Epic day trips, studio work and FIRE POI!

So far this summer I've photographed a storm in a multitude of gorgeous places. I've been very lucky to be able to visit some of Wales' and the north west's best kept secrets. This last week has no exception, we visited Bodnant Gardens which isn't far from Conwy and is a well cultivated garden, lots of flowers, water features and interesting architecture. It isn't normally what I'd go for, but photographing it was fun and challenging.

I played around with reflections in the various fountains and pools dotted around the gardens, Chris had seen a shot on the website that he wanted to recreate, and it turned out really well. He was very lucky that there was no one in the shot considering how busy the gardens were that day!

We also visited Llandudno prom in order to try to begin work on part of the 'movement' brief for my summer work. Watch this space for pictures as they are a work in progress! Talking of pictures, in a recent post I mentioned having bought an old box camera, the Zeiss Ikon, well I went to pick up my first set of prints on Monday, I'm pleased to say that they exposed well even though several were out of focus or over/underexposed. I'm happy that I now have a starting point to improve on my photography.

Being into all things extreme, it came as no surprise to learn Chris did fire poi, and what better excuse to take the camera out again and get some long exposure shots. The fire was vibrant, and I got some really interesting and creative shots. It was spitting a little with rain, and a little cold near the Sychnant Pass, but it was well worth venturing out for!

Lastly, on Tuesday my friends Abbey and Patrick came around to Chris' where we set up the studio in order to do some more portraits of them. They're getting married next year, and are both very relaxed around the camera, it was nice to catch up again so soon after the last time and I hope that they like this set of photos too!

And finally, a huge thank you to Patrick for getting his hands dirty trying to fix my car! And to the wonderful Chris for letting me use his studio kit for the pictures I did of Ashleigh, and of Abbey and Patrick :D
I hope that the remainder of the summer is as memorable as it has been so far!

Day trip to Manchester and Anglesey

So after 2 days of listing arts and crafts stuffs on eBay for my sister, Chris joined me in Cheadle and we went for a day out. At first we headed to Bramhall park, which has an Edwardian style hall (that was sadly closed that day). Wandering around we took a couple of shots, I was so busy using my new (old) Zeiss that I didn't take anything with my DSLR while I was there.

After the park, we headed on the Quarry Bank Mill, somewhere I've visited years ago. There I took some shots with both my Zeiss and Canon, firstly of one of the machines used to make material and then of the mill itself from the outside.

Today we ventured out to Anglesey, to a place called Ty Croes where we climbed down onto some rocks right next to the sea. Being by the sea is one of my favourite things to do, I love the sound of the lapping water and experimenting with my Zeiss and Canon got some excellent shots.

After receiving the summer work from uni, we've been working to get the landscapes done. Chris is a much more experienced landscape photographer than me, and knows lots of places to take decent shots. I've learned a lot about landscape photography under his instruction!

After Ty Croes, we headed over to a wind farm above Llanrwst. I've only ever been that close to a wind turbine on a coach in Norway years ago. It was a little scary being so close to them, they make a lot of noise which I wasn't expecting, and we estimated the blades must have been turning in excess of 90mph. But they made for great pictures, and the sky was quite dramatic which helped.
Finally we headed to a viewpoint not far from the wind farm, it was a gorgeous place, and the view was stunning. The tall mountain you can see in the distance is Moel Siabod.

So it has been another few days of photography, it's nice to have someone to photograph with.

More soon :)

A Grand Day Out

Again, I've neglected you, blog. This is because I've been splitting my time between here and Conwy and despite having been out almost everyday with my camera I can't show you what I've been doing as the pictures aren't ready.

The reason they're not ready yet is because as we speak, they're being developed! A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex from eBay. To say I was excited about its arrival was a massive understatement! Anyway it came, I went to Cambrian in Colwyn Bay to get it checked over and to buy some film and then off I went with Chris to try it out. Anyway, watch this space!

Anyway, to the point of this blog. For quite some time now I've been meaning to take my Dad back to where he grew up. My sister Joanne took the initiative and organised a day out for us, and Mum to the Wirral.

I'm sure a lot of people are the same, but I love hearing the stories my dad has about growing up. All of the things he used to get up to are fascinating to me, even though he can't understand why! I rolled in last Friday after being at Chris' and Jo was pretty much ready to take us.

Our first stop was Port Sunlight, if you've never been there, I can't recommend it enough! One minute, you're driving down a non-discript road, and the next you take a random left, and go back in time several decades! The roads are clean, every lawn is mowed and the maze of houses are spectacular, apparently there are only 2 of each house and there are streets and streets of them! Most of the 900 buildings (including some larger "principle" buildings) are grade II listed buildings!

What's even more fascinating about Port Sunlight is that it is a village that was built specifically for the workers of Lever Brothers, a factory that produced Sunlight soap. William Hesketh Lever believed that happy workers were hard workers and would regularly take his entire force on trips and supplied them with pleasure facilities. Level Bros went on to become the worldwide company we know as Unilever.

I took photographs of the War Memorial in Port Sunlight, it was so grand without being too over the top. You can see my parents and sister in the picture. I've honestly never seen him get so enthusiastic about anything, I guess considering he hasn't been back there in over 50 years, it's understandable!

He was talking almost non stop as everything he saw reminded him of a story. I took a picture of him in a row of trees near to the Port Sunlight museum and the Lady Lever art gallery.

After we stopped for some lunch, and so dad could rest his legs we went on to Shorefields. It's the street he was born and grew up on, and he got pretty emotional to see how much had changed. There was someone in his old house although by the time we knocked on the door they had gone out. There was a woman gardening a couple of houses down and dad nattered to her for a good half hour.

We wandered through the streets to a clearing that overlooked the Mersey and the Liverpool cityscape across the water. Dad and Jo wandered along while he recounted stories of his youth.

I was taking shots with my Canon and also my new (old) Zeiss, which takes ages to set up as it is completely manual. It really makes you work harder to get the correct exposure, especially when you consider the cost of film and developing!

Anyway I digress. After Shorefields I wanted to get a little closer to the massive boat that was docked nearby and we ended up by a pier that had long since stopped filling up ships, and wandered down the jetty, dad struck up a conversation with a bunch of local kids who were sitting on a gutted and burned out ship while I set up a shot with my Zeiss. It was very run-down, and although I could see the huge ship, it was blocked by the pier. I found a very lonely looking fishing boat to photograph instead.

We stopped at a gorgeous pub just outside of Shorefields, and dad was chatting away enthusiastically all through the meal. It was so nice to see him so happy and enthusiastic despite how much it must have hurt him to walk so much. We all had a great day, a massive thanks to Jo who made it all happen! I think we'll be going back before long! Watch this space...

Another beautiful sunset and a pre wedding shoot

Wow, what a manic few weeks it has been! Having just about got over visiting Alton Towers last week, I had a chance to venture out with the camera. It was a beautiful sunset over Conwy Marina, and so I took a few shots with Chris. I took one of him setting up his shot too, he had clambered over a fence to get to where he was, I wasn't feeling quite so brave.

This morning I was all set to head over to Llandudno to meet my friend Abbey and her fiancé Patrick. I was just about to head out and then I realised I had left my keys in Chris' car from the night before! Eventually, I found a number for a taxi as the trains and buses were all over the place due to Sunday hours. I met them in Whetherspoons and we had a chat about the wedding. It's going to be on Halloween next year and will be loosely based around a Halloween theme.

The weather wasn't on our side to begin with, so we hid in the pub while we caught up and waited for the rain to subside. When it did, we walked down the pier, I'm sure people must have thought we were celebs or something, as they all avoided us! The pier made a nice back drop to the shots and we walked the length and back. There was a parade and lots of stands and stalls down the prom, it turns out today is the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion and it had drawn a fairly big crowd.

As we said our goodbyes, the weather had decided it had held off enough and it began raining again. I'm happy with the outcome of the shots and look forward to the wedding.

A typical north Wales sunset.

Just a brief on today. I've been away from the creative scene for 2 weeks while I earned myself a nice wedge of cash. Now it's over I've already booked myself onto a one-day photography course, and booked 2 shoots as well as picking up the 3 films I'm working on this summer.

The other day, Chris and I were out on a drive around the north Wales countryside with his 5D to take a few shots. I've only uploaded 3 as the light was fading fast so we didn't get many. Today I'm actually going for a walk with my mum, she's taking me to the areas where she used to play as a child so I will be taking my camera.

Today is my sister's 50th birthday, we had a party in Talacre for her yesterday, and I made her cake (a four-tiered chocolate and plain sponge with apricot jam and cream and chocolate on the top) and iced it as well so I've uploaded a shot of that too.

I'm very much looking forward to immersing myself into some creative endeavours for a while. I loathe being out of the loop.

Zombie sheep!

After last week's shoot Chris and I decided to meet for a second (and then third) shoot at his house where he has a studio set up. Something I was very excited to find out about, and itching to get into it so I could take some pictures!

During the shoot last Saturday there were a few sheep dotted around the mountain and I photographed a couple of them. We both commented that the one sheep looked an awful lot like a zombie, so with that in mind, I booted up photoshop and had a play around. It's nothing amazing, but I am happy with the results!

The first of the two shoots we did was using facepaints, I drew a pair of wings onto his back, and we had fun playing around with the ideas. I'm very jealous that he has a 5D, but he kindly let me use it with my new lens, and so the pictures that came out are amazing!

I was shooting in RAW, something I haven't really done before, and was more than a little confused when I got the images onto my computer that I had taken in black and white on my camera, only to find they were in perfect colour! I'm still new to playing around with the RAW images, so the learning is ongoing.


For the second shoot, I brought a pair of skeleton style gloves and some rope and we had a mess around to see what we could come up with. I used my 30D this time, and the difference isn't exactly significant, but there definitely is one there.

I have had a lot of fun taking these pictures, a massive thanks to Chris for letting me use his studio, take up space in his house and for having lots of patience :D I look forward to more shoots with him in the not too distant future.

Two days of portraiture, sunburn and midges!

****WARNING!**** The following post contains nudity and a use of a religious symbol with nudity. If you are a religious person, or are in any way easily offended, please do NOT continue.

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Well, as I have mentioned, I recently acquired a new lens. I've been wanting to point it at people now since I got it more than a month ago. Luckily, I'm part of a couple of modelling forums online so I posted a casting call for a male model. I got several responses on one site, while sending out a couple of messages on another site.

Friday rolls around and I'm driving to Talacre beach to meet up with a young model called Luke, tanned and toned his look was perfect for the beach and we went through the sand dunes and onto the beach itself for a few shots. Still fairly new to modelling it was good to be able to pose him and he was quite natural. I stayed with my sister for dinner that night, and I was exhausted after our hike over the dunes. I didn't have much time to relax though, as I had another shoot the very next morning!

Chris is a photographer turned model. After a drive to Conwy, I met up with him and we clicked instantly. Chatting to him about modelling, photography and allsorts we ventured out to Conwy mountain (aka Mynydd y dref). I don't cope so well with uphill, so after a fair bit of slipping, sliding and walking along a few very narrow edges and several stops to catch my breath we reached the top. The great thing about climbing up stuff is invariably, the reward is more than worth it. And yesterday was no exception. It was truly stunning at the top (well as high as we got). A smattering of buildings and boulders, a left-over of the quarrying that used to go on up there. At the top there was a beautiful pool of freezing water, surrounded on one side by trees, including one that had fallen into the pool. It provided a great start to the photos, we moved on to use most of the buildings, Chris was not afraid to get his kit off, which provided a couple of very strong shots.

After the pictures at Conwy, we decided that we'd go off and do something else since we both had the rest of the day free. I suggested the strange abbey at Talacre where I blogged about back in February and the location for our latest film 'The Wrong Way'.

Admittedly, I was a little jealous seeing his photography kit! Although slightly less so when I picked up his bag (a Lowepro photo trekker AW bag that you could fit a small child in) it weighed an absolute tonne! It took me all the way to Talacre and several pictures in to notice his tripod was a Manfrotto, at which point I momentarily considered stealing it!

As you can see from the two pictures he kindly sent on to me, Chris saw several photo opportunities at Talacre, and I was appointed official button pusher so he could pose in them. It was so eerie to be back there again, especially considering we both forgot our torches and despite having a fairly good one on my phone it was still a little too weak to light some of the really dark spots. There was a couple of times I felt like turning and running, and was convinced I could hear someone following us at one point. Perhaps it was because the location lent itself so well to a horror film?

(Picture by Chris Pollard, taken at Talacre)

Chris seemed as equally impressed as the others I've taken to Talacre. It never fails to shock and surprise people with just how bizarre and eerie it is. Despite extensive research and probing I haven't been able to find out much about it online.

The grave yard was completely overgrown, it hasn't been that long since the last time we went there to shoot the horror video. It is a little sad to think that at some point the location may be too overgrown to reach. It also occurred to me that there might be some parts of it completely buried underground. Sadly, we got stung by nettles, bitten by midges and mosquitoes and I managed to scratch myself on barbed wire twice.

While in the graveyard, Chris took advantage of the crucifix, apologies once again to any of you that might be religious, no offence is meant, it was just a great photo op considering the Jesus that was there has evidently been stolen.

I think it is a very strong picture.

All in all, I have loved being back behind the camera, and I'm happy to report I'll be seeing Chris again tomorrow to work in his home studio.

This week also sees the beginning for plans to shoot my 3rd film this summer 'The Egg'. We'll meet on Tuesday to discuss ideas, myself, Dave F, Sue and Dave R. I'm very happy to be shooting people once more, and it's great working in a studio, but it doesn't beat the possibilities the great outdoors offers!

(Picture by Chris Pollard taken at Talacre)