Planning

Taken on a Lenovo Tab3 10 with an 8 MP lens and auto settings
Taken on a Lenovo Tab3 10 with an 8 MP lens and auto settings

My photography teacher and I came up with a plan for a shoot today. I’m going to Scarborough tomorrow and in my lesson, he helped me work out a route along the seafront where I can take photographs for my final project. I decided to do a shoot including the beach huts to develop some photographs I took last summer down in Dorset and to also try to get some videos of the sea and of plants moving in the wind.

Movement

Taken on a Nikon D3500 with an 18.0 - 55.0mm lens. Focal Length 55.00mm Exposure 1/10sec f/22 ISO 100
Taken on a Nikon D3500 with an 18.0 – 55.0mm lens. Focal Length 55.00mm Exposure 1/10sec f/22 ISO 100

I spent my photography lesson today editing my latest shoot, one of trees, the photographs taken with slow shutter speeds to capture the movement of the leaves and branches. Whilst shooting I was moving my camera during the exposure to enhance the movement. However, a couple of times I didn’t move the camera quite as much and some of the photographs that were the result look better than those with added movement.

Italy

Taken on a Nikon D3500 with a 18.0 - 55.0mm lens. Exposure 1/1250sec f/5.6 ISO 560
Taken on a Nikon D3500 with an 18.0 – 55.0mm lens. Exposure 1/1250sec f/5.6 ISO 560
I recently visited Italy, staying with a relative in Umbria for six days. I was amazed by the vast areas of forest and just how wild the habitat was, especially in Ficulli and the other countryside areas. Nearly everywhere I looked was forest, the dark green trees on almost every skyline. Dark mountains loomed in the distance often shrouded by thick fog, especially in the mornings. Stepping out into the warm, dry air early in the morning on my relative’s balcony had such an exhilarating, inspiring feeling that I rarely get here in Yorkshire.
Whilst we were there I was very excited by the idea of seeing the Italian wildlife which included Wild Boars and Porcupines but sadly we never did see any Boars, despite going for walks twice. We did pass a Porcupine on the side of the track one evening but I had fallen asleep in the car after spending several hours surrounded by and playing with large dogs. My mother saw a European Red Squirrel which I also missed much to my disappointment.
The two times that I and my family went walking into Ficulli we were accompanied, to our surprise, by our relative’s neighbour’s dog Stela. The first time she came with us, we tried our hardest to send her back but she ignored us, attaching herself to us the entire two miles into the village. After a while of walking through the streets however, it became apparent that she was not used to the setting and so after a small struggle on my mother’s behalf, I managed to gently convince Stela to let me put my  Polaroid camera strap which we had fashioned into a collar and lead, around her neck. After that, we managed to walk through the village with no more fears of her getting run over. The second time, she tried once again to follow us the whole way but under my mother’s instruction I took her back, her attention concentrated more on me than on the others. The only way to get her to accompany me back to the house was to jog with the makeshift lead around her neck. As soon as I slowed my pace Stela would flop to the ground, rolling over onto her back and looking up at me with a cheeky look in her eye as she refused to get up, her tongue lolling out of her mouth.

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Taken on a Nikon D3500 with a 0.43x 55mm Macro lense. Exposure 1/160 sec f/5.6 ISO 6400
Taken on a Nikon D3500 with a 0.43x 55mm Macro lens. Exposure 1/160sec f/5.6 ISO 6400
Almost two years after my last post and I return. Much has happened in my life and over this time I have been experiencing more and more of nature. A year ago I began college after taking my GCSEs and have been focusing on A-level photography, honing my skills and learning how to take and edit photographs properly. Now I am beginning the process of applying to university after discovering what seems to be my dream course. Marine and Natural History Photography. Learning, in essence, to be a wildlife photographer, something I never thought specifically of but have realised is perfect for me.
Anyway, apart from academic experiences this year has been very interesting for me. Not only did I travel to Falmouth at the beginning of the summer to look at the university, I also went on holiday to Italy for the first time in 6 years which was lovely. My family and I stayed with my mother’s cousin who lives in an old Italian farmhouse in Ficulli, Umbria for eight days and then stopped in Rome for a couple of days before flying home. Whilst we were there the weather was warm and dry. However, when we came home we were forced back into the sharp reality of British weather, rain pouring down on us before the plane had even landed. We arrived back in Sheffield to find the longest queue for taxis and the next morning woke to reports that people who had been stranded in Meadowhall shopping centre had spent the night there, as well as the sad news that one woman in Derby had been drowned.
On returning to our house several days later, we found a multitude of mushrooms and fungi growing in the dark, damp undergrowth that borders our garden on either side.
So, since I am now ‘back’ I intend to make a new post every day focused by a single photograph which will be contextualised in some way by a passage of text.  I’m thinking of this as an extension of my portfolio for my university application.