Dance-themed photoshoot

Had the opportunity to get to a studio shoot, which mercifully was possible as I can now drive the car again.  There were 2 contemporary dancers, and here is a selection of Andrea Walker.

Andrea Walker

Andrea Walker is a young man with a  huge amount of talent for dance, and a superbly photogenic model.

Andrea Walker

Shot in fairly cramped studio area using Elinchrom lights and soft boxes.  I used my Canon 10-22mm lens for this, not a usual choice for portrait shots.

Andrea Walker

A color shot on the dark background.  The light background was actually pink, which seemed a bit strange, but since it wasn’t my background, that was it!  However, the mono shots solve that color issue.

Andrea Walker

A low-key moody shot capturing the movement of contemporary dance.

Portraits a la Photodiva

Since being stuck at home for the past number of weeks, I have been experimenting with portraits and off-camera lighting.  I have Canon 580EX and a 430EX which are controlled by an STE2 infra red remote.  I use reflective brollies on stands and a 5-in-1 reflector and have played around with various ideas, mostly as self-portraits since whenever I get the urge do get things set up, everyone seems to miraculously disappear with important business. I also have the more usual studio light setup, but this is a lightweight and potentially more portable set up but is not quite so controllable.

a shot with a wrap

Not my usual choice of headgear, but hey ho, let’s try something different!  And then, with the same scarf. I decided to utilise the shadow cast as part of the image, not something I would usually try to achieve.

With scarf for color

While I like the dark jumper, a light coloured shirt for a different look.

Light coloured shirt

Setting up self-portraits involves a lot of trial and error, particularly trying to get the focus where you want it, which is so much easier when you have a model and can direct the turn of the head or position of hands before you press the shutter!

portrait in aubergine jumper

Not everyone likes multiple catchlights.  The conventional wisdom says “one at either 11 o’clock or 2 o’clock”.

portrait in aubergine jumper

I’ve discovered that my winter favourite color is aubergine!  I rediscovered a fine summer shawl in the same color in the back of the wardrobe too!

portrait in aubergine shawl

So I think I will continue with some more experiments, but for now I’ve seen for myself that several of the conventions of portraiture, particularly for ladies, are tried and tested for a good reason – they work.

• Multiple catchlights are not always desirable
• Wear an outfit that flatters, darker colors usually preferable.
• Do your make up!
• 45 degree body position better unless you are a size 8 model
• Tilt of head so eyes are not on a level

With the above in mind, I set up the lights again and tried some standing poses.  This one seemed to fit the criteria.

standing pose

Another light set up, with one light, and an attempt at a more moody portrait.

single light

And finally, just before the batteries died, a single light, low key portrait.

low key portrait

I set up the lights with a shoot-through brollie with a reflective as fill and shot this portrait.

portrait with dark top

Dartford FC Christmas Card

In the first couple of weeks of December I got a request from the Dartford Football Club Manager asking if I could find an image suitable for their annual Christmas card.  I was stuck at home with my foot bandaged up and bored out of my teeny mind so a challenge that I could do on the computer was just what I needed to pass the time.  The Manager suggested an image, and with a little inspiration came up with suitably seasonal Christmas Santa hats and some snowflakes, came up with a little gem.  I didn’t hear any more until just before Christmas I got a card in the post from the club – with my creative work gracing it.  That was a nice feeling.

Dartford FC Christmas Card

Text courtesy of the club, made me smile, though.  Hope the team liked it.

Cooking my Spruced Up Vanilla Cake

I had some surgery on my foot at the beginning of December and so have spent the past 3-4 weeks with a bandaged foot elevated on a stool.  I am now recovering, so itching to get back to the photography.  In the meantime, I was inspired by Nigella to try some Christmas Cooking and bought a Holiday Tree bundt pan and made a Vanilla Cake instead of the more usual Christmas Cake, which in our family doesn’t get eaten that much and usually ends up being thrown away in the middle of January!

Cooking my Vanilla Cake

The recipe was easy to do, so after sending my husband out to do battle with the supermarket in the run up to Christmas, I spent my days confined to the house pottering around the kitchen.

Nigella's Spruced Up Vanilla Cake

I bought the decorative tin on line from Richmond Cookshop and was impressed with the quality, cast aluminium and quite substantial.  I used spray oil to grease it before cooking the cake mix.  It came out really easy and looked and smelled gorgeous.

We had it on Christmas Day, sprinkled liberally with icing sugar to bring out the detail on the trees.  My daughter was eager to try it.

Spruced Up Vanilla Cake about to be eaten

Some more of my photographic experiments while confined to barracks will be posted shortly.  Happy New Year!

Graduation Day

My daughter Phillipa graduated from Southampton Solent University recently.  The format of the ceremony had changed a little from when my son graduated, about 4 years earlier.  There were fewer seats for relatives, which was a shame, but the Chancellor, Admiral The Right Honourable Lord West of Spithead, made a point of shaking hands and exchanging some words with each and every student as they came on stage.

Graduation ceremony Southampton Solent University

There’s a certain and necessary pomp that goes with this sort of academic celebration.  The professors and dignitaries on stage are dressed in gowns and caps, and sort of remind me of the Academics of the Unseen University on Discworld.  However, there was none of the silliness associated with those characters! I had a seat in the front few rows so got a few shots of students, including my daughter, which was nice.  There were lots of people with little compact cameras and flashes going off, but I didn’t use flash, just high ISO.  I was somewhat shocked – or perhaps astounded – by the attire chosen by a handful of students to wear under their gown.  Most wore smart ‘best’ outfits, but a couple chose to put on tatty t-shirt and crumpled jeans or a shirt and trousers that looked as if they had slept in it.  Did they not value their achievement in getting their degree?  If they thought it was a joke, why bother to go to the graduation at all?  I am puzzled by that attitude.  Some of the girls wore outfits better suited to a disco – skirts that barely came to their crotch and teeteringly high heels more suited to the catwalk.  I imagine Lord West enjoyed each and every handshake.  I decided to spare any blushes and not take any shots of those young ladies. Or perhaps not.

Short course?

And an even shorter one – deliberately moved the camera to obscure identity.

Even shorter course?

I’m glad my daughter chose to wear something a little less daring.

Interestingly, some of the female graduands came dressed for pantomime.  There was one with red-dyed hair and a bright green dress who looked like she was going straight on stage as Snow White.  Another chap had an abudance of dreadlocks and looked like Captain Jack Sparrow on his day off.  I am all for individuality, but some seemed to have missed the bit about ‘appropriateness’.  Or may be I’m just not as young as I was. May be its all about celebrity and the media, given that Dannii Minogue has been awarded a Doctorate of Media for “outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry”.  I don’t doubt her long career and good looks, but really – Home and Away, The Vagina Monologues and Australia’s Got Talent???

Off the stage

After the ceremony we met up with my son, parents and the rest of the family but it was too dark outside at 4.15 p.m. to get any good shots.  I longed to do one of those ‘hats in the air’ shots, but it just wasn’t going to happen!

Outside the Guildhall, Southampton

It was a good day, the weather was kind and the upbeat celebration is a fitting culmination of 3 years of hard work, not to mention expense.  Lets hope that against the odds there are jobs out there, allowing the students to fulfil their dreams.  Flipping burgers in Macdonalds isn’t what higher education should be about.

Image wins ribbon in RPS competition

You could’ve knocked me down with a feather.  I am a member of the prestigious Royal Photographic Society and hold the distinction of Licentiate (an “L”).

I also belong to their Digital Imaging Group which holds an annual competition.  This year I entered the attached pic of Danny Harris’ goal in the back of the net, which was well received and was awarded a ribbon in this year’s DIG Digital Projected Image Competition. 650 entries were received from 219 people and the standard of entry was very high. I have had images accepted for Kent County Photographic Association in the past, but not so far for the Royal Photographic Society’s Digital Imaging Group.  Nice surprise, and to receive it on my birthday, even better.

Danny Harris' goal in the back of the net

According to the email I received: “Danny Harris’s Goal in the Back of the Net” scored 10 (1st) and was awarded Ribbon, Selector Vanessa Slawson FRPS.  So it will be published in the winter edition of the DIGIT magazine.  I am still in a state of shock at that, which is the first time I have won a ‘ribbon’ (i.e. a special award out of those accepted for exhibition or competition) so thanks go to the team and the club, and especially Danny Harris for the opportunity.  More like that, Danny!

Autumn musings

Its been a while and I’ve been busy with all sorts of things.  The Dartford Football club has kept me busy.

A shot from behind the goal, a Dartford FC score.

Dartford FC goal in the back of the net

I’ve noticed that in a lot of televised football games that the cameras set up behind the goal are so close that on a number of occasions they have been hit by the ball and sent flying backwards, no doubt causing damage.  I hope I manage to avoid that, so far its worked just fine.

Dartford Football Club supporter

After the FA cup match against Harrow Borough I was packing my stuff away when some of the local supporters asked for pictures.  Above is one of a typical club supporter, they are always there, mostly loudly rooting for the club, passionate about their local team. Below is one of some of the younger supporters.  May be players of the future?

Young Dartford Supporters

I’ve also been reviving my interest in Motocross at Canada Heights.

David Bavin on Yamaha 250

Jack Etheridge and Ryan Humphrey

Local driver Jack Etheridge and passenger made 3rd place in the timed practice. Unfortunately they didn’t capitalise on this in the races and finished third in the standings with one more session in the season.  At that event on 9 October, Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain took the overall win from David and Joe Millard with Scott Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain third.

Scott Wilkinson and Dan Chamberlain

Stuart Brown and Josh Chamberlain

David and Joe Millard

In the final championship positions Brown won from Millard with Wilkinson / Chamberlain third, equal on points with Etheridge / Humphrey but take the higher position by virtue of their greater number of race wins.  So the local boy finished fourth, lets hope for even better next season.

Dave Goddard and Scott Cooper

The sidecar-cross events are always entertaining, and the event on 2 October, the British Sidecar-cross Championship event was hotly contested.  Unfortunately I could only stay for the morning, I would have liked to been there for the second race.

And since then I’ve had surgery on my left hand which has taken me away from Photography for a few weeks.  I’m getting withdrawal symptoms, I am concentrating on getting full use of my hand so I can get back to what I love doing.

Toll increases at Dartford Tunnel

You may have read that there is a proposal to increase the toll charges in November and again in April to outrageous levels. Residents in Thurrock are equally appalled.  I am sure, like me, you think this is totally unacceptable.  Last night we attended a public meeting held at the Mick Jagger Centre, Dartford, organised by Dartford MP Gareth Johnson.  Crucially, this was timed to start at 5 p.m. so there were no more than 40 people there.  When I commented on this, and the fact that had it been later, those people who travel to and from work using the M25 might also have attended, the response was somewhat dismissive. I get the impression that they didn’t want too many people there …

We sat through various presentations with increasing degrees of irritation. The bridge was ‘paid for’ in 2003 and the government went back on its promise to stop charging then.  They hiked the toll to £1.50 in 2008.  We learned that last year they made £37,000,000 in PROFIT from the tolls. Plainly, Gareth Johnson’s stance is that there should be no tolls at all.  However, the “Consultation” procedure which started in June and ends on 23 September (how many of you knew that?) does not even include that option.  It was ruled out before they started the consultation.  From that I deduce it is a TICK BOX JOB.  They just want to be able to ‘prove’ they have gone through the consultation procedure.  Impressed, you bet NOT.

The plan is to remove the toll booths and replace them with ‘smart’ technology rather like the congestion charge in London where you pay remotely and they scan your numberplate.  Big Brother or what?  They also plan to build another rivercrossing to deal with increasing road usage.  One possibility is add another bridge at Dartford, other plans under consideration include at Swanscombe or even Gravesend.

According to the  Department of Transport representatives, and the Highways Agency people there, the only way to get one’s opinions taken into account is to complete the consultation questionnaire found at http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2011-08 and return it before 23 September. Considering this is a nationwide consultation, and not just aimed at Dartford and Thurrock residents/businesses I was alarmed to discover that so far they have received 1000 forms so far, with less than 2 weeks to go.  I cannot understand why an MP like Gareth Johnson cannot add weight to this consultation on behalf of his 75,000 constituents, and the same for the Thurrock MP at the very least.

Jeremy Kite, the Leader of Dartford Council was there and spoke up for Dartford residents.  Councillor Patrick F Coleman, the former Mayor Dartford was also there.  In my view every single Councillor from Dartford should have been there too.  Everyone wanted to express their views, and the meeting well ran over time.  Those people from the DoT and the HA could not have mistaken the anger at their ridiculous proposals.  The simple solution is to remove the toll booths and allow the traffic to flow.  Minimum cost.  Effective solution.  But no, they want to spend our money on expensive high tech stuff and then charge us again for using it.  Someone is getting backhanders to push this sort of solution.

This government is determined to strangle its working population.  We are faced with excessive rail fare increases, excessive petrol prices, excessive electricity and gas prices and now excessive tolls on the M25 Dartford Road Crossing.  If, like me, you are faced with a pay freeze and your income is disappearing quicker than Mo Farah, its about time to say STOP.  Have your say.

We all complained about the last hike in tolls and were completely ignored.
The same will happen again (way above inflation).
To demonstrate WE MUST CREATE A BLOCKADE. This is the only way the Government will listen.
To relieve congestion, all they have to do is make it free to cross.
This will never happen, because all they want is to take as much money from us as possible, when people don’t have any.
Fleecing the public is their intention.
As I said, we must get together and demonstrate.

(one commenter from Thurrock).

Adventures on Malta

As I have said, we only spent two days of our holiday actually on Malta.  One day we went there to see if we could find a hotel for the final evening, as we had an 8.00 a.m. flight home, which would mean getting up at 3.00 a.m. to leave Gozo in time to get there.  Our friend drove us through the island from the ferry, along the coast road to Valletta. It was immediately noticeable that the roads were busier, there was much more traffic and we had left the relative peace of Gozo behind.

We drove round Valletta with little idea about where we might find a hotel, and parked along the harbour wall by the Gun Post as we came upon a recently vacated parking spot.  Parking was pretty difficult since we got there just before midday.

Horse carriage

One of the first things we saw was one of the many horse-drawn carriages that take tourists for a tour.  I was quite dismayed to see ‘taxi’ ranks of these with the horses pretty well left out in the sun, no shade for them!  The drivers were touting for business.

We made for the interior of Valletta, up one of the many narrow and incredibly steep roads.

Typical Valletta road

Its difficult to really see the buildings properly, even the churches and civic buildings as the roads are so narrow you can’t get a good view.  Most of Valletta dates back a long way and a lot of the buildings look quite old and in a state of gentle decay.  We got there at a time when most of the shop were closed, and the road ways were quite deserted.

Jermyn Street

Every now and again you could spot some out of place reference to London amongst the Maltese businesses.  Quite bizarre.  Amongst the shops were residences, all crammed in.

Wash Day

It seems an odd way to live,  no garden, a teeny weeny balcony and your washing overhanging the road.  But that’s Malta.

We had lunch at Cafe Cordino in the main square.  After that we went to find a hotel.

You’d think that hotels would be easy to spot.  Not at all.  We eventually spotted the Phoenicia and went to enquire.  It was too expensive for our needs.  The nice lady gave us a map showing some of the others we could try.  Trouble was, having a map and actually trying to work out where you were and how to get to where you wanted to go were a completely different challenge.  We decided to look for the Grand Harbour Hotel, and we’d almost given up hope of finding it when we parked by the harbour and I looked up and saw its name emblazoned on the top of it.  We’d found it.  We left the car and climbed up the steep paths and stairs to get to it and booked in.  I’d read that the Grand Harbour had amazing views over the harbour, so we were relieved.  Its quite old-fashioned, but had air conditioning.  We were ready to come back in a couple of days.  We spent the remainder of the day on St Paul’s beach, not far from the Ferry terminal and it was a relief to get out of town.

Valletta Harbour

On our last day we packed up at the flat, made our way to Valletta by about midday as before.  I had really wanted to spend the afternoon at the Mdina.  However, it took ages again to find the hotel, we spent a lot of energy and emotion driving up and down trying to remember the route to it.  Nothing so helpful as a “Hotel” sign anywhere.  Our friend who was driving had had enough and I could understand his feelings.  We didn’t want to risk taking the car ourselves and (1) getting lost (2) losing the parking space we’d managed to find.  So regrettably I never got to see Mdina.  However, after a shower we stomped around Valletta for the afternoon.

Small business?

Couldn’t get over how narrow some of these buildings and businesses were.  How on earth did they get furniture and equipment up and down such narrow entrances?  Quite a puzzle.

There were so many cars everywhere, all parked in the streets.

Easy to remember number plate

Came upon this car, quite a novel number plate.  The cars in Malta generally seem new-ish and quite well cared for.  A contrast to Gozo, where its not unusual to see old Vauxhall Vivas, or Datsuns (since when did Datsun become Nissan?) that probably hadn’t seen a service or a car wash in 10 years.

After an evening meal overlooking the harbour we got to see the place at night.

View from the Grand Harbour Hotel

In the morning we got up early, made our way to the airport without too much trouble.

Air Malta

Walked across the tarmac from the bus to the airplane.  A smooth journey home.

Malta from the air

Our last look at Malta.  I was quite pleased with the Samsung EX1 compact camera that I’d taken with me as well as my DSLR.  It performed well, and many of the pictures including the ones above were taken with it.

It was pouring with rain when we got back to Gatwick.  Typical.  Welcome home, England!

More adventures in Gozo

During our stay we were told that there was to be a “Dive against  Debris” in Marsalfon bay.  Project Aware is the organisation behind this global effort. We met up with Dave and Donna from Bubbles Dive Centre who were organising this, a second effort to raise awareness of the effect dumping rubbish has on the marine environment.  It involved an hour or so of diving around Marsalfon Bay looking for and retrieving dumped rubbish.  My husband volunteered to snorkel as he hadn’t been diving in years.  Our friend had his own diving gear and joined in.  There were several others who came along. The partnered up under the instructions of Dave Hayler-Montague and the watchful eye of Donna and set off.

Dive Against Debris, Marsalfon

Our friend’s partner donned the Marigolds and helped collect the found rubbish in a bucket and I brought my camera along to record the event.  One of the most serious dangers for marine life is the humble plastic bag.  Turtles eat jellyfish and in the water a plastic bag can look just like a jellyfish, but can suffocate and kill a turtle.

Searching for debris, Marsalfon

The depth of the water at the periphery isn’t all that deep and it is very clear.  Debris lodged in amongst the rocks was a main focus in this area.  I took these photos from the edge of the promenade overlooking the bay.

Searching for debris, Marsalfon

The first Dive Against Debris collected 25kg of rubbish, and this second Dive Against Debris collected a huge 60kg.  Some debris included beer bottles, broken wine glasses, the occasional piece of crockery, not unexpected given the number of waterside bars and restaurants.

Finding a discarded beer bottle in Marsalfon Bay

In addition, there as an amount of abandoned rope, plastic containers, even a pair of swimming trunks (the mind boggles).

Finding discarded crockery in Marsalfon Bay

The biggest find was some metal sheeting just dumped in the bay.  It took at least two divers to collect this and heave it out of the water.

The Dive against Debris Team, Marsalfon

The information about the amount, type and location of the debris was recorded into a global project.  Donna and Dave from Bubbles Dive Centre publicized the event in the local press, and my photos appeared in the Malta Times, The Malta Independent as well as the Project Aware website.

Times of Malta article

Malta Independent article

Project Aware website

Project Aware website

Considering that Bubbles Dive Centre is a relative newcomer to Marsalfon, they were over the moon to learn that Project Aware, the international non-profit organisation mobilising divers to protect the ocean, awarded Bubbles Dive Centre of Marsalforn third place in its Global Dive Against Debris campaign. You can have fun and protect the environment at the same time.

The adventure continues..