Oliver Wood Photography on Blogger — again. Thanks largely to their new templates that are so good for displaying any photographic or artwork orientated material. I think this is going to become my main ‘folio blog’.
http://oliverwood-photographer.blogspot.com/
Empty Road
Bakerstonedale Moor Cheshire, again.
Twilight Beeches
Bakerstonedale looking toward Pott Shrigley — one of my new favourite photo locations.
Abstract detail – Prestbury railway crossing
Stop Look Listen
Manchester bound Pendolino train
A couple of weeks ago I cycled from Scarborough to Whitby along the dedicated trailway — the former Scarb to Whitby railway route. This is a location that is absolutely loaded with significant childhood memories for me and none of it has changed in the slightest. The ride was fun, a bit grim leaving Scarbourough but the section from Ravenscar to Whitby via Robin Hoods Bay is just glorious with some beautiful coastal views. I have many more photos which may eventually find their way to this blog and other places.
Evening Tide
Mr Livingstone I Presume?
Ravenscar from Robin Hoods Bay
{ Prestbury dreamscape — new stuff on flickr. Recently I have been working on a video promotion for a large jewellers and may have some interesting HDV grabs to show for it — shortly. }
{Transfigured Norms, A car passes by and the Christmas tree shines out across the way}
Snow and ice continue to be the dominant weather theme into the first month of 2010. It is all so photogenic and I have such a lot of work to upload and publish here there and everywhere else. More creative work taking full advantage of shallow DOF, manual focus, white balance, and long exposures at night is taking place on an all most daily (nightly) basis now.
I do like these conditions, the light is so much more effective with the added reflectance of snow and fascinating details in ice and snow embellished structures are all around.
{ A leaf in suspension by my front door. A chance find that attracted my gaze and which has yielded an image with both Rothko and Miro like qualities I think. }
Prestbury Living magazine has one of my photos on the cover this month, the same image is also used (rather more effectively) as background for an inside spread where its effect is quite impressive. I supplied several images for this but the one that I felt to be most appropriate for the cover has not been used — yet?
Of course I am grateful to the folks at PL for using my photos and as ever, any kind of publicity is always gratefully received.
I recently tried a little “light painting” for the first time, for those not in the know light painting is a night photography technique where one illuminates the subject with a portable light source whilst the camera shutter is open on a long exposure or even ‘bulb’ setting. Obviously the camera needs to be mounted on a tripod for this. The idea is to control the pattern of illumination by literally ‘painting’ the subject with light. I used a powerful LED torch and a 10second shutter with f4 aperture. Some people thought the images were actually HDR (high dynamic range) processed. It is a very engaging technique, which introduces an element of direct physical interaction with the subject and gives a real sense of creative action, almost as if you are painting the image on to a canvas of night. I did my first experiments in St Peter’s churchyard Prestbury but would like to try the technique in even darker settings; possibly up in the hills, I have a secret location in mind.
This ‘blog’ diary may be migrating to a more state of the art (web 2) wordpress platform at the weekend — if I have the time to work with that. It does feel a little like the end of an era but I want to make my blog page(s) a little more dynamic and experiment with various feeds and such like.
It is now almost eight months since I last had a cigarette and all cravings are a thing of the past. I looked pretty young for my age before but now I have youthfulized by about another five years I reckon. Skin is much smoother, circulation greatly improved and I have almost boundless energy and physical motivation.
We are sweltering in semi tropical conditions with very high humidity. At least we are having some sunshine, which is more than can be said for previous years, and even better, I am able to enjoy it with all of this free time. I don’t mind the heat so much as the humidity, which apparently is a very difficult condition for northern Europeans to adapt too.
Despite the preponderance of decent light (in the later afternoons and dawn) I don’t seem to be quite as active in photography as I should be. A project to capture my surroundings in a more unconventional manner has resulted in the production of a lot of rather twee photo cliches. In other words a Cheshire Life like rendition of prettiness, the kind of approach relegated to my general Prestbury page(s) — anyway not the intended results. I don’t have anything against prettiness mind; it is just that I had an idea to portray the village in a way that is more akin to artistic documentary. Not having the confidence to turn my camera on strangers or marshal them into interesting scenarios is a definite disadvantage here and it is certainly about time my photos had a little more human interest.
So many recent commentators and other (valid) critics that have expressed an opinion on my efforts seem to be suggesting that I have a knack for landscape shots so I may go and work on that a little more. By way of a slight digression I’m quite fascinated by the layout and artificial contours of the local golf course too, with its huge collection of arboreal delights. One good thing about (good) golf courses is when they are cared for or designed by arborealists or horticulturists and then become a sort of living museum of all indigenous tree species in their most splendid full form condition. Mottram Hall was a bit like that and I have never seen such magnificent horse chestnuts and copper beeches anywhere else, other than that of course golf courses are a waste of time — an interesting walk through the trees spoilt by too many Daly Mail readers no less.