The last few days have been quite amazing for me. I’ve been overwhelmed by the attention my Chernobyl photo essay received, after Krista, an editor at WordPress, selected it for the Discover section.
Month: April 2016
Girl at Beach
South Bank Shapes
Last week, I met up with a friend on London’s South Bank. She has had a digital SLR camera for some years but has never really gone beyond the automatic settings on it. We were both on a break from work and decided to have a day out together, taking photos. I offered to show her how to use her more advanced camera settings.
Chernobyl: 30 Years On
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in Ukraine.
I visited the exclusion zone earlier this year and have put together a personal photo essay of my trip there.
I hope you will find it interesting.
Adam, Waterloo
This photograph was taken near Waterloo station in London, in a railway underpass. It was a natural light shoot, so I was relying on the light coming in from one side of the arch to light Adam, the model.
Lighting Angel, #5
This is the fifth and final image in this week’s segment on a studio lighting session I recently attended, where I photographed Angel. This lighting set up for this shot was very balanced. I should perhaps have posted this image first in the series, as it shows Angel at his most natural. It was really interesting to learn how different lighting set ups can create a completely different feel in an image. Each of the five photos are so different, just with fairly simple modifications to the lighting and poses of the model. I hope to get back to the studio soon to try out more techniques.
Lighting Angel, #4
Lighting Angel #3
Lighting Angel #2
Lighting Angel #1
This week, I’m going to be posting a series of shots from a recent photoshoot with Angel, a model I worked with while I was learning more about studio lighting.
I find it fascinating that it is possible to create such different photographic looks with the same model by changing the position and intensity of lights, and combining that with light or dark backdrops, reflectors to thrown back light, and/or black boards to absorb it.
Of course, it helps having a model with amazing bone structure and who is comfortable posing and being photographed. If someone was trying to light my face, it would be a completely different story!
I have a lot yet to learn about studio lighting but this session felt like a good step forward in terms of my knowledge.
Raindrop
Bournemouth
I’ve spent a lovely couple of days in Bournemouth. I was born and grew up by the sea. I love living in London but I do miss the sea and whenever I get to the coast, there’s part of me that feels like I’m home (even if it’s not the coastline I grew up with). I love the vastness of the sea, the feeling of openness. I tried to capture that feeling in this image.
I was travelling light this trip so I took my Nikon 1 camera with me. It’s a compact camera system that has been largely panned by reviewers and photographers. Even Nikon seems to have pulled the plug on it, which is a shame because I love it. Granted, the quality of the images does not measure up to a full-frame camera. But I don’t think the quality is bad at all, particularly with the prime lenses. And there are times it’s not terribly practical to be carrying a full size camera plus all the lenses. This short break was such a time and I got a number of images I’m quite happy with.
Shoe by track
I’m down in Bournemouth for a couple of days visiting a good friend. My train was severely delayed and it sat on the tracks outside my final destination for a long time while the train in front cleared the platform.
In London, I would normally get quite frustrated by such a delay. But it was a beautiful sunny morning and I’d been enjoying the views of the open countryside. I decided to look out of the train to see if there was anything inspiring.
I looked up and there were some buds on the trees running alongside the train line. Nothing terribly inspirational.
I glanced down and saw a discarded shoe by the track. It intrigued me. Why was it there? Where was the other one? Had something terrible happened here?
I then noticed the shadow of the train was running perfectly in line with the track. I liked the pattern it created. The light and shade.
I only had my iPhone to hand but I really wanted to capture this moment. So, it is not the most technically proficient image, but I hope you’ll find it interesting.
Tulip
This is a photo from my archive, taken back in 2005. How time flies! I can still remember the day I made this photograph and it certainly does not seem like it was more than a decade ago.
Bee
PZF Photography 