Along with this I have also updated “behind-the scenes” to make it easier and quicker for me to upload new images directly from Adobe Lightroom. This will hopefully mean I can show more of my photos, and have them on display sooner.

When you take a look in the galleries you will also find they have been refreshed, hopefully making it easier to find images.

Currently the ability to order directly from my website is missing, but this should hopefully be returning very shortly. I will also be refreshing my product range to make it simpler to understand, so watch this space. In the meantime if there are any images you would like to buy then please use the Contact Me form.

Since I last posted there have been a number of other developments. I have invested in a new camera, and I have started going to a regular Camera Club, hopefully to get me taking more photographs. I shall elaborate on both of those in other posts.

Hopefully you will all continue to enjoy my photography, please let me know if you have any comments.

For those who don’t know, Cambridge Open Studios is a county wide event where many artists open up their studios and display their work for the weekends in July. The event has been going for many years and has experienced an upswing in the last few years, with around 200 artists taking part. Guides to all the artists can be found at many locations around the city.

For my first Open Studio I’m excited to be showing off a mixture of my photography and my hand-painted photography. I’m really proud of what I have managed to put together and hope that those who come to the exhibition will enjoy it!

Information about the artists I’m exhibiting with is here: Mihaela Damian Carrie Ian Emily Jarvis.

The other half of the exhibition was long exposure pictures taken with a beer can camera. And when I say long exposure I’m talking 3 months. They really are quite dramatic, with sun trails across the pictures showing the changing season.

Pictures from the exhibition can be found here. And information about the work they do here.

I have also bought one of the beer can pin hole cameras so I’m looking forward to seeing the results.

Firstly, I have been trying to make a list of photographs that I want to take at some point in the future, or in different lighting or seasons etc. So that when the right time comes along I already have some ideas.

Secondly, I have been trying to keep notes in an ideas book about what I think about images that I see, what I like and what I think works well. This is the help widen the type of photography I take. This notebook can also be used to record ideas for photographs and I have found it really useful.

Thirdly, while I was on the course I was set a theme to take photographs around, the word I had was “Environment”, and I have decided that this is something I want to continue. It helps challenge your creativity.

Challenge photography is something that I have also seen suggested in articles in Practical Photography, you can pick words out to shoot around like was suggested to me, or you can flip a coin on a map and only then go and shoot in one area. You could also put types of subjects in one cup, lenses in another and places in another and pick out combinations. The idea they were getting at was to challenge yourself not to take simple things and see what you could create.

They even mentioned a photographer who only took a single photograph each day for three months and build it up into a project. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to do that!

I think I’m going to try and set myself weekly challenges to get back into my photography and see what I come up with. The first is to get more film and then take more long exposure night time photography. I’m looking forward to having more new work to look at!

I might even go as far as entering some photography competitions to get my work shown more, if anyone knows of any good ones do feel free to comment.

Does Gear Matter?

I read an article this week in Outdoor Photography about whether the kit you have matters. After initially being irritated that the article seemed to be suggesting that having the best kit is vital, especially since I don’t have the most sophisticated camera, I thought about it some more and realised that it did indeed have a very good point. The kit you have is one of several limits on what you can achieve, if you don’t have a macro lens then you obviously can’t shoot close up, no wide angle and you may find landscape difficult. Low quality optics then you may not produce images as clear as they can be, but you should look at the difference and decide what works for you. ISO performance can be important if you want to shoot in low light, poor quality can mean grainy images, which is fine if that’s the artistic effect you want, but not so great if not.

In general you should consider what you are shooting and how that related to the gear you need, buy as good as you can afford, and focus your money where it will make a difference to the type of photography you take. Don’t go for ISO performance if you never shoot low light, don’t go for state-of-the-art high speed auto focus if you don’t shoot action. You don’t need the most MegaPixels if you never print you images to wall sized.

And most importantly don’t get me wrong you still need photographic talent, if you can’t see a good image then having the best (and most expensive) camera in the world won’t help. Spend some time practicing, get out and look around and take pictures with whatever you have (be that a phone camera or the latest dSLR), look at others’ work for inspiration, when you realise that your kit is holding you back, then is the time for a new camera.

Canon 60D

I also thought I would mention the Canon 60D (and Canon range in general), since several people I know are looking at buying this camera, I have done a lot of reading about it.

In summary it seems to be a very good camera, suitable for someone who has owned a DSLR before and wants to upgrade while not wanting to splash out on a semi pro camera like the Canon 7D. Those looking for an introductory model should look at the 550D.

I really like the vari-angle screen that the 60D comes with, apparently it’s the first time the Canon range has used it and it seems like a really good idea. The only criticisms that reviewers seem to have is that it’s less sturdy than the 7D and the auto focus system isn’t as good. Having held the camera those seem to be true, but it still feels like a well made piece of kit. And while the auto focus is definitely slower it strikes me that it would only be worth the extra money if speed was important to you, for example you use it for sports or wildlife photography.

For someone who is a landscape photographer one of the disadvantages is it is not a full frame camera. Admittedly, full frame cameras are really expensive and generally for professional photographers, however for a landscape photographer, where being able to take in a large or panoramic view is important it may be something that would come in handy.

As part of my photography class we have done a couple of shoots on location recently.

The first was out and about in Cambridge in the evening. This gave me a chance to try out night shots with traditional film photography. This was a new experience for me, and it’s really difficult to know what the effects are going to be, since you don’t have a screen to check the results like you do with digital! The best way to try and get something reasonable is to bracket the shots, that is take a metered shot and then take additional shots that are a stop over exposed and a stop underexposed. In the future I will also have a better idea of how the camera behaves once I have seen the processed results.

While we were out and about we took some interesting shots of the Cambridge Chop House, since it has lots of detail illuminated inside, we also took some shots of the front of King’s College and the some from Trinity Hall Bridge.

The second shoot we did was at Mill House in Whittlesford, it was a really nice location with a woodland area behind the house. The weather wasn’t great as the light was really flat, however I think I still managed to take some interesting shots. I think my favourite was the one of the swing next to the water.

Ely Ice Cream Van I really like this picture, it has lots of colour in it and looks quite traditional. I think it picks up a nice detail on Ely market.

Through the Beach Huts II, Southwold This is one of my favourite photographs, so it only seemed right that I should have a go at painting it. I think it has worked well, the colours are more dominant than the photograph, but I think it gives a nice effect.

The West Window, Salisbury Cathedral This is a detail picture of the West Window at the cathedral in Salisbury. It is taken from right at the base of the window while on the tower tour, so provides an unusual view. I really like the stong colours in the images and the amount of detail in the picture.

The Wine Merchant, Cambridge This is another picture in the series of Cambridge images I am trying to create that are not based on colleges. I really like the traditional style of the building, and the cycle detail at the bottom.

Great Court, Trinity College, Cambridge This is probably the most famous court in the country, it’s a panoramic images and I like the way that it leads the eye around to see all the interesting details.

A new summary of all of the photography services that I offer can be found on this page, and includes prints and canvas prints, stock photography, artwork prints and commissions and photographic products like calendars.

The stock photography gallery should be useful to image buyers as it allows quick browsing through my image collection and creation of a lightbox which you can save and send to other buyers or editors. Have a look at the Stock and Licensing page for details.

As before you can still look for images to purchase as prints or canvas prints in the galleries or art galleries.

You can also find full details about my Hand Painted Photography artwork here. I’m constantly adding new work so do check back regularly.

I’m currently taking a new course in film photography at the moment and really enjoying it. I haven’t really done much work in black and white before and so it’s totally different experience and way of thinking to the usual work I do.

There is something quite magical about taking a seemingly blank piece of paper, putting it into a chemical bath and seeing an image appear.

It also takes lots of new skills and experimentation. There are so many new things that you can achieve. It also made me realise I really like to be learning to do new things and experimenting.

So far we have looked at the film developing process, then the printing making and developing process, most recently some more advances techniques such as dodging and burning to balance the exposure across an images. I’ll try and post again in more detail about the methods used once I have worked on them some more.

We are also trying to work on a shooting project around a word, mine is ‘Environment’. I think I’m going to focus on the conflict between manmade environment and nature, like flood defences and where the weather has worn down buildings. But I’m also looking at the different patterns that appear in nature as well as buildings, cities and other human environments. Watch this space to see what I come up with.

This event in the Cambridge area is where artists open their studios up to interested visitors so that they can come and see how they work and what they have been producing. While I will not actually be opening my studio, I will be sharing a space with several other artists (Carrie Ian is hosting, her contemporary paintings can be found here) and you will be able to see what I have been working on. Our event will be taking place at 142 Blinco Grove, Cambridge, on the first 3 weekends in July.

Cambridge Open Studios has been established for many years, however over the last couple it has been undergoing a large change programme following the withdrawal of Arts Council funding. The organisation and event is now fully funded by its member artists and last year’s event was something of a revival following a couple of years of declining numbers.

I’m really excited to be taking part this year, and look forward to seeing many visitors to my exhibition.

Have a look at the Cambridge Open Studios Website if you want to find out more about the many artists taking part.

I will also try to keep adding regular updates about the exhibitions as we get closer the event.