New Blog….

Following on from several succesful (I think) Street photography trips to London, and a Canon Sponsored double page feature in this months Photography News… and in no way connected to the fact this blogs limit is bulging and spilling over.

I am creating a brand new self hosted website centering around my street and urban photography adventures it’s also connected to my INSTAGRAM

Announcing…..

Londonist Captures

The intent is to showcase some of my imagery from London and other towns and citys as well as eventually be a guide to those places for fellow creatives.

You’ll see images such as these.

Please do consider taking a look and perhaps subscribing to the site as I would love it to grow.

2 strobes…1 model.. and some perspex

Attended a little free session at park cameras today run by Olympus and Gavin Hoey in which we looked at the merits of small strobes, in this case the battery powered godox ad200.

Simple to set up and remarkably effective

And the result…

Great option for this style of image.

LRPS….. Finally

Well what a day, I am extremely happy and proud to announce that I am now officially a Licenciate of the Royal Photographic Society.

I am now officially Lee Tilley LRPS.

This is an internationally recognised distinction of excellence from the society and sits Proudly alongside my level 3 qualification as I move forward to new ground.

I am thankful to all who have liked my Images and blog posts whilst I have been working towards these and especially thankful to my tutor Zig, without whom It would have been far less fun and alot more difficult to grasp. Top man.

I would Throughly recommend any of my fellow level 3 distinction graduates look to get their LRPS as its thoroughly deserved by all who worked hard for their level 3.

Waiting….

Another of my Eos R shots from Baker Street Station in London. Such a great place to experiment with subjects and lighting styles. So many image opportunities in one small area.

Testing the Eos r

Finally got round to having some time out to play with the mirrorless EOS r yesterday. It’s a phenomenal camera and quite the learning curve coming from a DSLR.

It does however take alot of the testing and guesswork out of exposing as you can see exactly what you are getting on the evf rather than the normal. Clear view (although that can be turned off too).

The focus is instant and bang on and I find the kit lens to be very sharp.

Just one image for now as I’m going through them. Quickly edited on the fly on snapseed for mobile. I quite like it.

Fox in perfect light

There are moments in life where time seems to just stop. A perfect point in the ongoing daily grind.

Today I had the absolute pleasure of having around 20 such minutes with this beautiful creature.

It was – 1c and the sun had broken the clouds at the nature reserve where I was taking a walk. Down the concrete sidewall came this fox, wandering looking for a spot to rest and it just so happened to choose a spot 50 feet from me to lay and warm up in the winter sun.

Perfect light and a perfect subject combined to make this.

What a privelege it is to present this image of my perfect moment seeing this stunner.

Scottish Wildlife

During my recent holiday to Scotland I took some time out from visiting family and friends to go back to what I love, Photographing wildlife.

Lucky for me then that Scotland has some amazing opportunitys to see and photograph birds and a I. Also that we just don’t see in the big smoke of London and I took many many shots of which I am extremely happy and proud, Red and furry should. Give a clue to my favourites.

So from Rutting Stags to Red Kites soaring above right down to Red Squirrels at waters edge I thought I would. Share just a few of the images.

The greatest compliment for me since being back is that after showing a few of these pictures to Andy Rouse and Tom Way (2 superb professional wildlife toggers), they were very impressed with them and complimented me and that really spurs me on.

Red squirrel

One of my all time favourite shots of a Red Squirrel. Taken this week in Scotland. Many many more shots still to process but I love the way this one turned out.

It was taken in Barhill Forest in Kirkcudbright and was a most peaceful and serene place. Totally quiet and away from the hustle and bustle. Probably why the red squirrels love it.

The hardest shoot ever..

So as many people who read this blog will know, I have a fear of shooting people. Actually that’s not strictly true, I thoroughly dislike shooting people in any way, shape or form. It’s not that I dislike people or the art of shooting them, it’s the fact I have absolutely no idea how to pose them, how to accurately tell their story in a shot and how to then edit that to its fullest. It just sets off my anxiety… It’s something I need to work on.

I’ll be honest I’d much rather be in a field shooting deer, birds or insects than in a studio space or room shooting humans for any reason.

So with that in mind I totally went against every instinct I have and I agreed to help a fellow (now ex) RACC student when she shot a friends wedding. It was without doubt the biggest learning curve I have had and I’m not entirely sure I could even glean a little satisfaction from it. In fact it’s almost cemented my view that I cannot happily shoot people and animals are much much easier.

From the onset it was hard going, a Dimly lit venue with terrible lighting, no flash could be used and outside it was absolutely pouring down, which ruled out the lovely shots in the park or sunshine that initially we thought would be great.

In some shots we were hitting iso 12800 which luckily the 5d mark 4 can handle pretty well. Out of the 1000 or so images I took there are perhaps 80 usable and decent quality images to select a set which is actually surprising given the terrible lighting at the venue.

Trying to get and arrange a large group of people to pose, smile and cooperate when half pissed and hungry was a challenge in itself and one I can only admire wedding photographers for dealing with.

So putting all that aside I thought I’d show 1 image from day which I am pleased with. Backlit by a window in the world’s smallest bridal room I hope I managed to make it a nice shot.

Many lessons learned from that day, not least that weddings are not my forte unless it’s one of those kooky animal ones in a forest somewhere.

I will (no doubt) go against my instincts and try again and again because I suppose you can never stop trying new things and learning.