IRATA rope access training course.

Big apologies for not having a post for some time now, 

with work, the new house and the baby, my hands are pretty busy, 

but i couldn't be happier. 

I am planning a trip to the Brecon Beacons in the near future, which i am super excited about,

Here are some images i snapped on a recent rope access course. I was refreshing my IRATA Level 3's ticket and so was in for a weeks beasting!!

I can highly recommended the training over at

C&J training in Blackpool. The training centre comes under the Talon umbrella and John is a great trainer there. 

It was an informative week. I understand a few of you are photographers. This post has no relevance to you? 

But ask your self - How many times are you at work, and at height? up step ladders? on roofs? hanging out of a window? I know even you wedding photographers are guilty of this. This course is not for you, but take some time and look at the working at height guidelines. Hurting yourself is just not worth it. no work - no cash right?

Say your assistant takes a tumble, your insurance will turn their back if nothing is in place. Say good bye to your business, once you pay out the court fee's and the settlement. 

Here is what the HSE say about it. Thanks for reading. 

Red Arrows.

Over the Weekend Southport had an Air Show.

From over the water in Lytham we could see the planes.

Here are some images of the Red Arrows,

It doesn't matter how many times you watch them, i am always in awe.

There is some amazing talent needed to fly with pin point precision like they do.

A subtle technique, but goes a long way..

Hello, here is a little tip which i have recently picked up and thought id share as it makes such a lovely difference.

When working on images of buildings here is how i now add contrast.

Rather then use contrast adjustment layer, i created two levels layers, one darker and one lighter - both with black layer masks.

Now take your time, and paint in, where the face of a building is lighter, make it lighter and the dark side darker. It takes a little time, but certainly gives your image much more depth and a 3D feel to them.

 This image has the effect turned off. 

The extra layer you can see is a contrast adjustment layer to the lighter layer.

Here is the final image with the contrast technique added. 

Subtle but certainly makes a lot of difference to the image.

Canary Wharf London.

Here is an image of Canary Wharf.

This image came about after alot of scouting on google maps, and street view.

From the way the road intersects with the rail line i thought that it would be worth checking out.

If you take you time and plan where you want to be at sun rise certainly goes a long way.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Lee

Battersea Power Station.

Here is an image i took one early morning of Battersea Power Station.

This image was made up of 3 exposures, one for the sky, building and the water. 

I converted to mono in Nik Software silver efex pro 2, and again i processed three times, one for the sky, building and water. 

I hope you like. 

Take care

Lee

London Westminster, Houses Parliament, Big Ben.

Here is an image i have taken in London on a cold 4am morning.

Westminster with Big ben clock face is an iconic view and a tourist hotspot, but at this hour not a sole around. 

I hope that you enjoy and are having a great weekend.

Lee

Canary Wharf London.

With recently spending some time at the in-laws waiting for the baby to arrive, i have used the time to head out and about at sunrise 

Above is an iPhone image of my location on the Thames. 

Alarm call for 02:15hrs - and headed out, just a shame the weather did not really play ball, but thats landscape photography for you. 

Below is the image created by the d-slr.

This is certainly a location ill revisit to try and capture an image of more what i had in my mind. 

Thanks

Lee

15 minute exposure using Lee filters big stopper and circular polariser. 

Lee Digital SLR Starter Kit

Lee Filters

Buy on Amazon

Lee Filters Big Stopper Glass Filter Neutral-Density

Lee Filters

Buy on Amazon

Patiently waiting.

This morning I was patiently waiting for the sun to rise in a cool location.

Here was the view behind me. 

10 points if you can guess where i am....

Hope you have a great day.

Lee

Polarising Filter.

 Hi,

Today is just a quick post, but wanted to try and show the importance of using a circular polarising filter. Here you can see from a shot of London from the View at the Shard, i had to shoot through a window.

This image you can see the reflections in the glass from inside of the building. 

By using a polarising filter, it is not perfect, but seriously cuts out the reflections and so saves you much more time having to edit less.

Like always if you have any questions please feel free to post in the comments. 

Hope that you enjoy the rest of your Sunday... 

The above image would not have been able to been created so clean without a polarising filter. 

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

Thanks

Lee Circular Glass Polariser 100x100

Lee Filters

Buy on Amazon

77mm HOYA PRO1 Digital Filter Circular Polarizer PL DMC Filter

Hoya

Buy on Amazon

The view from the Shard London HDR image break down.

Hi, hope your keeping well and have had a good weekend. 

Here are some images from the previous London landscape image that i have posted. 

I wanted to show the images used to create the final image. 

I clamped the camera down to the handrail using the Manfrotto Magic arm and using a cable release i rattled a few bracketed frames. 

I have included the metadata on each image, but other then converting to jpg, they are straight from the camera and in the order the camera took them and i added to Nik softwares HDR efex pro 2.

Here is the first base image. In face i quite like this exposure but i personally prefer having the extra range to play with. 

And finally this is the out put from the software. As you can see it has little punch, no halos. or even much contrast going on. But the key is to get a nice base to start with, and then bring this into photoshop and make it your own.

I have tried many different HDR software on the market and not one will you be able to click process- done.

But i do think that this is a good thing, no 2 images will ever be processed the same and so this way it makes you take your time and make something unique and more realistic.

Here is the final image. 

Thanks.

Lee

The View at The Shard London photography tips.

Hi, how are you? 

I hope that you are well, while I'm stuck out at work on the rig for a month....

Last week I took a trip to the new viewing platform in the Shard building- London.

72 floors high you get an incredible view of London.

You have to book in advance and pick your time slot, I was particular in that I wanted the sunset to dark.

After googling the timings I was happy that we would catch the setting sun, but just had to have our fingers crossed for the weather :0)

As you can see, we were so very lucky in the weather front, after so much snow and bad weather recently.

I wanted to give a couple of tips that i found so handy while shooting here.

and these tips will not only help if you fancy going up the Shard but I'm guessing 99.9% of tourist locations.

Tip 1

- The venue Tripod ban...

A lot of tourist venues have a tripod ban and so you are not allowed to enter with / or use one.

As you can see i over came this by using a Manfrotto magic arm, and super clamp. 

The security observed me using this and did not bother in the slightest. 

While using the clamp and magic arm, i treated it like a tripod and so was using my cable release to gain much longer shutter speeds. 

Tip 2

- Don't for get your polariser filter.

To try and reduce the reflections you gain shooting through the glass, a circular polariser filter is not perfect, but cuts down the problem loads. 

Nothing will stop the other members of public and their point and shoots, using the flash - still amazed at what they recon the on camera flash will light up. 

That its, i can really recommend the Shard, it was a fantastic experience. 

Keep in touch in the comments bar bellow...

Thanks 

Lee

Manfrotto Super Clamp without Stud

Manfrotto

Buy on Amazon

Manfrotto Magic Arm without Accesories

Manfrotto

Buy on Amazon

Amsterdam canal by boat.

As followers of this blog will know i head over to Amsterdam at least twice a year,

It is such an amazing city, spilling out at the seams with art and design. 

My favourite way to view this city has to be on the canals by boat. Im very lucky that my cousin and her fella have their own boat. 

Grab some beers, head out and enjoy the diverse and interesting sites of Amsterdam!

Long exposure using Lee Filters.

With recently purchasing some

Lee filters

i wanted to get out and have a play.

My mate Phil and i, headed out to London, i wanted try a show movement of people, and rush hour in London is ideal as its full of hustle and bustle.

These images were shot at f16 with a 5 second shutter delay. Using ND filters they help you to achieve the long shutter speeds required for a shot like this. 

I used a .09 ND filter for these images but i do also own the Lee 10 stop Big stopper. Which is an amazing filter used to achieve really really slow shutter speeds.  

Many thanks

Lee

Lee Digital SLR Starter Kit

Lee Filters

Buy on Amazon

Lee Filters ND 0.9 FULL

Lee Filters

Buy on Amazon

Facial Hair.

As a lot of you guys will know, i have just turned 30 yrs old. 

While i was away offshore with work it dawned on me that since i have started shaving (from about the age of 6!) i have never gone longer then 4 days without being clean shaven.  With spending a month away at work i decided that i would not shave. 

Here are a couple of images of me playing around with some face hair.  

Here is me going from a hairy creature to a clean suited individual.

Life on a rope.

Here are a few images recently taken from a trip offshore with my little GF1. 

Its was over 40 degrees in heat and hanging from a rope out in Azerbaijan in the Caspian sea, on the BP Shah deniz Gas rig. 

My Volvo V50...

December i bought i brand new Volvo V50.

the previous car was a guzzler and so was fed up of paying through the nose to keep it on the road..... Que the volvo... and being an estate car its a true family work horse, loaded to the hilt with gear and getting away for weekends is fantastic. 

Here are a few images of the car on a great rough location 50 metres from the house, plus some detail images. 

These two images are a mock advert that i made. 

A Brett Harkness training course.

Recently i attended a Flash lighting training course ran by the talented Brett Harkness. 

I throughly enjoyed myself and walked away with a head full of gold and things to try out to my own images. Here is the

training website

There are heaps of amazing courses to choose from, i can see where a lot of my future pay cheques are going.

Brett's bio -

"I have been a professional photographer in the uk now for over 10 years, previously working in the USA in Miami as a cruise ship photographer. In my eyes I am a photographer. I don't see it as a job, but who I am. I could be seen as the "go to" guy for all things people! I love to take photographs; whether it is a wedding, family shoot, commercial or travel assignment, fashion campaign or whilst teaching on one of our many courses."

I booked onto this course as i was blown away by Brett's images, if you want to be the best, then you learn from the best. 

There are so many tutors out there at the moment, who are offering high-end wedding training, and they have never done a high-end wedding -

Where as Brett does day in- day out... 

-The following images were taken on a course, Lighting positions, models, outfits, locations all chose by Brett and his team. -

A couple of days in Amsterdam.

Once again i headed over to Amsterdam to catch up with my family and friends out there for the Queensday celebrations. 

Here are a few images from the couple of days i spent there. 

 Street performers in the main square.

Have you picture taken.. and a beer all for  €4.. bargain! Thats where wedding photographers are going wrong, they dont include any beer in their packages...

One busy party Canal.  

This lady is having a good time. 

Orange! 

They say you dont get anything for free... 

 Street party.

My aunty and cousin rock and rolling.. I love the smile on my aunts face, it shows how happy we all were to be there.  

A Bouncy Castle, a Lion and an African DJ... only in Amsterdam.. 

Night Shift offshore.

Here are some images taken at night while offshore at work. These images believe it or not are taken with the Lumix GF1, i would never have been able to have taken these with the Canon G10. The quality is superb!

A self Portrait.  

An Edit from Glyn Dewis course.

With having a couple of images, one of Dave above and Steve below taken in a studio, i wanted to play and create something a bit different. The lighting and images of the guys were taken on a Glyn Dewis course, but these edits are made up of my own ideas and my own stock images. 

Attending a photoshop based course, you learn techniques, and tips on how to improve.

I find that it also inspires me to push the creativity and want to make up my own images.

Thanks 

Lee