Category Archives: Sunsets

Crystal Beachy Misty Thingy

Crystal-Beach Back in Yorkshire after a fabulous working holiday in North Wales, the weather played pretty  fair apart from the workshops when it persisted down all day every time! but when you’re given lemons and all that plus the company was great so made for enjoyable sessions.

having luck but bad luck….. 3 days from trading in our caravan for our brand new motorhome and I decide to take a wall out with the rear end in Wales….not a happy camper!, Caravan Numpty comes to mind I just didn’t think about my left turn when a guy blocked my usual exit with himself and his two dogs…….really grateful to Rhian and Alwyn whose wall I demolished, they were great and have offered to rebuild it without me having to pay, so I owe then a huge thank you plus a picture of their choice next time I’m down.

Hopefully all will go well tomorrow with the collection of the new van…I’ll report back

 

Another shot from North Wales with my trusty crystal ball, a beautiful sunset and or course that gorgeous sea

 

Adrian

Storm Warning

Storm-EXPLOSION  Hi all

 

can’t wait as I’ll be stood here tomorrow for my summer workshops programme, North Wales and Anglesey at its best, 5 minutes later there was an almighty storm, just managed to pack up in time and cover my cameras. There’s a lot to be said for heading out just before a storm, you get the most dramatic skies and nature at it most magical.

3 workshops to run up in Snowdonia and Anglesey, really looking forward to making some new friends with lots in common, Team Ashworth is coming along nicely with a steadily growing gang. Thanks guys.

If you see me and Stormy on Anglesey, do come along and say hello, Stormy gives great kisses for treats.

We have with PWCGwynedd on the 7th September a great Jet Ski event from Blackthorn Farm, really looking forward to catching up with the guys and doing the shots for the website, hope the weather delivers guys…..I’ll be the idiot stood chest deep in the sea while you fly past me!

 

great song attached, goes nicely with the image. Pink Floyd – Marooned

 

Adrian

 

 

Behold

Rhosneigr-July-13-3Forgive the title but its about all I could come up with, when I open it up to full size I can just remember how majestic and glorified the scene was, it was ll to brief a moment but one now captured and it will stay with me for a long time.

Hoping you all have a great weekend

 

Adrian

Mistical Beach

Northumberland-8Monday again, where does the weekend go?

well let me tell you  when you’re laid up with a dodgy knee it feels like 2 months, so frustrating I only hope in a couple of weeks that it will be better, still suffering from anesthetic hangover too, comes in waves of sickness not much fun!.

Jo has been awesome, I only hope I could be a tenth as good at caring if ever she was ill…..x

Still the long term looks good and really needed it doing, I just have to take it steady and let nature take its course  and not be silly, easier said than done for me.

Today’s little delight is from the Northumberland coast, this was late at night 22:15 and the sunset didn’t quit for another hour, in fact we couldn’t get the car back into the camp site and had to carry all our gear through a silent sleeping tents,……. worth every minute though I think you’ll agree.

Put some attached music with this one as I remember I had it on whilst standing in the sea doing the shot, just seems to go with it some how, its by Neal Schon, Song “Caruso” very fine guitar player from Journey and Bad English, two great bands, will have to learn this one I think. anyway controls are underneath so enjoy if you like cool guitar.

Adrian

Four Crowns Tractor

beach-tractorHappy Friday all

this weeks seems to have dragged by so slowly for me, basically sitting doing physio exercises isn’t my type of fun, it has however given me time to catch up with some processing and this shot is from a few weeks ago on Anglesey, titled “Four Crowns Tractor” can you spot them?

My Leg is improving every day but it’s still early days, my Patella ligament is painful when I walk and as for going down hill, don’t ask, agony. I’m probably trying to do too much too soon, but I’m not one for sitting around and having the misfortune of turning TV on and seeing “Jeremy Kyle” for 30 seconds or as fast as I could skip the channel I’d happily rid him for the world, what a disgusting little creature he is.

Jo has suggested I write a book, “People I Hate and Why” what a great idea hey? certainly get more in it than people I like lol,  i honestly don’t think I would have the time or page space to include all those currently in my sites, sad I know but it’s not a festering hate and hate is probably too strong a word, let’s say people who I haven’t the time for….ah better and breath!

Be as well standing in the sea or up a mountain somewhere with Stormy and my camera. Speaking of Stormy she’s well overdue her season and her visits to “Echo” in Bilston, Birmingham, come on Stormy get a move on, we want puppies.

Have a great weekend all

Adrian

 

Peaceful Sunset

Sunset-Sky Great News, Very honoured indeed, I have been asked to judge a photography competition on Anglesey in November, those qualifications do pay off you see..lol probably a lot more to do with the fact I sell more there then anywhere and I’m well known by the locals as the man who stands waist deep in the sea at sunset, or looney maybe a better term!

Update on the knee, its doing fine still very stiff and a little bloody around the scars but good all the same, my main issue is i have one hell of a anesthetic hangover as my mate Scott at PCW Gwynedd pointed out to me, so I feel like I have vertigo and a head full of cotton wool, I’m sure once this wears off I’ll feel a whole lot better.

Workshops are now booked for the 1st two weeks in September North Wales, really looking forward to these, new friends in the making.

Today’s offering is the last remnants of the sun as it sets over the horizon splashing the sky and sea with its beautiful orange glow. It only  lasts a few moments but it’s worth every rain soaked night trying to capture this for just one night. five minutes later and darkness descends and the sounds of sea are all you are left with.

 

Adrian

Sunset Rocks

Sunset-RocksHi all

well I made it back safe and well from my knee operation, mind you its very painful but hopefully it should  heal well as long as I’m careful and be good as new, I just need to rest it and follow the physio guidelines instead of me being pig headed and going our biking or walking! Jo is keeping a close eye on me now.

I had all the debris removed from under my kneecap and I think the surgeon said ligament alignment but I could have dreamed that bit as I’d just come round from the anesthetic, either way I’m very grateful to all the staff at the Claremont hospital Sheffield for all their professionalism and care, especially the ham salad sandwiches and big jug of percolated coffee which was a fantastic pick me up.

Today’s shot is a last sunset from Anglesey I took a couple of weeks ago, I had quite an audience for this one, a few families stood on the rocks watching and laughing as I got a right soaking as the tide came in, will I ever learn? NO, anyway it was well worth it as I’m sure it will sell well.

A big thank you to Jo my long suffering wife for looking after me so well  this last few days, even taking Stormy out at 5:45 for her morning walk in torrential  rain, gotta love her for it.

Anyway, rest time, yeah right, on with more pictures

Adrian

Beach N Bouy

Rhosniegr-Boat-n-Boy

Hot Friday or what?, still red hot weather and its the weekend so expect loads of rain..lol

For some unknown reason I have a swollen neck and itching, best I can come up with is an infection, or I got bitten last night, either way it’s not good the day before surgery, I have taken antihistamine and I’ll see if I can get some antibiotics later off the Dr providing I don’t have to wait a week for an appointment that is, other than that I feel great.

looking forward to a bit of a rest actually once my knees done and its so ready for doing the pain is definitely scoring high on the man scale of pain, akin to standing on a electrical plug pins up! OK maybe not that bad but still not very nice.

I’ll report back after tomorrow with the details, fingers x’d all will be better and I can get back to training properly, it been hold me back months now.

Hope you all have a great weekend

Adrian

Stop And Rest A While

Stop-And-rest-A-WhileOne for all you boaties and dreamers out there….especially now the weather has turned so miserable, but in good old Brut spirit we say “well at least the garden needs it” personally I love it all, we should embrace all weathers and get out there…..anything beats being indoors.

 

Short n sweet today as I have loads on and need to get ready for my knee op on Saturday, well not get ready but make sure I have everything sorted for next week in case I cant walk for a few days.

Will report on the event in due course

 

Adrian

Money Supermarket Challenge

Morning all

a few weeks ago I was set a challenge by Moneysupermarket.com to do a comparison shot, my Canon 1DS MKIII V a budget camera bought from Amazon.co.uk, “easy you say”… Not So, I say.

Firstly I had to contend with the myriad of point and shoot cameras available compared to and being realistic Canon or Nikon in the DSLR range. A quick google and you’ll get 50 cameras all around the £50 mark all claiming to do everything Joe Public will need and more, image stabilization, HD video, effects galore etc etc. The only thing in my favour is that I am pretty happy with Canon and have always stuck with them since I turned professional in 2009, I currently have a 5d MKII a 1DS MKIII and my favourite scouting camera a S100 that is always with me no matter where I am, it shoots RAW and has many capabilities that my main DSLR has at a fraction of the size and weight.

Anyway, back to the “Hot Shot Challenge”, after much searching and researching amazon reviews I came across a Canon Ixus 130 in used condition with a sale price of £54,59 yup I couldn’t believe it either especially with a rrp of £239 but many on sale approx £175 on Amazon.co.uk.

The specification:-

Canon IXUS 130 Details                           canon_ixus130

Camera Type:  Ultra Compact

Megapixels: 14

Zoom: 4x

LCD Screen: 2.7

Memory Cards: SD / SDHC / SDXC

Aspect Ratios: 4:3, 16:9

File Formats: JPEG

Focal Length Equivalent: 28 – 112mm

Shutter Speed: 15 – 1/1500 seconds

Aperture: f/2.8 – f/5.9

Sensitivity: AUTO, ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600

White Balance Settings: Auto (including Face Detection WB), Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom

Exposure Compensation: -2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)

Viewfinder: No

Flash Modes: Auto, Manual Flash On / Off, Slow Synchro

Flash Range: 4m

Metering: Multi-pattern, centre weighted, spot

Shooting Modes: Portrait, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Smart Shutter(Smile, Wink Self-Timer, FaceSelf-Timer), Low Light(3.5MP), Color Accent, Color Swap, Fish-eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Beach, Underwater, Foliage, Snow, Fireworks, Long Shutter, Stitch Assist

Maximum Movie Resolution: 1280 x 720

Max Movie Frames Per Sec: 30 fps

Maximum Movie Duration: 4GB or 10 minutes

Macro Focus: 3cm

ManualControls None

Image Stabilisation Yes

Lens Converters No

Self Timer 10 seconds or 2 seconds

Video Out (TV Playback) Yes

Computer Connection Yes

Batteries Lithium-ion Rechargeable

Dimensions 92.2 x 56.1 x 17.8mm

Weight 133g

The Images:-

Well lets start with my 1ds MKIII value approx £5k along with tripod £1k and a Singh Ray Reverse Grad filter £200, oh and not forgetting my trusty 16-35 f2.8 L USM lens £1500, camera bag and associated gear brings a rough total to £8-10k (I know my wife doesn’t know either) but it does afford me an income and the passion for what I do cannot be price tagged, unless you’re my long suffering wife then its probably several hundred pairs of shoes and the relaxing beach holiday we forgo every year for me to follow my dreams!.

Location: Anglesey       Time: 21:21    Date: 15/7/2013

Money-Suopermarket-1

settings:-

F/11.0, 1/8s, ISO 100, 35mm

Singh Ray Reverse Grad, Lee .9 ND

GITZO GK1581OT Ocean Traveler Tripod

Arctic Muck Boot Wellies, an absolute must, the Irish Sea is freezing even at the height of summer

This is a well balance shot utilising my filters and tripod to hold the position perfectly still. A very small amount of post processing to adjust the light balance and remove dust particles, cropped to suit.

Canon Ixus 130 IS, straight from the camera image

Money-Supermarket-2Settings:

F /2.8, 1/60s, ISO 125, 5mm

Oakley Dispatch Sunglasses

Hand held

I’m a firm believer that composition is king when it comes to photographs, it doesn’t matter if you have a £40k Hassleblad, if it looks wrong it usually is. Composition isn’t something that individuals take easy to being taught, I’m not saying it can’t be learned but you instinctively  know when someone has “the eye”, and this is how I became a photographer, people always thrust the camera in my direction and said “let Adrian take it, he always gets it right” well almost I’d say!

I utilised my sunglasses to act as a filter as I used my expensive filter on my 1DS MKIII image, it certainly helps a lot as the sky is so much brighter than the sea and anything I could do to help balance the light is what matters, it’s still slighty “blown out” as we say, (too bright that some detail is lost) and of course when you shoot without an effective balancing act of light in the foreground , middle and background  you get silhouettes, shadows and blown out areas.

Saying that I really like the result, the camera has created a pleasurable image and definitely a memory pretty close to how I remember the sky and sea that summer night. It does however lack some of my 1Ds’s qualities and this is where the money maker that is 1ds comes in, the overall quality of the Ixus  against my 1ds is far less sharp and noisy (has a grain) and the 14mb shot is no where near the same size pixel wise as my 1ds, being  2935 x 2068 @ 240 pixels/inch V the 1ds’s 5520 x 3680 @ 240 pixels/inch.

In trying to keep this blog as nontechnical as possible it must be said that full frame resolution of the 1ds is far superior to Ixus 130 as well as handling and and overall performance, but this comes at a price and lets face it I don’t carry my 1ds MKIII whilst doing the shopping at Asda but I can say that I do now carry the Ixus 13o everywhere along with my S100 iPhone…..sad you may think but I always remember a saying  “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” now this makes perfect sense when applying this to photography but its actually a quote from Wayne Gretsky a Canadian ice hockey player, but you get the idea.

Will I be using this camera to make money shots that I’d sell on my site, probably not as I don’t think it compares highly enough to my 1ds MKIII’s overwhelming quality and scalability that my customers demand but I would certainly use it for web, blog, social media and just having fun which when it comes down to it is what photography is about FUN and recording the moments that make up our lives.

I think the Ixus 130 IS bought at Amazon was and is worth every penny, its small, practical has some great functions and you don’t worry so much about it just being shoved away in your pocket, keep it handy ready for those occasions that count.

I thought about the image and decided to give it the same chances as I did with my 1DS and run it through the processing in Photoshop just to see what can be made with and image, this is the result.

Money-Supermarket-2-Shopd

Think you’ll agree it works rather well now doesn’t it?, this took 5 minutes and could easily be recreated using the iPhone Photoshop App PS Express and PS Touch, maybe not a seller but one to be proud of and certainly when printed say A4 looks very presentable.

Hope you enjoyed this blog, loads more @ http://www.adrianashworth.co.uk/my-blog/