alan frost photography

Photo opportunities – always have a camera with you

So often when out and about, I see something and say to myself if only I had my camera with me. Every photographer will have uttered those words at some time and probably more than once! Well from now on I will try and avoid that mistake. I will also follow the saying which states – ‘the best camera, is the one you have with you’. How true is that! The next couple of images were taken on the way to somewhere else, with no intention whatsoever of releasing the shutter on the journey but on both occasions I did have a camera in the car.

The first is a shot of the late afternoon light on the South Downs in West Sussex between the villages of Amberley and Storrington. This was captured with the Olympus EM5 and 45mm 1.8 prime lens. Its not the best landscape photograph I have ever taken but I think its quite pleasing and I wouldn’t have it at all, if I hadn’t got the camera with me.

The second image is a sky scape taken on my way home from work. The dramatic clouds and light were crying out to be caught on camera. On this occasion the Olympus E-PL3 was in the car with nothing more than the standard kit lens and attached EVF (electronic viewfinder). An almost essential extra when in bright light.

Once downloaded into Lightroom on the computer at home, I wondered how well this image would convert to black and white. Well here is that version using my favourite ‘plug-in’ for Lightroom – Silver Efex Pro.

Which one do I prefer? Well I’m not sure, they both have their merits, I think its down to personal choice. If I had to come off the fence then the ‘black and white’ version would win the day. All I do know is that had the little Olympus E-PL3 not been in the car, there wouldn’t be a choice, as there wouldn’t be a photograph to look at!

The Olympus E-PL3 which started my love of the micro 4/3rds format.

New club season underway

Earlier this week the first club competition took place at my local camera club in Havant. After a successful season last year when I was promoted to the ‘A’ league for both the print and projected image (PI) competitions. I was now be up against the ‘big’ boys and ladies of course! Our club is in the 1st division of the Southern Photographic Federation (SPF) for both prints and PI’s, so the standard is pretty high.

Much to my amazement, one of my two entries scored 10 out of 10 and is shown below. My grateful thanks to Derek Trendell ARPS, for getting the season off to a great start! The image entitled ‘Ride along the prom’ is shown below.

‘Ride along the prom’

My other entry was again black and white and called ‘Contemplation’. It scored 8.5 so I was very satisfied with the combined result. I am sure as the season progresses I will not have the same good fortune. During the season there are four competitons for both prints and PI’s, so a total of 8 submissions in each category. At the end of the season the best six scores are counted. At the very first meeting I attended a couple of years ago, I was told how difficult it was to select images for competitions, as all judges adopt a slightly different approach. They do all require a technically competent photograph, well composed with no blown highlights and reasonable detail in the shadows. The rest is somewhat subjective and what might grab the attention of one judge could easily be discarded by another. So the job of trying to decide which images to enter, gets harder and harder in the quest for a good score. I do like the competitive element but for some it may drive their photography down a certain path, which may not necessarily be a good thing. Right here and now it works for me but I might change my opinion in the future.

‘Contemplation’

I was also very pleased to learn that two of the photographs I had submitted for the SPF Exhibition were selected to be shown at the beginning of next year.The venue for the exhibition is Salisbury Library and starts on the 5th January and runs until the 26th January. There is a preview evening on Friday 4th January. Its a long way to go but it would be fun to be there on the opening night. More details of the SPF Exhibition here.

The two images which were selected are ‘Sand Waves’ and ‘Sea Swirl’ – both shown below.

‘Sand Waves’

‘Sea Swirl’

I don’t wish to brag, but ‘Sand Waves’ did rather well last season, as it won me ‘PI of the Year’. It came as quite a shock when it was chosen as I don’t remember winning any trophies before. It really was quite embarrasing to walk out of the hall clutching four of them! For the record here they are.

Unfortunately they will all need a good polish when this season comes to an end!

The Silver Arrows at the Goodwood Revival Meeting

1934 heralded the arrival of the Mercedes and Auto Union to GrandPrix motor racing. It was a wonderful era and these two makes affectionately known as ‘The Silver Arrows’ dominated top level racing. A year later in 1935 they made their UK appearance at Donnington. 75 years on and to mark this anniversary the 2012 Goodwood Revival Meeting brought this famous racers together once more.

The attention to detail at this annual event is so special that the cars were housed in an authentic recreation of the pits at the Bremgarten circuit which staged the Swiss Grand Prix in 1938.

As well as recording these magnificant cars in camera, there was an artist doing a superb pencil drawing of one the Auto Union racers.

All the photos were taken using an Olympus EM5, imported into Lightroom and converted into black and white using Silver Efex Pro.

The Silver Arrows lined up in the pits
Olympus EM5 12mm 1/320 f9 ISO 400

An Auto Union Silver Arrow with the ‘artist’ in the background
Olympus EM5 20mm 1/60 f2.8 ISO 200

The artist and a superb pencil drawing
Olympus EM5 20mm 1/20 f2.5 ISO 200

An Artist drawing one of the Silver Arrows

An Auto Union being rolled out for action
Olympus EM5 45mm 1/500 f3.5 ISO 400

An Auto Union - one of The Silver Arrows

Magnificent machines all in a row. An extraordinary sight
Olympus EM5 45mm 1/60 f16 ISO 400

This is the first entry about the Goodwood Revival Meeting. When time permits more will follow.

Goodwood Revival Meeting this weekend

It’s mid September so once again its time for the Goodwood Revial Meeting which starts tomorrow and finishes on Sunday. I have photographed this event in the past, so on this occassion I shall be concentrating on capturing the historic ‘vintage’ flavour of the event. Black and white will be the order of the day and I shall be exploring new areas of the circuit and of course people watching. I will be there for two out of the three days, so the Olympus OMD memory card could be quite full by the time the last chequered flag is waved on Sunday. I will post a selection of images in the weeks to come, but in the meantime here is the Ferrari 250 GTO taken in 2010.

‘People and Places’ – Littlehampton Seafront

This is the second post which relates to Jacqui Hurst’s ‘People and Places’ course I attended at West Dean College earlier this summer. In complete contrast to our visit to Glorious Goodwood we spent a day at Littlehampton; a typical and relatively small seaside resort on the south coast.

Whilst a colourful location I stuck to the brief I had imposed on myself at the begining of the course, i.e. choosing monochrome for all of my images. I tried to concentrate on textures, tones and good composition whilst trying to capture the ‘feeling and atmosphere’ of the seafront. Fortunately the weather was dry and bright so there were a fair number of people around. At times though it was overcast, but this helped from a photographic point of view as I did not have extremes of contrast to worry about.

Some of the group felt uncomfortable photographing people. I very enjoyed the experience and the Olympus EM5 certainly allowed me to be a little more discreet. Had I been using a substantial DSLR with a large zoom lens and I am sure I would have felt very different as I went looking for suitable subjects.

Once again the kit lens stayed in the bag and I switched between three primes lenses. 12mm, 20mm and 45mm which equate to 24mm, 40mm and 90mm if using a full frame 35mm sensor.

All the photographs were taken in RAW with an Olympus OMD EM5, imported into Lightroom and converted into black and white using Silver Efex Pro2. I have to say that Silver Efex Pro is a joy to use when converting images to monchrome. The contrast and structure adjustments can really bring the image to life, increasing tonal range and texture. I am still very much learning about black and white but for me there is a certain something about the results which pleases me.

Unusual bench seating along the promenade
Olympus EM5 12mm 1/160 f11 ISO 200