| Landscape Photography Blog

Skelwith Summer Sunset

James — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 20:45:06 +0000

It seems like ages since I witnessed a good Sunset. Tonight I didn’t plan on heading out with my camera as, to be honest, the weather wasn’t looking that good, then out of absolutely nowhere came this faint glow in the sky that kept growing into this magnificent show. I grabbed my camera and headed out to my local viewpoint. What a magnificent sunset this was. All over in less than 5 minutes so I was fortunate enough to see it quickly and have such a wonderful view only a few moments walk from my front door. A Lake District sunset to remember.

You can see more of my Landscape Photographs from around Skelwith Fold here in my gallery.

Landscape Photography above Tarn Hows in the Lake District

James — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 09:12:46 +0000

I revisited Tarn Hows in the Lake District this evening for some Landscape Photography with my new Hasselblad HTS1.5 Tilt Shift adapter. Ever since I left Canon in favour of the Hasselblad X1D Medium format system I have missed the ability to Tilt and Shift when composing my Landscape Photographs. Tonight I wanted to try out this new (used) adapter in hope it could become a regular in my camera bag. The Adapter is paired with a Hasselblad HCD24mm F4 lens and via the Hasselblad XH adapter turns my X1D into a rather big and heavy system but if it gives me what I want then I’ll be happy….

Here are two of my favourite shots form this evening and also a new vlog showing the behind the scene process of making this images. It was good to be back out in the Lake District after a 3.5 month break due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

You can see more of my Landscape Photography images from Tarn Hows and the surrounding areas here on my website.

Crosby Beach Storm Sunset

James — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 10:25:26 +0000

I haven’t witnessed a good Storm for a quite a while and to witness that with a great sunset is a wonderful experience.

Crosby Beach Sunset on Slide Film

James — Sat, 30 May 2020 12:38:39 +0000

For a good while I’ve wanted to visit Crosby Beach with my Hasselblad 501cm medium format film camera to shoot sunset on slide film. If you follow my blog and vlog on YouTube you may recall the Slide Film shoot I had on Ainsdale Beach in 2019. I tend to learn towards Negative Film for my film photography. Protra400 is my favourite colour negative film. I’m also partial to black and white film too and at the time of writing this I’m a few shots into a roll of HP5.

Anyway, this evening I headed down to the Beach with a view to catching some form of colourful end to the day at the exact spot where the River Alt meets the Irish Sea. I’ve scouted this location a few times in the past recently in search of new compositions on a familiar place. So, this evening I was determined to get out and see what I can achieve with slide film. My previous attempts at shooting slide film have, if I’m honest, been a failure. I don’t know if that’s because I’m conditioned to using my Hasselblad X1D medium format digital camera with a huge Dynamic Range or if I’m used to negative film that gives me a lot more latitude, but I have, in my own opinion consistently failed when it comes to creating a nice image on slide film.

This evening I wanted to conduct an experiment. Where I use this roll of Provia 100F as a test roll to see how the light falls and is captured in this kind of setting. Here are my results with comments below showing the setting I wrote down after each shot. All images were taken with my Hasselblad 501cm and a 150mm F4 lens. The first two images were the last two exposures of a roll of Portra 400 I had loaded up before I switched to Provia 100F.

Portra 400 with 80mm F2.8 lens as unknown F stop (prob F22)

My friend Sarah who I shot with tonight – Portra 400 with 80mm F2.8 lens as F2.8

Here are my notes from the shoot tonight that I wrote down during the shoot.

1/500th

1/250th

1/125th

The series of shots below included my Circular Polariser and 0.9 Graduated Filter.

I sometime take snaps of the camera setup so I can recall the exposure settings.

1/125th with Circular Polariser and 0.9 Graduated ND Filter.

1/125th

1/60th

1/30th

To say I’m disappointed with these photographs is an understatement. I see 2 problems with my efforts.

1. My process behind the camera is not methodical enough. Being with Sarah and chatting confused me and I can’t seem to focus on more than one thing at once, I lost my way as the sun set, I was flustered. Need more practice.

2. My expectations of what is possible with Slide Film and how I’m applying it needs refining. I know I can do better but my expectations need readjusting.

To round off the night as we left I made these photos on my iPhone. Who needs film hey….

Crosby Beach Sunset ISO3200

James — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 10:51:14 +0000

Crosby Beach early April handheld on my Hasselblad X1D shot at ISO 3200 on my XCD90mm lens.

Crosby Beach – 10th January 2020

James — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 10:42:47 +0000

My first visit to Crosby Beach this year that was worth photographing and sharing. It’s a great location for us photographers at sunset. All of these photographs are available as gallery quality framed prints. Please contact me for details.