John Alexander Wildlife Photography

I have realised today why I cannot be a wildlife photographer. Firstly I do not own a lens that is heavier than I am, secondly I seem to lack any patience at all with wildlife and thirdly my knowledge does not exceed that of David Attenborough's documentaries. I have done some wildlife photography in my time, certain child portraits spring to mind, but unlike people (most people) you can usually direct them to achieve the photo you envisage. Tell a damselfly to do a 'looking into the distance pose' and you will find that it will turn the opposite way round and fumble into the undergrowth. This annoys me.

It had just been raining and I dressed appropriately for the task in hand - jeans with a hole in the knee, loafers with a hole in the toe and a t-shirt...with a hole in. I saw a damselfly hovering around the stems of grass and I thought I would find out if I was any good at wildlife photography. 6-7 minutes later I was getting pretty angry and quickly came to the conclusion it was impossible and it couldn't be done. The wind blew the alien-like insect in and out of my viewfinder and was practically impossible to focus on its eye.

I put my macro lens into manual focus, and waited for the dulls in the wind in order to take the shot. Eventually I managed to get these shots when it fell further down the stem where less wind affected it.

I would love to know what you think, if you like them I may consider doing more, however I may upgrade to some proper animals which don't blew in the wind.

John

John Alexander Theatre Photography

I had the pleasure of shooting Atlas Theatre's production called 'The House of Cards' a few days ago. I had a really great time and I think we got some great results to put into their portfolio.

Photography-wise it was hugely difficult and very challenging. I was shooting around 1/30 of a second and as you will see in the photos there was not much light to play with. I had to use my slow-shutter technique whereby I use various parts of my body to act as a tripod to achieve an acceptably sharp shot- adopting a lot of them from my rifle shooting days.

Even with these 'Heath Robinson' techniques it was very difficult to get a sharp shot. Even if I could manage to have zero movement when taking the photograph, the movement of the actors within that 1/30 of a second would blur the shot. Therefore I had to be very particular about the timing of my shots to capture the action, expressions and atmosphere but when they were more static.

Why not Flash? - It wouldn't have been feasible to use flash as it would compromise the dark atmosphere created by the stage-lighting. Therefore I was using the very VERY low ambient light available at the scene.

Thanks to my 50mm f1.4 and my 85mm f1.8 lenses I was able to shoot at these shutter-speeds otherwise I really don't know what I would have done. The only other option would have been a tripod which would have been too cumbersome and slow.

I hope you think we have been successful and got some shots that capture the dark atmosphere of the play.

Enjoy the shots!