NnG Photo

A little bit of Strobist

2011-06-11T17:26:00.004+01:00

I had a very enjoyable evening shooting with flash on location this week. This was a first for me and I was grateful to the fellow members of Talk Photography who joined me at Baconsthorpe Castle, and of course the 3 models (Clare, Natasha & Bettina) for putting up with my indecision. I learnt lots, not sure the girls did though!
Anyway some shots from the evening below.(more on my Flickr)

A trip to the City

2011-04-25T15:38:00.007+01:00

A trip into Norwich is always a good excuse to take the camera, sometimes I even take some photographs. Two pictures presented themselves on my last trip. Firstly this superb Vespa, the Mods vehicle of choice, and this one just had to be photographed. I've desaturated the image to lose the rather busy background.

Secondly some clever Shop Art, courtesy of John Scarratt, this is called Batteries Included. This is a great idea to give otherwise empty shops some life and colour, mainly, it would appear, in the Westlegate area of Norwich. You can see more Johns work on his blog

Siyaya Arts

2011-04-07T19:51:00.004+01:00

Had the privilege of watching these guys performing in Norwich last weekend. They drew a large and appreciative crowd. There's something perfect about African music on a warm spring day, it lifts the spirits.

Upcoming

2010-09-11T09:52:00.002+01:00

Finally the Tour of Britain starts today. I've been waiting for the Tour to start since the last stage of last year and will be trying to catch it in a couple of places on Thursday as it visits Norfolk.
Getting some good pictures is a must and I really like to try and catch the mood of the race as it comes through as well as some shots of the riders. Hopefully Bradley Wiggins will still be riding by Thursday, he climbed off early last year.

Must, must make more use of this blog

2010-09-07T21:45:00.001+01:00

So I need to get my website built but in the meantime I need to be updating my blog more regularly, especially for commissioned work.
I've been doing more and more product and still life work recently and am really enjoying the strobist stuff. I can see it becoming the main focus of my photography.

So long since I last posted

2009-08-15T21:06:00.001+01:00

Wow I really have neglected this blog, I should take more care of it.

What have I been up to, well Shumba is now a 7 month old and 6 stone dog and he has been keeping me more than a little busy! Boisterous doesn't really describe him, lunatic probably does.

The photography has been going well, see my stream for the latest of my pictures.

I'll get back to posting them here soon.

Shumba is home

2009-02-28T06:54:00.002Z

So after 16 years of waiting Louise and I finally have a Ridgeback puppy. His name is Shumba and we collected him last night. He cried all night, yes all night!. But that was to be expected I suppose. It must be a very stressful period for a puppy.

today will be lots of play, sleep (for me and the dog!) and getting used to our new family.

Check out my flickr for a photographic history of Shumba the dog.

Week 2 History

2009-01-15T21:59:00.002Z

2/52 – History

I wanted my 52 to reflect some local history and as such I have chosen what at first sight would appear to be just an old water tower, but which in reality is the key to a fascinating insight into the history of our railways and the growth of an Industrial Town in rural Norfolk.

This is part of the Water Tower that used to serve the railway engineering works at Melton Constable in Norfolk. Melton Constable is, in many respects, a strange oddity. It was built, in the 1880’s specifically to serve the railways that converged in this rural part of North Norfolk and was built to a plan that you would normally find in the Industrial East Midlands and North. As such it was as far as I know the first Norfolk Village to be on a mains sewer and had it’s own gas works and other services. Melton Constable became a hub, the meeting point of four railways and as such a large engineering works, covering 14 acres sprang up, in fact it became the engineering centre for the Midland & Great Northern Railway, maintaining 180 miles of track and associated rolling stock, and was dubbed the Crewe of North Norfolk.

So why did it happen, simply Lord Hastings and other local landowners wanted to break the dominance of the Great Eastern Railway and provide improved communications in rural Norfolk. The station had an 800ft platform, plus a dedicated waiting room and platform for Lord Hasting sole use.

The Beeching cuts ended Meltons Railway life, but the houses and road names remain and the engineering works are now an Industrial Estate. Much of the old railway buildings can still be seen and this tower, which bears the scars of an air raid in WW2 remind us of a more prosperous and some would say romantic past.

So what of the future, well there are moves to create a new orbital railway in Norfolk, linking historic lines and the modern railway. If it happens Melton Constable will once again see rolling stock.

I'm not sure that this picture has worked, the light is to flat and the shot doesn't have much punch. But I have to learn to work with the light available I suppose. I'll revisit this shot later in the year.

A picture a week for the year

2009-01-10T19:07:00.003Z

Ok so along with lots of others I'm doing a picture a week for the year, if I can manage it!
The themes are picked at random and this weeks theme was Reflection so here goes.

This is a shot of a bike reflector, reflected in a mirror and lit by my bike light. So quite a lot of reflection going on. I'm not sure it worked as well as I'd hoped, but I'm quite pleased with the start.

Studio Photography

2008-11-08T12:04:00.012Z

My local camera club, North Norfolk Photographic Society (www.nonops.org), held a practical evening last Wednesday night. One of the members brought down his studio lights, backdrop etc and a couple of models as well. This being my first time in a studio environment I jumped in at the deep end and offered to go first. Possibly a mistake, I hadn't really given any thought to what I wanted from the models, my mind went blank and there was a somewhat uneasy silence as the rest of the room looked on. Desperate I pleaded for some intervention from the room, further silence! After a while though and with some guidance from John, who's kit it was, the confidence started to grow. I took a lot of shots, probably to many, and got a couple of creditable shots. I have to say I really enjoyed the whole experience and really want to give it another go, this time with a bit more preparation.

I duly posted my efforts over at Talk Photography and ended up with lots of advice on how to improve the pp of the image.

Those you you who follow my flickr pages will see the steps I went through, however here are the before and after efforts on my pp.

Rugby a photographic first for me

2008-11-04T19:46:00.009Z

Last weekend I recieved a new Optech Pro camera strap, courtesy of a very nice man at Talk Photography called Marcel, who arranged a discounted group buy. It's such a comfortable strap that you hardly notice the camera around your neck. So I decided that it was high time the camera got a good workout.

So I decided to pay my local rugby club a visit, I haven't been to a rugby match in years, probably not since my student days when a trip to Bath was a frequent occurance. Now Holt RFC aren't Bath, but nevermind it's Rugby and I really enjoyed watching the game, probably encouraged by the photographic opportunites.

Heres a few from the set, you can find more on my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/w99/).

Mark

glad to be back

2008-10-31T20:51:00.002Z

I've well and truly neglected this blog in recent times for which I apologise, it's been a hectic and stressful few months. I'll try and do better in future.

Anyway enough for now, I'll post some pictures soon.

Military Vehicles

2008-03-13T19:51:00.003Z

It's been a while since I posted, to much to do not enough time to do it!

Anyway I stumbled across a military vehicle rally at the weekend, and couldn't resist the opportunity to grab some shots. I e-mailed the rally organisers who like the shots and want to use some on their website. I hope they do it would be great to be published.

Here are a couple for you to see.

UPDATE. I contacted the group holding the rally and they have used my pictures on their website. I'm pleased, no payment but recognition.

Holkham Hall

2008-02-25T20:39:00.008Z

Went to a talkphotograhy (www.talkphotography.co.uk) meet at Holkham Hall on Sunday. The weather was really overcast so not ideal for good pictures, but we headed out regardless. I was quite pleased with the outcome, although I'm still processing most of them.

Here's a quick selection for you.

We then moved onto Wells for a quick couple of shots of the quay before calling it a day. All in all a really good day and thanks to Mark and Tim for meeting up with me.

Burgh Next Aylsham

2008-02-22T21:38:00.003Z

Took the opportunity to grab a shot of the River Bure today. Nothing special and it doesn't quite work after being resized, the orginal has a lot more detail. Off to Holkham Hall for a Talk Photography meet on Sunday so hope to have some more interesting shots to post soon.

A trip to Bintry Mill

2008-02-13T21:04:00.000Z

Took a trip out to Bintry Mill today.

I used to go canoeing here when I was a lot younger, I say canoeing more like being taken away by the fast moving water as the sluice was opened up. I was never any good at caneoing but I enjoyed coming here, it's such a serene place.

So it was time I photographed it. The weather was misty and the sun wasn't quite right so I'm not completely convinced by this shot, I may have to have another crack at it, but this'll do for now.

New Blog Page

2008-02-11T20:22:00.000Z

Ok so I've jumped into the deep end and decided to create a blog.

I can make no promises as to how often I'll update this page so bear with me. My intention is use this site to post pictures (yes I love photography!) and tell you stuff about me that might be interesting, although probably not.

If you like any of my shots, let me know, am happy to sell at reasonable rates.