Sleepy Moggies, Snails, and Shootin' Nazis at Tutbury Castle

It's been a busy weekend with the camera, with a couple of small unplanned shoots on Saturday and a trip to an outdoor event on Sunday.  Saturday's impromptu shoots occurred during the hot weather as Yol and I tackled the garden, and the cats sought out places to hide, sleep and keep cool!

During the clearing out of the rocks from the garden (long story, suffice to say that I think we had lazy builders when it came to getting rid of rubble when the house was built) we uncovered some snails who'd been setting up home (well, mobile home) in a wet trug full of slab parts.  So, when they were set free to roam very slowly in the grass, I grabbed my camera and +4 magnifier adaptor, and got this shot:

Sunday saw the main photography action of the weekend, with a trip to Tutbury Castle with Yolanda.  The castle was hosting a 1940s themed weekend,  and so we loaded the camera into the car and off we went!

The population of the castle that day were really getting into the swing of things, plenty of people in 1940s costume and military uniforms, with vehicles and tents pitched up on the castle's lawn.  Before we'd even entered the grounds we were being watched from the castle walls by re-enactors in German military uniforms:

We also bumped into friends and fellow snappers Glyn and Claire Wade, who'd also chosen to visit Tutbury Castle and document the day's events, and so for various parts of the day we were shooting people mob-handed!

The castle itself consists of three sections of ruins, two of which are still accessible and can be climbed, and a newer section called the Great Hall.  All of the sections are somewhat photogenic!:

The main attractions of the day though weren't the venue itself, but the people in the various uniforms and costumes of the era.  Whether re-enactors or veterans, the military influence was everywhere, from the Gatehouse to the Castle. All of them were willing to stop for a photo, a real blessing for a portrait photographer:

The highlight of the day's proceedings was undoubtedly the battle re-enactment, with the German forces holding the castle and the Allies attacking across the grass.  A full safety briefing was given to the crowd beforehand, and then it was all kicked off with a bang!

The full set of photos from the day can be seen here on Flickr: 1940s Weekend at Tutbury Castle

Thanks for reading!

Transmitters, Speedway, and a Day in Manchester

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, not least because my laptop is away for repair so all of my photo editing has had to be done on my computer at work. That's not the end of the world, granted, but it does make you appreciate your saved settings in Photoshop a lot more! Anyway, to business...

You know how you have ideas for shoots floating around in your head, but you never quite get around to them?  On a rare sunny Saturday in Stoke a couple of weeks ago, I found myself with a spare hour, so I decided to go and shoot a location that I'd been wanting to shoot for a long time, but never got around to.  The idea was to shoot something that you wouldn't normally consider to be a photogenic location, something that some people may even consider to be a bit of an eyesore, but something that I feel has a strange kind of beauty to it.  The location itself is less than a mile from my house; the Fenton Transmitter.

The Fenton Transmitter is the local signal relay station for television and radio, and in recent years the two masts that stand out on the landscape have been joined by various communication dish arrays.  The compound itself is secured, but there's access to the outside of the compound, and a tallish photographer like myself can peek over the perimeter fence!

For me, the shoot is about seeing the beauty in what we see every day, something functional that has an unconventional beauty to it.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes!

The set of photos from the Fenton Transmitter can be seen on Flick here: Fenton Transmitter photo set.

The day after shooting the Fenton Transmitter, I took the opportunity to do another shoot that I'd been thinking about for some time but never got around to doing:  covering a speedway event.  I travelled along to Loomer Road to photograph the race meet between Stoke Potters and Scunthorpe Saints, and with the 'relaxed' approach to photography at Loomer Road I pretty much had the run of the place when it came to choosing shooting positions.  The only place I didn't venture into was the pit area, which was out of bounds to everyone except the racers and their crews.

For a first attempt at shooting a motorsport, I was fairly happy with how the shots turned out.  Shooting at a higher ISO meant that I was able to use a faster shutter speed but this did give me a noise issue (especially with the laptop being away for repair!)  However, for some races we were graced by the presence of the sun, so a lower ISO was possible for some shots.

Shooting a sporting event is always a challenge, especially when you try to get the extra elements which make the shoot more 'human' - shots of the characters and people that take part in the event.  When your subjects are all wearing crash helmets it can be hard to get shots which have that little bit of personality in them, so sometimes you have to look away from the action to get the shots that you want:

The full set of shots from the race can be seen on Flickr here: Stoke Potters v Scunthorpe Saints Speedway photo set

This past Sunday saw the Great Manchester Run and the Great City Games both taking place in the heart of Manchester.  I was taking part in the Run, but as my group wasn't scheduled to go until lunchtime I was able to get out on the streets and get some photos of the earlier athletes getting ready to run.

The atmosphere of the Run was excellent, and for my own part, I finished the 10k course in 57 minutes and 16 seconds!  Yol took this shot back at the hotel afterwards:

The full set from the Great Manchester Run can be seen on Flickr here: Great Manchester Run 2012

After the Run, I went back out onto the streets to photograph the Great Manchester Games, an international athletics event that takes part on Deansgate and in Albert Square.  Deansgate was the staging point for the race events, with a custom built four lane running track set up for the day:

The crowds were pretty full, so finding a vantage point to shoot from was very tricky.  Shooting over people's heads is always risky, as people tend to move!  But I was still able to get a few shots from the earlier and later events:

In between the earlier and later events, I'd decided that I'd try my luck round in Albert Square for the pole vault competition, and found myself definitely in luck with a great vantage point!  I was able to get myself onto the end of a bench, a mere few metres away from the landing mat, and was able to shoot the action from fairly close up.  Some of the best shots came from the vault-off between Great Britain's Holly Bleasdale and Germany's Lisa Ryzih, with Ryzih claiming the gold.

The full set from the Great City Games can be seen on Flickr here:  Great City Games 2012 photo set

At the moment I'm working on three photo shoot ideas that are being devised and developed, and I'm very excited at the prospect of working with one of my favourite photo buddies, Lauren Freeman.  Watch this space!

Cheers all!