Landscape Photography

Time & Memory

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We're currently studying time & memory at university but using multimedia, inclusive of stills and moving image.  I'm exploring different themes around the subject and pondering what both time and memory represent to me.  Can I make a story out of this theme, I asked myself.  

I took advantage of the foggy weather by spending the afternoon outside with my camera and found myself being drawn to St. Catherine's Church graveyard in Burbage and the outskirts of Hinckley.

Here's the contact sheets that I'm working with.

Click on each photograph to enlarge.

A Camera Doesn't Take Photographs.

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Tomorrow, I start my new venture in tutoring hobbyist photographers, by providing a workshop that will help them to understand their cameras' much better but more importantly, how to make a good photograph.  

Firstly, a camera doesn't make a good photograph anymore than a typewriter wrote a good novel.  It's all about the person holding the camera and what is in their hearts.

There's a scientific formula for creating a strong photograph but those that already know how to make one, can spot these scientific creations a mile off.  Anyone can use the magic rule of thirds with leading lines through the photograph as it dodges repetitive features etc.  Landscape photography is probably the easiest genre of photography to start with.  The landscape rarely moves in front of you.

In my workshops, I'm going to teach people how to see properly.  What makes a good photograph and how to turn the simplest of things in to something so majestic looking (if that's your cup of tea).  Some photographs work well when they don't look majestic and look dilapidated.  It really does depend on what the World says to you.  How do you view our amazing planet and the creatures that inhabit it?

As this is my new venture, I'll be considering running additional workshops in the future. Tomorrow's will be ran from The Clock Tower Tea Room by the waters edge in Hartshill.  All of the photographs in this blog post was created in the location of the workshops.

Click on each photograph to enlarge.


Monster Munch and The Perseid Meteor

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I spent most of the night in the dark travelling around Warwickshire searching for a good spot to make some night time landscapes of the Perseid Meteor Shower.  It wasn't all that successful in terms of getting the shot I wanted but I did get some really nice photographs.  I suppose that isn't all truthful, I did get the shot I wanted and it was one in a million but I knocked the aperture ring and sent the photo slightly out of focus.  I landed Chesterton Windmill at night with a perfect exposure at the exact time a meteor flew directly over the windmill and in a small gap in the clouds that is in the shape of a Monster Munch crisp.  Here it is...

Click on each photograph to enlarge.

It wasn't all a failure last night, I did manage to bag myself some beautiful landscapes that were so sharp and in complete focus.  They're very dramatic photographs and I'm quite proud of them.

I also created different compositions of Chesterton Windmill.

I created this photograph at Draycote Water near to Dunchurch in Warwickshire whilst hunting for some good spots for photographing the meteor shower.

I particularly like this frame because I included my good friend Charlie who's recently taken up photography and can be seen making an exposure with his own kit..  Charlie introduced me to this landmark, which I'm very thankful for.

Where's Boudica?

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The legend of Boudica is said to be still laid under the ground somewhere near to Atherstone.  Boudica led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman empire roughly in AD60 / 61.  Boudica was Queen of the British Iceni Tribe and led a supposedly 100,000 strong army.  They defeated the Romans in Londinium which is now St. Albans but eventually lost out to the Roman empire during the battle of Watling Street.  The precise location of the battle remains a mystery amidst speculation that Mancetter next to Atherstone one of the likely battle grounds.  The probability of this area being the battle ground is based on Roman principles of fighting, Watling Street being the main route from South to North and likely place to be met with the empirical forces coming in land from the Welsh borders.

I took a nice stroll along the possible routes Boudica and her army could have moved between British strongholds in the area.  This led me along the canal from Hartshill to Atherstone.  It is a lovely walk and here's some landscape documentary photographs covering the route.