Archive for July, 2011
Light on the Edge
People saying that weather in UK is unpredictable and bad, but I must say weather this summer is quite nice here in UK. Forecast for Saturday was good and I decided to go for Light hunting to Peak District. My very good photo-friend Paul went with me – destination Stanage Edge.
Stange Edge is the largest and most impresive of the edges in Peak District. It stretches for a lenght of approximately of 6km (3.6 mile)from its northern tip at Stanage End to the southern point near the Copwer stone. It is famous locations for rock climbing and a popular spot for walkers.
But we did not came here to do climbing, we came to catch the light.We started of from parking and walked up under the edge where we found mill stones all around the place. Because sun was still up high we did a bit of composition exercises and then we decided to go on the top of the edge and we started to look for good places for shooting. On first sight this land is flat without details and quite boring. But once you start to look for details you’ll be suprised. Very.
Stanage Edge is long and we managed to walk very short distance only, but I know that sunset on Stanage will be always great, so I’m already looking forward to go back there…
Shots from this trip are in my LANDSCAPES gallery.
Plan your landscape shots
Everybody will agree with me when I say that planning of landscape shots is essential part of landscape photography.
I found a very useful tool for landscape photographers. It’s very nice application called The Photographer’s Ephemeris.
It was first launched in a desktop edition in beta form in 2009. Created for photographers by a photographer, TPE is designed to allow outdoor photography shoots to be planned to ensure the best light for your subject. And I can confirm TPE can helps you plan your outdoor shoot, with full details of how the sun and moon move across the land, which absolutely great .
Best part of it is, that it’s absolutely FREE for desktop computers!!!!
And of course it’s available as Universal App for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, which can be very handy, outside on location. It can be downloaded via iTunes.
Have a look on TPE website and look around…
This is screen shot from TPE: 
Magic of pure photography-Pinhole
Pinhole photography…..it’s simplest and magical way to do photography. You don’t need much, one box and a film medium. All the magic can begin. With pinhole camera you can enter a world of creative freedom, imagination and experimentation which alters your view of reality.
I built mine from pinhole camera kit, which you can easily get from amazon.co.uk. ( link)
Diameter of hole is approx. 0.16 mm which gives me focal length of 20mm and Fstop F/130
Have a look, how my pinhole camera looks like:
I’m still amazed what can be done with simple paper box with tiny hole in the front. 
I think sometimes it’s good to forget about perfect lenses, accurate viewfinders and electronic shutters. In fact, forget about the cameras you are used to and discover different world.
I set up little project for myself to do pinhole images of famous places and buildings. Who knows, maybe one day it will be a book….
How I’m doing so far, you can check here: Pinhole gallery