Car rig shot

My car rig is still in development, but essentially it's a system of suction mounts, aluminium poles and a platform for the camera to sit on. It allows me to secure the camera to the car's bodywork or glass, and get some interesting motion shots.

I need to get some more bits and pieces so I can get the camera further away from the car, but here's a work in progress shot:

Hopefully more to come!

Poker night

Once a month 3 friends and I get together for a poker night. Truth be told, we're actually not very good at poker, and keeping forgetting the winning card combo's, but it's always a good laugh.

Anyhow, I decided it was a prime opportunity to get the camera out and 'shoot from the hip' without looking through the camera. It can be hit and miss, but I'm calling this one a hit as with a little processing, it's cool and moody:

I've just remembered another card shot I took a couple of years ago - it's a way to guarantee you never lose a card game again:

ha ha :-)

Portraits in the park

This was a fun shoot...Jo wanted some pictures of her family to give to her Mum as a present. Little Oscar clearly didn't have posing for pictures very high on his list of priorities that day! The golden rule with little kids, is don't try to instruct them too much, just let them do what they want to do, and be there to capture it.

The shot below is a funny one - I lost count of the number of times I called his name to make him turn round....but finally he did!

Here's what Jo had to say about the pictures: "Dave, the photos are brilliant! Thank you so much..." I was blown away when I got an email from Jo's Mum to thank me "for the wonderful photos". Thanks Jo's Mum!

Where does time go?

Recently I heard a friend mention his blog. Blog? Wait a minute, I've got one of those! I'm blaming the fact I have two children under 3 for the fact I seem unable to find the time to update this.

So what better subject to kick off with than the two little terrors themselves:

When I see the shot above I can't help saying "Ladies and Gentlemen.....Mr Elton John!" but as this is my youngest daughter I guess that's wrong, so here she is again:

As most parents will have found, the second child tends not to be photographed as much as the first, so a while ago I set myself the task of getting a really nice shot of the little 'un. Here's the result:

The eldest doesn't escape the camera either, in fact she's quite used to Daddy and his camera. What doesn't come across in this shot is just how cold it was. More specifically, how cold I was!

Things got better when the sun came out, and the fairy suit was on:

People braver than me...

...take mountain biking to far greater extremes than I do. Luckily there's a perfect location in Cheltenham so I like to go up there every now and then and take some shots. I don't think the word 'fear' is in this guy's vocabulary, the jump he's just taken is huge but he still found time to give it some style.

On the beach

I don't shoot many landscapes - I blame that on the fact I don't take enough holidays and therefore don't find myself in the right place at the right time, but I took this on a recent trip to Devon.

The slow shutter speed lets the waves turn in to an eery mist, which I like.

Pond Life

With a young family the pond in our garden wasn't ideal, so as part of a revamp this summer the pond had to go. But not before I crept up on this chap one morning. The darkness around the picture is actually caused by the stones surrounding the pond, which I was shooting through.



P.S. The pond's residents were all safely re-homed!