RAF Cosford

 

The Christmas hols saw a visit to RAF Cosford, and the rather wonderful museum.  I (Ben) have been visiting this museum since early childhood, and the relatively recent opening of the Cold War hangar, with its imaginatively-arranged exhibits, has drawn me back repeatedly for photography trips.  Lots of unusual angles to be found for shots, and a good playground for doing more experimental images...

 

 

 

 

OK so the above is a fairly straightforward shot, mainly because we both really, really want this magnificent Land Rover...

 

 

...and we couldn't resist a shot of the full-size model kit spitfire, and fake James May, from the "Toy Stories" programme a few winters back...

 

 

 

And as we left, the most magnificent sunset (we actually got to see a few of these over these days, as the weather obligingly went very cold, dry, and clear).

 

 

Next time, the Severn Valley Railway...

Snow and Ice

 

The Christmas pictures round-up continues... within hours of us arriving in the midlands, the threatened snowfall started, which was rather nice as our two year old has never seen snow before, and thus became somewhat giddy.

 

 

After a couple of days the grey, grim weather turned into exceptionally cold weather, and so we took the opportunity to get a few ice/frost shots out in the garden one chilly morning...

 

 

Next time, a visit to RAF Cosford...

 

Christmas holidays, part one; the tree

 

As promised, first of the updates from the Christmas period, on the distinctively un-festive 8th of Jan.  Ah well, at least none of the other posts from the holiday are quite so Christmassy...

 

 

Anyway, after we'd got the tree decorated and surrounded by pressies, we thought we ought to photograph it, and got the camera in out of the car.  Unfortunately the weather outside was frightful, as the song goes, and the lens immediately misted up when bought into the furnace-like heat of our living room.  Never one to waste an opportunity, we decided to shoot some pics with the slightly cheesy, naturally-occurring soft focus effect...

 

 

After a few shots, it was time to start playing with some long-exposure images.

 

 

OK, so not a proper shoot, but we like getting these sorts of abstract images.

 

 

Next up, snow and ice...

So that was 2014 then...

 

Another long delay without any postings, due to a number of factors; Christmas, paid work, and the inevitable hell of the HMRC Self Assessment (surely the bane of any freelance creative types).  Still, it seems the fashion for the first blog of the year, for any blogger, to be a roundup of the events of the last year, so we shall prove no exception.

 

 

2014 started with a last, desperate, burst of energy to get shots for the "Home is..." project completed, with recce visits to some truly 'delightful' potential locations, such as the motorway flyover in the West Midlands, above.  We did get in a few proper shoots for the project though, including a mornings free run of a station in Shropshire. 

 

 

We were also invited to enter a piece of Amy's work in the sculpture trail at Rydal Hall in the Lakes, which provided an opportunity to display artwork in a more experimental way to which we would usually do.

 

 

Spring saw the last 'major' shoot of the "Home is..." project, another days free-run of a location, in Yorkshire.

 

 

 

Miniatures-wise, it was intended to be year of experimental shoots, trying techniques which would allow in-camera methods of avoiding using editing software, or allow the shooting of images it would be impractical to do in real life.  The one major project that Ben managed to get a start on was the one above, with more information about it here: http://ribbonartandphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/project-welsh-pony-day-and-night-shoots.html and also on the separate blog, here: http://www.bensmodel-makingworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/welsh-pony-project-finally-ready-to.html 

 

The only other major miniatures shoot planned was an extension of the above, a piece of fanart using multiple models and experimental camera techniques, in a an attempt to produce a dynamic image without recourse to Photoshop (there is more on Bens somewhat moribund model-making blog, here: http://www.bensmodel-makingworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/project-thunderbolt-shooting-pic.html ).  Unfortunately, other events rather scuppered this shoot.

We managed to get in a brief shoot with the Tour de France which passed the end of the road too...

There wasn't too much in the way of railway shots this year; we managed to attend both gala events on the Keighley and Worth Valley, and also fleeting visits to Wales.  A few pictures were published in online magazines, but nothing in the printed press in 2014, not surprising given how little we were shooting between us.

 

 

Of course the main event for us this year, in a distinctly non-photography way, was that we became foster carers in the Spring.  Obviously we cannot go into a great deal of detail about it, but it happened at short notice, and it has meant a major change to our lifestyles. It is, alongside the paid employment which helps support this photography work, the main thing which impacts on shoots.  Various projects have been cancelled or postponed due to time constraints and space/storage issues, and we've taken on no commissioned shoots or weddings in 2014 due to how impractical it is to carry out said shoots whilst looking after three young children.

 

The odd thing is though that we anticipated that it would stop us doing a lot of photography, but the problem is, if anything, quite the opposite with regards to more casual landscape shoots.  We actually visited more places and events to do pictures at during the second half of '14 than would have been the case before, the problem though is finding time in the evenings to edit the shoots (experience showing that trying to do any complex task whilst looking after a 2 year old is quite impossible, more so when the older two have a fascination with computers). 

 

 

Autumn saw the successful exhibition of the long-running "Home is..." project.  After a mad last-minute dash to get it on the walls, with various technical problems almost sinking the exhibition, it went up.  In a very real sense it marked the culmination of nearly a decades on-off work, from Amy's initial concept shoot back at University.  Really though, it felt strange and a little melancholy to bring to an end a body of work which had occupied us pretty much continually for 18 months.  Its possible we might do some more shoots for it for another possible show, but obviously with our changed personal circumstances (and major changes with Bens working pattern in 2015) popping out to do a shoot at the drop of a hat is tricky to say the least. 

 

 

 

So where now?

 

Work and personal lives have impacted the photography work, and caused some changes.  Less projects with miniatures, and less looking for commissions.  Neither of us are thinking about looking for another big show to participate in, at least for a little while, and though the income is good, we've both agreed weddings are just that bit too stressful.  However, we've both found our work shifting towards a more fine-art stance, which is infinitely more enjoyable.  Photography has always been a form of escapism for us, so it makes sense to keep it as a safety valve.

 

Both folio sites badly need updating or replacing, when we find the time, and recent photography shoots have shown us that we really need to start saving for a new camera (this year has seen the demise of our two once-trusty University era SLR cameras, one through mechanical failure, the other simply through the fact it cannot produce good enough quality images nowadays).

 

Hopefully over the next few days we'll start posting shots taken over our Christmas break, and we ought to get chance to do a few more shoots.  In any case, we'll try and update a bit more regularly on here...

A trip to Blackpool

 

A bit of a hectic month, November... still, better late than never, an update featuring a combined photography trip and family visit to Blackpool.  We like doing abstract shoots during the illuminations, but didn't get chance last year.  We arrived just before sunset, and got a few shoots around Fleetwood, then it was down to Bispham to get a tram to pleasure beach.

 

 

It was our first ride on the nice new trams, which admittedly lack the character of the older ones, but are quicker and rather more comfortable.

 

 

We got off at Pleasure Beach, and started a stroll along the promenade.  Amy was mainly taking some new shots for her long-running "Light Trails" project, meanwhile I was mainly taking shots of the trams passing.  We had three cameras with us, the trusty D90, the older D70, and the Cannon 350.  The Cannon though packed-in within minutes due to a persistent lens fault which needs mending.  The D70 likewise was unable to cope and was sidelined in favour of sharing the D90... we really need to upgrade our kit for location shoots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was nice to see a couple of the older trams still in service on heritage tours.

 

 

 

We ended up playing with the settings a bit, and just shooting some very experimental images.

 

 

 

It was a good night, and we both got a load of shots we were happy with.  It also means Amy can update her "Light Trails" body of work with some better-quality versions of images she'd shot previously.  All in all, a successful trip.