When I last blogged Alfie was just learning to smile, and that if he lifted his legs up he would be able to flop on to his side. Fast forward a few months and he is now busy trying to co-ordinate his movements into a proper crawl, aswell as having mastered the art of sitting up (if only for a minute at the moment).  He has also become a lot more vocal and seems to practicing ahead of his first word. Some of his gurgles at the moment sound disturbingly like “mama” too, despite all my hours of “dada” training.

Day 64.  A summery baby photo with his first shades which he promptly tried to remove from his head probably trying to work out why everything had all suddenly gone dark.

Day 73.  Alfie never did like prams, he always wanted to see what was going on, whether that was sitting in a pushchair or a view from my shoulder he has always been curious and inquisitive, forever exploring his surroundings and looking for new things to experience.

This particular pram belonged to Alfie’s mum and her dolls. Briefly rescued from the loft along with the doll for this shot it had not fared too well in the years it was away. Still it fits Alfie’s emotion perfectly in this instance.

Day 107.

Alfie is forever exploring now only content to be still for a short while before looking for something to entertain him. Unless he sees something that will keep his interest, in this case a bright little softbox caught his eye.

Day 121.

Something a little more mad today,  several pictures of Alfie’s various emotions that day edited and pasted onto some vegetables, what could be more normal? This pic always makes me smile.

Day 135.

A trip to Nan’s today, and Alfie perfects his new circus skills with a fantastic balancing act. This was a pain to edit, with lots of separate layers to keep track of and all the shots taken handheld which made stitching the images together a nightmare. It was easier to light with a softbox to the right and a flash bounced off the wall to the left to give the natural light a helping hand.

Day 162.

Alfie has some new shoes. Lovely handmade shoes from Dee Morgan at S.P.A.C.E in Ellesmere and he seems to like them and is very content to bounce around in them. I love these sort of pictures, the ones that arent taken too often but record the little details you would otherwise miss.

Day 181.

Alfie is turning into a big baby now, more confident in everything he does he is rapidly finding out how to move and will soon be scurrying around on all fours. He has definitely found his feet and is busy exploring what they do.

Day 183.

6 Months today! This is the halfway point while I document Alfie’s first year and looking back he has changed so much but he still is and always will be the tiny fragile little bundle that I held for the first time on April 8th 2010.

The full set of Alfie’s pictures can be found here with more coming for another busy 6 months.

Earlier Baby 365 posts are here:   Part 2 Part 1

Billy lives in a house on the edge of the village which from the outside may be described as quaint, but gives little clue to the 1950s shrine hidden inside.

Billy inside his front room which in contrast to the rest of the house was quite dark . He commented that he had taken several skulls down so they did not scare the paper’s audience.

Not quite a 50″ screen but the TV shows a lot more character than a normal set.

Walking into the kitchen is quite a shock as you are assailed by an array of bright primary colours and a collection of period artifacts including toys, magazines and a variety of other details waiting for you to discover them.

And it is not just the house that suprises you, heading outside you are presented with more madness, including a garage filled with old petrol pumps, signs and other items.

Billy himself commented that he understands that people can be taken back by his home but for him it is just his normal environment and the usual for him.

There is nothing in a press photographers day that can kill interest in a job quicker than a large group of people who all “deserve” their face in print, unless it also involves a cheque and people looking uncomfortable in suits but then we are really in the realms of grin and grab photography.

The reason behind this is that groups generally just look bad in newsprint, which to be fair is the equivalent of printing on toilet paper and cheepo value toilet paper at that. People are not visible due to being so small and the composition often ends up being boring to say the least as a large group often, but not always implies something very dull to report on. Besides long lines of people who are not willing to do anything but stand there do not make good photos.

My definition of a large group is 5 upwards. below that it is easier to move people and pose them effectively, above and you tend to run into problems with time space and often the mentality of the group.

There are exceptions however, and while this image still runs into a few problems with the size of the reproduction, it maintains enough interest throughout the picture to remain appealing.

The background behind the image was Norton in Hales, a village in North Shropshire being chosen to represent the Midlands in the Britain in Bloom competition. Upon arriving I was greeted with 8 people and a somewhat familiar sinking feeling. I was told that “the reporter” had suggested using a flowerbed they had planted in the churchyard, “yes but the reporter often has the photographic sense of a blind turtle so we shall see”.  I left to look at this flowerbed  (which was indeed a bit rubbish) partly to scout out my immediate location, and partly to stall for a little extra time in which to assess my next course of action.

Large groups can often be slimmed down by asking who actually wants to be in the photo, because if you dont want to be there I dont want you clogging up my frame and looking grumpy but you can still help by holding a light and normally be happy that you avoided having to pose. The alternative is to take two photos one boring lineup which is promptly binned or sent as an “alternative” with another shot including just a few people, which is normally the one that will be used.

In this case everyone wanted to be in the picture, but more importantly they all seemed flexible and willing enough to be shunted around for a few minutes.  The backdrop for the image is classic Norton in Hales. It incorperates the centre of the village, flowers to illustrate the story,  the church and a sign proclaiming this to be Shropshires best kept village, all good foundations for a group shot to build on.

Main triangular compositional elements.

When I do shoot a large group like this I will always start small and build the image up in stages. My first move is to ask everyone to move to one side and bring in the first person. This person was the closest to the camera  large in the frame and a cornerstone to build the image on.  This time I brought a seccond body in straight away posed behind the first to start to balance the frame. This seccond person also helps complete the composition involving the couple on the bench who were placed next, creating a triangle from the three of them and linking them and the bench to the rest of the image.

Third to be placed was the man sitting on the rock. Alone he seems rather insignificant in the frame, however he provides a lead in line to the church and completes a triangle involving the man seated near the front and the jumping girl who were placed next. The woman by the sign is in essence on her own. She acts with the sign but is separated from the rest of the photo by it, she does balance the picture though and without her presence the image would appear unbalanced and weighted to the right. Once viewed in its complete form, the picture fans out from the front in a triangle involving all parts of the image, framed by the two signs and leading towards the church and sky in the background.

Compositional layers and lighting.

The image can also be seen as possessing three distinct layers of interest as the eye travels from front to back. First is the front two figures the area where the eye initially falls and important as they need to catch your attention and dictate the path your eye will follow through the image.  The second layer includes the rest of the people and contains the bulk of the detail and interest, with the jumping girl acting as a sort of hot-spot quickly drawing your eye from the front into the centre of the image and allowing it to spread to the other people. The third layer includes the church, sky and signs surrounding the group. Your eye is encouraged to follow the line of the church tower up towards the sky and then back down the signs on the edge round to the front of the image again.

Lighting the image was simple a few flashguns equipped with softboxes were used to lift the left of the image as light was coming from the right. One was used to light the very front section of the image where the eye naturally arrives first, placed on the floor and slightly higher than the ambient light to make the person in the front really stand out, and one further back to fill the shadows on the second layer of the image. A graduated filter was placed on the sky afterwards to add contrast and interest to the third and final layer.  It was also necessary to shoot the image a few times to slightly correct some of the poses and get the jump correct.

From arriving this image took around 30-40 minutes to shoot, however 10-15 minutes of that was scouting and waiting for people to arrive, and a further 5 minutes was packing away. Predictably it was somewhat buried in the middle of the paper but it remains a favourite of mine from my recent work.

Day 35. Alfie enjoyed trying to wriggle off his swing onto a hard floor today. He was however being held by his mum throughout (Photoshop to the rescue here). Light was a little awkward for this shot as Alfie was backlit by a sun behind and to the right of the frame, this was balanced by setting a flash on a stand quite high up and to the left of the camera at 1/2 power.

Day 37. Alfie is getting bigger now, still my little boy though.

Day 38. We have a smiley baby, and no it’s not wind. Maybe he just likes bikes, his granddad certainly does this is one of many he has restored. A challenge to light it was achived by bouncing a flash off a silver reflector to light the scene, then zoom ing another light onto Alfie to make him stand out in a fairly cluttered environment.

Day 40. An attempt to create a complex arrangement of baby related words on the board was foiled by Alfie wriggling when he was put into place. I think he enjoyed destroying the careful arrangement and the noise it made.

Day 44. A visit to grandmas house today, Alfie was fascinated by the flowers and spent some time with his fist wrapped round a bluebell. He seems to like the outdoors and it has a calming influence on him, probably the background noise combined with interesting shapes and lights capturing his interest.

Day45. Another Photoshop aided pic. Despite actually being hung on the washing line Alfie was held up by his mum he didn’t seem too impressed with this and will probably be even less impressed in 18 years time. Again mum helped out with this one by holding him up, and then needing to be removed.

Day 49. hat pictures are cool! So are babies who can hold their head up for pictures, not for long at the moment but it gives us some new options and ideas to keep his photos fresh.

Day 59. Alfie has a proper camera now, much better than his dads too.

Alfie keeps on growing up, now he’s smiling, interacting more and quickly learning how to roll around too. All his pics can be found here

Alfie Taylor was born on April 8th 2010 (pay day) weighing 7lb 4oz. Minutes after this happy occasion he was introduced to his first camera an event which will become a feature of his first year as I attempt to document his first year  with at least one photo a day.

Day one.     11 minutes old.

The first of many pictures little did I know then how demanding, frustrating, fascinating and rewarding this would become.

Alfie’s first days involved sleeping relaxing, eating and crying and of course posing for the camera, I was off work on paternity leave in the early weeks and fresh ideas for pictures were coming in easily. We were also surprised how small he was, after being promised a large baby we were caught unaware when he was small enough to require tiny baby clothing, which required a quick trip out to find some which would fit.

Day 4. Alfie’s feet were always big (takes after his dad) but capturing them at this early age compared to his mum’s hand show in some way how small and fragile he was.

Day 5. Discovering a world full of new shapes and colours.

Day 12. Alfie was given so many lovely clothes from generous well-wishers.

As the days progressed it was fascinating to watch Alfie become more aware of his surroundings, exploring new objects at every opportunity, he also rapidly lost the look of a newborn and became a cute little baby boy with a rapidly developing personality.

Day 15. St Georges day, this picture was also Alfie’s first inclusion in a newspaper: Printed in the Shropshire Star Page 4 23/04/10.

Day 14. Grandad has huge hands, especially when compared to a tiny baby.

Day 22. Sleeping whenever and wherever the opportunity arose (either that of crying) Alfie was introduced to various different “props” in his early life.

After a his first month Alfie’s sleeping habits became different, sleeping less and exploring the world with inquisitive little eyes which were rapidly developing from the blurred eyes he was born with into bright blue eyes. Alfie was often more awake when he was having his photo taken, preferring to sleep less and often in his moses basket rather than in the unusual positions I tended to put him in.

Day 26. Still sleeping on the sofa, his habits were soon to change.

Day 32. Wrapped up after a bath. Alfie loves his bathtime, the warm water splashing over him calms him down after a busy day of sleeping eating and crying.

Day 33. We finally took down the baby cards and found the house looking quite bare without them, Alfie was somewhat larger now and more wriggly than his earlier picture with the clothes and has a tendency to destroy any carefully made set.

The full collection of pictures from Alfie’s first year are here

through this I managed to get a few shots of individuals and smaller groups, focusing on the contrast between summer outfits and the fact that it was very cold and very wet.

The “look where we are” pic. needed for just about every event.

Dressing for all conditions?

Blind optimism or an insistence on liquid sunshine.

Those sort of pictures are really the bread and butter of these sort of events, a little dull maybe but they fill a page. All either natural light or a tiny bit of on camera fill too, almost unheard of for me!

More pleasing to shoot are the bands, it is always nice to jump right in front of everyone and shoot away. The usual rules are first three songs no flash, what this translates to in practice is ” dont use any flash and stay till you are kicked off, usually after the first three songs.” Happily in this case we (myself and one other) were not kicked off so I could shoot to my hearts content, and also focus a little on the crowd, something which often does not receive as much attention as it could.

Shooting the band is really fairly straightforward. Focus on the lead and fire away trying to get a decent expression and nice light taking into consideration any lights which may provide a nice compositional aid.

Same goes for the crowd shots. If you can get a response then great, if not look for interesting characters, people dancing etc. In my case there was a very limited crowd  (i.e almost non existant) as it was very early on in the event.

Blind optimism at work again.

No Flash. Lovely name for a band and a case of rubbing it in for a strobist such as myself

Another of No flash, and a rare shot involving a drummer this time.

The second band up,  Skinny White and the Goods. This shot follows the rule of   “always get two bands it makes it look like you have done more.”

Loads more pics here

Chichen Itza is one of the new 7 wonders of the world, The capital of the Mayan civilisation it is located in the very hot mexican rainforests a fair drive inland from the coast.

Once arriving at the site you are greeted with an entrance that reminded me of a theme park, with gift shops and lots of mexicans selling trinkets, these people are found all through the site selling souvenirs such as cheap jewellry and wood carvings.

The first thing I did was ditch the tour, I had no intention to shuffle round the site like a sheep listening to some bored tour guide with an umberella, I much prefer to experience the site on my own.

1/60sec f22 iso100

This is the sort of image people think of when you say Chichen Itza, although this is actually El Castillo, the temple dedicated to the Mayan God Kukulkan, it is however the largest structure in the place and by far the most impressive.

1/200sec f8 iso100

The rear of the temple, complete with numbered steps.

1/570sec f8 iso100

A shot which shows the scale of the temple.
1/30sec f22 iso100

and finally a shot of one of the other temples and the intricate carving on the stonework.

More pics here

Going into this shot taken at a St Patrick’s Day parade in more detail (more shots here and here)shows the interest in composition along strong lines which I have now undertaken.  The eye is first drawn to eye contact, in this case the centre of the formation, but lingers only for a second as the mind quickly picks up the pattern of faces, and isolates the man and dog as a break in the pattern and a point of interest. Once finding these figures the eye then follows their gaze along the pattern before ending naturally at another break in the pattern, the last figure in the line and the only black face in a sea of white.

Other elements within the shot help define the framing and composition, the tree on the left reinforces the man and dog as the start of the pattern essentially cutting the figures on the left from the frame.  The speaker is positioned at around 1/3 distance from the right (despite how much I hate that concept as a “rule”) and located between the figures,  essentially keeping the rhythm while adding another point of interest, the second tree also follows this theme, it helps create a frame for the image though its main job is to balance the frame which may have been uneven due to te left hand tree. All these aspects contribute to what is actually a rather simple shot, one of several similar images taken over the course of five minutes.

Another example of this style of composition from a shoot taken last year (other shots here and here)   This shot was used in part of a talk on my photography and photographic style at St Leonards Camera Club in Stafford.  A member of the club asked why I chose to have the figure facing right to left instead of the other way round which would be the more common orientation.  Various suggestions were put forward as to why this was the case, but as I work fairly fast and loose with my composition, not relying on rules but on what feels natural at the time I was unable to provide a solid reason on the spot.

Having been asked this raised my curiosity somewhat and I set about having a closer look at the  image and its structure. The first thing noticable about this image is the black and white format.  This was deliberately chosen to increase the ambiguity of the location of the image further highlighted by a shallow depth of field, I wanted the image to look like it could have been taken anywhere in the world as such losing any distinguishing colours or features was important.

The picture I was looking for was one of the subject looking towards a morning sun (in this case provided by a flash bounced off a reflector) therefore the environment was important to the shot, adding  an extra layer of interest. The wide format is also needed  to give an indication of where the subject is looking, it is expected that the subject of a photograph will look at the camera, having them looking out of the frame demands an indication of where the subject is looking, or what they are looking at otherwise the picture may become unbalanced.

In this instance i had a picture of a man in an environment in which I wanted an indication of space and a hint of where he was looking. When you look at a picture like this you are inclined to read it left to right like a page in a book. In this case the eye will naturally go straight to the subject then follow his gaze to the edge of the frame, before finally scrolling back across to the subject. If the picture was flipped so the subject was looking left to right, you gaze would naturally follow his out of the frame, this is not always a bad thing but it does also have the effect of increasing the importance of the background, something which I wanted to avoid as it is simply just a lot of empty space, something that is needed but only something to hint at but not draw attention to.

I wanted the opposite effect from this picture, one of a normally very happy little toddler looking a little uncertain. It was taken in a fairly bright room but a combination of short exporures and high apeture allowed me to kill the natural light and rely on off camera flash.

The image highlights the effect given by placing negative space to the right of the subject and the way its importance is increased in comparison to the previous shot.

for more images, including several taken along the theme of a strong linear composition click here

Why a griffin? because its bigger and we can kill more people! Those were the words of RAF Shawbury’s press officer as we drove out of Shrewsbury towards  a field which was being used as the site of a simulated helicopter crash designed as a training excercise involving all emergency services, and the RAF’s own emergency response crews.

From my point of view it was an enjoyable day out taking the sort of pictures you are not normally able to get, especially as during these sort of incidents you are generally  kept on a fairly tight leash.

The RAF crews were first on the scene, this would not normally be the case, but in this excercise each service would have their responses assessed separately and in this case  the RAF crews were chosen to be the first responders and therefore be assessed first.

On arrival crews found the crashed helicopter was actually a car with bits of helicopter attached and strewn around (debris from an actual crash).  Crews soon got to work assessing the condition of the casualties, and I started getting in and picking up some close up shots which would be difficult to obtain normally.

As the event moved on  my focus shifted from the close up action shots to trying to get some images which represented the emotion of the day, I also switched lenses  for many of the images from a wide lens to a much longer one to isolate parts of the scene, these images were possible because I had less time pressure to worry about (not having to send regular updates helped a lot  here).

For more pictures like this have a look here

This is potentially a pain as it not only limits the range of pictures I take, but the wide lens has become my default lens for most jobs and losing this feels a little like losing an arm. There is a silver lining however, as I have a feeling that I have been overusing this option for some time and hope that in losing this lens I will start to become more creative in the pictures I am taking.

The pictures I have been taking using this lens have often seemed to follow the theme of placing an object in the foreground to draw interest, following this through to the main subject and then (hopefully) keeping a decent background.

This is a good example of a shot I will often take using a wide angle lens. It is composed to draw your eye into the picture through the foreground, in this case along the various cartoons. Your eye will naturally then rest on the cartoonist as direct eye contact is a very strong visual draw. Once there your eye travels to his wife, then following her gaze towards the card then on to the rest of the image.  With shots like this I will usually expose the background first, maybe leaving it 2/3rds of a stop underexposed, and then lighting the subjects separately, as I find this gives the image more of a feeling of depth which is already encouraged by the composition.

Another image which follows this theme, using lines created by the hammer and chains to draw a line towards the subjects face.  These areas are given importance within the composition as they are areas of high contrast. The background in this image remained quite dark, drawing attention to the artist and his sculpture, however it still retains enough detail to keep a feeling of depth and location within the image.

This image still follows two recurring themes in my work, firstly using the foreground to draw the eye into the shot, and the lines on the bike to draw the eye to the subject while the shadow of the wheel balances the composition and creates a natural triangle in the image.  It also is an example of shooting from a low perspective  to add a sense of importance and power to the subject, I have frequently been given a telling off on my return home for using this technique, as lying around on the floor often leaves muddy trousers.

While my pictures are not all similar in this respect, especially due to the variety of subjects and situations I find myself in along with a desire to keep my work fresh and interesting to produce and look at I have found myself using the same old format as a crutch, hopfully I will now be forced to branch out more, become more familiar with a long lens and come away with a greater variety of pictures, especially seeing as some of my favourite pictures have been taken on the longer lens.

The  lines of the tree in this shot frame the subject and also act to give the image a diagonal composition which is easy to read visually. The long lens helps here by blurring the background while retaining the important details, making this a fairly simple shot, but one with a lot of visual impact.

This is an old shot but still one of my favourites. on the day it would not have been practical to shoot this on a wide lens, but even if it had the image would have lost its impact due to the amount of unwanted background detail such a lens would have captured. This image is unique in this series as it was not posed but works due to a strong focus on the womans eyes leading out the frame asking why she seems quite so terrified, in this case eye contact would significantly weaken the image.  Compositionally  everything else is an afterthought, although the man looking towards the eyes of his partner serves to reinforce the focus on her eyes, and his peaceful expression  is a stark contrast to her terror.

It is also very very silly, which is nice…

Loads more pictures here