CATCHING UP

It has been a busy few months and I have done little to keep up with the blog, so in an attempt to get on top of things I have added some posts (the three below) and will try and keep up to date from now on ;)

A simple but very nice image below of a Peace Lilly that I photographed the other day from the house. It's great when your plants are thriving and thought this one deserved a picture whilst it was at it's very best. 

PROJECT IN LLANGOLEN

I have been working on a project with a client in Llangollen. With lots of bad weather I was a little concerned we could encounter a wash-out and struggle to capture what we wanted. Although we did see some rain, the weather played ball and it turned out to be a great success. With the Autumn colours turning and a mix of morning mist and rainbows, it was certainly a beautiful spot to work!

CLOCKWORKCLOUD @ HAGGLERS CORNER

Just a quick post to inform people I am now located in a new office at a cool little place called Hagglers Corner in Sheffield. A great little community of creative businesses and a superb coffee shop. 

LAND OF THE RISING SUN

A recent trip to Japan has resulted in some wonderful memories and plenty of great images. A real adventure with up's and down's but a great trip and an amazing country.

A great destination to photograph with it's diverse variety of landscapes, people and culture. We started our trip in Hokkaido in Northern Japan. A beautiful land of mountains and nature, we then caught the super fast bullet train and ventured down to Tokyo followed by the old capital of Kyoto. My photo journal will be soon available on my website so you can get a taste of the adventure.

OLD TO NEW

Just a really quick post to show how with a little time, passion and creative flair, you can turn old, tired furniture into something really rather nice! Just a week ago this chair was being sold for a few pounds and looked rather sorry for itself. After we decided on a colour scheme, Anne worked her magic and produced this!

Sanded, painted, re-covered and a stylish patterned fabric head cover and matching cushion created to finish it off. Well done Anne, nice job.

Just a few hours now until we fly to Japan. Looking forward to it!

VERY PINTERESTING...

I have a new Pinterest page for my business. Pinterest is a way of using visual pin boards to showcase a collection of interesting work or projects. In my case I will be showcasing images from my collection to hopefully inspire others to further their photography and help attract new people towards my business and what I do. Please take a look at:

http://uk.pinterest.com/ClockworkCloud/capturing-the-world/

Tour De France 2014

With Le Tour De France passing so close to home it was a great opportunity to get up close on Sunday on the Penistone road in South Yorkshire on stage two of the race as the riders were heading to Sheffield.

Trying to find a good spot for photography is tougher than you might think, battling crowds is the biggest problem! With many of the people opting to gather on the up hill sections as the riders are working hard on the hill and so going slower, allowing a longer view, I found a nice spot just on the brow of a small down hill and corner section. As it was down hill it was much quieter but this also meant that the riders were going to be lightning quick and I would not get long to capture any images.

The atmosphere was great with the array of funky branded cars and the mass of helicopters buzzing low making it feel like a film set. When the riders finally appeared over the brow of the hill, I captured my shots and it was all over within a few seconds. I was happy that Team Sky were leading when they appeared and captured the shot below with Geraint Thomas leading the way.

They still have a long way to go before the finish in Paris!

COVER SHOT - BUSHCRAFT & SURVIVAL SKILLS MAGAZINE

I captured this image a few weeks ago when I was working at the Bushcraft Show. The magazine ran a reader's competition to be on the front cover of the July/August issue and I had the pleasure of capturing the cover shot of the father and son who won it. Even though the sun was out (but not for long!) I used a fill flash to avoid shadow across their faces and left some lush green dead space above them for the magazine masthead. The magazine is in the shops today.

COVER SHOT - IMPROVE YOUR COARSE FISHING

ANGEL OF THE NORTH

EAST COAST

I am working on a project with a client in Alnwick, Northumberland. Being so close to the coast and having not visited the East coast of England for a long while I decided to visit Alnmouth. The weather has been beautiful lately and it was a nice evening. I shot a few snaps and headed back to the hotel ready to start work tomorrow. I plan on visiting the Angel of the North on the way back home, I am intrigued to see how big it is up close. 

A STEP CLOSER

Over the last 2 weeks we have made great progress in organising and planning the trip to Japan. We now have our exchange orders for the train passes when we arrive. This is a very exciting prospect as it has been a long term dream to travel on the ultra modern, efficient and amazingly fast bullet trains of Japan & experience travelling at 200mph as the landscapes pass by. 

GOOD LUCK

The young blue tit babies have been chirping away for a while now whilst the parents frantically work to feed them on demand. The old bird box is situated just outside the front door and this morning we watched a couple of chicks leave the nest for the first time. Let's wish them a safe start to which is no doubt the most dangerous and vulnerable time of there lives. 

THE BUSHCRAFT SHOW 2014

It was an exciting time at the Bushcraft Show 2014. The weather was mainly poor and the ground conditions were very muddy as a result of this. Weather aside I did managed to capture a great series of photography for the magazine and I am in the process of editing the official show film.

LAND OF THE RISING SUN

For the next big trip we will visit Japan. A 3 week trip discovering the far North of Japan around Hokkaido and a journey across the country via bullet train to visit Tokyo and Kyoto. An exciting opportunity to capture this incredibly diverse landscape and rich culture of this amazing country.

PLANTED TANK - UPDATE

After testing the waters a few months ago with a basic aquascaping tank and growing a few plants I decided to invest in a decent setup. I am pleased with the results and the scape is growing strong and looks great. I am at a stage now where the tank pretty much takes care of itself with a weekly water change and trim. I was surprised at the amount of knowledge required to keep a successful and healthy tank, but I found that putting the effort in to learn about these miniature eco systems in the beginning has resulted in a low maintenance tank that is a joy to watch and not so time consuming to keep!

HAMPSHIRE & SCOTLAND

I have just spent a week starting down south in Hampshire and then travelling North to Scotland within the Cairngorms National Park on a work film project. It was a busy week, a great experience and we captured some great footage within beautiful surroundings. I will post the consumer results of the filming once they have gone live. 

A DAY WITH JACK

I recently spent the day with my Godson Jack. At just a few months old he is a real bundle of joy, he has a great personality and is a pleasure to be around! I enjoyed the challenge of some good photography with him and looking forward to capturing shots of his progression as he grows.

A TRIP TO CUMBRIA

A recent visit to Cumbria and the Lake District resulted in some pretty wild wild weather! We did manage to see a glimpse of sunshine and its hard to say a bad word about this area of the UK in any weather, it's just stunning! 

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THE PLANTED TANK

I recently discovered the art of aquascaping. This is basically a tank in which to keep aquatic plants and fish. Unlike general fish keeping having a plastic toy diver or dinosaur is a big no no! Aquascaping is a mixture of art and science, the idea is to create a beautiful and natural environment using natural hardscape and growing species of plants into an underwater world, it's very creative and the final results can be incredible. On the other side is the science, to establish an amazing scape involves the ability to grow strong healthy plants and this involves the balance of life within the tank. I won't go into details but the idea is to balance water parameters, light, C02, heat and fertilisation. If you can hit the correct balance then you can create your art. Aquascaping is serious business and competitions are held throughout the world each year to see who can create the best underwater worlds. Before I invest too heavily I have decided to take a small tank and see how well I can grow several species of plants, if all goes well I hope to upgrade in the future. Below are some starter pics and a short video. I will do a before and after comparison in a later post.

Video: copy & paste the link below -

https://vimeo.com/85567183

This is called pearling, a good sign of the plant getting the conditions it needs and releasing oxygen.