Edinburgh Vampire

The start of 2009 has seen myself once again north of the border continuing work on a book to be released later this year.

There is a very special twist to this forthcoming publication as all of the images have been captured during the hours of darkness.

I must admit I am finding it a bit strange waiting for the sun to set before I can start my photography sessions. Also, in my opinion, there is only a small pocket of time during which the city can be successfully photographed. So I find myself running around a predetermined route, tripod in hand, capturing as many images as possible in approximately an hour.

The above image of Edinburgh Grassmarket was a 20 second exposure shot on my 5D and then cropped to a panoramic.

South Tyneside Workshop

Yesterday I had the pleasure of the company of Jeff and Steve during our first workshop of 2009. For once the weather was on our side and as you can see from the photo of the workshop participants, the picturesque Souter Lighthouse looked stunning against the backdrop of a deep blue sky!

Jeff and Steve set me the challenge of creating a HDR image from a sequence of exposures. Coastal shots are not ideal for combining exposures as the movement of the waves (and also in this case the movement of the clouds) will simply make the image look slightly unrealistic. So for this shot I decided to process a single RAW file twice - once for highlights and another for the shadows. Which I then combined before converting the image to black and white.

I will openly admit that it is not one of my greatest images but I do like the composition and I will definitely be returning to Marsden Bay at sunrise (and low tide!) in the near future.

A great day was enjoyed by all and I would like to thank Jeff and Steve for their company and sense of humour! If you would like to join me on my next workshop along the South Tyneside Coast, we will be running another workshop there on the 19th April.