Night Photography at Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds Ok, we’re really lucky to have a ruined abbey right on the edge of our city – and it’s got lots of free parking! So each year I take a new group of photographers down there to light it up with powerful torches and sparks. Here’s what we got up to this year – this is Feb 2018. The group really enjoyed Light Graffiti – that’s drawing things with torches if you keep moving your body doesn’t appear in the photo, just the trace…
Tag: leeds
Granary Wharf and Wellington Street in Leeds Just a quick post with some shots from the train station/canal area of Leeds. Again these were all taken in the early days of testing the Tilt Shift lens we invested in for the architecture photography business. There is so much you can do with these lenses, it’s a game changer. The main thing with this set is that it’s the first time we’ve shot these things perfectly vertically. Usually, it can’t be done easily with a normal lens. So there they are….…
What is Tilt Shift? If you don’t know what a Tilt Shift lens is, this chap explains it well. So take a look at this first if you’re interested. South Leeds Architecture There are some interesting new buildings in the south of Leeds these days – this first one is the Leeds College of buildings, created by Fuse Architects. For this shot I went to the middle of the road island ans use the 17mm tillt shift lens. I took 3 photos – one with the lens shifted up, one in the…
New Season – New Food Photography With summer arriving, the menus at Radisson in Leeds change – so they needed new Food Photography to promote it. I was invited down to work with the new chef and Tom, the mixologist, to create a whole set. The Food The Fire Lake vibe is on the rustic edge, so we use some old wood and an old table for the Food Photography presentation. It gives that darker look too – so the bright, summer colours stand out. The light setup is pretty…
Low Light Photography for Beginners 2015’s summer looks to be ebbing away – certainly in the evenings as it’s dark by 8PM now! So last night we started our summer-winter transition and showed a group how to shoot at night. What we did… Kicking off at Clarence Dock, or New Dock Leeds, as the re-brand calls it, we created:- dusk shots of the old docks. night shots of the docks – 30 second exposures, to smooth the water a bit of light painting at Knightsway bridge car light trails. Here…
Clarence Dock or New Dock Leeds? I’ve always referred to it as Clarence Dock, but the area was rebranded “New Dock Leeds” in 2012 according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Dock_(Leeds)). Either way, the blend of architecture and water makes for a great place to photograph – even on dull days, dusk photos look great once the lights come on. New Dock Leeds through a Sigma 12-24mm Lens The purpose of this shoot was to try out a Sigma 12-14mm lens – I’ve shot with the Canon 17-40 dozens of times, would the…
Leeds Shopping – Knightsbridge of the North? Leeds does seem to have its fair share of shops. Posh shops. Harvey Nichols. Designer stuff. I like the shop in the Victoria Quarter with Panerai watches best – often found lusting after the PAM 372, a huge watch which looks just about perfect on my wrist… shame it’s £6000. 20mm HDR So trialling my trusty new 20mm prime lens, I took the tripod around Briggate and the shopping area – weird light meant HDR, just to eek out a bit more detail…
7 HDR Photos of Leeds – Swinegate & Calls In Leeds, where the canal and Aire merge, there’s The Calls and Swinegate. Streets on the inner ring road with some fantastic brick buildings to photograph, especially great for HDR as you can pull lots of detail out of those walls. Maybe not the obvious place to go shooting! Along with the Brick, there are some new buildings going up down there – nice to see cranes back in Leeds, recession finally over ? A fantastic sign – both for the economy…
Flash Bender Accessories – New Toys! Always on the look out for new “light modifiers” of “flash accessories” to advance my off camera flash photography – I’d seen these flash benders around before, so thought I’d take the plunge and get a couple. I took them up to Temple Newsham with trombonist Chris Colbran and had a look at what they can do. What are they? First off, here’s Chris altering one – you can see that they strap on to the front of the flash with velcro and have a pretty…
Check out the amazing voice…. https://soundcloud.com/clairecolbran Had a fun shoot with Claire Colbran, jazz singer in these 2 bands, backing singer in the Chicago Blues Brothers and rather excellent on trombone too… a Colbran family thing apparently! The Photography Bit So we had 3 lights – 2 behind at 45 degrees, one at the front at about 20 degrees. Rears were un-gelled with shoot through brollies, front was 1/2 CTO on a softbox. Most shots were taken with the Canon 17-40 F4 L & 5D Mark 2 -with the occasional 70-200mm shot.…