Archive for October, 2009:
Woodland play
Yesterday we went to Dunston Common to blow away the cobwebs and get the kids up and about. It’s a super little woodland with several carved wooden ’sound sculptures’ – big carvings which you can bash with the attached stick to get different sounds, there’s even an outdoor xylophone!
Needless to say I went equipped with camera and flash gear and I convinced Nicky to be my “voice activated lightstand” (VAL) toting a flash and brolly setup mounted on a monopod – We played around with power settings and got used to where the light needed to be then I dialled the ambient light up and down with the shutter speed. It’s a really good way to create fluid, well-lit pictures on the run and we got a lot of lovely images for Nicky to scrap.
Here are a few:
Subscribe to the comments for this postMy two favourite pastimes…
I raced at the Marin Dusk till Dawn mountain bike race at the weekend. Some may say I’m crazy as I opted to compete as a solo rider – 12 hours riding as many laps as I can around a 10 mile course. After all the riding I’ve done this year I was surprised at the physical toughness of the course and how much I fell apart after the laps mounted up. I was wrecked at the finish, but I did manage 9 laps and a reasonable 50th place. I’m happy; and I’m recovering!!
The photographers on site had a real challenge – night time racing – really really bright lights and moving subjects. Not easy. Joolze Dymond was shooting on behalf of the organisers and the BCF and she had some creative approaches to her shots. I approve.
Berlin Street Art
I follow a lot of photographers and photography resources on the web. Boston’s Big Picture often comes up with unusual and visually stunning pieces. Today’s offering features street art celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall (20 Years!! Jeez, how old do I feel!?) I like it enough to share it here; have a click though, it really is worth a look just for the sheer scale of it. Clicky.
Have a browse through or bookmark the site for future reference, it’s worth a few minutes of your time.