Good afternoon Hiveworld, I hope all is well with you and you are enjoying your weekend.
I've had a couple of weeks off here but I've still been plowing on with my photography project.
As of yesterday we are half way through the year already, how crazy is that? Flying by :)
Here are a selection of shots from the past couple of weeks and as always I hope you enjoy them.
Title shot.
Down Down.
Nice little family walk this morning and the kids on their bikes.
We always stop off at this little pool and whilst the kids ran around it and threw a few stones I went to look at the waterfall behind which feeds the pool.
I got there just in time for the sun to partially break through the clouds and back light the beautiful fern on the left.
Today's shot in the bag before lunchtime so I'm happy about that.
Golden Brown.
Today has been a good day.
Working from home with Riley, Lauren got her dream job as a teacher, curry for tea (lamb dhal gosht) and a few gins (Witley Neill Blood Orange) to celebrate.
And to top it all off bagged this one super quick as I had already done the washing up.
The toilet broke earlier though, so that may prove interesting in the morning.
This one was bum twitchingly close and made the hairs all over my body stand up.
I really am a big fan of thunder and lightning and this is one of the best displays I have seen in this country.
I saw an incredible one a few years back in Menorca which woke me up and I think that was the time I was most in awe of nature. That one scared me and had me cowering under the villa but I was compelled to keep watching.
25 or 30 second exposure here with the 10 stopper on praying that one of the bolts would grace my frame. I've never seen a lightning bolt bust a 360 before either.
Beautiful Game.
I saw Riley's scruffy old footie today and thought it would make an interesting subject to light up.
Beauty dish above, camera right and 1 x Yongnuo 560iv behind, 1/64th @50mm with teale gel.
Water Damage.
I started out with water drops then ended up here.
These lighter nights combined with lack of ideas and material to shoot it proving tough at the moment.
Another one in the bag though so it's all good.
Sorry not sorry for another water shot.
Just been out on my bike for 3 hours with my mate who looks like Boris Becker and is probably fitter than he was in his prime.
Living on the edge of the Peak District is amazing. Until you have to ride up that edge.
Sleepy time.
My Mum and Dad found some more old slides whilst having a clear out and I got them on today's visit.
I went through the same procedure as last time with the shoe box, macro rings and torch.
This one stood out from the bunch as it is of my Granddad Bristowe. He spent 99% of the time behind the camera and therefore not many pictures of him exist. That said even if I had 1000 shots of him I'm sure this one would still stand out. Tab on the go and a cheeky smile. I don't remember much about him other than sitting on his knee playing a game where you stack your hands on top of one another's and him giving our dog polo mints which he kept in the glass fronted cupboard next to his chair.
I know he was a great cook and a very clever chap. Enjoying Marquetry, playing the Double Bass in a Jazz band, being a scientist and a pretty cool photographer to boot. I wish he had have stuck around longer as I think we would have got on like a house on fire.
Cheers Bristowe and thanks for a lovely evening looking through your shots.
Apologies in advance for another bike shot. I'm not showing off it's just I have a new subject to photograph and that is a rarity.
Beauty dish camera right and heavily diffused Yongnuo 560iv camera left with turquoise gel.
If I manage to stop gawping at it in the next 24 hours I might look for inspiration elsewhere.
I started this one earlier but got sidetracked by Guy Garvey on Jools Holland. What a top bloke he is.
Anyway I found Riley's coat again, my cardboard man and cracked out the lp brushes fiber whip, which to be honest I've not used that much. I'm glad I did as whilst waving it around in various ways happened upon this cool snowy effect.
Whip paired with my Ryus V2 torch waved behind the man then an aperture change to illuminate Riley's coat liner with a torch and green filter attachment.
Transmitter.
Lit with the lp brushes portrait scanner during a long exposure.
Make mine a triple.
Triple axis camera rotation with a blade swap for the off centre ones.
Oddity.
I was trawling through my old 365s earlier looking for inspiration and found an iteration of this and decided to give it a redo.
I managed to get the bedroom dark enough then got set up. Tripod 1 facing the only bit of bare wall big enough to fit me in and framed myself. I tucked 1 x Yongnuo 560iv in the back of my shorts with an old orange water pistol tank over the end, then once happy I added the blue fiber optics from lp brushes. Once happy with that I set up tripod two facing a piece of black card covered in pin pricks and worked on placement of the main flares and their formation. I boxed that off and returned to tripod 1.
I fired the shutter which fired the flash then reached for the blue fibers gripped between my thighs. I worked on my left hand first and my torso then my head before swapping hands and lighting my right hand. I replaced the lens cap, swapped tripods and lenses from 20mm to 50mm. I removed that lens cap and methodically created the stars back lighting the card until happy. Job done.
Originally inspired by the sublime work of R Digi.
All shot in a single long exposure with some light tinkering in Lightroom for mobile.
Happy days.
I hope you have enjoyed looking through my shots. I mainly create light painting images but during these long light evenings the darkness I need is hard to come by. This is good as it forces me into other areas of photography.
If you like the look of my light paintings there is a while community of us here on hive. Details below.
For more examples of innovative and original lightpainting including camera rotation photography, check these lightpainters: @fastchrisuk @dawnoner @mafufuma @oddballgraphics @martbarras @stefan.stepko @rod.evans.visual @yo-hoho @maxpateau These chaps are amongst the best there is!
Give our Hive Community Lightpainters United a follow and you will be introduced into the world of light painting.
What a photographic journey bud! Keep it up 👏
Cheers big buddy. It keeps me sane and drives me mad on a daily basis ;)
Top quality stuff as per usual pal, I'm missing these not being on Flickr and FB as much as I was. Maybe try posting fewer images in each post, say 3 and schedule them a few hours apart? Greater payout by splitting them maybe?
I can't seem to make rhyme or reason on that front. Sometimes the long ones like this with 1000 plus words do really well and other times a 5 minute quickie does the trick for a great payout. I have saved a few of the light painting ones from the last couple of weeks to do as standalone posts. Who knows...probably the same algorithm used for explore 😂😂
Yep, there is deinitely some Flickr Explore voodoo at play here lol. I think there's an element of clickbait in the title and not too many words in the title which ends up as metadata. Pictures with people in them will always do better. Also writing an article like you have here is spot on... I would schedule posts with fewer images a few hours apart and see what happens....
Will do buddy. Fingers crossed it's easier to work out than explore. Either way it's more lucrative than an explore :)
I liked all of your photos, you are a creative person, nice!
Thank you Mary. I try my best and in the main I enjoy it which is the main thing. Thanks for stopping by :)
Good to see you are continuing your project and your pictures just great!
Grandpa was a star :)
Cheers buddy. He was indeed mate. I just he'd have stuck around a while longer so I could have got to know him better. Cheers again and enjoy your weekend