!!). I also felt rather anxious at Auld Mr Soutar's Hoose up on Moulin Moor when I went there after dark, alone, stumbling about the boggy tussocks and trying to ignore the feelings that 'something' was at my back all the time! Barkham Church was a bit different though. This night, the strangest noise came from my keyring... I have a little pig with a blue light torch that shines from it's nostrils and oinks every time you switch it on! The torch was very useful so there was a fair amount of oinking going on, which would certainly put off anything that was lurking in the shadows with any mischevious intent!! There was also quite a noise coming from the party going on at the village hall. Not quite sure what the music was, but it certainly wasn't 'Village People' or any of the other cheesy party tunes we used to try and dance along to! Thankfully nobody came stumbling out of the party, because I'm not sure what they'd have made of a fleece-wearing anorak wielding a flashing oinking pig!! Barkham mad, probably! Rebecca, x http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/ rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
Lit from one side by the constantly busy village hall and on the other by the biggest full moon in 20 years (apparently... though obviously the moon itself is no bigger at all - it's just the same size as before but I guess we're a bit closer to it than we have been for 20 years!), anyway, I toddled down to the church that night (don't ask me which night 'cos it was ages ago now and I don't even remember what I did last night!!), a little uncertain as to how I'd get on. Last time I tried to take photos of a church after dark I nearly died of fright with all the strange noises and rustlings and things tugging at my jacket (turned out to be branches of a shrub but it felt very much like skeletal fingers to my heightened imagination!!). I also felt rather anxious at Auld Mr Soutar's Hoose up on Moulin Moor when I went there after dark, alone, stumbling about the boggy tussocks and trying to ignore the feelings that 'something' was at my back all the time! Barkham Church was a bit different though. This night, the strangest noise came from my keyring... I have a little pig with a blue light torch that shines from it's nostrils and oinks every time you switch it on! The torch was very useful so there was a fair amount of oinking going on, which would certainly put off anything that was lurking in the shadows with any mischevious intent!! There was also quite a noise coming from the party going on at the village hall. Not quite sure what the music was, but it certainly wasn't 'Village People' or any of the other cheesy party tunes we used to try and dance along to! Thankfully nobody came stumbling out of the party, because I'm not sure what they'd have made of a fleece-wearing anorak wielding a flashing oinking pig!! Barkham mad, probably! Rebecca, x http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/ rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
Thursday, 24 February 2011
By the Light of the Silchester Moon!
When I saw the reports in the press about the possibility of the aurora borealis lighting up the skies last week, my heart skipped a few beats with excitement! My heart is something I try and take a great deal of care over, so it takes something pretty powerful to stir it up... the aurora is one of those things!
My poor old heart has really taken a bit of a battering lately, so it was with some excitement and a huge amount of hope that I set out towards the ruined remains of Rome (erm, well, in Silchester actually!), hoping to see a glorious display of dazzling light and astronomical fury as charged particles from the solar storms whipped and collided across the ionosphere!
So that was a waste of time then.
And my heart sank. Again.
As the clouds roll back into my heart, so the banks of cloud and mist crept over the night sky and obliterated any last remaining hope that something wonderful might actually happen for me. Deeply disappointed. Again.
I knew it was a bit of a ridiculous fancy really. The chances of seeing the aurora down here in the south are so small that it would have been a minor miracle to have seen it. But I've always been an optimist and am ever hopeful that finally, one day, things will happen the way I dream about them!!
It was also a very vain hope given the brightness of the moon that night. Still, faint hearts won't ever be truly happy or fulfilled, so I set my hopes high and my heart afire to see if at least one of my dreams might come true.
Obviously it didn't, but, not to be too down-hearted, I thought I'd make the best of things and try and salvage something from the ruins!
Silchester is a tremendously exciting place to be at midnight... my senses were on fire even if the sky wasn't!!
With owls hooting and foxes crying, the mist rolling in and Orion looking down from the darkness above, the ancient walls were sparkling under the touch of moonbeams... and I could swear that I heard the thunder of centurions feet approaching through the depths of ages past, ready to appear at any moment in my rather nervous future... Amazing how the sound of a train in the distance can sound so much like marching on an old Roman wall when there's nobody else around and the clock strikes twelve!
So, no aurora after all, but at least I managed a few starry shots and a few long exposures of the landscape as seen by the light of the Silchester moon! Hopes and dreams must always live on, I'm not giving up on any of them, not yet. They may need a bit of tweaking and adapting, and maybe even change altogether, but I shall always live in hope that one day, just for once, my dreams might come true!
Rebecca, x
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
My poor old heart has really taken a bit of a battering lately, so it was with some excitement and a huge amount of hope that I set out towards the ruined remains of Rome (erm, well, in Silchester actually!), hoping to see a glorious display of dazzling light and astronomical fury as charged particles from the solar storms whipped and collided across the ionosphere!
So that was a waste of time then.
And my heart sank. Again.
As the clouds roll back into my heart, so the banks of cloud and mist crept over the night sky and obliterated any last remaining hope that something wonderful might actually happen for me. Deeply disappointed. Again.
I knew it was a bit of a ridiculous fancy really. The chances of seeing the aurora down here in the south are so small that it would have been a minor miracle to have seen it. But I've always been an optimist and am ever hopeful that finally, one day, things will happen the way I dream about them!!
It was also a very vain hope given the brightness of the moon that night. Still, faint hearts won't ever be truly happy or fulfilled, so I set my hopes high and my heart afire to see if at least one of my dreams might come true.
Obviously it didn't, but, not to be too down-hearted, I thought I'd make the best of things and try and salvage something from the ruins!
Silchester is a tremendously exciting place to be at midnight... my senses were on fire even if the sky wasn't!!
With owls hooting and foxes crying, the mist rolling in and Orion looking down from the darkness above, the ancient walls were sparkling under the touch of moonbeams... and I could swear that I heard the thunder of centurions feet approaching through the depths of ages past, ready to appear at any moment in my rather nervous future... Amazing how the sound of a train in the distance can sound so much like marching on an old Roman wall when there's nobody else around and the clock strikes twelve!
So, no aurora after all, but at least I managed a few starry shots and a few long exposures of the landscape as seen by the light of the Silchester moon! Hopes and dreams must always live on, I'm not giving up on any of them, not yet. They may need a bit of tweaking and adapting, and maybe even change altogether, but I shall always live in hope that one day, just for once, my dreams might come true!
Rebecca, x
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Loitering Round Lichfield!
Well, maybe not quite loitering, we were actually working but it was a jolly relaxed and fun day out all the same!
I met Andy at the railway station... I should say "at one of the railway stations" as there are actually 2 in Lichfield and, between us, myself and Andy managed to see them both! He was waiting eagerly at the Trent Valley station as I sent a text to say that we were coasting up to the platform... but I was actually on the train that was coasting up to the platform at the City station! Oops!! No wonder he couldn't see the train that I was adamant I was on!!!
We were soon reunited however and carried on into the City of Lichfield to see what we could find. Inevitably, we found a coffee shop first of all and, having partaken of a particularly large and perhaps not quite wholesome breakfast, we wandered in towards the Cathedral.
The purpose of the day was to ensure that Andy was confident at using manual exposures on his camera, and then a look at using the computer to offload, upload, download, and any and all other loadsa things that can be done to, with and from images on a computer! That is actually a mammoth subject and impossible to cover completely in one day, so it was rather an introduction to it, a look-see at the digital darkroom, accompanied by a manual (written by myself) that Andy could take home and carry on with at his leisure. He can also contact me at any time for more help and assistance if he needs it... and it is quite likely that he will, so please don't hesitate to call me Andy!!
So, what did we cover on our day out? Well, we started off at Captain Smith's statue in Lichfield.
Yes, he was the Captain of the Titanic, but no, he didn't come from Lichfield! Apparently (I don't know how much truth there is to this story, but I have it on good authority), Captain Smith was from Stoke on Trent but they refused to erect a statue in his honour and so his memory was denied until Captain Scott's wife (Captain of the RSS Discovery, which is in permanent dock at Dundee... go see it if you can, it's awesome!!).. where was I? Yes, Captain Scott's wife persuaded the good folks of Lichfield to have his statue there instead!
The challenge for Andy was to get a photo of the statue against the sky, while retaining detail in his face and all cloud detail behind. No HDR, no multiple exposures; 1 exposure, manually created by Andy with only very minimal guidance from myself. We took a colour exposure which we converted to black & white later on during our computer skills session. It has to be said, Andy coped most admirably... no pun intended, he was just a cap'n anyway ;-)
We then went into the Cathedral in search of lowlight, high contrast, interesting and beautiful images. Another big challenge for Andy and, again, he did an amazing job!
Having only been on 2 photographic tuition days with me, Andy is now very much in charge of his own camera.
Rather than let it decide what settings to use, Andy chooses it all himself. ISO, aperture, shutter speed, composition, framing, timing... all his own work and all very, very impressive!!
So, having loitered round the Cathedral (where we did purchase a photography permit each by the way), we headed back into the city via another tea room for an afternoon on the computer. All in all we had another smashing day out and I can safely say that we will be doing it again, but as friends rather than as work! Now that's not a bad job is it?!!
Thanks for another great day out Andy, and for all your hard work. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you!!
Rebecca, x
If you would like your own personal photography tutorial, contact me and we'll get it arranged to suit you! We have 3 whole days in total, you get 2 manuals written just for you that are yours to take away and keep, plus email assistance when you're at home, for however long you want or need it. All that for £185. If you would like to discuss it further with me, please do email me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
I met Andy at the railway station... I should say "at one of the railway stations" as there are actually 2 in Lichfield and, between us, myself and Andy managed to see them both! He was waiting eagerly at the Trent Valley station as I sent a text to say that we were coasting up to the platform... but I was actually on the train that was coasting up to the platform at the City station! Oops!! No wonder he couldn't see the train that I was adamant I was on!!!
We were soon reunited however and carried on into the City of Lichfield to see what we could find. Inevitably, we found a coffee shop first of all and, having partaken of a particularly large and perhaps not quite wholesome breakfast, we wandered in towards the Cathedral.
The purpose of the day was to ensure that Andy was confident at using manual exposures on his camera, and then a look at using the computer to offload, upload, download, and any and all other loadsa things that can be done to, with and from images on a computer! That is actually a mammoth subject and impossible to cover completely in one day, so it was rather an introduction to it, a look-see at the digital darkroom, accompanied by a manual (written by myself) that Andy could take home and carry on with at his leisure. He can also contact me at any time for more help and assistance if he needs it... and it is quite likely that he will, so please don't hesitate to call me Andy!!
So, what did we cover on our day out? Well, we started off at Captain Smith's statue in Lichfield.
Yes, he was the Captain of the Titanic, but no, he didn't come from Lichfield! Apparently (I don't know how much truth there is to this story, but I have it on good authority), Captain Smith was from Stoke on Trent but they refused to erect a statue in his honour and so his memory was denied until Captain Scott's wife (Captain of the RSS Discovery, which is in permanent dock at Dundee... go see it if you can, it's awesome!!).. where was I? Yes, Captain Scott's wife persuaded the good folks of Lichfield to have his statue there instead!
The challenge for Andy was to get a photo of the statue against the sky, while retaining detail in his face and all cloud detail behind. No HDR, no multiple exposures; 1 exposure, manually created by Andy with only very minimal guidance from myself. We took a colour exposure which we converted to black & white later on during our computer skills session. It has to be said, Andy coped most admirably... no pun intended, he was just a cap'n anyway ;-)
We then went into the Cathedral in search of lowlight, high contrast, interesting and beautiful images. Another big challenge for Andy and, again, he did an amazing job!
Having only been on 2 photographic tuition days with me, Andy is now very much in charge of his own camera.
Rather than let it decide what settings to use, Andy chooses it all himself. ISO, aperture, shutter speed, composition, framing, timing... all his own work and all very, very impressive!!
So, having loitered round the Cathedral (where we did purchase a photography permit each by the way), we headed back into the city via another tea room for an afternoon on the computer. All in all we had another smashing day out and I can safely say that we will be doing it again, but as friends rather than as work! Now that's not a bad job is it?!!
Thanks for another great day out Andy, and for all your hard work. It's been an absolute pleasure working with you!!
Rebecca, x
If you would like your own personal photography tutorial, contact me and we'll get it arranged to suit you! We have 3 whole days in total, you get 2 manuals written just for you that are yours to take away and keep, plus email assistance when you're at home, for however long you want or need it. All that for £185. If you would like to discuss it further with me, please do email me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
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