Wex Monday: Week 16

© Katherine Broadbent 

 

I was really blown away by the light at Holkham this week so my entry had t be from this set.

 

 

Winner this week are over on the Wex Blog. Third place was a dreamy still life by Matthew Laviers, the pastel tones in this image really caught my eye.

Wex Monday: Week 15

Week 15.

 

The week I missed because I was too ill to pick up a camera and take a picture.

 

The week I was so ill I forgot I had actually already taken a qualifying image that I could of entered.

 

*Le sigh*

Wex Mondays: Week 14

© Katherine Broadbent

 

 

I got my speedlight delivered this week in preparation for an upcoming workshop. This weeks entry is from a simple shoot I sent up with the aim of getting to grips with the controls/settings.

 

Winners this week are over on the Wex Leader Board. Third place really made me slime, a cheely little grouse shot by Nick Hanson.

 

 



Wex Mondays: Week 13

© Katherine Broadbent

 

My Open Skies project is moving steadily forward and growing image by image. My time shooting at Blakeney was cut short by my dad's boot falling apart. But I was really happy to get this shot, with the repeating pattern of walkers.

 

Winners are over on the Wex Leader Board. While the winning images this week were to a really high standard nothing really pleased me ascetically enough to choose my favourite.

Wex Monday: Week 12

© Katherine Broadbent

 

This shot was really fun to take. Even though the boys in it laughed at me when they walked past. I felt really intimidated but glad I stuck around to get this shot.

 

Winners this week are over on the Wex Blog. I am a big fan of Andrew Gray's work so of course his entry, which placed third, is my favourite this week.  

Wex Monday: Week 11

© Katherine Broadbent

 

This week I didn't feel much like going out. So I decided to stay in and work on my Frozen Botanicals project.

This was my Favourite image from the set I took Sunday night so it was naturally my choice for this week's Wex Monday.

 

 

For those who are interested here's a brief breakdown on my process.

 

Friday night I prepared in advance. I had some pieces of foliage I have collected on my last trip to Thetford forest.

 

© Katherine Broadbent

 

All you need is a plastic tub, foliage and scissors if you need to trim them. Oh and some water and a freezer. The tub I used was about the size of a show box so would fit easily in the draw of most freezers. But if you have a chest freezer you can use a bugger tub!

 

Sunday night, once it was frozen, I popped it out of the tub and put it on the dining room table. On the table I had: waterproof tablecloth, light coloured towel and a old white sheet. For lighting I used a regular office floor lamp with a piece of grease proof paper to diffuse the light. I propped the ice block up so some light could flow through from behind.

 

The cat found it all incredibly exciting.

 

 

© Katherine Broadbent

 

Follow me on Flickr to keep up with the Frozen Botanicals project.

 

I didn't place this week, check out the leader board over on the Wex Blog. Really loved Mark Witmore's winning image this week. Impossibly cute smiling donkeys! XD

 

Wex Monday: Week 10

© Katherine Broadbent

 

So this shot was taken Sunday at Wells Next the Sea. You'll notice my Sunday Outing post for this day was missing.

 

This is because I was a mess.

 

I took my tripod, but forgot the mount.

 

I got everything covered in silt.

 

I dropped my camera (only a few centimetres)

 

And I managed to jam my two filters into the same pouch (without noticing) and scratched them both, one badly.

 

 

 

BUT I WON.

 

This image forms part of my Open Skies series which I will be doing a post about when I have a few more images. You can keep up to date with my progress over on Flickr. 

 

 

I've now got a lovely shiny £20 voucher to spend at Wex Photographic. Which no doubt will go towards a new filter. Check me and the other winners out on the Wex Blog. I particularly liked 3rd place, won by @MushroomGodMat, this week. Check out the beautiful colours in his entry.

Wex Mondays: Week 9

© Katherine Broadbent

 

This week I took an abstract perspective shot. I like the exposure in this one. I took an awesome shot (with my DSLR that I had taken with my iPhone previously). But I chickened out on entering it as a security guard came and told me off for taking photos.

© Katherine Broadbent

 

 

But to be fair to myself I prefer the iPhone shot because of the focal length compression that resulted from using my DSLR. Had I had more time I would have switched focal lengths. Damn security!

 

@M1ke_A was this weeks winner with a stormy lighthouse scene. I really liked the 2nd place winner's shot, Matthew Dartford (@MushroomGodMat) entered a brilliant, what shall be known forever know from this day forwards as, 'seal-scape'.

Friday Adventures: 6th February Blickling Hall

Today I took myself off to Blicking Hall. There is a particular piece of architecture on the grounds I had sudden inspiration to photograph!

Quick shout out to David Hopley a talented photographer in York who sold me his old (brand new) tripod for a bargain price! Armed with this and after quickly stopping by at Wex Photographic to pick up a Cokin ND8 Filter, I was ready!

Having not done a great deal (no) long exposures before I had a lot to learn!

First I found out how light leaks through the viewfinder. So I covered the camera with my jacket. Since my camera was second hand I didn't get a cover for it with the camera.

Then I discovered 30 seconds is not always long enough to get the right exposure. Keeping your finger on the button during bulb mode causes shake/blurring. In short I need a external shutter release cable.

Finally I discovered. TO MY HORROR. I had a HUGE fibre stuck to my sensor. Initially I thought it was on the filters and spent about 10 minutes trying to 'clean' them. Queue a visit to Wex on the way back to pick up a puffer.

But after all that I did get one shot that I am pretty happy with.

© Katherine Broadbent

To get this shot I used a combination of the Cokin ND8 & P007 Infrared Filters and a 30 second exposure at F22. Editing wise I converted to Black and White in Capture NX-D and then did some dodge/burn in GIMP. And used the clone stamp tool to rid the picture of the ghastly fibre!!!

Due to the freezing temperature and the long exposures my battery didn't last long (I don't have a spare - another thing to add to the list of near future purchases). I'm going to go out there again and see what I can do with more experience and a clean sensor!!

Wex Mondays: Week 1

Here's my first image submitted to Wex Mondays:

© Katherine Broadbent

Taken at Holkham Dunes on Sunday 4th January 2015.
F6.3 1/60 ISO200 105mm 


This image was intended as an abstract botanical study. I wanted to capture the delicate detail. To emphasize the frost I underexposed slightly to increase the contract between the shadows and highlights. I was in two minds to submit this or not as I had cropped it square. On the back of the camera I had liked the composition but getting it up on the computer I found the left side of the image took attention away from the main subject. I had wanted to isolate the leaf so I chose a low F-Stop to get a shallow depth of field, the high contrasted helped too. 

I didn't place this time round but a lot of people liked my image and I got a few new followers. It's always nice to have a twitter conversation with fellow enthusiasts.

This weeks winner was Greg Whitton, you can check out his winnign image and the runners up on the Wex Blog. 

Sunday Outing: 4th January 2015 at Holkham

I needed a shot for Wex Mondays weekly competition, So Sunday we decided to go out to the North Norfolk Coast. I'd wanted to visit Holkham for a while so we picked there. There's Holkham Hall and the beach is boardered by march land and forest. So a great variety of potential subject matter.

I packed my Nikon D300s with 25-120mm Lens along with my Lomo LC-A.+.

Here's a selection of my edited digital images:

To be honest I am most excited about the double exposure I experimented with using the LC-A+. There is an amazing range of textures available at Holkham. So I hope to develop them soon to show you!

Resolutions or Goals?

New Year often comes with resolutions.

Eat Less

Exercise more.

Ect, ect, ect! (to quote his majesty, Yul Brynner)

But I’ve always been one for goals. Because goals are SMART

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Resourced

Trackable!

So here are my goals for the next 12 months. I’ll be tracking these on this blog so I can review them once the year is up.

1.       Read & Review 10 photobooks. I have quite a large collection of photobooks & essay collections/biographies. I often worry that I don’t make the most of them. So I will be reviewing them here for you!

 

2.       Shoot more film. Specifically 10 rolls of 35mm I have sat here right now! The 7 black and white I will process myself and the three colour will be at my local shop.

 

3.       Complete a project. 12 images edited and submission ready, relating to a common theme or that tell a story.

 

4.       Enter every #WexMondays on twitter (and as many other competitions that I might get feedback from as possible). This means going out or setting up a home shoot every week to get a great shot. Okay, I know I won’t win photographer of the year. But we all start somewhere.

To start with I thought that everything I wanted to achieve in 12 months was too much. But then I began to think about it. Reading/re-reading my photobooks will inspire me to go out with my camera. Shooting more film means taking more images that could go into my project. Photos good enough to go into my project will be good enough for competitions.

What about you? Are you someone who prefers resolutions? Or the type who like to focus on goals?

 

Will you be making or working toward either in the next 12 months? 

Whatever you do, do with passion and kindness! Happy New Year.

Dreams of Burgh Castle

Today, being the last day we have off before the New Year, we were determined to go out somewhere for an adventure. Having, ashamedly,woken up at 10.30am -we decided to visit the Roman Fort at Burgh Castle near Great Yarmouth. It's been considered a few times before and was the only place we had considered the day before.

I found a couple of subjects that peaked my interest, but nothing that I got excited about.

© Katherine Broadbent

 

© Katherine Broadbent

 

Overall we were a little disappointed. Photographically speaking it's a beautiful place but not very photogenic. Even Nick, who shoots Landscape felt the are was lacking good focal points for composition. Burgh Castle is a lovely place for a walk, especially if you have a dog. Added bonus of free parking and easy access to the site. Just don't hold out too much hope for an interesting composition.

I did however happen to have my Cokin Dreams 2 Filter in my bag! As I'd not previously had a chance to give it a go I thought this might be the prefect opportunity.

The Dreams filter has an arrangement of small circular lenses on it's surface. This means the object/s within frame is/are duplicated and appear as a halo. Creating some soft in camera distortion.

Two unedited images to compare - showing the effect created.

To the left without any filter.
To the right with the Cokin Dreams 2 filter.

I can see it's going to take a bit of practice to get this just right.

I already learnt you don't want to go much about F11 or else the lenses on the surface of the filter can be picked up in
focus!



So after the initial experiment I put in a little more thought and effort (as well as some editing)!

 

© Katherine Broadbent



 
I increased the contrast and dodged the highlights on the fluffy seeds. I wanted them to look as if they were glowing, adding to the dreamlike quality of the shot.

I'm going to experiment further, and have a good think about different situations this filter would suit. If you have any suggestion feel free to leave a comment.

For those not familiar with the Cokin Systems they comprise of three elements: the filter, the filter holder and the adaptor ring. This system means as long as you buy the relevant adaptor ring, you can fit the filter onto any of your lenses. They have a variety of systems; A, P (which I use), Z-Pro & X-Pro. Basically each system covers different ranges of lens diameters. There are other systems out there but as I am not a serious landscape photographer(i.e lenses are not what I would class an essential part of my kit) I didn't want to spend the kind of money you would on, for example, LEE filters. At the end of the day Cokin met my needs within my budget. I the Cokin P System, it relatively easy to use, filter systems can be a little fiddly but as far as I can tell that's in their nature.

You can read more about Cokin's systems here and purchase from many different photographic retailers. I got mine from Wex Photographic. At the time Wex were running a promotion where they gave away a free filter holder with each filter purchased. I've found this quite useful as I've got three lenses that I use with filters. Having a filter holder for each saves time but is in no way essential.

My First Year In Photography

Back in March of this year, I picked up a camera and started to think seriously about photography. 10 months later and I'm starting this blog to document and discuss my progress.

So I suppose the best place to start is the beginning.

During that "getting-to-know-each-other-dating" stage my boyfriend mentioned he was really into his photography. Now I'd always had an interest but high school art and all it's demands had knocked my confidence. And lets face it, what do they teach in high school that has any bearing on the real world?!

So I said;

"Hey, you should show me how to use this old camera my dad gave me!". 

That camera was my Dad's Praktica Nova. This was one of the shot from the first roll of film I shot in it. (please note the contrast has been edited slightly due to the fact the film was expired).

© Katherine Broadbent

Despite all it's imperfections I love this image. It's the first image that I took that made me think; "I can do this." Plus, y'know, I'm a Crazy Cat Lady to the max.

I started to go out and shoot more. Not setting my goals too high. If I got one decent shot on a roll of 36, hey, that was a success.

While I love the Nova, it is older than I am and almost as heavy! So my boyfriend, happy with my enthusiasm for something he was so passionate about, handed me his old Nion F55 to hold on to for a while.

We enjoyed (and still do enjoy) many days out across the county. Him with his landscape and street and me in the early days getting to know my camera.

© Katherine Broadbent

This shot was taken on a day out at Overstrand. This was back when I didn't edit my photos. Learning the manual controls and thinking about composition were challenge enough. Without worrying about scanning the film and blundering about in some editing software I began to get a sense of what I wanted to photograph.

As my skill developed I started to put a little money away each month. In May I bought my first DSLR a Nikon D300s which I got second hand, along with a Nikkor 35 prime from the lovely folks at Wex Photographic.

© Katherine Broadbent

By now I had learnt the basic techniques needed to get the shot I wanted 'in-camera'. But when I moved onto digital, I began to experiment with editing. I use Nikon Picture Control & GIMP (both free). The image above I straightened then added a vignette with a gausian blur to intensify the dark without blowing out the light.

One of my days off I have to myself. So I take myself off on an adventure to shoot! I try to go every week but life occasionally demands my presence elsewhere.Once I got the basic functions of the camera right, I started to think about what I wanted to shoot and where I might find it. I now keep a note book of locations I have been to or have heard about, where I might find something that catches my eye.

© Katherine Broadbent

© Katherine Broadbent

These shots were taken below a flyover on the outskirts of my city. I almost didn't get there as the path was overgrown with nettles. I almost didn't stay because of all the graffiti and discarded beer cans creating a rather intimidating atmosphere. But I am proud to have the shots proving I overcame my hesitation and fear.

© Katherine Broadbent

Another big milestone I reached this year was having my photo 'Warriors' noticed by some actual experts. The photograph (above) was picked by WEX as runner up in there weekly Twitter competition as well as a runner up in Ted Forbes' Art of Photography Book Give Away Competition.

I'll sign off this post with a shot I took just last week. 

© Katherine Broadbent

I've recently been experimenting with botanical photography. Prompted by the awesome Ted Forbes (check out his YouTube vlog The Art of Photography) running a botanical themed photography competition. (Via Twitter #AOPBG)

To get the shot I wanted I experimented with:

Presenting my subject,
Framing,
Lighting &
Editing (mainly dodge/burn).

Until they all came together to form an image I was proud of. All in all I'm more proud of how far I have come in such a short space of time.

Here's to an even better year of shooting in 2015!