Portrait Photography

West Loch Tarbert

12.16.09

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While driving home from Carradale on the Kintyre peninsula last Monday I came upon this scene just as the last light was fading. The spot is the ferry slipway at Kennacraig for the Islay ferry. Strictly speaking the sunset was gone and so I set up my tripod to catch the final moments and indulged in this 10 second exposure. The long exposure has made the loch glassy and ethereal. I pushed the saturation a little to accentuate the tiny afterglow. I am more into portraiture than landscape, but I sympathised with the landscape bloggers who endlessly beg Canon to put a direct mirror-lock-up button on their SLR’s. As it is, I have mine in my “my favourites” menu so it is only 2-clicks away, but how annoying that irritating “direct print” button is when it could be used for mirror-lock instead. Canon should ask the 13 people worldwide who use direct-print on an SLR if they could live without it?

f18 ISO 100

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Claudia

12.04.09

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Taken after a coffee in Glasgow’s Prices Square. Two things made this a challenge. The back-lighting of the centre’s Christmas lights required fill flash which of course was colder in colour temperature than the yellow cast tungsten background. The second problem was the impossibility of framing Claudia without distracting bright spots or areas behind her head. It was an opportunist shoot, with only 3 exposures before we parted. I therefore used monochrome to work round the colour variation between foreground and background. I also cloned and shaded some of the extreme lights in the background. The result isn’t perfect, but does feel like it captures some of the shy intensity of Claudia. For the record, Claudia doesn’t enjoy being photographed; I am therefore all the more grateful for her relenting for the sake of this portraitist’s art. I hope she likes it.

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Linda

11.16.09

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OK I cheated. I couldn’t choose my 2nd favourite picture of Linda. I have chosen my 2 joint 2nd favourites. (What a cop-out). Looking through these was a load of fun and brought vividly back to mind how great a time Linda and I had doing these pictures. For those who are interested the arch is one of the bridges over the Kelvin in Glasgow’s botanic gardens.

Guess what, both taken with the Sigma 28 f 1.8. What a lens…

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Fountains Abbey

11.12.09

No-one could ever accuse me of being a landscape or architectural photographer, so you might be surprised that I am posting some pictures of an Abbey. Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire is a 15th century ruin preserved by the national trust. It is a photography playground because of the shapes and forms everywhere you look. It is however really difficult to capture in any single overview image so I have gone for a mixture of details to give you a flavour of what’s on offer. Black and white just seems to me to be irresistible for a 15th century ruin. I absolutely recommend a visit, its a good walk as well as an interesting sight.

Fountains Abbey website

That’s all folks!

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Johnny

11.10.09

Johnny: Bright Cookie, Gentle Man and Cruncher of Numbers.

I had the pleasure of meeting this amazing man this weekend. From the moment he admitted that he had been referred to my pictures he was doomed. He allowed me to grab a picture or two in the lovely setting of Knaresborough in Yorkshire. I hope the picture has captured something of his easy going personality and his gentle wit.

I know I’m very lax about details, but for those who care, ISO 200 f1.8 1/500th!

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