8 Months Later – Time to catch up.

It was February the last time I wrote in this blog. Doesn’t time fly when you’re getting older?

It’s been a busy eight months filled with all sorts of photography of different types of sports and events…

In each of these events I found different tricks and tips that have helped me to improve the quality of the photos that I produce.

In March the Cat Photographic Society’s theme was Urban/City Scape and I took lots of photos of parts of Shrewsbury and Birmingham that you’d not normally notice or pay any attention to. I went to the top of the Theatre Severn and looked across the town to try and capture a skyline with the usual Shrewsbury landmarks in, such as the Market Hall Clock, St Chads and the other spires..

The scene was marred however by the behemoth that is the Charles Darwin Shopping Centre, I’m sure that Mr Darwin (who “had the balls to ask”, according to Michael Stipe) would not really appreciate the monstrosity that the modern building trade has managed to erect right in front of the mediaeval town walls. This shot was not to be.

Busking on the Pride Hill were a trio of students, one on electric guitar, another on the double bass and the last on a cajon (a wooden box type drum/percussion instrument). I snapped away at these guys to see if I could pick up a picture of them against a roller shutter door, that covers one of the many empty retail units in this great town.  I didn’t really get a satisfactory shot of these chaps that I thought would be suitable for entry into the competition.

A trip up to Winnie Hill on the Ellesmere Road took me to a point high above the town, a bit far away perhaps but it was worth a look. With my 70-300 lens on I found I could zoom in on some of the iconic symbols of the town’s skyline. It was a bit misty or smoggy or foggy so the picture I wanted wasn’t forthcoming. This is probably the best of the shots showing some of the churches and the market clock.. To take it I had to use a tripod and manual release. Without this extra effort the photos were even more blurred.

Later on in the month I took my camera out again to see if there were any opportunities in town so I parked in the social club car-park and walked into town. One of the first things I saw was a cat sitting atop a flat roof outside the rear of someone’s terraced house. The sun was backlighting the fur and it had a funny little suspicious frown going on like I was about to sneak in through his flap and eat his munchies… This was shot with the 70-300 too as when I started getting closer he got a bit edgy and I was trying to get the chimneys and TV aerials in the background.

Smacking on the 10-20mm lens I headed to the 70 Steps as this is probably the most urban space in the whole of the town. It’s essentially a series of steps and tunnels that take you down the original town walls to the Ravens Meadow area of the town. It’s  a bit grimey, with the whiff of alcoholic’s urinary history combining with evidence of substance abuse and graffiti daubed over the ventillation grills that eject the putrid smell of consumerism from the high street shops.

I was careful to approach corners and doorways with some caution as I didn’t want to get mugged on this sunny day. Carrying a camera and a bag of glass is a bit of a target rich environment for a scag-hungry hoodlum so I kept my tripod to hand and tried to remember some of the close quarters combat techniques I’ve learnt from Batman: The Animated Series.

This photo was taken from a set of steps that descended so I did a multi exposure and took three photos each 1 and 1/3 stops apart, then HDR’d them once at home using Photoshop. I didn’t like the image as the lines were ruined (in my opinion) by the wall at the top right of the image, when I cropped it out it looked even worse as though it was just a blank and boring alleway. Another photo not suitable for entry into the CatPS compo.. I’d have to rethink this and go hunting.

Wandering further, around the town centre there were lots of different options, by the HSBC bank there was a piece of concrete to lift the height of the building to fit in with the rest of the frontages. With the sun coming through I was able to get a star shape in camera with no additions in Photoshop..

As I was stood waiting to take the picture above, people were getting in the way and I snapped a couple of images looking at the floor, due to the shadows that were playing across the ground by my feet. I thought the contrast there looked cool so grabbed a couple of shots.

The shadows were of peoples legs as they walked past me, I dread to think what they thought of a bloke taking pictures of the floor but hey I’m happy doing it and not getting in anyone’s way.

The picture I did opt to enter into the competition was the following of the same cat as my first photo at the top of this post…

I tried to get the chimney stack and tv aerials in the shot too, but I think I overdid the HDR a little. It didn’t win, unsurprisingly, but I do wish that I’d entered my pavement drain photo instead, I like the abstract nature of the image and it didn’t need any post processing , unlike the “Tiddles on The Roof” photo…

Next post will take into account some of the other topics for the monthly photographic competition and will hopefully not be another eight months in the making…