On top of my little world in Sutton Bridge

Last week I was offered the chance of going to the top of the church in my village. An offer I couldn't refuse.

It's like urbexing with an invite.

The church itself; St Matthews was consecrated in 1843 and according to the internet it's the only flint stone church in Lincolnshire. Is it a that a wow thing?

I went armed with a couple of lenses; 24-70, 70-200 and a tripod (and obviously a camera). I used both lenses and just had a play.

It was windy at the top (excuse no.1) and I don't do landscapes (excuse no.2) but the shots that I got have come out quite well, in my opinion.

It wouldn't be right to not get shots of Sutton Bridge's namesake and it's other most famous landmark.

So it turns out that behind the cross is a door but what's behind the door? 

Back inside I captured a few more sights that only a few will ever see.

This thing is loud when it goes off!

I do hope that I can persuade the powers that be to get a shot up here of a wedding!!! 

And finally. 

As I said above and I'm sure I've said before in previous blogs; I'm no landscape photographer. 

It's both because I'm not really into landscapes and/or because of this I don't practice and try to get better at shooting them. But when faced with the almost 360 degree view I thought I would create a panorama of what 'makes' Sutton Bridge; One image containing both the bridge and the power station.

It took 9 shots in total. And 2 attempts because of the wind that resulted in a couple of shaky shots.

I used Lightroom 1st to merge the images but I couldn't get the horizon to be straight. The merging process via Lightroom resulted in an un-level horizon; the program created a hill to the left of the power station and there is no such thing as a hill in the fens.

So Photoshop was the answer but this caused a few headaches. 

It wouldn't merge all of the images seamlessly; probably the same problem that caused Lightroom to make a non existent hill. 

Photoshop just didn't understand!!!!

So I merged the 1st 6 images together, merged another 1 to those 6 afterwards and then finally added the final 2 images that resulted in a much better composite. But theres still a slight raised area which IM SURE is not there in reality.

Click on the image to expand.

Thank you Mark for the invite.

The view from above

So I had the burning desire to buy a drone.

It was all I could think, read and talk about.

Which one is the one for me?

What's the camera specs like?

Image quality?
How far do i want it to fly away from me?

I chose to buy a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. Ive flown it 4 times and its great fun.

Boys and their toys.

Its not overly difficult to fly but I'm yet to take a look at all the settings available. Right now i know how to fly and to take photos and video. Next will be options like point of interest, follow me, planned route etc.

I plan to use it to explore a new world; the view from above.
To get shots that I've never been able to get before. To find out whats at the top of the church, tower, building etc.
A new challenge, a new angle.

What do i think so far?
Its a lot of phaf; every time it gets switched on it needs to be calibrated, updated, you name it. Putting the propellers on, taking them off.
But when it takes off and you can shoot up at what seems like a million miles an hour to this big kid, all that gets swept away by a big smile.

Drone photography will be a challenge to me though; I'm used to full frame Canon and the brilliant Fujifilm X-Trans sensors. The drone has nothing like that.
Noise!!!
The lens has a fixed focus, I'm yet to figure the sweet spot for focus and compared to my DSLR's and CSC's the image's are soft.
However i can shoot raw, import to Lightroom and edit away like any other photo and that is definitely a nice touch.

What makes Sutton Bridge

A night at the church

I visited a church with Kings Lynn Photography Group last Tuesday night, something different, something a little frustrating and something a little.....lens flare....damn it!

The church itself is big; St Margaret's on the Tuesday Market Place has been standing since around 1101 but has undergone various rebuilds since and was renamed Kings Lynn Minster in 2011, for more history visit http://www.stmargaretskingslynn.org.uk/history/.

I decided to go wide angle that night on my Canon and there lies my frustration, lens flare like mad that I didn't notice until a couple of days ago when I started to look at my photos on Lightroom. If I knew at the time I would of put my hand over the lens at the point the flare was creeping in. Oh well never mind!

Ive got a real 'thing' for my Fuji camera's at the moment, this 'thing' has lasted since I bought my 1st (ok 2nd, my first 'proper camera' was a Fujifilm Bridge camera) Fuji in Spring 2014. However it is good to dust off the 5D every now and then.

Armed with a tripod (I hate using tripods) I walked around the church trying to get a different shot, although im sure everyone's different shots are much the same.

Im going through a dark phase at the moment, I want everything to be dark and gloomy. I want strong blacks, harsh whites, texture and grain. Im sure ill look back at my photos in years to come and wonder who turned the colour off.

Ok so the first shots were taken with my X-Pro 1 and 18mm lens as I couldn't leave it at home.

Im into shooting from low angles at the moment.

Shots taken on my Canon.

Looking up.

ah!, the dreaded lens flare, I took a while to compose this shot too; trying to get absolutely parallel to the pew.