mylifewithalens

[mylifewithalens]

Just one of the shots from last Saturday's video shoot. I miss the sun already lol

Taken in Watermead in Aylesbury for my YouTube series "The Busy Man's Guide To Photography". Lovely morning, and a beautiful shoot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaaA5S1LpmE

[mylifewithalens]

Challenge Accepted!

Okay so here is the second of my photography blogs to accompany my latest YouTube video.

I'm in a fairly successful music duo but my musical partner Harriet has been away in New York so this has left me with some time to focus (haha get it) on improving my photography a bit.

I have been watching some insane amount of YouTube videos and have been going back through thehistory of photography and different techniques etc. Some of those videos are far too long butthere is a x2 speed button so now I've been learning from videos like a speed reader does with books!

Steve was back out with me and we decided to partake in three challenges. Negative Space, Colour Wash and Vintage Flash. Only one of these terms are legitimate, the other two are made up, like Trump's popularity.....

Anyway Steve came up with the idea of Colour Wash and I the others.

I honestly believe that this put Steve out of his comfort zone a little as he kept saying that these challenges are not going to improve his photography. Maybe not in the physical sense but in the mental sense, I beg to differ. Let's see if it is one of those things that grow in his creative consciousness. I know it will in mine.

We started with Negative Space. I gave the brief description in the film, so do check it out.

Unfortunately Aylesbury is a little lacking in space that we can use so we had to try and find a good spot. We parked up in the car park of the Odeon Cinema and spent the next eternity (okay 10 minutes) setting up the audio for our vlogs. I ended up having to use my mobile phone again!

On the drive up I saw a shot that would work. I would get Steve to stand in front of the wall at the Waterside Theatreand shoot from the outside the garden area of the White Heart. However when I walked up, I realised that it wasn't practical as there was a bloody railing in the way! Damn.

So the second place I chose was actually where I took the photo, but, I couldn't get the shot right as I was on my Prime lens. Once I switched to my kit lens, I got the shot.

Check out the video for the description on that.

Next up was Steve's "Colour Wash"!

There doesn't seem to be a valid name for this type of photography. Simply put, it's a image where you slow the shutter speed and sweep horizontally or vertically, whilst the shutter is open and the result is just some funky lines of colour. Kind of like light trails.

I have to say that this didn't appeal to me as much and when I attempted my shot it didn't go as well as I had hoped so I had to change tack. I was shooting the matrix screen of the Matrix Phone shop on High Street but it was tricky to get the shot as all the graphics were all over the place. Instead what I decided to do was manually zoom into the screen. The result isn't too bad to be fair.

Now to the moment I'd been waiting for - Vintage Flash.

I'm fascinated by early photography, especially the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. Nowadays everyone has a camera and the world is saturated by everyday life which is documented across social media. Selfies, food shots and other less respectable and downright questionable images! Back then it was a rare art form and that makes it a little more special.

I came across the name of Jacob Riis. He was a social reformer and photojournalist back in the Victorian era. Go and check out his story as it is extremely interesting. Thanks to him, New York has hygiene! He was one of the pioneers of flash photography, using magnesium and other elements to fire the flash.

Back then people were using Daguerreotype and Calotype cameras. They had no on-board flash and to get the shot they had to uncap the lens for a period of time, fire the flash and recap the lens. It got me to thinking that we could understand these photographers a little more by emulating the technique and see if we could replicate the kind of shots they were getting, and would this look any different to what we could get using the technology that we have now. So we set the cameras up in Pebble lane, using a long shutter speed and firing the flash using the pilot button on the flash unit to light the scene. The idea then was not to do too much editing other than cropping and brightness. I don't think that Steve liked the non editing aspect!

It actually turned out to be a lot more difficult to do. The reason for that was that we had to juggle the different actions. Shutter, lens cap, flash, lens cap. You get the picture!

I'm really happy with what I got. 

What it has done for me is help me appreciate what the early photographers had to do in order to get capture the image and feel the benefit that the new technology brings with it.

I think this shows us that the photos don't change, just the technology and the people taking the shots do.

[mylifewithalens]

The First Vlog

So today I have uploaded my first ever Vlog to YouTube.

Filmed on Saturday 24th March and edited solidly since, it was very tricky indeed. It was the first time that I had filmed and edited a 4K video and boy (or girl or person) did my computer suffer. As did my brain.

I was meant to be performing a gig in Aylesbury but the venue had double booked again so I couldn't do it, and as Steve was meant to be doing the sound, we both lost out on the gig and the money, and being self employed that means, it sucked!

As we were both at a loose end we decided that we would go out and do some filming for our respective channels, but I did most of the filming so I hope I took enough footage for Steve to use in his Vlog!

We extended the invitation to two of our friends and fellow photographers, Will and Phil - no I didn't make that up - unfortunately they were both unavailable.

We decided early on during the day that we would like to attempt captures using Rear Curtain Sync.

I did a little research and some pre-filming practice during the day but the results were not fantastic, then again I was only using the native flash and not an external one so the results wouldn't have been that great anyway. I cut myself a little slack for that.

Steve came to pick me up and we sat in the car for a good 30 minutes or so whilst we planned what we would do and tried to make the decision about where we would film it all.  We made our decision - we would head down to the Aston Clinton bypass on the A41 and do it there.

We arrived and began setting up. One thing that we have always found is that whenever we are filming out in the open there will always be a curious member of the public asking us what we are doing. As if they were performing us a service. Low and behold, this member did not let us down, as he hung out of his window like a long tongued dog to shout,

"What ya doooiiinnn'" in his most eloquent "Chav". I merely turned and waved as his chariot (taxi) disappeared into the distance. Last time that happened was during our light trails shoot, it was the same kind of thing but that time we were called perverts?!

Why is there never an articulated lorry coming the other way when you need one?

Anyway back to the setting up. Steve set his camera atop his tripod, and proceeded to check his memory card. In a moment eerily reminiscent of James Tipping's scene in my short film "A Christmas Deadline", Steve's face dropped as he said,

"Ah wait, no memory card!"

I thought he was joking. However he was being truthful, but he quickly realised that he had indeed packed his memory card wallet into his camera bag, before he'd left the house, which is kind of ironic when you think about it, as he had no memory of doing so! He'd also forgotten to pack the audio gear which meant that he had to rely on mobile phone sound, something that he hates. Just ask Will! To be fair he has just turned forty so maybe it's just an age thing..........

After a little faffing around, we settled in position and fired off a few test shots, and the results were not too bad. We then proceeded to set up the external flashes only to find that the Canon 70D (which we both shoot with) does not allow Rear Curtain Sync with external flashes!  This was all confirmed by a quick Google and YouTube search.

I should mention that Steve is very skilled in that he is like a sponge when it comes to gaining knowledge. Like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit or John Travolta in Phenomenon, he's one of those people who can retain information very quickly. The only drawback to this super power that he poses is that he tends to verbalise it to you just as quickly too, and sometimes without warning!  However in this case, just like in most cases, it paid off as he was very quickly able to surmise that we could use the on board camera flash and use the external flash as a slave and get the shot that we wanted.

I don't think the situation is completely ideal as logic would -if I had any -determine that there would have had to been a delay, albeit very very slight, but a delay nonetheless.  Either way though, it didn't really matter as we got some fantastic images. It's just a shame that I was in one of them!

Don't forget to subscribe to this and my YouTube channel so that you can keep up to date with what I am up to, also check out my other social media too - those links are below.

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Flickr

PaulAdamsPhotos.co.uk

YouTube

[mylifewithalens]

Life With A Lens

I love photography!  Being able to see a 'moment' and freeze it in time, well, there's no better feeling. I've been taking pictures since I can remember and at the tender age of 11, bought my first camera - a Kodak Disc 4000. 

From there I progressed to 35mm film and then on to digital.

Just before my dad died, he made me promise that I would not waste any more time working in dead end jobs, just going through the motions. He wanted me to focus on what I am passionate about - music, photography and film! So with the little nest egg that he left me, I got myself a decent camera and started honing my skills to became a professional photographer.

​

There are many, many fantastically talented photographers out there - some are my friends, but all are my teachers - so why pick me? Because you choose the photographer who best reflects how you see the world.

In my experience, every photo tells a story, and every story is different. What will yours be?