Cirrostratus and other clouds

A post for the cloudwatchers.

I have been reading the Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, and in a very geeky way been finding it very illuminating. It is sharpening my admiration of the beauty of skies, and in learning to classify clouds and their behaviour I am keener to photograph them and capture their 'ephemeral beauty'.

Follows are my efforts to capture the swiftly changing skyscape of high cirrostratus and cirrocumulus.

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This is midmorning Altocumulus Stratiformis with some thin low level stratus, AKA in this case: 'radiation fog'.

Website

My Website is now LIVE.

All credit goes to Anelia Madjarova, who made it completely for free and is fantastic.

http://www.tomglendinning.co.uk/

HURRAH!

White Widcombe

I haven't taken as many snow photographs as I expected I might during this wonderful white week.

However this is the set I made walking on Widcombe hill behind my flat.  It's snowing right now, and I have a good view of the white dusted trees on the horizon blending into the heavy grey sky. 

All shot with my new tripod on the trusty 100mm.

Post is largely, as you can tell, black colour balance to a red tint.  A process most successful I think, on the first photograph: where the closer, darker band of trees is brought into relief with the layered colour. 

1 & 8 were taken with 'Layered Landscapes' very much in mind - it would be interesting to repeat this series using only true landscapes (no seas).  On the remainder I focused on the contrast or lack thereof which the snow brought out of certain elements, like tree-tops.

In other news the website is growing nearer to completion! http://tgproject.bmad-designs.com/ to see it in progress.

This has been a very exciting process for me.  (ALL compliments to Ani, who is rather marvellously making it for me gratis - I love it.)

The forced organisation and realisation of my work recently (the website and Boston's exhibition, printing landscapes for christmas presents) has led to an increased purposefulness to my photography which has been growing ever since the summer.  I am planning individual shots and projects more. Holding my aims in more clearly mind when wandering camera-in-hand is getting better shots I feel.

Enough.

Photo time.

Comments as always much appreciated.

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Exhibition at the Boston's

I have my first exhibition!
Thanks to Dave at the Boston Tea Party in Bath (where Bobbie currently works), I have a month slot this January with my photos mounted and framed on the wall.
This coincides with much organising and admin. I am setting up my website with Ani and organising an online sales platform through Fine Art America. Generally feeling pro-active and positive towards photography in general, despite being floored almost daily by astonishingly good landscape photographers I keep finding - just keep shooting.

The Boston's gallery is based on the overriding themes in what I see as my most successful work to date (though much of it is recent - originating in the last two holidays to Pembrokeshire.) The collection shows a selection of my landscapes, seascapes and cloudscapes, with a number of macro nature photographs thrown in as I feel I have made much improvement in this area recently.
The main focus is on expansive landscape pieces, simple geometries drawing you in to the greater detail, giving a sense of being in a wild place and out of touch with the busyness of humanity for a second - at least that is part of the intention. The macro pieces have a similar kind of aim I suppose, though simply put I love the soft DOF and delicate detail in macro flowers.

To some respect the more colourful and lively photos have been preferred for this, as the purpose of the exhibition is to brighten up the café. I think also that it will give me my best chance at sales in this environment.

It's been difficult and weird to try to set a price to prints... and at the same time much more exciting than I was expecting to see my work realised for the first time.

The Exhibition:
(in counter-clockwise order from the right side of the main mirror)

Layered Landscapes

'This set of photos aim to capture the myriad of moods of the ocean, by focusing on the layered landscapes of land, sea, horizon and sky. It is intentionally minimal in character, and features like waves and misty islands are intrustions demonstrating the 'found' and unmeditated nature of the photography.'

This series became the main photographic exercise of the trip to Pembrokeshire. 

I really enjoyed the sparseness and fuzzy layers of colour which came with the rapidly changeable weather on the coast whilst we were there. It lent a certain ambiguousness to the normally apparent expanse of the horizon. The views from the tops of dunes and cliffs felt as big as you liked, except when you gave it scale; with a wave, or shoreline, and then it served to confuse the sensation rather than clarify perspective. I set about to explore this idea with a multitude of weathers and different 'scaling elements', to see their effect and attempt to capture the emotional attachment I have to expansive environments.

I have always been drawn to photograph landscape scenes which feel blank but draw you off the foreground into the unknown, across the horizon and into space. (I'll make a collection of previous attempts to follow and support this post). 

It's based on a fascination I have with feeling small, and enjoying being a tiny piece of intelligence in an unimaginably vast universe. 

Star gazing, people watching, listening to waves, the flight of starlings. These all have the same quality: trying to experience and observe the smallest to the largest in all their incredible complexity. The overriding emotion is always wonderment.

Please tell me what you think, of the photos or the explanation - this is my first really conscious 'series', which I mean to continue, so feedback would be very interesting to me. 

Email: mister_tom@btinternet.com

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Pembrokeshire II

My selection of 'normal' landscape photos from Pembrokeshire. My landscapes are often bleak to some degree, focusing on dramatic cloud formations and the feeling of space as the forms of the land and sea fall away from you. I am trying to display the emptiness of these landscapes as a space for personal emotion, and convey the sense of peace which comes from feeling so small and insignificant, and therefore free to live and be without conforming to petty, short-lived social fashions.

See my next post for a more specific landscape series I made as the primary photographic purpose of the holiday on minimalist layered landscapes.

VIEW NORTH TOWARD ST. DAVIDS HEAD

APPROACHING STORM OVER 

WHITESANDS BAY

SUNSET ON NEWGALE BEACH

Blog return..Pembrokeshire I

No posts for so long..
I've settled into a new life after university: new job, new flat with my trusty sidekick, well, girlfriend. Now getting my act together and catching up with the photography backlog. No true chronology will be displayed in this exercise, just whatever i fancy doing next. 
The next few posts will be a summation of post-uni trip to pembrokeshire Bobby and I took in grandma's VW camper.
These are filed under 'beach activity', and are mostly taken on Newgale sands, where we spent most of the good weather. Early morning swims, yoga and reading on the beach, surfing and generally having a bloody good time.

Epic Pancakecake

Streaty has been making a list of all the things to be done in June now we have graduated. Playing coop Portal 2 and wasting days on Age of Empires and slacklining has happened, and now one of my additions to the list has been ticked off. A grand finale (or at least a significant milestone) to my pancake obsession which started during lent - I had decided that all the eggs, butter and milk being given up had to be eaten by

somebody,

 and why not me? 

I do not need to describe this in words, except that I nearly drowned in maple syrup, fried banana, homemade bulgarian honey, mango and strawberries. We eat it all (minus one slice) in a single sitting. We

win.

Every pancake has a layer of goo or fruit.

This is the only slice we managed to stay up in one piece...

Sad flowers

Further practice with macro. Went out in the rain and wind to try for some flowers, they looked rather forlorn in comparison to those before. Sums up this week really: wet and windy and generally tired, broken and bedraggled.

macro rain practice

Could have done with a tripod on this one. At least I had my new rain cover. Taken on linear park during a short walk in the rain with Bobby the day after the summer ball, marking the very end of our degree. Comments please! Still very new to macro photography so all criticism welcome.
Shot with canon 100mm macro f2.8. Post process was primarily colour tint balance and mid tonal contrast. Also experimenting for the first time with some selective sharpening instead of using general definition; to bring out the detail out and add depth, without losing background softness.


Now uni is over (hurrah) I can sort and publish some of my backlogged photos and get going on some new projects. With any luck I will also have a website soon.











I couldn't choose between these two.

Wedding - Julia & Barry

Well good gracious me.

Completely forgot to post highlights of the now second wedding I've photographered for.

This degree is screwing with my sense of time, so I suppose it is fitting that nothing has been remotely chronological in my posting.

This wonderful event was Easter saturday 2012, the lovely bride and groom are Julia and Barry, and I was involved through Hannah Cordell, Julia's daughter and the blonde bridesmaid, who lives in the same studio as me.

The whole set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomglendinning/sets/72157629907922359/

Portraits & Rainclouds

No posts for a while, this is my only day off since easter and till end of term so I can get my degree out of the way with minimum frustration. Photography has taken a back seat, but I was the official photographer for Hannah Cordell's Mum's wedding on easter saturday. All of those photos are on flickr. So I'm going to fill in a few of the gaps where I have had a camera to hand. A couple of portraits from a little while back.


 

These were from the incredibly sunny March we had, and in the slideshow below I apologise for my obsession with clouds, especially cumulonimbus storm clouds, looking like floating fortresses.

Lauren Dance Shoot

So my sister's a dancer, she needs some photos of herself doing her primary activity, and we grabbed the light and time when I was back home for a lovely sunny weekend.
Not much more to say really.
The background could have been better, worked well for some shots, although would like to try a shoot at easter on the steep grassy hill behind home, with sunset. And according to Lauren, a cellist, or something else arty. Funfun.
The other girl bearing striking resemblance to the first is my other sister, also carrying the dancing gene.

James Morton's Funky Jazz Affair

No dilly dallying, got a backlog of photos to publish!
Architecture final year is eating my life, despite my efforts to have time off and be happy and relaxed.
Such as this thoroughly enjoyable outing I made to the Bell in Bath with Bobby and the camera (mustn't name it, I'll get too attached then I'll never have a 7D), to see some funky Jazz. 
And jolly nice they were too.
James himself was quite the gentleman despite pulling some fantastic faces during his efforts on the sax.


As always with little indoor gigs, shit lighting, rubbish weird colour lighting and no chance for rig or flash, so b&w all the way. I am continually surprised at the difference having a larger sensor makes on the apparent noise with high ISO settings. Most were at ISO800 at least.
Taken with the trusty canon 100mm macro and some with the old OM manual 50mm.

Fungi

Follows more fun with my new macro lens. Haven't had a great deal of chances to use it much, I can't wait from spring with insects and flowers galore.
I've always been fascinated by fungi, this was on a dead tree at my grandma's house.

Street Photography

I am making an attempt at street photography. As yet all candid. I haven't had the courage so far to single people out and approach them, but I am getting more brazen with the opportunistic approach. It is an interesting change of pace - you have no idea what you are going to find, what you are looking for, and often the photo opportunity exists for all of a moment. Reading about Henri Cartier-Bresson has been interesting - his approach is one of secrecy and capturing in a split second, unobserved and unobtrusive. 
I will see how it goes, and hopefully, given some time, I will get some more done for the purpose of doing it. Most so far has been entirely unplanned, and filled the time waiting for trains, or in town. 
In the meantime, criticism and comments would be much appreciated. These are the best picks so far, and date back a while, but most are recent.

New Macro Lens

Second entry in a row boasting a new lens. 
I promise no more. I was fortunate to have enough insight to spend my bursary on something worthwhile - A Canon 100mm f2.8 macro.
Already I am loving the results, and it is so much fun to play with. Also proving a very versatile walk-about lens, particularly for street photography. These are the best results so far on the true macro scale.

New Tamron Lens

I have replaced my Sigma 70-300, after being recommended the tamron 70-300 VC USM, its quality compared to a high range 70-200 f2.8. The USM is consistent and steady. Its VC is boasted to improve vibrations by 4 stops. I tested this in the published shoot below... holding the camera in 1 hand (over a kilo and a half) at full 300mm extension, to my eye, focus on a bird, fling bread causing great shaking through the lens, try to point where the bird was leaping and hold shutter. The sharpness is fantastic. Shot at ISO500 and between 1/500 and 1/800.

I was just wandering with this new toy, and met a couple and a toddler throwing the birds bread. They then went off but left me the remains of the loaf as bait. So I proceeded to coax the ducks and kittiwakes to skid over the thin ice on the pond to get at my offerings.

Pigeons were then gathering all round me picking off crumbs, as I was glued to the viewfinder and not noticing them. When I did, after having my fun with the rest, I drew them over into better light with a line of crumbs and switched to the 100mm macro for some closeups. It was hard to focus on their bobbing heads, but I was determined to get the white pigeon. It actually became a little camera shy as I was tracking its every move and I had to coax it back twice.

Prohibition Party Shoot

To welcome everyone back to Bath for the new semester following christmas, a 1920's, prohibition-style fancy dress party was held at Fat Cumner's Grand Slam Speak Easy on South Avenue. A large range of illicit beverages were imbibed from out of teacups, and the stops were pulled out on a delicious selection of food courses. Everyone was dressed to the nines and I managed, through catcalls and whispered compliments, to lure the entire party piece by piece up to the attic, where varios light experiments using photosensitive technology and compact flourescent bulbs attached to shiny umbrellas were conducted upon them. The results are below...
Seriously though, it was a fantastic opportunity and everyone was fantastic in front of the camera. It seems dressing up makes all my already creative friends lose their reserve somewhat. Using brand a new lighting rig and backdrop purchased from the marvellous Mr Peer at the Pawnbroker shop on Lower Bristol Road, a flash and the faithful tammy 17-50 which serves me so well, the results from this, my first posed studio style photoshoot, were unexpectedly well received. 
Thank you to everyone who was involved. I hope the 'old photo' rendition of the originals fits the bill. 

Ginger Kitten Day

This is a backlogged post - thought it was worth putting into the diary.

A little ginger kitten, possibly feral for he certainly looks it, has become a common sight in my back garden in Bath. This is the first time we met.