Richard Hardwick Photography
My journey with a digital camera
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Archive of "Photography" Category
Brownsea Island
Yesterday a group of us from the Amateur Photographer forum met on Brownsea Island for a day photographing whatever wildlife we encountered. The weather was amazing, early fog and mist cleared to a beautiful sunny autumn day. Food was plentiful for the Red Squirrels so they were well fed and showed no interest in the hazelnuts we had brought. Instead I took the opportunity to photograph dragonflies for the first time.
Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM
Canon EOS 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USMLocation: Multimap
Photoshoppery
I keep wanting to improve my ‘limited’ Photoshop skills, so I set out to take a photograph that I could use the dodge and burn tools on. This one from Mouth Mill seemed to fit the bill quite well:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 20mm f/2.8 USM
The result is a bit over the top, but it was fun to do and I learnt a lot. I quite like the final image…which is nice!
Location: Multimap
The Big Smoke
Last weekend was spent in London. I met some of the guys from the Amateur Photographer forum on Saturday and spent Sunday wandering around on my own.
Canon EOS 40D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
Canon EOS 40D, EF 20mm f/2.8 USMDawlish Air Show
Another meet with guys from the Amateur Photographer forums, this time in Dawlish to photograph the Air Show, a first for me. I rented an EF 400mm f/5.6L lens from Lenses For Hire, great service from them and wow, what a lens!
Canon EOS 40D, EF 400mm f/5.6L USMFirst Prize!
Each month I enter the Amateur Photographer forum competition and I’m usually delighted if I make the shortlist. It turns out I’ve only won last month’s Close Up competition with my butterfly shot, I’m well chuffed. Many thanks to AP editor Damien Demolder for choosing my image, especially when the standard was so high. Link
AP in Oxford
A few of us from the Amateur Photographer forum met in Oxford for the day for a bit of photography and a bit of a pub crawl. Here’s one from the White Horse on Broad Street:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 50mm f/1.4 USMDay Trip to Brownsea
This was my first time on Brownsea Island and what an amazing experience. The Red Squirrels were wonderful and one in particular just kept coming back right in front of my lens:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 200mm f/2.8L II with EF 2x Extender IIBuckfast Butterfly Farm
Another first for me, this time at a butterfly farm. After the initial shock of just how humid it was and waiting almost half an hour for the camera and lens to demist, I had a great time shooting the butterflies. This is a Malay Lacewing laying eggs:
Canon EOS 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USMWebsite: http://www.ottersandbutterflies.co.uk/
A New Hope…
I’ve been in the photographic wilderness for around four years, hardly picking up a camera and not enjoying it. A recent trip to London highlighted this when I didn’t take a single picture all day despite carrying all my camera gear round with me.
Prior to this slump I’d been making a living from photography but began enjoying it less and less as I was shooting what other people wanted in order to sell and not what I was happy with. This took it’s toll and I just quit photography. I had a mass of equipment just sat there, Canon New F-1, Mamiya 645 and 7 outfits all unused. Coupled with moving around the country and no longer having a darkroom I wasn’t shooting film but really didn’t like digital.
My partner and I had a weekend break in Penzance, she wanted to visit all the standing stones in the area, so I took a Fujifilm S5500 with me. This was the realisation I needed, I could shoot digital:
Fujifilm S5500
About Me
I'm an amateur photographer currently living in Lancashire. I've been interested in photography most of my life, two years ago I started to concentrate on shooting wildlife and this year I'm trying genres that I haven't tried before.
This blog is just a few of my thoughts as my journey with a digital camera unfolds. Photos are taken from my Flickr photostream.
Recent Flickr
