Another trip up Blackpool tower.

Hello, id like to share some images from another trip working up Blackpool's tower, repairing the illumination lighting at great height. 

Arrived to site early and so I walked the long way there. Was surprised to see early morning council worker cleaning the front. 

Ropes set, and decent underway. Always told "don't look down" but you have to in this game. 

Today repairs ongoing to the heart light. 

Sophisticated control gear, power the lighting on the Tower, helps it to change colour and be programmable.

A spectator while working at height. 

Thanks for viewing.

Lee

Offshore rope access technicians.

Hello, 

Today id like to show some of the IRATA rope access technicians that were involved in the decommissioning of the BP Miller. 

Welding on dead weight supports to the risers. 

Rope access welder cutting a riser. 

Long tiring climb back up. 

Rope techs at height happy in their work. 

25 years of rust, in the North sea.

Here, are two images 25 years apart. 

The images are of the "pig launchers", on the cellar deck of the BP Miller platform,

one while the platform was being commissioned, and put together,

and the second, while decommissioning.

Thanks

Lee

Rig removal. North sea.

Infrared lens hotspot.

Good morning. 

If you have purchased the infrared filter as i previously mentioned in a blog post couple of weeks ago, and have been shooting with it, you will have noticed the strange colouring that you have received. 

The bright red file is normal, Prior to shooting setting a custom white balance is recommended. A lot of advice i have read is setting it again green grass or foliage. For the below image being a city scape there wasn't much grass around, so i chose to shoot in RAW and play with the white balance later in post. 

Infrared blocking filter Hoya R72 Lens hotspot 24-70mm F2.8 Lee Ramsden

Infrared blocking filter Hoya R72 Lens hotspot 24-70mm F2.8 Lee Ramsden unprocessed out of camera

One thing i have learn is the visible hot spot in the centre of the image. I shot this using Nikons 24-70mm f2.8 and lens hot spots are a most common problem encountered when shooting infrared light. They usually manifest in the form of a bright circle, sometimes in the shape of aperture leaves directly in the center of the image. The problem is exaggerated as you stop down (increase f stop number), with the spot becoming more prominent and defined. 

Hot spots can be caused for a variety of reasons, the most common of which is the coating on the inside of the lens barrel being reflective in IR light. Another frequent reason is light interaction between the coatings of the lens elements. A less common reason is light interaction between the lens elements and the imaging sensor(usually the micro-lenses) in the camera. In this case using the lens on one camera model may have no hot spot issues and on another model there could be prominent hot spots.

Unfortunately, if your lens has this issue the only solution is to simply use a different lens altogether. Fortunately the majority of lenses don’t have this problem or the problem is very minor and normally not visible in images.

Once i find a suitable lens and am happy with the results ill report back. 

If you have any suggestions to use on a Nikon body id like to hear your views. Feel free to use the contact page.

I hope that you enjoy these images. This is a new technique and something i am enjoying playing with. 

Thanks

Tower Bridge, sunrise. London.

Nikon D800 f11 30sec ISO100 24-70mm@55mm

Good morning, 

I couldn't resist, another image of Tower Bridge on the river Thames. 

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

Thanks

Tower Bridge, London

Nikon D800 f11 13sec ISO100 24-70mm@45mm

Another image of the World famous Tower Bridge in London on the River Thames. Taken at 04:24hrs with a prominent Moon showing. 

Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England which crosses the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name, and has become an iconic symbol of London.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tensional forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower. The bridge's present colour scheme dates from 1977, when it was painted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. Originally it was painted a mid greenish-blue colour.

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

Thanks

Tower Bridge at Sunrise.

Nikon D800 F8 1/13 ISO200 24-70mm@48mm

Another 3am start to get into London and set up ready for the sunrise. 

Here is a shot of London's tower bridge reflected in a shop window to try and give some symmetry. 

I adore Tower bridge, it is a wonderful looking structure. And is classic iconic London landmark.  As you can see from the below iPhone image, it is easily visible even by plane.

iPhone 4S f2.4 1/15 ISO800

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

Thanks

London Shard building.

Nikon D700 F18 0.4 ISO3200 21mm

An image of the Shard building in London, taken from moreLondon's shopping area. If you are taking picture from here watch out for security as they will move you on. Even at 5am and not a sole about... 

This was a frame taken from a timelapse video, foolishly i changed the ISO to a ridiculous 3200 and forgot to change back. Luckily the Nikon D700 can handle the high ISO not too bad and so all not lost. 

I am fascinated with the Shard, i think it is a stunning looking building. I took the below image from the viewing gallery near the top. Please check out a couple of posts on the Shard, 

The view at the Shard - How to work around using a tripod

And the importance of a polarising filter - When shooting through the glass windows. 

Hoya 52mm Pro-1 Digital Circular Polarizing Screw-in Filter

Hoya

Buy on Amazon

Hoya 58mm Pro-1 Digital Circular Polarizing Filter

Hoya

Buy on Amazon

Please feel free to share this post on your social media, giving credit to the photographer Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com

Thanks

Lytham Time lapse iPhone images.

Here are a few iPhone images taken whilst i was waiting for a time lapse set up to complete.

As you can see from the above image i had 4 and a half hours to kill...

The Kessler Cineslider. So far I'm pretty impressed with this bit of kit. Each time i take a time-lapse it gets tweaked and set up slightly different. Using lighting stands and moveable heads with the aid of a spirit level helps no end in getting the shoot straight from start to finish. 

My old Nikon D700 is now used for the time lapse work.  

Lytham green and windmill. 

Helvellyn composite images.

Hi, i thought id share the images that i used to create the image bellow.

The top left image was me putting my idea down as a drawing.

The Helvellyn page was created in photoshop with taking some information from Wiki.

Also i used a wood effect background which was warped and pulled about to make it fit into the scene.

Snow in Dunstable.

I spent Christmas at work on an oil rig,

I was down in the south of England for New Year with family and loved ones.

As you are all aware the weather has been awful of late.

We got it hard in the North Sea over Christmas, I was itching to get home and have a play in the snow with the camera before it all melted.

Well, my luck was in, i’m now in Dunstable and the heavens are open, I set out to get some pictures of the snow. 

The sky was dark and not looking good, I took a few shots of the people who were wrapped up warm braving the cold. 

Whilst on the retreat back to the house... 

feeling a bit disappointed, as there wasn't much that could be taken. I see the sky start to clear. 

Oh yes, happy days....

I take my time to see what will unfold before my eyes. Some stunning colours started to come out.

I took a few snapshots of the cold and grey. My favourite piece of the weather is the cemetery scene.

Xav and Corinne Shoot.

Good friends of mine Xav and Corinne wanted some pictures taking of themselves. 

Corinne is a singer/song writer. Her personal site is here and goes under the name Vanessa René

" and so want a promo pic, where as Xav loves his bike and so wanted one with his beloved triumph bike...

The Bike picture, i was trying again with the flash at sunset theme i like. This has worked better then the car one i have previously done. 

Once again the TTL mode is letting me down. It has made me bite the bullet and im saving for some pocket wizard flash syncs. With syncs you can be so much more creative too, rather then just placing the flashes where they can see one another.

Here are my 2 favourite images from the day.

Arm Wrestling.

Last night i went round to a very good mate of mine's in Manchester. After a few beers the camera came out and so we had a mess around.

Here are a couple of images - the making of the idea, and the finished image…

Ronin Ryu Atemi JuJitsu, Martial Arts Club.

A mate of mine runs a martial art club in Blackpool. I loved the idea of trying to catch some natural shots of the guys, and girl - doing they're thing.

I didn't want to use a flash on this shoot so I could fit in better and try to be unnoticed.

Scot who runs the Club is a fantastic teacher, very clear and puts things into perspective, so everyone can understand. 

The people who train there are great, there are no egos, 

all just want to train hard and enjoy it.

Scot runs self-defence and fitness classes also.

Car Shoot with Dom.

Through a friend, i have met a photographer called Dominic,

He has some fantastic ideas and some very well exicuted work.

We decided to hook up and have a play with our cameras, he has a love for car photography and so i cleaned up the car. It was interesting to see how he views things.

i always find it interesting to talk to the educated photographers.  As i am self taught, its nice to see how they tick. 

This was a fun day, the fish eye'd picture was taken right on Preston North End's football ground. We turned up and asked the girl on reception, that we are students and for a project, can we shoot a car there. 

This is something i think can be used time and time again.

Here are a couple of shots from the day.

Lee has Discovered PHOTOSHOP!

As anyone who is looking to improve their photography, will at some stage came to the cross road, where you have to decide, 

how and what to use to edit your images. 

After much reading as there are hundreds of programmes out there, some free, some mega expensive. What offers you what.

I chose the Adobe Photoshop brand, there are many versions, and different programmes, but I am a big believer in buying what you can to try and limit the need to upgrade at a later stage. So I went for Photoshop CS4 and im over the moon.

Well, I say over the moon lightly, its more frightened feeling to be honest, you sit there download the programme and it opens, oh my!

Now what do I do?

There are a million of settings, boxes, tools....

hmmm I think a book is going to be needed for this or a Degree course Ha!.

I would strongly recommend downloading Podcasts, they are free and offer some fantastic tuition,

if not there are various magazines out there, books all sorts on the photoshop software.

Here are a couple of pictures of me playing about on Photoshop, i took the first image trying to be smart and have a photo of lots of me, but that evening out in a bar, a mate suggested a picture of trying to give yourself a head lock...

Aaaarrrgghhhh,, you cant throw a curve ball at me like that!

and so hung over the next morning, all i could think about was to try and create this shot,

and so here is me - giving myself a head lock :0)

A couple of Shots from Manchester.

Here are a couple of images that I have taken.

I have seen many versions of the light trails and wanted to give it a try, the lights are not that pin sharp, as I would have liked and so I will definitely revisit this idea at a later time.

Out and About Manchester.

I am Currently Living in Manchester, right in the centre which is fantastic, in the days my house mate works, and so trying to learn and take better shots, (like us all) i walk about town, trying to find cool things to shoot.

here are a few image

 i hope you enjoy.