EMBRACE THE GRAIN ... AND GO MONO

Thanks to the power of Twitter I found that the Red Bull Hill Chasers event was to be held in Bristol last Saturday. I thought it an excellent opportunity to photograph a night cycling event which was a double first as I had neither photographed a cycling event or a night time sports event before.

My pre-event banter with another local photographer was about which lenses to use and what ISO would be needed. In a naive fashion I said I'd go for 800 ISO and see what happened. I found I was completely unprepared for the sheer speed of the event and despite the lighting I found I was using 3200 ISO to get anywhere near freezing the action. Due to the crowd, I couldn't see the approaching cyclists, so I just had to setup the camera, use continual auto-focus with high-speed continuous shooting, hold the camera out past the crowd line and hit the button. Needless to say 80% of the shots were empty but as for the rest .. well see for yourselves ...

In a twitter discussion  with Maz Hawes from Light And Day Photography I mentioned I was worried about the graininess I'd see when I processed the photos. The response from Maz was 'Embrace The Grain And Go Mono'. You'll see that with some of the shots I've done just that, I hope you enjoy the look, for me it's very different and refreshing.

The full gallery is at http://www.kevinleightonphotography.com/redbullhillchasers

TIME .........

Skies Over Bristol

Sometimes time just seems to run away. I've been really excited with the idea of participating in the Twitter #photochat on the 14th being run by Darcy & Kent, started a new Blipfoto series, been taking pictures and blogging.. and then there's Christmas .. how will I fit it all in?

A new endeavour I've started on since my last photo blog entry is a 30+ Blipfoto endeavour. Partly inspired by an idea I had a couple of months ago about wanting to track 'a month in the life of' and partly inspired by my Twitter contact @leena_photo who has set out on a marathon 365 on her Facebook page (yes, a photo a day for a year)!

I hope you'll stop by and enjoy both our sites.

I wanted to share these colourful images with you - in my home city of Bristol this summer there was a street art festival called #seenoevil. Various street art took over the sides of many of the buildings in Nelson Street and gave them a once in a life-time makeover.

These are just a small example of what they managed to achieve. 

A CAUTIONARY TALE - WHERE ARE YOUR CAMERA PHONE PHOTOS TODAY?

Some weeks ago, buoyed up with minutes of research under my belt and a recommendation from a friend I ditched my old phone and invested in a shiny new Android powered Samsung Galaxy S2. From there my relationship with my phone has been a happy one, I've very much enjoyed getting to know it and the Social Media apps I can run on it and we've had some fun times together. I'm typing this blog on the Google Blogger App and until now everything has been rosy in the garden.

So what's changed?

Afew weeks before I got my phone I joined Google + and at some point whilst exploring the Android Marketplace I happened upon the Google + App which I installed and almost forgot about along with Google +. Imagine my shock, when logging onto Google + with a purpose for the first time in weeks, to find a copy of every single photo I had taken and stored on my phone, probably since installing the app, also residing in Google +.

Don't get me wrong .. the photos themselves remained private to me and hadn't been shared but I feel really aggrieved that Google by default enabled an option which allowed the Google + app to upload copies of my photos without explicitly asking me.

There are two issues for me here, one of privacy and trust and one of my phones data plan.

Privacy and Trust
I guess it was probably in the Terms & Conditions somewhere to allow Google to do this and the images weren't displayed in my circles but nevertheless they are mine and I will decide where I upload them to be it for backup, storage or display. Organisations must be aware that not only are the words and images of the people who write and capture them their property but may also be deeply personal to the individual who may  not want them shared on any platform no matter how 'private' that platform may be.

Data Plan
Those who know my home city of Bristol will be very aware of the 60ish statues of Gorillas which adorned the city to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Bristol Zoo and it became the summer time challenge of many to visit as many of the Gorillas as possible and have your photo taken with them.

I had been struggling to work out how I was going through so much data on my data plan so imagine my shock when I found copies of dozens of hi-res photos from my Gorilla trail and other adventures on Google +.

It's No Suprise Then .... my view is that Google should NOT be enabling this function called 'Instant Upload' by default. Luckily it can be turned off by doing the following:

Start your Google + for Android App then perform Menu -> Settings and un-check  'Instant Upload'.

Death of a Red Arrows Pilot and unsung hero - Fl Lt John Egging

In my last blog 'Photographing The Red Arrows' I wrote how excited I was to be going to the Bournemouth Air Festival today and would have the second chance in two weeks to photograph The Royal Airforce Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows.

What started as an excellent day, presenting the opportunity to photograph a number of different aircraft turned to tragedy when one the the aircraft crashed during a final manoeuvre over the local airport before landing.

I have had the pleasure of watching numerous Red Arrows displays over the years and never fail to be amazed at the skill that must be involved in making it look as easy although it obviously is anything but.

Fl. Lt. John Egging must be counted as one of our unsung heros. It was announced during the display that many of the pilots in today's display had recently returned from tours in Afghanistan and he had certainly served his time there supporting coalition ground forces. 

He obviously loved his flying. He transitioned from front line duties to entertaining the public with his flying prowess with the RAF Red Arrows and as such has etched himself certainly into my memory as 'The Egg Man', as was announced in the display commentary.

I don't know which aircraft he flew but I should imagine he has appeared in a number of my pictures from the last two weeks displays. I just want to publish this one from the display in Bournemouth today to say a simple 'thankyou' for for flying with the Red Arrows.

Kevin
Kevin Leighton Photography 

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Photographing The RAF Red Arrows

This week I wanted to get back more to my roots and into the world of photography. Those of you know or follow me that I have a preference for portrait and event photography with one golden rule. Fill the frame and use plenty of colour. This means I often stray into the macro world as well but my golden rule always stands.

Having this rule can lead to some frustrations as well. I read somewhere that in photography you are only limited by two things 'Your imagination and your wallet' and as the contents of your kit bag can be related to either, every now and then certain opportunities arise where you decide the contents of your kit bag just don't fit the bill.

Last weekend I was able to visit the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta which presents some wonderful opportunities for photographs of balloons in various stages of flight but one of the highlights, for me at least, is the attendance of the The Royal Airforce Aerobatic Team, The  Red Arrows which never fails to impress the audience.

So I did my homework and got a prime position where I could capture the display head on, the sky was mostly a dark blue, the sun was bright and when the aircraft were highlighted by the sun the were a deep red against the blue sky.


So, perfect position, perfect colour, perfect action though not always able to fill the frame. The individual aircraft make quite small targets for my 200mm lens but the groups shots really come together.



With an aerobatic display team for me you can't beat action shots that show movement, colour and angles.







There is a tendancy for display teams to keep clean lines and perfect formation so I also try to capture shots showing them in transition from one state to another whilst still keeping the shot interesting



But when it comes down to it some of those formations can be absoutely stunning in their own right.



Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. These are some of my favourites from the show. I hope you enjoy them too.

What do you think? Do you photograph action events? What do you like to shoot and how do you do it? I'm off to the Bournemouth Air Festival this coming weekend. What's your advice?


Kevin
Kevin Leighton Photography

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Picture Of A Wall - My Sweet Shot Tuesday 10/05

In my previous post you will have read how I set about road testing my new 50mm prime lens. One of the locations I visited was the Ashton Court Mansion just outside Bristol.

Unbelievably I was fascinated by a brick wall. Not just any old wall but an old Victorian style garden wall with weathered bricks of varying colours.





I took two shots of the wall, both of which I really like. The first one with the yellow flowers draped across it

This shot is just the plain wall. I love the colours and the weathering and if you look closely a small piece of weed is growing from the wall. To me, that kind of weathering adds some real character.




You can see some shots from the rest of my visit on my new Flickr site. Please click here to drop by and if you're on Flickr yourself the it would be great to have you added as a contact.

Kevin
Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/kevleighton