Grantchester Meadows - 7 years in the making

Grantchester Meadows is one of my favourite landscape photo locations close to Cambridge. I've now managed to "get lucky" with the weather on a few occasions and I thought I would share a few photos taken over the last few years.


Dec 2007 was my first early morning visit, nice frosty morning, but not much in the way of cloud cover.

Grantchester trees

River Cam

After some heavy snowfall in Dec 2010 I visited mid morning.

Snowy Grantchester

Winter wonderland

Jump forward to Jan 2014 and a near perfect morning. Frosty with some light cloud cover which picked up the sunrise colours really nicely.

Fire in the sky Grantchester trees

Frosty ditch

Long exposure shot of the sun rising

Frosty molehills

Jan 2015, after carefully studying the weather forecast I made a good call and was lucky with conditions again, nice frosty morning a little cloud cover and a bit of mist rising off the fields.

Classic Grantchester meadows

Glowing tree

Sun's up

Looking through my shots over the last 7 years is quite interesting.  My equipment has changed very little, a camera upgrade from a Canon 5d to a 5d mk2, but my lens selection (for all the shots above) has stayed the same. Another change is my switch to Lightroom in 2012, but probably more significant than these minor adjustments is my ability to learn. I certainly feel my style has developed and improved over the years and that's what drives me on in photography. 

I look forward to doing a similar review in another 7 yrs time, now that's a scary thought!

Resources: 
www.cambridgeimages.co.uk

Cambridge Fire Station - Art on the walls

Parker's Piece and Cambridge Fire Station

Back in August last year I was contacted by Cambridge Fire Station to see if I would be able to provide some images "To adorn the rather dull expanse of magnolia corridors in the Parkside Fire Station". I had assumed that they would simply want a handful of shots, but after a few emails had been exchanged it transpired it was 36 large framed prints they were after. A few weeks went by while we were agreeing on image selection, print size etc. and then the order was placed. 

The only slight problem was the time scale. "As discussed, the fire station is taking part in the Open Cambridge event on the weekend of the 13th and 14th Sept, so it would be great to have at least some of the prints ready to display for this." This gave me one weekend and a few evenings to mount and frame 36 photos. A mild panic ensued. First off I ordered the pictures, frames & some additional mount-board. The frames were the first to arrive at work on a pallet, I couldn't believe how big the box was. Even after unpacking all of them I only managed to fit 30 in the car in one go! The photos arrived the next day closely followed by the mount-board. Once I had transported all this home the lounge looked like it had turned into a factory. 

Cutting card, with logan cutter

First off I produced a template for the cutting the card to the right dimensions. I usually measure, mark then cut each mount by hand, but I needed to speed the whole process up. Template complete, card marked I started cutting away in earnest. After cutting all 36 mounts I decided to take a break and started sticking the pictures down onto the self adhesive backing board. 35 photos stuck then the 36th got a bubble in which turned into a crease. The print was discarded and photo re-ordered. 

I then started fitting the photos behind the cut mounts, the first one was a little too big, oh dear, then the second, then the third. At that point I was getting just a little stressed, the template I had cut was right on the edge, a millimeter one way and the mount was just a tiny bit too large. Major panic having just cut up 36 sheets of card! A big lesson to learn, check, check and double check. Thankfully I was able to salvage around 20 mounts, just as well I had ordered more mount-board. 

work in progress....

Next job was fitting in the frames, I had chosen Nielsen Apollo black frames and decided to opt for 70x50cm so that the mount size was a little broader than I normally cut, this gave the photos a  bit more "breathing space" which I feel worked really well. After about 18 hours in total (I kept a tally of my time) I was all done. I just needed to fit them all in the car so I could drop them off at the Fire Station. This time I managed to fit all 36 in spread between the back seats and the boot, it was a tight fit and I did drive rather cautiously on the drop off.

Although I made the open day deadline I'm not sure they were all hung in time. The official opening by Princess Anne happened a week ago and I've only just been along to take a few snaps of the final photos on the walls.  

Some of the final framed photos hanging on the wall

the walls aren't curved, but it's tricky to get a shot!

My largest single order to date, just a shame the Fire Station isn't readily open to the public. However, you can see quite a few shots if you peer in through the doors and I'm sure if you mention my name you can get in and have a quick peak down the main corridor. I have provided digital images of all the photos which I'm told will be displayed on a large digital screen some time soon. 

Resources: 
www.cambridgeimages.co.uk

Cambridge Playing Cards

Almost a year ago Simon Wincott approached me with an interesting concept, to use my Cambridge photographs on a pack of high quality playing cards. 54 different images across the deck. This was an interesting and unique project and I was keen to be involved.

After a number of prototypes to hone both the colours and design we settled on a supplier who could produce a really nice quality pack of cards. The cards not only felt nice in your hand, but the colours really popped in the photographs.

The first few stockists have been signed up and include: City Hotel, Heffers, the Round Church and the Holiday Inn. More to be added soon.

Simon who heads up British Culture Cards plans to roll out a series of themed packs including Great Cities, Great Counties, Great Estates & Great Regions. The Cambridge pack was set to be the first. I'm also hoping to be featured in a Lake District set soon so watch this space!

Why not buy a pack for Christmas or as a great long lasting souvenir of Cambridge. Heffers are selling the cards for £5.99 per pack.

Cards for sale in Heffers

Resources: 

www.cambridgeimages.co.uk

www.britishculturecards.com

Three men go to Arran

Lochranza - Arran

Back in October 2011, Doug Robar set up a CamPhotoWalk group inviting a bunch of men from Christ Church Cambridge to go out and take photos.

"A photo walk is simple -- we gather at a specified place and time and walk around for an hour or so taking photos that fall within our pre-determined topic. When done we either all go some place to download everyone's photos to a laptop/projector  or if time is short commit to uploading to a flickr group within a few days with the object of delighting in the good ones, learning and encouraging one another about how our photos might be improved, and having a great time in the process."

I have to admit I didn't join straight away, but Doug didn't give up so easily inviting me along and before I knew it I was part of the group. Numbers swelled and we visited quite a few locations in and around Cambridge. Just over a year ago we spread our wings a little further afield and spent a weekend on the North Norfolk coast. 

Fast forward another year and three of the hardy CamPhotoWalk group have just returned from a long weekend on Arran. This last trip has been in planning since April, we could have gone earlier, but we didn't want to be getting up at the crack of dawn. After checking sunset and sunrise times we pencilled September into the diary. Flights, car, ferry & accommodation all booked we could sit back till a bit closer to the time.

All too soon September came round and the next thing I knew we were all travelling down by bus to Stansted for the relatively short flight to Glasgow. Phil had his trekking poles confiscated by security and Jeremy had a particularly dodgy looking flashgun he had borrowed from Doug which set off all sorts of alarms at check-in. After signing his life away and confirming he wasn't a terrorist we got under way.

Touching down in Glasgow we picked picked up the rental car and drove down to Ardrossan. 40 minutes later we hit the supermarket shelves to stock up on some essentials before checking in for the ferry. With still 2 hours to kill before our sailing Phil disappeared off with his camera taking some macro shots of the sea wall and foreshore, I didn't bother unpacking my kit opting to take a few snaps with my phone. After a pleasant crossing and all important tea on-board we arrived in Brodick. The light was starting to fade with no hint of a sunset so we headed off north towards Corrie and the famous boulders.

Corrie boulders - shot actually taken on our last day

Soon enough the light had almost completely gone so we packed up and headed for the hostel at Lochranza, our base for the next 4 nights. The hostel was very good indeed, great facilities, clean, tidy, comfy beds, friendly staff & perfect location, what more could you want?

Although I had made quite a detailed schedule of photo locations times etc. before the trip much of this was based around suitable weather. Having spent a week on Harris during the summer I wasn't holding out much hope. However, I couldn't have been more wrong the only rain we had was on Monday night when we were back at the hostel. 

I will rattle through our itinerary over the next few days with all of the locations we visited. I had to do lots of digging on the internet and flickr to come up with this list (pre trip). Hopefully if you are planning a trip to Arran it might help you a little.

Saturday:

• Early start at Lochranza, Castle & harbour reflections.
• Back to hostel for breakfast!
• Drive over to North Glen Sannox photos down the valley and then a stop off to take photos of the river.
• Brief stop at Corrie harbour
• Early lunch in Brodick
• Parked back near the brewery (off the A841) to start the walk up Goat fell via Glen Rosa
• Shots of the river and Glen Rosa (Not much water in the river though!)
• Over the saddle and then the scramble up Goat Fell from the north
• Sunset & packed tea top of Goat Fell
• Decent in the dark with head torches
• Back to the hostel 11pm, bed!

Lochranza castle & harbour

North Glen Sannox

Glen Rosa

Jeremy & Phil on Goat Fell

Group shot - Summit Goat Fell

Sunset Goat Fell

Sunday:

• Sunrise at Machrie Moor standing stones
• Breakfast back at Lochranza
• Walk to Newton point Lochranza followed by lunch
• Afternoon at Drumadoon, Phil walked on to King's Cave
• Sunset at Machrie bay
• Starry sky Lochranza 

Machrie Moor stone circle

Drumadoon

Machrie Bay sunset

Lochranza starry sky

Monday:

• Sunrise at Lamlash bay (sadly it didn't amount to anything)
• Glenashdale mushrooms in the forest
• Glenashdale falls & river
• Giants graves
• Kildonan (Jeremy fell asleep in the car)
• Arran cheese factory!
• Evening shoot at Glen Sannox & the Stone of Sannox

Mushroom magic Glenashdale

Glenashdale

Kildonan

Glen Sannox

Tuesday:

• Sunrise at Lochranza  (Phil & Jeremy had a lie in, Jeremy somewhat longer than Phil)
• Corrie Sandstone, harbour & sheep on jetty
• Another quick stop off at the Corrie boulders
• Brodick check in for ferry

Lochranza stag

Corrie jetty sheep

Sandstone patterns Corrie

Ten minutes for a quick souvenir dash in Brodick and we were back on the ferry homeward bound. Another very calm crossing followed by the short drive back up to Glasgow having only clocked up 250 miles. Slight delay on flight, but we still managed to catch the same coach out of Stansted after Phil had picked up his trekking poles! Home by 7:30pm a bit tired, but a great time away with friends. All I had to do then was go through my 400 shots!      

Resources:
www.marona.co.uk/scotland/
www.flickr.com/groups/camphotowalk/

Harris Landscape Photography

Seilebost looking across to Taransay

After what must be almost 25 years I finally returned to Harris. Last time I was a teenager holidaying with my parents, this time with my own family (10  & 12 yr old daughters!)

Photography back then was very much an ad hoc occurrence, I was keen, but certainly not driven. I've swapped my Velvia slide film for compact flash and my Olympus OM2n for a Canon 5D mk2. Back then I travelled light no cumbersome tripods, filters or accessories, just two prime lenses 50mm & 28mm. Now I pop an extra body and spare tripod in the car just in case!

Cambridge to Harris

Cambridge to Harris is a very long way. How I convinced my family that a holiday on Harris was a good idea I'm not sure, we looked into flying, but in the end decided to drive. Two stop overs on the way up, one near Moffat and the second at Dornie. Then a relatively short drive the length of Skye to catch the ferry from Uig.

Google maps said it would take 11 hours driving followed by 1 hour 40 on the ferry and another 30 minutes on the far side, unfortunately that didn't account for any traffic on the roads! The first day of travel was slightly slower than intended, but we were in no rush to get to Moffat. The second day the goal was to get to Dornie in plenty of time for sunset at Elian Donan Castle. This didn't go quite to plan since we got stuck on the A87 for 3 hours due to an accident. By the time we arrived in Dornie I had the choice of eating out with the family or taking photos of the castle. I had a packet of crisps for my tea and headed out in earnest.

Reflections Eilean Donan Castle

The next morning we were back on the road again. A quick stroll around Plockton and then over the bridge to Skye. The previous day when we had been stuck in traffic it was high twenties, now the weather was decidedly cooler with a thick covering of cloud. Sure enough by the time we passed Brodick it started to drizzle. Ever the optimist (it will probably clear!) we drove over to Talisker Bay. After sitting in the car for lunch we, or rather I, decided a walk to the beach would be in order. This was met with a certain degree of resistance and unfortunately it didn't clear as I had half hoped, but the rain just got heavier and more persistent. Very wet with slightly grumpy kids we headed off to Uig. We booked in for the ferry about 3 hours early had a cup of coffee pottered around the solitary shop and by this time the weather eased a little and despite a little resistance from the family we headed back up the road a few miles to Fairy Glen.

Fairy Glen Skye

To lighten the mood we had a family photo competition to see who could capture the Glen in the best possible way. I think Naomi's batteries went flat after about 2 shots, Julia got her iPhone out and Hannah did some strange acrobatics! We didn't officially judge the results, but here is my effort.

The rain didn't stay off long so we headed back down to queue up for the ferry.

After a good crossing we arrived in Tarbert for the final leg of our journey. Despite leaden grey skies and drizzle the light had a special quality, as we caught the first glimpse of Luskentyre Bay it simply shone turquoise out of the gloom. What would it look like when the sun shone!

The first few days we didn't see much sun, the weather was a little mixed, but that often leads to some of the best conditions for photography. You have to make the most of what you have. 

Harris isn't the easiest to get to and a very long way from Cambridge, but there are lots of great photo locations in a relatively small area. One of my bug bears with Scotland is that you have to drive a long way between good landscape locations. Harris is compact, I like that especially if you have a central base. Staying in Borvemore was an ideal spot, walking distance to Traigh Mhor beach and only a short drive to Northton (ironically in the South) and Luskentyre in the North.

Northton salt marshes

Luskentyre bay

Callanish Standing stones - Separation

Mid week we did venture a little further afield up to the standing stones at Callanish on Lewis. There was no visitor centre 25 yrs ago, but the stones themselves have remained unchanged for thousands of years. The challenge at Callanish was to try and get some photos devoid of people. I tried long exposures, standing around waiting for the crowds to clear in the end I decided to concentrate on a smaller sample of stones, giving them separation and room to breathe. However, I think my most memorable photo was one that did include a person snapping away in amongst the stones, a silhouette I converted to b&w. 

In amongst the stones

All in all we had a great week, I did get caught out early one morning without my midge hood (absolute must in August). Thereafter it remained in my camera bag and was frequently used. Here is a selection of other locations only a stones throw away from where we were staying.

Toe Head rays of light

Stripey Gneiss

Curves Luskentyre

On the return leg of our journey we spent a few days on Skye before heading down to the Lakes. The weather was much kinder to us despite an abysmal forecast. We hiked up to the Old Man of Storr in thick mist, but just as we approached it magically cleared. On our last evening I drove down to Elgol, it would have been rude to visit Skye without popping in. En-route I spotted two Golden Eagles, what a awe inspiring place it is.

Old Man of Storr

Elgol sunset

All in all we had a great Scottish adventure I look forward to my next trip North.

Resources:

www.marona.co.uk/scotland/

Cambridge Timelapse

I've been meaning to have a go at timelapse photography for some time, but not willing to sacrifice my 5d mk2 to so many shutter actuations. Collecting dust on a shelf  I've got a 5d and a 400d both of which are about 7 years old now. The 400d has been used less than a dozen times and I should have really sold it on Ebay, but it's hardly worth it. It's a good little camera a bit fiddly to use and the viewfinder is positively tunnel like. Just over a year ago I saw a cheap intervoltmeter on Amazon compatible with the 400d and added it to my wish list. I often add stuff to my wish list I find interesting or for reference (I have since created a private wish for such things now). A few weeks later to my surprise my mother-in-law had bought it for me and it arrived in the post. Having read the instructions I did a few test shots then put it back in my computer cupboard to gather dust along with the cameras.

I'm notoriously impatient when it comes to photography and the idea of taking hundreds of photos to do a load of post processing on and convert into a video dampened my enthusiasm somewhat. 

Three weeks ago when my daughter was out punting with pathfinders (youth group from church) I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. It was a disaster, for the following reasons:

• A poorly framed photo will not make a good timelapse
• You need lots of photos, 30, 40 or 50 is a complete waste of time.
• Movement in the frame is good (it goes without saying) and setting the right interval is key
• Landscape images only please! At one stage I found myself taking a portrait timelapse because that was more pleasing framing, 16x9 video for screen doesn't work in portrait!
• Have a decent sized memory card, I was shooting Raw on an old 2gb card I had kicking around
• Charge your battery properly (not 15 minutes before you leave!) and take spares
• Switch everything to manual and switch off autofocus (this is one mistake I didn't make)

So after learning the hard way, I decided to do a little more planning, charged up my batteries broke out a few 4gb cards (i've now bought some 8's) and set off to the Lion Yard car park roof on a nice sunny day. First off I found that the nice puffy clouds were moving quite slowly, I opted for an 8 second interval, but in hindsight 10 seconds would have probably been a bit better. 33 minutes later and 250 RAW shots in the bag I hot footed it off to my next spot. Parkers Piece was covered in lots of activity setting up for the Big Weekend, not sure I wanted to capture all the railings and hoardings so I headed over closer to the Fire Station and started off another timelapse. I set the interval to 2 seconds since there were quite a few people walking around.

After amassing 500 photos from a very short period of time I had to decide how to process them. 

I downloaded the lot into Lightroom made some simple adjustments to the first image, copied develop settings then pasted these settings to the next 249 shots. Exported them as .jpg full res.

Lightroom interface

I now had my first batch of jpgs and needed to find some software to create a timelapse. After a bit of googeling I came across Panolapse http://www.panolapse360.com/  in the blurb it describes it's self as :

"Add motion to timelapse videos. Panolapse uses perspective correction to create real-world rotational panning through your scene. Also zoom, deflicker, blend RAW metadata, auto-exposure, create videos, and more."

Sounded promising so I downloaded the free copy which has a few of the bells and whistles turned off, but as a start was perfectly adequate. It's quite basic, easy to use and the video quality isn't half bad. At some stage I will certainly buy a copy so I can step up to full hd. Free version only allows output at 720p.

PanoLapse interface

After processing my first 250 shots at 24fps with deflicker switched on I opened up my video in media player and sat back for 10.4 seconds. Flipping birds every 2 or 3 seconds which just appeared as black dots on a single frame! Back to Lightroom and the spot healing brush, some time later all the birds had gone.....

After a few more lunchtime trips and a stack more photos I hit the next technical challenge, tripod movement! I was up on the top of Great St Mary's and the only place I could fit my tripod was on the benches you stand on to view over the railings. Half way through a time lapse sequence someone stood on the bench and shifted the image by a few pixels for a few shots then they stepped off. After some more googeling I came across Hugin and a command line tool which is bundled in with the distribution align_image_stack. Playing around with some settings and yet more googeling I managed to run the following command:

d:\align_image_stack -a out img_001.jpg img_002.jpg img_003.jpg img_004.jpg..........

To get the list of images I piped them into a text file and then edited this in excel, a bit of a faff, but it did the job. About an hour later I had a whole stack of out*.tif files. I've not found a way of using align_image_stack to output .jpg so I needed to batch convert these back to jpg for Panolapse to read them, I used FastStone Image Viewer for this.

Finally I was left with 8 Short timelapse movies, ranging between 150 & 300 shots each, now I needed to get them all joined together. Microsoft Movie maker is another free tool, easy to use after just a few minutes clicking on menu options.

Finally I was ready to upload my first timelapse to YouTube. I've still got a lot to learn, but I now have a set of tools I can work with when I take on my next timelapse project.

Resources:

Panolapse:   http://www.panolapse360.com/

Hugin:   http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

FastStone Image Viewer:   http://www.faststone.org/

Microsoft Movie Maker:   http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/movie-maker
www.cambridgeimages.co.uk