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.

What a difference a day makes

3 places in one day.

Starting at 8am getting home at almost 9pm.

The great outdoors. Fresh air. Sunshine for the solar powered human body.

Cold, wind and a runny nose.

Photography is my thing. You know that. I have to do it. its all that seems to work for me. Nothing else is quite the same.
Its my smoking, my drug, my vice. I
 need to go out and shoot. Sitting at home slowly drives me crazy. Im a caged photography animal waiting to break free.

3 dogs.
Wow 3 dogs is hard work. 2 dogs is 1 too many but 3 dogs is ridiculous.
Thats 3 dogs that all want to walk in 3 different directions.
3 dogs to clear up after, 3 dogs too feed.
They're living creatures, they need to get out, they need to run.

8am i got in the car and took the dogs to west bank light house at the mouth of the wash.
Walking boots and dog towels at the ready.
The wind was bitter, hands were cold.

After buying the 6D recently I've been using it a lot to familiarise myself with it, which is not that difficult as its like a mini 5D. Ive been carrying it everywhere. Its not super heavy but its hardy unnoticeable especially with the battery grip attached too.
Luckily, which has kept the weight down, I've been shooting with the Helios 44-2 lens.
Its tiny compared to the average 'new' lens. New lenses have all sorts trickery involved in the glass to give you perfect results.

This old lens doesn't have any tricks up it's lens barrel (the closest it has to a sleeve, see what i did there) so its small and light. 254g to be exact and thats with a small lens hood and mount adapter included.
Compare this too, 903g, the1st lens i pulled out of the drawer, my Tamron 24-70 f/2.8.
649g is a big weight saving when carrying the lump around.

Ive been using an adapter with a focus confirmation chip, to aid in getting focus correct. It does a pretty good job too!
Keep the lens reasonably open and it will focus easily, if stopped down even to f8 focus confirmation is not so successful. Apparently this is the case with most manual focus lens/confirmation devices.

As always I've been challenging myself. This time I've been using focus differently; I've not been focusing on the usual subject instead I've focused on another area in the scene and have allowed the main subject to fall out of focus.

Why?

Why not?

Why do the same thing as everyone else?

Take this photo for example.

The East bank lighthouse.
It would serve as the subject of focus in many images.
I don't blame it, its not often the average joe sees a lighthouse in real life.
To begin, i create the composition. Follow all of the normal rules or just make the scene pleasing to my eye. After all if you don't like your own photographs then why are you taking them.
Once everythings in place, find another part of the scene to focus on.

Simple.

I want the usual main attraction to be recognisable but not sharp. Like a fond memory.



Let me tell you. Taking photographs whilst in the company of dogs is hard work.

Its much easier to take a photo of a dog.

But in the company of dogs, it can be difficult.
Right at the decisive moment, the shutter click, your almost guaranteed either the dog will walk into the frame or will jump up you or pull on the lead.

Many of times has this happened to me.
Maybe i should get the message.

On this occasion i just got dirty footprints up my jeans and jacket.

Ella usually sits quite patiently, waiting for my call to move. She deserves a photo now and then.

Focus is not great but she was anxious to move, so, never mind.

I had an appointment soon after the dog walk.
I was then free to roam the streets of Spalding again.
Not a bad 30 minutes spent walking around shooting street.

 Beer cans and alleys. A common occurrence in the Fens.

 One man and his bow.

 Where would the world be without mobile phones?

Smoking, according to one source is the 3rd most difficult addiction to cure. 

It reports that love is the most difficult.

Patiently waiting.

Light, is an amazing thing. Highlights and shadows and create images just by themselves.

Not long after getting home from Spalding i got invited to shoot landscapes with Jack.

Im no landscape shooter. They just don't do it for me.
But you should never pass up an opportunity and just because i don't like something doesn't mean i shouldn't try.

Just like Ribena, i don't like the stuff but if its the only thing available then fill me up a glass.

We drove over to Cromer in preparation for sunset.

I met a couple of other photographers who were waiting for the same light. Its nice to talk shop with new people.

Setting up on the beach i wasn't feeling it. Its not my thing.

But i had do capture something. Luckily the tide was out at this point and so the wet sand was flat and strewn with thin layered puddles that reflected their surroundings like glass.

This is what makes me an artist and not something else is that i know to look for beauty in all scenarios.
Is that a big headed thing? No. I just know there will be something in amidst the mundane.

On to the 'landscape'.
Everyones long exposure favourite; water.

Sitting here thinking about it. I guess the feel good thing about this image, or the story about this image, is the standing around and waiting for the exposure time to be up. So you can see what you've got. Like shooting on film with imaginary fingers crossed hoping that it works out.

Thats my two pence on it, feel free to disagree.

A busy day.

Keep shooting.

Urbex and fire

As a child I loved playing with fire, I even have a nice scar on the back of my right hand from when hot plastic dripped on it while playing with fire with a friend at the age of about 10. I told my mum I had fell over, she didn't believe me considering I smelt like cooked meat and my skin had clearly been badly burnt. I actually forget the scar is there and now as I approach 30 years old it is barely visible.

You already know that I like exploring abandoned buildings.

Why not combine fire and urbex.

And by that I don't mean ive started a career as an arsonist.

No, I mean playing with fire artistically and then checking that all the sparks and molten pieces of metal have been extinguished before leaving the site. Before starting we also did a recce of the area and made sure there was nothing around that was at risk.

It was a great experience and some great shots have come from this night with my friend Stuart.

For this shoot I used a Canon 5Dmkiii and 24-70 lens. All shots were taken between f/13 and f/18 and were 30 second exposures at ISO 200.

Stuart and I have already said that we now need to find the next location for urbex and (a little bit of controlled) fire.

 

 

Kings Lynn on a windy night in October

Another shoot around Kings Lynn at night.

Kings Lynn has a lot to offer when it comes to photography, especially old buildings and narrow streets.

That's what I was going for on this night.

It was a windy and wet day though which is never good for long exposures as you watch the camera shake around on the tripod during a 20 second shot.

So each shot took a couple of takes waiting for the wind to take a break.

I used small apertures, around f/11 to f/14 to achieve starbursts from the street lights.

In hindsight I should of shaded the lens a little more with my hands to prevent lens flare, however I had my hands in my pockets as they were cold....I've got to look after number 1 after all.

Black and white, as per usual was the way to go.

Kings Lynn Mart at night from West Lynn

Bryan, a friend at work said he wanted to take some shots across the River Ouse of the Kings Lynn Mart. Its good to shoot with a friend so I joined him in west Lynn at 7pm on a Tuesday evening.

The weather was dry, however it was a tad windy so some of the shots take this night were binned due to not being sharp enough.

I made use of my new Sigma 70-200 and mounted the camera and lens on the tripod with my, ever increasing in weight, camera bag hanging from the middle for stability in the wind.

Ive edited all the shots and have converted them all to black and white as the colours of the street lights are too orange and I just wasn't a fan of the colours of the big ride at the fair against the orange lights of the street lights. Plus I do like black and white!

All shots were taken at ISO 100, f/8 and shutter speeds between 6 - 15 seconds.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

Kings Lynn Mart - A night at the fair, was you there?

My 2nd and final blog post on the Kings Lynn Mart is featuring shots of people at the fair and the fair itself.

I covered a very brief history and my aims for the night in my blog post yesterday, if you haven't seen my first post please take a look; http://www.benchapmanphotos.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/kings-lynn-mart-foucsing-on-being-out.html

I put the new Sigma 70-200 to use and got some candid shots of people working on or others enjoying there time at the fair.

Patiently waiting.

Family fun.

This ride had an observation platform above it. Very inviting to a photographer! Also very considerate, thanks for the strobe!

 

Focusing on small aspects of the bigger picture.

 

 

 

 

Then the fish eye lens came out to play

 

 A fellow photographer getting their shot.

 

There's some shots taken on the night that I now look at and think that I should of gone for a longer exposure and got a perfect circle in the background of the big ride. However that's not what I wanted to achieve on the night, so I need to be happy with the results that ive got and move on. I could always go back and get the shots if I really wanted too any way. The world is my photography oyster.

Im now thinking about a new subject/method of photography and I may just go and have a go now.

Thanks for looking.

Ben