A New Way of Thinking

Over the last few days I have come to a realisation about the ways in which I work. A lot of my landscape image feature wide and bold compositions and vivid, saturated colours. Now before I go any further I would like to stress that there is nothing at all wrong with that kind of image, in fact I am quite partial to strikingly saturated images. However it is the way in which these images are viewed, whether consciously or not, that I find quite interesting. Read more.....

A lot of the images I am referring to are very dramatic, that along with vivid, saturated colours makes for a very arresting image that immediately grabs the viewers attention. Imagine a photograph of a waterfall, nicely composed foreground rocks leading up to a spectacular waterfall. While this may make for a very attention grabbing image, it has little substance. What I am trying to say is that the image tells the whole story and that there is little for the viewer to work out for themselves, as a result, the image may only stay in the viewers mind for a few hours, maybe a day, after which it is filed away at the back of their mind along with all the other imagery we are bombarded with every day. Subsequently the image may be forgotten. With this in mind I traveled to Pontneddfechan to visit Sgwd Ddwli, a location I have been to countless times, with the aim of creating something new, a different view if you will. I wanted to create images with a sense of mystery and intrigue, if the images I talked about before were the whole story, consider these an unfinished book.

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 35mm | 2.5 sec | f/8 | ISO 100 | CPL

The above image was taken at a small waterfall just upstream of Sgwd Ddwli. I was initially drawn to the curve of the water flowing around the rock and as I got closer I also noticed the subtle patterns that the flowing water was creating on the surface. I framed the shot without the waterfall in frame and used a polariser to cut reflections from the waters surface, allowing me to capture the pebbles on the riverbed as well. I chose a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds to capture just enough movement in the water without allowing it to glass over completely. I think there is something very fascinating about this image with the pebbles below the surface obscured by the water rushing over them and the wonder of what lays upstream.

The next image is of Sgwd Ddwli itself, the conditions at this locations were not what would normally be considered god wheather for photography. Dull skies and rain. However in conditions like this you get a very nice quality of light, very soft and diffuse, offering vibrant colours and more subtle tonal gradations than you would find in direct sunlight.

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 35mm | 30 sec | f/22 | ISO 100 | CPL

So to compliment the quality of light I created a simple composition, balancing not just the physical elements within the frame but also the tonal aspects of the image. I like the simplicity in the arrangement of the foreground rocks and the intrigue created by the bottom of the waterfall just visible at the top.

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 35mm | 0.6 sec | f/4 | ISO 100 | CPL

This last image was taken in the river between the two falls. There was a very nice quality of light here with the soft light from the overcast sky filtering through the trees overhead, giving the scene a very subtle green tint. I like the simplicity of the composition and I already know what you're thinking. Did I place the leaf? Maybe I did, maybe I did not. Either way does it really matter? I know a lot of people who would disagree with that kind of practice, if I moved the leaf I would not be creating an accurate depiction of the scene would I? The way I see it is that a photograph by it's very nature can not be an accurate depiction of what a photographer saw. For the simple reason that even before the image is taken, conscious decisions are made about how the scene is going to be manipulated, a photographers choice of viewpoint, focal length, film/sensor, aperture and shutter speed all contribute to this. But is that even the point? And just for the record, I did move the leaf.

Mitsubishi Colt - Strobist Shoot

A few days ago I went on a mini strobist photoshoot with Cardiff based photographer Gavin Dando. Our mission, to take some shots of Gavin's car using multiple off camera flash units. Click through for a step by step of how we set this shot up, from the initial idea, through planning and execution. More...

Photoshoots like this require some planning at the least, it is never good to start something like this without at least a faint idea of what you want to achieve.

So we had the initial idea, take some shots of the car. Now all we needed was a location, se we had a look at a few locations and eventually chose part of an Industrial Estate under the A4232 leading into Cardiff. At this point we didn't have any of our gear with us, we were just looking at the location, looking at how we could compose the shot, thinking about lighting etc.

So armed with a rough idea of what we wanted to do and a good idea of the layout of the place we headed back to Gavin's house and started planning the shoot, making a rough sketch of the layout of the shot and the lighting setup.


The main problem with lighting a black car is that it will not reflect the light that is thrown at it, but rather show a reflection of the source the light is coming from. For that reason we decided to use 2 large 6x4ft Lastolite Bounce Panels to light the side of the car and a large reflective umbrella to light the front. To finish the shot off we decided to throw some colour on the concrete pillar behind the car, this would be courtesy of a rosco CTO gel to create a nice contrast in colour between the post sunset sky and the black car. Now we just had to wait for the sun to set.


We got back to the location just before sunset to give us enough time to set up the lights, we ended up sticking pretty much exactly to the planned light setup. The shots below show how each of the flashes add to the finished shot.


First flash with large 6x4ft Bounce Panel to light the front wheel and foreground.


Adding the large reflective umbrella to finish lighting the foreground and to highlight the Manufacturers badge and number plate.


Adding the second Lastolite Bounce Panel to finish the lighting on the car, notice the reflection of the panel on the drivers side door.


Finally adding the gelled flash onto the background to complete the shot.

On Flickr

View Gavin's shot here.

Pushing Boundaries

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
1/15th sec | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Last Sunday I met up with Leighton Roberts to try and push some comfort zones, we decided to go to Porthcawl and started with something we are both perfectly happy with; landscape shots. This didn't last long as we quickly decided to roam the streets of Porthcawl taking some candid shots. I don't have a problem taking photographs in front of hundreds of people, although usually this is at a gig and I'm meant to be there. Street stuff however is completely different and it's taking em a little while to get into it. More images after the jump...

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/800th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 320

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 24mm | 1/1600th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 320

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/1600th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 320

Innocence Died Screaming at Hobo's

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm
Canon Speedlite 430EX II on E-TTL | 1/250th sec | f/8 | ISO 800

Last night I photographed Bridgend based band 'Innocence Died Screaming' on the third leg of their UK tour, stopping on home turf to play at Hobo's in Bridgend. Having checked out the venue at an earlier date I traveled light as I usually do at events like this. There is no guarantee that you will find somewhere safe to leave your kit so I stuck to my Canon EOS 40D with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L lens and a shoe mounted Canon Speedlite 430EX II. Read More...

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm
Canon Speedlite 430EX II on E-TTL | 1/250th sec | f/8 | ISO 800

I used the bands setup time to lock a manual exposure of 1/250th of a second to ensure I did not pick up any motion blur at f/8 to maintain a moderate depth of field and selected ISO 800. I used a high ISO not to keep any ambient light as this was not my main concern as the band would be lit by flash but rather to save the flash from having to work too hard, giving me much faster recycle times between flashes. This meant I did not have to wait for the flash to charge and was able to fire off frame after frame.

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm
Canon Speedlite 430EX II on E-TTL | 1/250th sec | f/8 | ISO 800

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 32mm
Canon Speedlite 430EX II on E-TTL | 1/250th sec | f/8 | ISO 800

Ogmore by Sea

Last night myself and Leighton Roberts visited Ogmore by Sea, but instead of going to one of my usual bays we decided to stay up at the estuary end. We were not disappointed, wet sand, stunning reflections and a dramatic sky! Again I tried to work the location as much as possible, exploring every opportunity with various different viewpoints and compositions and of course, focal lengths. More images after the jump...

Above: Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EC DC HSM @ 10mm
1.6 sec | f/22 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
1/5th sec | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
1/3rd sec | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EC DG @ 70mm
0.6 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 100

Dunraven Bay

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG @ 300mm
1/1000th sec | f/5.6 | ISO 200

Last night I met up at Dunraven Bay with Dai Smith. We arrived about 2 hours before sunset so we had plenty of time to make the most of the best light. I managed to wrestle my 10mm lens from my camera for the majority of the evening. View more ...

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
1/2 sec | f/22 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/3rd sec | f/22 | ISO 100

A Different View of Ddwli

Today I took a drive up to Pontneddfechan to visit Sgwd Ddwli. I have visited this area numerous times before so today I decided to stay away from wide angles and pick out some of the smaller details.

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG Macro @ 300mm
1/60th sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

More images after the jump...

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/640th sec | f/2 | ISO 100

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/13th sec | f/32 | ISO 100

Talybont Waterfall Treck

Today myself and Angela Roberts visited the waterfalls at Talybont. I have visited these falls a number of times in the past but have never managed to take a single photograph that I have been happy with. However persistence pays off and with every visit you start to pick out more and more of the little areas and details that really make the scene 'pop'.

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/3rd sec | f/16 | ISO 100

More images after the jump...

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm | 8 secs | f/16 | ISO 100 | Circular Polariser

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10 mm | 5 secs | f/16 | ISO 100 | Circular Polariser

Margam Park

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/200th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 100

Yesterday I went to Margam Park with Andrew Davies, Leighton and Angela Roberts to get some nice shots of their kids. It was quite challenging trying to work with flash in mid day sun. However we did manage to produce some pleasing results using a reflective umbrella and a large gold reflector. Read More...

While we were there this little Robin landed on a pillar quite close to me, I had my 24-70mm lens on the camera but managed to get quite close to get the shot above. It wasn't easy mind, he seemed quite content to let me get close but got spooked when the kids came charging at him! He returned a few times and out of the masses of shots I took this is one of few that turned out half decent. A very enjoyable day out, thanks for the company!

Sunrise at Three Cliffs Bay

This morning I was meant to be attending a field trip to the Glamorgan Heritage Coast organised by the Photography Department at the University of Glamorgan but due to a poor turnout the trip was canceled last minute. So I decided to meet up with friend and fellow photographer David Smith (aka. Wiffs, Wiffsmiff, Wiffster, Wiffles) at Three Cliffs Bay in the Gower. With sunrise being so early in the morning we decided to leave Bridgend just gone 3am to allow for the drive up and the walk to the beach. At one point it looked like it was all about to go down the pan but the sky cleared just enough to give us a stunning sunrise. More images after the jump ...

Above: Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm

2.5 secs | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
0.4 sec | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/30th sec | f/16 | ISO 100

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/800th | f/2 | ISO 100

Never Miss an Opportunity

I usually have a camera of some sort with me wherever I go and I think one of the 'downfalls' of DSLR's is that they can be quite large and bulky, with lenses to match. I am giving serious thought to investing in a Canon G10 or one of it's slightly older predecessors, a compact camera with full manual controls that will just slip in your pocket because lets face it, it is slightly impractical to carry a DSLR with you everywhere you go. Read More ...

But as said I usually carry a camera with me and tonight was no exception, I went to meet up with a few friends in Bridgend so I left most of my kit at home and just grabbed my 40D with a 35mm prime. One of the things I like about this lens is that it is quite small and compact and really brings the weight down on the camera, after a while I pretty much forgot it was even over my shoulder. I tried to capture the gritty and urban side of Bridgend tonight and couldn't resist getting down on the floor when I came across some smashed glass.

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/13th sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Nash Point

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/320 th sec | f/8 | ISO 100

This evening I took a trip to Nash Point on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast with fellow photographer Mike Stokes. The weather has been very changeable today but we were granted a break in the showers that had dominated much of the day and were treated to quite a stunning if not slightly threatening sky. I shot much of the evening with a 35mm prime and hardly used a tripod as my shutter speeds early on were more than fast enough to warrant hand-holding. This gave me a lot more freedom of movement and the ability to get the camera into positions I would not normally have been able to get to.

More images after the jump ...

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/80 th sec | f/16 | ISO 100

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/60 th sec | f/8 | ISO 100

Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 35mm f/2 | 1/40 th sec | f/4 | ISO 100

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm
1 sec | f/16 | ISO 100 | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad

Aberavon - The Challenge

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/125 th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 100

Last night Leighton and Angela Roberts challenged me to Aberavon Beach and 'Challenge' is one of few words I can use to describe the place, a long, flat, almost featureless stretch of sand with Steelworks on one side and Swansea on the other. So once again I decided to ditch my wideangle lenses and tried to focus on the smaller details.

Focusing on smaller details is something that is easier said than done for me at the moment as I am very much used to ultra-wideangle lenses in places like this but I am slowly getting more comfortable using longer focal lengths and am finding it slightly easier to compose and single out individual elements within a scene.

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/320 th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 100

Lacock Abbey Trip

Today I joined a trip organised by the University of Glamorgan Photography Department to Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, home of William Henry Fox Talbot. I was lucky enough to borrow one of the Universities new Canon EOS 5D MarkII DSLRs for a few hours to have a bit of a play about and I have to say I am quite impressed by how much detail this camera records into its RAW file. I am still unsure of the necessity of over 21Mp, it just seems like overkill to me, unless you are going to be pulling off massive prints I don't think you would ever need quite this much resolution ... however, it is nice to play with!

Read more ...


So I spent a few hours playing about with the camera and my 17-40L lens, unfortunately I had to hand the camera back, will have to add it to my shopping list! It was quite an enjoyable trip overall, even if it did start to rain towards the end, I think I may have to return here at some point, maybe in the winter when there is likely to be less tourists about as they kept getting in my shots!

above: Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm | Cokin X-Pro 0.9 ND Grad | 1/20 th sec | f/16 | ISO 100


Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm | 1/4 sec | f/16 | ISO 100


Canon EOS 40 D | Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM @ 200mm | 1/100 th sec | f/4 | ISO 100

Limiting Availability to Increase Creativity

Canon EOS 40 D | Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG @ 70mm | 1/60 th sec | f/2.8 | ISO 400

This may sound a little silly but bear with me. I'm sure I am not just speaking for myself when I say that it is all too easy for a landscape photographer to go to a beach for sunset, stick an ultra-wideangle lens on the camera and find a nice low viewpoint to create a striking composition. Now don't get me wrong, I love low down wideangle work but after a while it can seem like you are starting to repeat yourself.

Last night I returned to Bwlch Gwyn and upon arrival handed my Sigma 10-20 over to Angela who was accompanying me on my trip. I decided to turn my way of thinking completely on it's head and limit myself to just one focal length, a focal length that I would normally not even consider for landscape work; 70mm. I had seen plenty of stunning landscape images taken with telephoto lenses but it requires a very different thought process to compose these images, something I was not really familiar with. So by limiting myself to one focal length and forcing myself to look for new and creative ways of seeing and composing an image I have started to open up a whole world of new opportunities. This is something I plan to apply not just to seascapes but to pretty much all situations. I think I will start shooting at a focal length I am comfortable with in a given situation and then experiment by using all manner of different focal lengths to really work a location and explore all of it's possibilities.