Sun Gate

Machu Picchu, Peru. Sunrise, after an incredible trek to the Sun Gate to capture this exact moment as the sun greeted the ancient site for another day. Not really a lot to photoblog on about here. This place is amazing... and this photo is nothing to do with my photography skill, but more down to right place, right time. There are a hundred, thousand photos out there exactly like this one no doubt. Only difference is, this one is mine, and I thought it was about time I shared it. Enjoy.

1/200|f4.8|ISO100|

Movie Station

Travelling through Kootenay National Park, early evening. We pulled in for a much needed refuel, after passing through epic mountainous scenery. Suddenly everything felt a little surreal as I glanced over and saw what appeared to be an old London bus, sitting neatly in the gas station surrounds, with an almost too perfect to be true mountain skyline and dusky, soft cloud rippled sunset. The florescent glow thrown down from the pump light gave me the feeling I was standing in a film set for a perfectly lit Coen Brothers scene (or something simularly brilliant). As we were fighting the battle against fading light with no preplanned camping destination, time was not on my side, so I scambled my powershot out of the 4x4 and took just one photo. Not perfect, with the distorted post and questionable composition... but it holds the memory well. 

1/40|f2.8|ISO80|

Snow Caught

Somewhere in the suburbs, late afternoon. After triumphantly leaving work in a giddy excitement of snowjoy, I went over to my friend's house to embark upon a sledging adventure (who said snow is just to be enjoyed by kids?!). I took my camera along for the fun. Heading through the overgrown pathway, we came across the ball court, snow completely undisturbed. It was caged snow waiting to be built upon, but as we had already discovered, this was the wrong kind of snow for building creations, so we left it untouched and I took a photo instead. The wintery sky made for an interesting picture, but I'm still missing that wide angle perspective a new lens would give me. I've been good Santa... honest!

1/60|f8.0|ISO100|

Dune Dens

Norfolk Coast, late summer. The day before we had set off on an ambitious drive to the coast to chasing the last remaining days of the summer sunshine. We arrived at our destination late and pitched our tent in a relentless gale and uncertain evening skies. We awoke the following morning to the our sunshine reward. After some breakfast and nearby exploring we set off for a short walk around the coast. Hidden away from the town and harbouring boats we discovered a small sheltered beach with brightly coloured, closed up huts nestled amoung the dunes. 

Photgraphy geek explanation minus descriptive waffle:

I experimented with depth of field here aiming to keep the grass and huts in full focus. The light was tricky as the sun was high and throwing light over my right shoulder and almost clipping the frame, so I hid in the shade of one of the huts and did my best to compose the shot. A less harsh light would have made this splinter easier to capture... returning early evening would have probably have worked a lot better. The  position of the sun also meant I could not take any shots further back- so it was an all round comprimise. I had to do some touch up work on the sky before blogging as the exposure was blown out (something I hate doing as I much prefer to shoot as I see, no edits) ... a filter might have helped here. Also puzzled as to why I set ISO at 400! Despite all that- it still made the lightsplinter cut.

1/320|f13|ISO400|

Retro Glow

The road I grew up on, in the big snow at the beginning of the year. When everything around me was so blizzard white, I looked up to see an old street lamp flickering on. The contrast of the lozenge shaped orange glow against the winter black bark and white clustered snow really caught my attention. Not many street lights look like this anymore- they all give out a harsh stark searching light, unlike the alien orange gloomy light of times gone by. As more snow was on its way I didn't really think much about how to take the picture, just made sure the composition was as I wanted it, using the zoom on my powershot.

1/60|f4|ISO200|

Steely web

Brooklyn Bridge on a windy day, early Autumn.  Not an original shot as this bridge has been photographed more times than I've eaten cheese (and thats a lot), but I liked the perspective the taut steel spiderman cables created. Since it was difficult to not lose the detail of the stone tower against the cloudy sky, and there was little colour interest, I thought the black and white might add a dramatic effect. Almost managed to get it dead level too without too much Mack horizon (invariably very wonky)...

1/800|f7.1|ISO400|