Portraits : Family Gage

Last weeks wedding was on Sunday so I arranged a family portrait shoot for the Saturday. The Gage family were terrific fun and the weather behaved itself. We headed to Pollok Park in Glasgow for the shoot and afterwards we had a well earned coffee and cake in the Pollok House Edwardian Kitchen Restaurant. Thanks guys; here's a few images from the day.








Daddy Gage (Darren) runs Purple Horizon (an IT Support and Web Hosting & Web Publishing company) based in Glasgow. Thanks for looking.

Photography Exhibition : Glasgow

Conspicuous Consumption : Various Artists

At the moment there's an interesting (multi-media) exhibition in Montgomery's Cafe (near to Kelvingrove Museum). Montgomery's is one of my favourite places for a cake 'n' coffee.

The exhibition (btw nothing to do with indiscreet outbreaks of TB) features the artistic talents of Helen Shaddock, Deirdre McPhillips and Liz West; it's curated by Ugly Duck Exhibits.

24 July to 31 August, 2009

Montgomery's Cafe
9 Radnor Street
Glasgow
G3 7UA
Scotland

Personal Work : Scotland Lochscapes

Today I thought it was time to take my good old Fuji S2 digital SLR (dSLR) camera out for a photography stroll in the Trossachs. Even though I now photograph with the Nikon D3 dSLR I can't bear to part with the old dear. The S2 camera is over 7 years old and in digital years that makes the "almost-APS-size sensor" camera less cropped frame more zimmer frame.

IMO Fuji never bettered the S2. I liked the Fuji S3's vertical grip and ditching the silly CR123a batteries, but the image difference between the S2 and S3 was as tight as two coats of paint. The Fuji S5's high ISO capabilities were widely exaggerated (IMO) and to say the menu layout is horrible is exactly what I was going to say. The best things about the S5 are the flash commander mode function and of course rebadging the naff Finepix to the rather cool Fujifilm. So with no S6 on the horizon it looks like the S2 is as good as it's going to get (dSLR-wise).

Here's a few photographs I shot at Loch Venachar with the S2 and the Nikkor 10.5mm f2.8 lens.




The highlights on following photograph are a total all f's blow out. But what (new) camera wouldn't do the same? considering the lighlight is the Sun itself ;-)

If you are one of the many who email me regarding digital black & white conversion techniques, you'll be pleased to know I'll blog on this topic in the next few weeks.

Scotland Wedding Venues : Moorpark House

Last Thursday I photographed a fabulous wedding at the equally fabulous Moorpark House Hotel. Moorpark House is situated just outside Glasgow in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, Scotland. The House has been restored by the current owner Graham Conrathe and is a stunning venue. Here's the outside :



The weather was incredible and I'm looking forward to returning soon. Here's a couple more images from the day.

Photography Exhibition : Peebles

Landscape Large & Small : Dougie Johnston

The Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre in Peebles is currently showing a Dougie Johnston photography exhibition. It's described as a collection of photographs from "...the most sweeping panorama to the tiniest detail....the natural world of the Borders and elsewhere on all scales". Here's a link to the exhibition link

13 July to 15 August, 2009
Mon - Sat : 13:00 - 17:00

Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre
Eastgate
Peebles
EH45 8AD

tel : 01721 725785
Free Admission

Favourite Photographers

Garry Winogrand : 1928 - 1984


I've updated my blog list of favourite photographers with the name of Garry Winogrand. Garry captured mid 20th Century American life in the most wierd & (at the same time) compelling photographic vistas.

He was also prolific; very prolific. If you've ever read one of those Monty Pythonesque rants in a photographers blog about how "...in the good old days of film you had to be scrooge-like with your exposures.." and "...you couldn't just snap away like you can now with digital.." or "...I had to shoot 8 hour weddings on 1 roll of 36 exp. film (24 exp. if I wanted to eat that week).."; well consider this : Winogrand is reputed to have exposed 3 rolls of film every day for his entire adult life (100 pictures a day, 36,500 a year). When he died he left more than 2500 rolls of film exposed but undeveloped, 6500 rolls developed but not proofed, and 3000 rolls of unexamined proofs.

So don't feel guilty about how many images you photograph. Equally, the old "film is cheap" mantra is no different to the current "digital is free" nonsense. It wasn't. It isn't. Just do it.

Here's a couple of youtube links to an interesting documentary on the man himself :

Garry Winogrand Documentary Part 1
Garry Winogrand Documentary Part 2