Another night in Southampton

My second Night Photography Experience Evening, was last night and apart from one attendee loosing a couple of fingers to frostbite (this may or may not be true) the evening went rather well.

Thankfully I'd noticed the day before that Saints were at home that evening so I'd pre-warned all 11 attendees that traffic might be a issue.  Only one was late and she'd come all the way from Surrey so we'll let her off.

We did actually loose a few people before the end of the evening...  One was due to a dead battery (always bring a spare) and two more needed to warm their hands on cups of hot coffee! 

Probably the best accessory you can buy for cold night is a good pair of gloves that not only keep you warm, but that you can also operate the camera with.  You will thank me for this advice.  :)

A weekend of weather...

I had two New Forest Photo Experience Days this weekend, and the weather couldn't have been more different.  In Beaulieu on Saturday we were sitting outside enjoying lunch in the sun, and on Sunday in Lyndhurst we'd just ran down a hill to take cover from the torrential rain back at the hotel.

We met on Saturday at the Montagu Arms Hotel, and in the process I think I just may have found the most expensive cup of tea in the New Forest.  At £3.95 for a small cup and a half of tea, even the barkeep seemed too embarrassed to actually say the price as he just handed me the receipt.  Meh didn't even begin to sum up my thoughts on this one.  Charging high worked against the hotel, I was going to take the group back there for lunch, but instead we opted for the much friendly and cheaper Steff's Kitchen at the garden centre at the top of the High Street.

We wondered around the lovely little village of Beaulieu for the morning, before heading down the road to Beaulieu Road Station for the afternoon.  We had to do a bit of creative parking to squeeze 10 cars into the already full up car park - see picture below!

Sunday was a complete arse of a day.  After setting off from the Lyndhurst Park Hotel in only light rain, the heavens soon opened making it all but impossible to continue.  Thankfully everyone kept their sense of humour as re retreated to the warmth and dry of the hotel bar.  Big thanks to the hotel for looking after us so well, and hopefully the days everyone has rebooked will be much nicer.

First tearsheet in Fitnorama Magazine

My first tearsheet with British fitness magazine Fitnorama came with their March 2012 issue.

It's a feature on Miss Galaxy Universe competition run by Sarah Donohue.  For more information on the event, do please check out the website.

As always it makes me very happy indeed to see my work in print. 

NB.  I've deliberately saved the images at lower quality than normal, and also greyed out most of the words.  If you want to see the article please support the magazine and buy a copy.  It's a small publication and needs everyone's support to continue.  It's also available as Apple & Android Apps, so no excuses if you can't find it in the newsagent!  Thank you :)   Link is here - www.fitnorama.com

Night Time Photo Experience in Southampton

This week I did my very first Night Time Photo Experience Evening in Southampton.

11 photo enthusiasts all armed with tripods met me at the Holiday Inn in Southampton for the start of the photo walk.  It being the first one I wasn't quite sure of the timings, but I had a rough plan in my head of where I wanted to go.

Our first stop was on top of the old wall overlooking the Devere Grand Harbour Hotel where everyone tried their hand at long exposure car light images.

The second stop was to set up camp in the middle of the Mayflower Roundabout.  We must have looked a strange sight indeed with 12 tripods all set up...  but it was the best place to photograph the pretty lights that lit up a part of the old wall, so what could we do?

Next up was a short walk up to the High Street where I asked everyone to ditch their tripods, turn up the ISO, and shoot with the widest aperture they had and to hand hold their cameras.  Results differed as everyone had different lenses...  some of the kit lenses are quite slow.  I highly recommend that everyone get hold of a bog standard 50mm lens.  For under £100 it'll probably be the best lens you ever own.

Finally, we ended up in Mayflower Park overlooking the water.  It's the only place I know in the centre of Southampton that is properly dark.  The aim of this part of the evening was to try some light painting.  A couple of people got really creative, drawing stick men with torch light....  Fun stuff!

I didn't have much chance to take photos, but here are a few of my favourites.