Morton Forest

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Earlier on this year I got lost in this forest by choosing to venture "off-road" in the attempt to cut the duration of a dog walk. I was getting bored and it was almost pitch black. I fell over many branches and holes in doing so. After one of my stumbles I looked behind me and even though it was almost dark when I saw it, I knew at the right time of day this view would be worth a shot.

Last weekend I scrambled back to this spot. The low winter sun crept below the high-growing branches of Morton Forest, back-lighting the wilting bracken that dominates the forest floor. The brown wilting bracken is given new life as the sun's rays transform the dull brown into a rich golden hue. The incoming light filtered its way through the trees, diminishing every inch as strives deeper into the forest.

Usually I arrive at a location for sunrise or sunset but because the sun is so low in the sky in December the light is pretty good for almost the entire day. I arrived here at 2pm and fine tuned my composition so that the foreground trees framed the image and there wasn't a tree right down the middle of the frame.

Next...The sun-star.

Sun-stars are quite difficult to get right. You need to fine-tune your position so that the sun is partially obscured by an object so you get a small flare of light coming into the lens. If you have too much light coming in there will be coloured specks all over the screen, too little and the sun-star loses its dramatic effect. After moving the tripod many times within the bracken I finally found the sun-star needed to make this shot work.

When taking the shot I had to hold my breath as it steamed up my lenses and filters clouding the shot. This is 5 shots stitched together, each 10 seconds long. I didn't want to wait in between shots because if the sun moves slightly my sun-star will change so I opted to hold my breath through all exposures until the last one had finished. The shots were done and I was knackered.

Equestrian Photography

My knowledge of horses is frankly... embarrassing. However, learning... I am.

Next year I am hoping to cover equestrian photography in a reportage style much like my wedding photography. Yesterday was my first experience in this genre of photography, and frankly the lack of knowledge was rock bottom.

What position does the horse look its best when it is jumping?

What kind of shots would you like of your horse?

What makes a good picture and what makes a bad picture?

What is the routine before an event?

All these questions, however simple they are, need to be answered. Any photographer will tell you how important it is to know the subject you are shooting, whether it is landscape photography, wildlife photography, wedding photography or sport photography you need to be able to predict what is going to happen before it does.

This is why I asked Annabel if I could take some photos of her practicing with her horse, in hope of finding the answers to some of these questions.

When I set-up this side of my business I am hoping to cover an individual client through their day of eventing, starting from the "prepping of the horse",through to the event itself with "jumping shots"...(haven't quite got the lingo!). I will then provide the client with a personalised luxury album. I wanted a more personal approach than receiving one photograph of a client clearing a jump at an event. This way the whole story is told plus some great informal images of the client and their horse.

I am still in the very early stages of this side of my business however I thought I would post this in case any of you are interested in the idea.

I arrived and met Annabel at 7:20am. For those of you who like bed, at this time of year the sun doesn't rise until around 8 o'clock. I had very little light to work with and what light there was was the steely blue light of early dawn.

I saw this circular window of the stable with the horse eating its hay inside. The blue light of twilight contrasted with the warm light of the artificial lighting in the stable.

Annabel brought 6 horses to be exercised, when they were being saddled up I took some reportage type images as you see here.

When told that Annabel was going to a school with her horse, images of multi-coloured Biros, blotting paper and protractors immediately came to mind. The extent of my horse lingo is again embarrassing and is the reason why I need to learn A LOT before proceeding into this side of the business.

However when faced with the "school" it turned out to be a empty warehouse with close to no lighting at all. A room that would make a photographer begin to cry inside. However I had little pressure as this was just for practice I tried a few techniques to see what would work. In order to capture the action, I tried slow-shutter speeds by panning: Blurring the background but keeping the subject relatively sharp to project speed

And Flash to freeze the subject.

I had a great time, I got some fun photos but with more practice hopefully I will reach the standard I am happy with, then I will start up this new side of my business that I am very excited about.

If anyone would like me to take some photos of them and their horses please give me a ring, I would love to come over and practice....free of charge of course!

Thanks Annabel!

Cabo de Gata - Spain

Am improved shot of Mojacar at night with a few more clouds in the sky





The full moon brought high tides to the shores of southern Spain. As I wait for the sun to lower towards the westerly horizon, I seemed to be consuming my daily allowance of salt intake from the constant spray from the winter waves. The amount of salt managed to turn my blue, wobbly wheeled Vauxhall Corsa hire car into a shade of white almost witnessing the corrosion in action. My new Camera and filters did not like this.




I had set-up next to this old, weathered fishing boat with lens caps on and filters in pockets ready to pounce for when the sun became ideal for the photograph. The cloudless sky was cloudless, I usually like a few clouds in my shots to give the scene more atmosphere and interest, however no such luck. I decided to use the setting sun to my advantage and give a warm Mediterranean vibe to the image, even though it was freezing, my fingers were numb and my nose was running quite badly. It had been 20 degrees in the middle of the day but as soon as the sun lost its punch it had plummeted to 7 degrees with a wind chill factor of... a lot.


I usually do not point my camera directly at the sun as flaring becomes an issue can ruin the photograph. However in this case I think it really adds to the image. In my landscape photography I try to convey the atmosphere so that the viewer feels as if they are standing right beside me as I am taking the image.
In this image I used a 1 second exposure to blur the waves a touch to give them a painterly feel which I always look for when shooting rough seas.

This image will feature my 2011 calendar. Order now! Email me info@johnalexander.me.uk if you want one! Last order 5th December.

Take a look at some samples http://www.johnalexander.me.uk/

John

Back to England!

East Sussex Shoot

Dartmoor National Park

An image to appear in my 2011 Calendar.

http://www.johnalexander.me.uk/2011-Calendar.html

After narrowly avoiding some suicidal sheep, driving on the meandering roads near Postbridge in Dartmoor National Park, I parked up and began my walk to the top of the Tor.
I have been up this Tor three times in the past and still have not learnt that loafers with holes in the toes are not the shoes for the job. There is no path as such up to the Tor, only what seems to be a ankle deep floodplain to wade through, complete with an alarming array of different types of faeces to step in. I successfully stepped in all types available.
After I squelched through the marshland surrounding the Tor I arrived at the top. These outcrops of granite are scattered all over Dartmoor, each presenting a dominating panorama over the barren autumnal landscape.
Tripod, Camera, Remote-release and a 0.9 + 0.6 graduated filter in order to balance the brightness of the foreground with that of the sky, and I was ready. Your compact camera or a SLR without a graduated filter will expose for the sky or the foreground giving you either a well exposed foreground and a white sky or a great sky and black foreground, to stop this happening get a graduated filter! On this occasion I used two graduated filters to darken the sky down sufficiently to match the brightness of the foreground sky. Boring bit over!

I took this shot with a 10 second exposure which gave a little movement in the clouds. The subtle orange hue of the setting sun over the west horizon made it all worthwhile.

The Cobb - Lyme Regis

There was an almost deafening whistling sound as the south-westerly wind howled through the masts of the moored boats to my right. The waves crashed with a loud bass note as they made contact with the old harbour wall, followed by the glistening sound of the sea spray as it attempted to demolish any camera equipment that got in its way.













After a few long exposures looking east towards the Dorset border, I gave up hope of there being any other colour than the cool blue light of dusk, as the sun began to dip below the horizon. I turned around and decided to take a shot of The Cobb towards the un-impressive sunset in the distance. In a matter of seconds the sky turned from cool blue to a fire- like red and illuminated the entire landscape like a red flare on the battlefield. The walkers around me just stopped and stared in awe at what they were seeing, so blown away in fact they decided to gaze gormlessly up at the sky directly in front of my camera. I did not intend to miss this moment as I probably would have given up photography then and there and I guided the gormless old couple behind my camera and began taking the shot.










I had to change lenses and filters twice as the sea spray covered my first lens, I wasn't going to miss this shot!
After taking the shot, the preview screen from my camera illuminated the people's faces who huddled behind my tripod and all we could say was....Wow!

P.S There has been no computer manipulation in this shot.... I promise!

Autumn Colours in Dartmoor

River Dart - Dartmoor National Park

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WILD PONIES OF DARTMOOR

There are wild ponies in Dartmoor, however this was not one of them.

I commando crawled up to this pony as if stalking a deer, but instead of the crosshairs fixed onto its heart, my focus-point was tracked in between its eyes like a hunter poised for the perfect time to attack. However, unlike a hunter I looked for the striking shadows and best directional light to show off the subject. On this occasion the hunter became the hunted.

He ate his way closer and closer until my vision became dominated by a set of nasal passages. In my attempt to be get the shot I kept my finger on the shutter. Unknown to me this particular vegetarian also dabbles as a carnivore, I know this because he sunk his teeth into the back of my arm. It hurt like hell, and I ran away before the rest of his mates chose the same lifestyle choice.
When I got into the safety of the car, against which the other ponies were rubbing their various body parts, I checked my camera and got the dramatic scene I had hoped for and only a complete set of dental impressions on the back of my arm for my troubles.

JOHN ALEXANDER WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

FINISHED MY NEW WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE!

http://www.jeaphotography.co.uk/

A DAY IN THE SMOKE - LONDON PHOTOGRAPHY

"After hitting a small child and her mother with my tripod, I came to conclusion that London isn't made for a photographer".

The Tube/Underground/Subway

The empty train stopped at Oxford Circus. There, every working man and woman in London clambered onto the train shoving as many people as possible. Within the waves of pushes, I managed to turn around and inadvertently hit both the mother and her once beautiful daughter in the face with the head of my tripod. I felt terrible at first and apologised profusely, but was shortly comforted by the extended space I gained as fellow Tube go-ers backed away not wanting their eyes to be impaled by a Manfrotto Swivel Head Tripod.

After an uncomfortable few stops for both the inflicted and myself I headed towards Embankment to shoot The Houses of Parliament. You may think this as a straight forward shot, but the "Tripod Police" arrive as soon as your tripod is mounted up, telling you to kindly bugger off, as they claim it can be used as a weapon of some sort? In the past I have ridiculed them at such an idea but after today's Tube incident I thought it was fairly close to the mark.

So...I set-up under a bridge out of the way of the tripod police and positioned myself so the entrance of the tunnel would frame The Houses of Parliament in the background. After some waiting for a clean picture without a gormless tourist in the photograph, I decided to use them to my advantage. I waited until some cyclists came into my picture and used a 1/2 second shutter speed to give the photograph some movement.





St. Pauls and the Millennium bridge

It had rained all day. One speck of rain on the lens can ruin an entire photograph. I set up on the "beach" of the Thames and with a little help from my friend James Hodgson and a rusty, diseased ridden umbrella found in the "surf" we managed to get a rain-free image.






Two more images of the day

Game-shooting Photography, Pheasant-Shooting Photography, Rural Sport Photography by John Alexander Photography www.jeaphotography.co.uk

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT TO JOHN ALEXANDER PHOTOGRAPHY 


John Alexander Rural Shoot photography is the fashion!

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I photograph unobtrusively and take great action shots of you and your colleagues/friends.

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