Technological advancement

Yesterday, I went to Snowball Farm to cover an affiliated show jumping event. The changeable weather meant I had to adjust the ISO up to 2000 with my Canon EOS1D Mark3 so there would be enough speed to freeze the jump. Had I been in this situation 5 years ago, the technology available at that time would not have allowed me to do this. Today, with the rapid advancement of the digital age, more and more shots like these are possible.

Bluebell Wood

For the last couple of weeks I have been visiting Bluebell Wood on a regular basis. I have been waiting for the flowers to bloom. On Sunday my trip was not in vain. Everywhere you looked were Bluebells! The lighting and views were absolutely perfect! I used this opportunity to shoot various shots of the wood with the Bluebells in bloom, using my Canon EOS1 DS Mark3 with a Canon zoom 24-70 2.8L and my amazing Canon 85 1.2L Mark2.

Forgotten accessories

A few years ago, while we were still shooting with film cameras, we were using accessories such as the lightmeter/flashmeter or filters that we do not often use with a digital camera. This is because at the time, we could not see the instant result of the pictures like we can now and it was safer to use the lightmeter/flashmeter rather than wait for the film to be developed which is why it was so important to have the correct exposure. Nowdays, with the instant results of a digital camera, we can use trial and error to find the correct exposure or composition.








Yesterday, I shot pictures of a young boy, Adam. I wanted an action shot with the sun in the frame. I used my flash off camera in manual mode and asked him to scooter down the hill. After a few attempts, I realised I needed my Minolta V as I had to have the correct exposure before I started to take pictures of Adam. Children become tired very quickly and it can be difficult to take repeated shots to capture that “perfect” picture. Because of this, I still find that the lightmeter/flashmeter are important accessories to keep in the bag.

A pleasure ride through West Wycombe Park

This morning, in West Wycombe Park, I photographed a pleasure ride which was organised by the British Connemara Pony Society.












The whole ride was about 10 miles long through beautiful countryside. I chose my position at the river crossing so when some of the riders crossed really fast the splashing water provided some interesting background footage.

Fast mountain bike

A mountain biker wanted me to take pictures of him. I wanted the shots to be dynamic and make it look like the rider was biking at speed. For this reason I took the shots while it was cloudy and used a very slow speed setting. I set my camera Canon EOS 1 DS Mark3 and a zoom Canon 27-70 2.8L at 50/100 ISO. To freeze the rider I used a flash synchro at the second curtain and to make the backround blurred, I used a speed of about 1/20s or 1/30s, aperture F8 and manual focus.

The sky became darker so I under exposed my camera to make the shot look more dramatic. I put my flash on a tripod to my left and remotely triggered this using the pocket wizard Plus II and this picture is the result.