The crows of Lewes

I had a great response to my exhibition of crows at St Andrews Mews. Many people shared experiances and information on crows.

Solos exhibition at St Andrew’s Mews, Hastings.

One of the recurring comments was about the crows at Lewes Priory. So I went.

Jackdaws and crow.

I found many jackdaws and couple of crows and a rather shy rook. The jackdaws were very lively. One even fed from my hand.

I will go back.

The crows at St Leonards beach are back in numbers after their summer where they mostly discappear. I think they find food elsewhere when holiday makers are down. The beaches are quite crowded too.

Crow antics.

Crow and dog.

The birds page has been updated with new content.

The people’s pictures - Photoworks

“The next issue of Photography+, The People’s Pictures, will explore vernacular photography, the ordinary, the personal, and the overlooked moments of daily life.”

I first came across Photoworks at St Andrew’s Mews. I was exhibiting Monkey-nuts for Crows. They were exhibiting “show in a box”. A kind of postal exhibition.

They put out a request for submissions for their next publication. Vernacular photography. So, how to represent the area I live and photograph?

One of our many parades maybe?

A man pauses litter picking to admire the vista.

A potter pauses.

A distracted houd.

People and dogs chat.

Stormy seas……

…calm seas

Seas to be swum and conquered.

Work to be done.

Relaxing with a cigar.

Calm before the storm

Here in Sussex we have had some calm days. Little wind or waves has made it great weather for foiling, stand-up paddle boarding and photography.

Foilboarder contemplates the sea.

Stand-up-paddleboarder

I don’t usually try long exposure, blue hour pics in these halcyon conditions, but as the dawn is quite late and I was awake anyway, I headed down to the emerging rocks by Marine Court.

I’m glad I did. The fisherman next to me was fishing for bass. He caught a couple. I got some interesting shots. A good morning.

Fun with Flags

It all begins on the beach. With this guy in the hat.

So I’m taking photos of the sunrise, as I do.

As I walk past. “Did you take my photo?”

“Yes, but you’re not the star. There is literally a star just there.”

“I bet that’s going to be an awesome shot. Would you share it with me? I might be able to use it.”

Anyway, we exchanged info. It turns out he is a photographer. Ian Powell. http://www.iamacelebrant.uk/

It was a few months later when I got a request,

“I’m desperately searching for a photographer with the skills and equipment necessary to take a portrait outside in howling wind and pouring rain”

So we organised a photoshoot that afternoon. In the wind and the rain.

He has a flag of all flags and got it made. Big. Really big. It’s being launched on Kickstarter. https://www.unifiedkindom.uk/

Ian with Flag of Flags at St Leonards-on-Sea in the wind and the rain.

It was a fun little project. Kind of on my doorstep too.

Hope it all goes well!

Project - Thistle

Thistles. I don’t know what their proper name is. I call them giant thistles. They climb to about 10ft/3m and look stunning. At the end of their lives, enormous seed heads that look like dandelion clocks. They get everywhere, including blocking up plug holes. I took a photo of one outside the White Rock Theatre and liked it. LINK.

I spotted some growing outside Marine Court.

I knew they where getting cut down and disposed of by the local council so I descided to rescue some. Three, to be precise.

Rustling up a make shift studio and fashioning a stem holder from rock and wire, of course I started photographed them.

Make shift studio in my cluttered flat.

I am processing the RAW files now. I will post results at a later date.

Details of details

So I have been noticing in my macro, (close-up), images in particular, some interesting artefacts occurring. The circles you can see in the image above is called bokeh. The intersting colouring around this bokeh is called chromatic aberration. Both these effects are caused by the lens of the camera when it is performing under extreme conditions.

Sometimes these effects are wanted. Photographers pay a small fortune for lenses that give bokeh. They will also try to eradicate chromatic aberration in post-production.

I quite like the way they interact to give an abstract effect to the image.

Here is a detail from a photo I took of the surface of a pond. The reflective/refractive qualities give another level of abstraction. I particularly like the reflections of the surface tension arund the cluster of leaves, top right.

I might make another portfolio section called Abstracts for some of these images.

Two cameras plus two tripods = Ridiculous

It seems to be the modern way. You can’t just be a photographer by taking photographs. Filming yourself taking the photographs is what the modern consumer wants.

Nikon 1 J5 filming me take photos

Luckly I had a Nikon 1 which was being criminaly under utilised. And my old slightly broken tripod.

The Nikon 1 is thankfully compact and great at timelapses which is great because video of someone taking 1-3 minute exposures would get quite dull.

Here is my first attempt at video taking and editing. Hopefully it will get better.

One of the photos taken. St Leonards beach