A bit of a week!

Wow, what a crazy few days I am having.

But firstly apologies for not writing here as much as I would like, I always have good intentions but seem to miss posting, maybe as we are approaching the season for resolutions that should be mine.

So back to my crazy few days, so we have just passed the peak of the Geminids meteor shower and on Saturday night we had a few hours of clear sky so I went down to the south coast to a spot I had seen some time before and always thought it would make a good spot for a night sky image. I went down earlier in the day to scout it and decided it would work so headed there in the early evening and set up.

I set my camera off to take images straight after each other using the intervalometer timer in the camera in the hope of catching come meteors any frames that captured a meteor would then be layered in Photoshop to make a composite image of the meteor shower. I was really pleased to capture a few including one enormous fireball that streaked across the sky.

Here is the result

Geminids Meteor Shower over Grange Chine, Isle of Wight

I think it is fair to say I gave the anglers on the beach a shock screaming in delight when I saw the green fireball had been captured in an image!.

So I posted the image to a group on Facebook and the response was incredible, including a message from someone who runs an image agency who offered to see if they could sell the image to the papers, I said yes thinking it would be a waste of their time as no one would want it. Well it has since been used by the Sun, the Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Metro. A bit more successful then I had thought.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/14/geminids-meteor-shower-lights-up-night-sky-over-the-isle-of-wight-13748300/

I’m really proud of the image and I’ve ordered a print of it to see how well it prints, if I’m happy with it I will be adding it to my portfolio here and making it available as a limited edition print in the normal sizes. Let me know if you would like one!

New Prints and Calendar

Lets look forward to 2021!!!

So we are going back into another lockdown, and whilst I appreciate that some of you will have been living under restrictions at tier 2 and 3 for some time, here on the Island we have been able to enjoy most of our freedoms since July so the lockdown is coming as a bit of a shock to the system.

So lets look forward to 2021, I’ve just made my 2021 calendar available for pre order, I’m a bit late to the party this year but hope to place the order in a couple of weeks so I will be able to get the calendars to you early December at the latest.

I’ve also just updated the images available on my website so please have a look in case there are any that would be perfect for a christmas present!

Away from the computer its been a fantastic few days for photography, misty woodland and windy coasts always make for interesting and exciting images, a couple have made it into the portfolio.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and coping with the upcoming lockdown. All the best.

First Photo book

So I’ve just completed a little project, drafting and having printed my first photo book. I was really pleased to be able to get it printed through Saal Digital. The book is using their professional range and i’m so happy with it. The quality is fantastic with really high quality paper and most importantly for me, the colour reproduction and exposure of the images is done really well so they look just as I intended them. I would highly recommend Saal Digital for printing and photo books especially

In terms of the actual book, i’m really pleased with it, I've titled it C Scapes, the C for my name but also my favourite subject… the Sea! Its a collection of the images i’m most proud of so far. There are a few tweaks to be made but I plan to make it available on my website in due course. It will be printed through Saal Digital.

Stay tuned.

Back at it...

Well, what a few months it has been. I hope everyone is keeping well and managing to find some sense of normality in these times.

It’s so nice to be able to get back out and about a bit now and be able to get back into the coast and countryside for some landscape photography.

So looking back over the last few months and it seems a long time ago but a couple of weeks before lockdown we went to Dartmoor for a weekend which was great, the wether was pretty poor as it had been throughout the start of the year and it was pretty clear that things were already turning a little strange as the pandemic grew. We are really pleased that we went and had a memorable trip before lockdown, and really please to support a local B&B and pubs before the lockdown came along. We will definitely return and are planning a U.K. staycation for the Autumn.

Social Distancing on Dartmoor.

Once lockdown hit it was time to get creative in the garden and find some subjects to keep the photography juices flowing, experimenting with Star Trails and Macro shots was good fun but left me even more keen to get back out and about.

Chilling out under the stars during lockdown.

Garden flowers were forced into the role of models!

I even joined in the lockdown selfie craze!

Lockdown meant that I had to pause my Newtown Creek project so the March and April images will have to be captured in 2021 to finish off the project.

Since been allowed back out I’ve been really happy to capture some images I am really pleased with. I’ve been making the most of the clear night skies to capture some Milky Way images and have got an image for May and June (Already for my Newtown Creek project) Check out my Instagram for more recent images. One was even featured on a youtube vlog by Henry Turner.

First time out after the lockdown and captured this image of the Sea Thrift at St. Catherines.

Back to St. Catherines for a night time Milky Way shoot.

Updating my Website

So the last few days have been grey and wet, not great for Photography. Although funnily enough, perfect for what I wanted for the January image of the 2020 project. (Check out the project page using the links above for the image)

What the weather has allowed me to do though is update my website and my portfolio. All the new images are now loaded and can be viewed in either the Isle of Wight Portfolio page or the Woodland Portfolio page.

All these images will be available for purchase as limited edition prints. I’ll be updating my store shortly so please check back in a few days if you are interested in a print of any of the images.

Thanks

Chris

A new project for 2020

Hello, and welcome to my first blog post for 2020, already a month into the year. Sorry for the slow start.

The good news is that I have been busy photographing the island and have some images I am really happy with. I’m planning on updating the website with some new images over the next few weeks so keep an eye out to see my refreshed portfolio soon. I have also been enjoying woodland photography recently so plan on splitting my portfolio into two sections, the main Isle of Wight portfolio and then a second specialist Woodland portfolio.

Brighstone Forest - New Years Eve 2019

I’ve also decided to start a project for 2020. I’m going to visit one location on the Island every month to capture an image to show how the location changes as we move through the seasons. After a lot of thinking I decided to focus on Newtown Creek. To make the project even more challenging I decided I wanted every image to have the Old Boathouse included, but that each one had to be a unique composition and show the changes of the season. The area is a nature reserve so there are significant changes in the flora and fauna throughout the year. I’ve added a page to the website where the images will be available and as the images build over the year I’ll be deciding what to do with the collection. Initial thoughts are that I will create a book to collate the project which will be available through my store. Please let me know your thoughts on the project as the images start to build.

The Boathouse at Newtown Creek - The Subject for my 2020 project.

Making the most of the extra hour.

Bembridge Beach

Here in the U.K. the clock went back last night, signalling the end of British Summertime. This provided an extra hour in bed for some. It also meant sunrise was an hour earlier than it had been on Saturday. I chose to get out and enjoy the extra hour on Bembridge beach and enjoy sunrise.

The forecasts had all pointed to a fantastic sunrise, with just high cloud forecast. High cloud allows the suns light to get underneath it and s generally the cloud that really catches fire for sunrise and sunset. On arrival at Bembridge it was clear there was much more high cloud than the forecast indicated. I had planned to head to the north of the beach and had some compositions in mind so headed up there anyway. As suspected the light did not materialise as hoped, but I managed to get a couple of shots I was happy with. Not sure they will make it into the portfolio. I do like the panoramic image which is made up of 7 images. The shape of the cloud really caught my eye.

There were a few other photographers out and it was nice to chat to them on my return to the car park. Before heading home I managed to get one final shot with the ever popular Bembridge Lifeboat station in.

All in all a lovely way to make the most of that additional hour.

Looking out to sea with Bembridge Lifeboat Station keeping watch

Working a Brief

So exciting news, I had my first order relating to my calendars, it meant I needed some specific images. This highlighted the first big issue of landscape photography, when its all for fun, its fine when the weather isn’t on your side and the sunrises are grey for weeks on end, but when you need a specific image on a timescale suddenly these become a major issue.

This morning finally we had a reasonable sunrise on the island and I got to the location I needed to be at and enjoyed the morning.

It’s a relief to get this sorted as time was running out. I took the opportunity to capture some additional images for my own use, none will make it to the portfolio but they have been enjoyed on social media.

Sunrise on Yaverland Beach

So here we go....

Blue hour at Newtown Creek - 22nd October 2019

How do those sayings go, “The first step is the hardest” “Every journey starts with a single step” and other such motivational musings.

But here we go, this really is the first step, that single step that will hopefully start a journey, I’ve been really enjoying my photography and loving the comments and well wishes from friends and colleagues, but now is the time to try and make something more of it.

Since being made redundant at the end of August I have been spending my time working on my portfolio and building this website, which is about to go live. i’m really excited.

This won’t be a full time job for me, (yet!) I will be starting a new full time role later in the year, but this will be a side business currently, but lets see how it develops.

So here is that first step, a website, as of now I will be offering prints of my portfolio images for sale, in three sizes (A4, A3 and A3+) full details can be found in the store section.

Each image will be strictly limited edition with just 25 of each available, if they sell well the pressure will be on to take get some replacement images!

The response to my Calendar has been really encouraging and the first deliveries are going out this week. They will remain on sale until the end of November when I will have to place the final order with the printers.

Alongside selling prints I’m also going to offer photo guiding to the island, not workshops but if someone is visiting the island and would like help finding the best photo spots then hopefully they will find this useful.

I’ll be keeping this blog up to date as I go, updating on the progress but also providing tales about what I am getting up to, and the story behind some of the images I capture.

So once again, thank you for your interest in my work, it really does mean so much, and lets see where this goes.