Snow, the moon, and the usual ice...

One of the dominant topics in the UK for the last month has been the weather.  The arrival of snow seems to paralyse this nation - we're never ready for it, we can't cope with it, and we like to grumble about it as much as possible.  The cul-de-sac that we live on is located on a slope, so even the smallest hint of wintery weather can have a big impact on the residents.  Luckily, the residents in our cul-de-sac are pretty public-spirited when it comes to crappy weather, which is why I've now got many more hours of snow-shovelling experience under my belt!

Having the snow on the ground can present some great photo opportunities, but only if the weather plays ball.  We've all seen some beautiful snowscapes, with virgin snow shining brightly under a blue sky.  This doesn't happen in Stoke On Trent.  Overcast skies and dirty snow are the norm here when it comes to winter!  But there are a couple of residents who enjoy running around in the snow - Lucy and Lola, who seem to relish in exploring their winter wonderland.  Or at least they do until they get bored and trudge back inside to the warm!

Regular readers will know that I have a fascination with photographing the moon.  Before Christmas I picked up a Tamron 500mm f8 reflector mirror lens, something that I've had no experience of before, and I thought I'd try it out with a moonshot.  On the plus side, the 500mm lens gives a larger image of the moon, which is a definite bonus.  However, the notion that the lens needs an adaptor to fit onto my Nikon D90 means that no matter how sharply I set the manual focus, it'll never be as sharp as a dedicated Nikon lens.

I'm still pretty pleased with the results I can get from it, and maybe there's something in my method that I could adjust to get better results, but compare the above shot to this one that I took with a Nikon 70-300mm lens on the same camera:

One day I'll take the perfect moonshot, but until then....


The hockey season continues on throughout the winter months, what with it being a winter sport.  So as per usual I've been pointing my lens at the action and hoping to capture some moments worth capturing.  Yolanda, Lauren and myself are getting more coverage these days, with a new avenue having recently opened up - the Manchester Evening News are carrying match reports in their print edition, so we've managed to get our photos in print.  Which is nice!

Shooting the hockey is still as enjoyable as ever, and so long as it remains enjoyable then I'll carry on doing it!

Thanks for reading!

Gardens, a church, The Duke, the night sky, and Nazis....

Last weekend Yol and I took a trip to Bridgemere Gardens to have a look around a wedding fair, and whilst we were there we had a chance to take a wander around the gardens there, enjoying the sun and getting a breath of fresh air. The Gardens are a peaceful place of greenery, with a variety of different 'garden themes' on display, and they're a great place to get the camera out!





The journey back from Bridgemere passes through the village of Woore, and it's there that we spotted a church that looked a little out of place, but in an eye-catching way. Saint Leonard's Church is, to me, very reminiscent of the churches of New England that we saw on our trip over there in 2010, so much so that I just had to pull over and get a shot!



The journey back also gave me the opportunity to track down and shoot a local landmark, The Duke of Sutherland. Well, not the Duke himself, the statue of him. Tracking it down is surprisingly tricky especially considering that it doesn't tend to move around anywhere, what with it being a statue. It's visible for several miles around Stoke, perched on top of a hill near Trentham, and to find the pathway up to it required a little scouting around on Google Maps. The walk up to it is a sod, no two ways about it, but it's worth it when you get there!





The set of photos from the day's trip can be seen on Flickr here: Bridgemere, Woore and The Duke

Regular readers will know that I'm still trying to get some decent shots of the night sky, but that finding a place to shoot from that doesn't suffer from light pollution is a problem. I took some advice from a member of a photo group on Facebook, and tried out a shooting spot near the village of Thorncliffe in Staffordshire, and took the opportunity to shoot the moon, the stars, and the light trails from passing cars:





I'm still not 100% happy with the stars photos, but one day...

The set of shots from near Thorncliffe can be seen on Flickr here: Thorncliffe

On Monday I found myself back on set once again, this time on director Jay Guy's shoot for the film "The Path". The shoot was taking place at Bantock House in Wolverhampton, a small historic building that was doubling for the home of a wealthy German SS officer in World War Two, and the shoot gave me the opportunity to shoot not only behind-the-scenes shots but also character portraits. Of the behind the scenes shots, I was lucky to have been working with a great cast and a very lively, character-laden crew:






Shooting the character portraits was an interesting challenge too, it was like shooting regular portraits but with the actors in full costume and remaining in character. Even though it was a sunny day, I decided to shoot in the shade in order to get more even lighting, and it seemed to pay off!:







The experience of shooting on the day was incredible, a fun but professional shoot with a great bunch of people! The full set of photos can be seen on Flickr here: "The Path"

Cheers for reading!