Welcome

Rannock Moor

Welcome to the blog of THROUGH THE LENS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM WINFIELD

www.through-the-lens.co.uk

http://twitter.com/thr0ughthelens

Weather

Guess what the weather was last night?
After days of 30+ degrees the weather broke last night with a spectacular lightning storm.

In June I talked about an exciting commission I was working on involving large format prints.

I can now reveal that the Client was The Lawns conference facility in Lincoln. I have provided and installed a series of six large (1 metre square) black and white prints depicting local landmarks along the back wall of the bar area.

It means that everytime someone goes to get a drink (quite often!!) they’ll be presented with my photos.

It’s quite cool and I feel proud to see my own images printed so large in a public area. I hope that the commission will lead to more work when people see the work, there is certainly something very exciting about large format.

Follow me on Twitter!

You can now follow me on Twitter, http://twitter.com/thr0ughthelens

Artist Market

Sunday is another opportunity to visit me at a Lincoln Artist Market. I’ll be at the bottom of Steep Hill, Lincoln between 10am and 4pm, come along to see me and my prints.

Light

I have written a lot recently about the quality of light and a friend recently asked me why I talk about the quality of light in the morning and evening and dislike the light in the middle of the day.

There are a number of reasons why photographers talk about the ‘golden hours’ of sunrise and sunset. First of all the colour of the light is warmer and therefore more welcoming. In the same way as sunrise and sunset often take on warm tints of orange, red or purple so do the subjects in photographs taken at these times.

A camera simply captures the light reflected off the objects around us so it is natural that any colour variations are reflected and captured by the camera also.

One of the reasons I like shooting at sunrise or sunset is that the rays of light from the sun are horizontal rather than vertical, thereby revealing lots of texture in the landscapes around us. Consider for instance the surface of an undulating river or sea, the furrows of a ploughed field or a row of trees. At mid day, with the sun directly above, the shadows that reveal texture are subdued or indeed removed completely giving a sense of the photo being washed out. At sun rise however, the shadows are at their maximum and reveal the individual undulations or depth variations, providing a more detailed view that holds the eye longer with the elements standing out in a 3D effect.

Looking away from the sun, at dawn and dusk the sky is often darker than it would be in the middle of the day and therefore presents less of a challenge in controlling the contrast between a light sky and a (relatively) dark landscape. As digital cameras can only record a limited dynamic range (the difference between the lightest and darkest part of a picture) we are less likely to need to revert to other solutions which ‘adjust’ this dynamic range prior to the light entering the lens.

A low sun also offers other opportunities to exploit its light in a photograph. Consider for instance my photograph of the poppy field and white flowers in the “Poppies” blog entry. I intentionally shot this photograph towards the sun in order to backlight the flowers and hence have the sun shining through rather than onto the subject. Perhaps more importantly however, I wanted to produce a ‘rim’ light effect on the stems and seed heads making them glow. I hope you will agree that this is far more interesting lighting than simple flat light appearing from overhead.

Finally of course there is one big advantage of shooting at these times, there are generally less people around to get in the way, spoil your composition or pester you with questions and comments about your photography, the view, the weather etc.

There is the big problem however of having to get out of bed at 4am just to bag the shot you’ve been planning but hopefully the results are worth it!

Artist’s Market – Sunday 28th June

Visit me at Lincoln’s Artist Market on Sunday 28th at the top of the High Street/bottom of Steep Hill. 10am ’til 4pm

I’m working hard at the moment on an exciting commission for a local Client which when completed will be a high profile display of some large format pictures of mine. The display will be seen by lots of people so I’m quite excited about it. I’ve been busy taking lots of different ‘local’ shots which have been whittled down to a handful for display.

I hope to share more information with you very soon.

Adam

Poppies!

A motorcyclist friend of mine ‘tipped me off’ this weekend about a field of poppies close to where I live. Last night therefore, with the clouds breaking up nicely, I timed a visit to the field to coincide with the sun lowering in the sky and wasn’t disappointed by the results. The field is next to a fairly busy road and unfortunately has no other road or footpath running alongside or through it, I was therefore constrained by being only on one side of it and having to shoot the poppies either into or straight out of the sun. As the sun was low however this had the advantage of backlighting the flower heads, giving a really bright and high contrast effect, or lighting them face on, ensuring nice saturated colours.

As I had to climb through a hedge to get into the field (I remained firmly in the field margin in order not to disturb the flowers) which had no public access I have refrained from giving the field’s location.

 

My problem was that whilst the field looked stunning, a field of poppies on their own provide very little visual reference, I needed another subject matter, a lone tree or even an adjacent building to give interest to the composition. Unfortunately, in the depths of rural Lincolnshire, such perfectly placed subject matter is few and far between, the distant church I had spotted earlier was in line with the setting sun so was a useless silhouette.

 

I therefore set about using the poppies and the odd stray yellow and white flower as my main subject matter and dispensing with my more usual ‘wide vista’ approach. The lighting here made all the difference as I was able to use the backlighting to full effect, produce a ‘rim’ light effect around the stalks and seed pods. By keeping low to the flowers and using a relatively shallow depth of field I was able to give a hint of the blanket of red flowers in the distance without overpowering my chosen subjects.

 

Eventually the sun weakened and sank low in the sky, the unique lighting being lost for the night, I carefully climbed out of the field and checked my equipment to make sure I hadn’t dropped anything in the undergrowth!

 Reviewing the results back home I was delighted to have been able to adapt my approach given the circumstances whilst still capturing a series of images that maintain the feeling and effect of a thick and broad carpet of bright red flowers against deep green foliage.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, Adam.

What Would You Like to Know?

Recently I have had the opportunity to speak to lots of people about my photographs and photography in general. Lots of people have asked me about the technical aspects of the photos, cameras, composition, lighting etc.

Is there something you would like to know more of or would you like me to talk about a specific photograph?

If so, please let me know either by e-mail or by leaving a reply to this post. I’d be delighted to pick up any subjects and delve into the more technical aspects of my photography.

Snowdonia

I returned from Wales this weekend after a short break camping with the kids near Snowdon.

We took a trip on the newly extended Welsh Highland Railway to Caernarfon. The scenery the railway travels through is truly stunning, passing right below the Snowdon peak itself. I really need to spend some more dedicated time around this area with my camera!

Caernarfon Castle is what my youngest son called “a real castle” – with battlements, huge defensive walls and towers with imposing views of all approaches.

You can see in the photo of the castle that the sun was high in the sky, being shot around mid-day. The lighting therefore is flat with very little texture being indicated. Compare this shot with those of Mevagissey in the previous post or the lake (below) and you might see why photographers and artists talk about the ‘golden light’ in the early morning or at dusk.

The campsite we stay at is in a forestry commission forest which itself has some spectacular scenery. Llyn Llywelyn, a short walk up through the Beddgelert Forest is one of my favourite locations to visit at sunset. The colour of the trees against the craggy peaks of Castell and Y Gyrn in the background, all reflected in the usually still lake, is simply stunning. Each time we’ve visited the lake in the evening we’ve had the whole place to ourselves.

The quality of light in the mornings and evenings in Snowdonia is superb and really shows itself in photographs.