While it's not exactly landscape photography related I wanted to post this update about the Biggin Hill airshow that took place over the weekend. I returned for my second year as one of the officer photographers for the organisers Air Displays International and had a fun couple of days in the heat and sunshine. It was an exciting line up or aircraft both new and old and as always was well managed on the day. My highlight's were finally getting to see the Vulcan flying after many disappointments during 2008 and I was also impressed by the Virgin 747-400 flypast with the Red Arrows. In particular the Boeing's final "dirty" pass was a great moment on the Sunday and it wowed the huge crowds.

I've not got the task of sifting through and processing the best of the hundreds of photographs taken over the weekend which will keep me busy for the next week or so. After that I hope to catch up on some landscape photography which has taken a slight backseat recently due to other comittments. I've got a nice backlog of landscape shots to process as well but they can wait until darker days as the current weather is too good to miss.

My growing gallery of shots from Biggin Hill can be viewed on my other photography website at http://sjgphotography.co.uk/Gallery/gallery.aspx?id=50

Last night I made my second trip out in search of some poppies. After seeing some interesting shots from a field near Falmer I decided to give it a try, despite some rather bland blue skies. Don't get me wrong, sunny weather is great, it's just that I prefer some detail in my skies. In the end the trip was quite successful and I got a few shots I was quite pleased with. It's certainly a location I'd like to return to again given a chance, although I'm not sure when my next oppotunity will be as I'm working as official photographer at Biggin this weekend. I may try for a dawn shoot if the forecast looks promising.

Below are a couple of the photographs I've processed so far. The first is from my first trip to the field near Firle Beacon and the second is from last night near Falmer.

Path to Poppies

Falmer Poppy Field

Yesterday evening Rhiannon and I took a chance on a possible poppy location near Firle, along the A27. We didn’t have a great deal of time and opted to set out at 5pm since there were some nice high clouds adding some interest to the blue sky.

We followed the lane that I’d already checked out on Google Maps and were soon rewarded with a sight of red flowers just off to our right. We parked up and set about taking some photographs. The skies were great but the angle and height of the sun wasn’t perfect for the shots we were after. We intend to return nearer to 7-8pm one evening this week to capture the scene with a lower more golden light from the setting sun. I’ve also pecked the location as possibly being suitable for a sunrise shoot as well

Despite the sun’s position some angles were still workable and the scenery was fantastic. After much searching I was just excited to have found my first field of poppies!

With some interesting clouds forming yesterday evening I decided to head out for a trip around the South Downs near Arlington in the hope of capturing some oilseed photographs. I was out for a couple of hours driving the lanes, parking up, walking around and then jumping back into the car and I came away with nothing to show for it. It was like a case of photographer's block hit me and none of the views seemed to work. I had a few ideas for shots in mind and at all but one location I didn't even unpack the camera. I think I need to head further afield to try some new locations to give me a fresh perspective.

I ended the trip by climbing Windover hill in hope of capturing a sunset behind Firle Beacon. As the time wore on I realised that it was looking far to hazy and not likely to produce what I wanted to capture so I bailed and returned home. In hindsight I wish I'd waited the extra 30 minutes to see what developed but looking out the window at home there was very little colour in the sky and the clouds had blown through leaving little interest in the sky. I'm planning to try that spot again as I think it has potential but I'll head out later in the evening to give me less waiting around.

Unfortunately the weather forecast for this weekend is looking a bit mixed at the moment but unless it's bucketing down I hope to scout out a few new locations on the South Downs. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my goals at the moment is to capture some decent oilseed photographs. I've noticed the fields around Firle Beacon seem to be quite yellow right now and I'd like to find a decent angle to capture the scene.

My approach to location scouting is to research some potential locations and routes online before heading out. I've now marked a few high vantage points which may give me the angle I want so I shall try to visit those spots to see if the views are actually like I imagine. I always take the camera gear in case a surprise moment presents itself but I expect this trip to mainly involve walking and making notes. Some places I hope to test out are Windover Hill and possibly Mount Caburn. Once I know the access to suitable locations and approximate walking times from carparks I can plan my proper trips at times when the light is best.

A visit to Arlington Bluebell Walk has been on my to do list for a couple of years but somehow I always miss my chance. Yesterday we (my partner Rhiannon, my mother and I) took advantage of the wonderful afternoon weather to at last make a trip to this walk. I've never been before and once on the walk I was amazed by the shear number of flowers on show. The walk is well routed and offers plenty of nice angles into the woods with a carpet of blue. The strong afternoon light was perfect as my aim was to capture the dappled light on the flowers to add some extra dynamics to the scene.

Bluebell Carpet

I worked purely with the 17-40mm lens on a tripod as we took the main walk and extra white walk up and around the lagoon. Shooting on a tripod allowed me to work in AV mode at F/16 for a decent depth of field and I also chose to bracket my shots by plus and minus one stop to ensure I could capture the darker areas and bright patches equally.

I've had a quick review of this shots this morning and am quite pleased. I'll spend the next few days picking out the main keepers before getting them online.

If you fancy a nice woodland walk I highly recommend a visit to the Arlington Bluebell Walk. I'd get there as soon as possible to make the most of the bluebells before they expire for the year. Some were beginning to droop this weekend so I don't think there's much time remaining.

I've been wanting to try some dawn shots of the Long Man of Wilmington for a long time and last night I made the decision to get up extra early and head along the A27 to capture some photographs.

The Long Man of Wilmington is a landmark located on the South Downs near the small village of Wilmington on Windover Hill. Visible from the A27 this giant outline of a man with poles can be seen from quite a distance. I parked up at the nearby car park at about 5:50am and set off with the 1D MKIIN and 17-40mm lens. My plan was to capture the Long Man with the first golden light from the rising sun adding dynamic shape to the hills and foreground. Initially the sun was a bit low and the light was quite flat and unexciting but as I worked my way along the walking path towards the Long Man the sun started to rise and light up the landscape. I picked a few locations along the way that contained good foreground interest and hopefully were a bit different from the shots you tend to see day to day. Early on the cloud cover was at about 50% and I had to do a fair bit of waiting around while the clouds blew through. When the sun was free to shine it was great light and lit up the hillside just as I'd hoped.

As always with my landscape shots I used my Manfrotto tripod as support and a shutter release cable to further reduce the chances of blurring the shot with camera shake. I also enabled mirror lockup under the custom functions which again is worth doing for static landscape photography. I set my camera to manual mode and opted for an aperture of around F/16 for a good depth of field. Early on my shutter speed was around 1/5th of a second but as the sun rose higher I was up to around 1/25th. In order to control the exposure of foreground and sky I tried two techniques. Firstly I used no filter and simply bracketed my shots. This allows the exposures to later be merged in Photoshop to produce a balanced exposure. This requires some manual work and also the foreground flowers were blowing in the wind which was likely to make merging the exposures a real pain. My next method was to attach one of my Cokin ND Graduated filters to the lens which I then aligned with the hill top to allow less light from the sky onto the sensor. This meant I could expose for the foreground and not worry about blowing out the brighter sky. This teachnique can work well, although my results with it have been mixed. On this occasion it seemed to work pretty well and that's good news as it saves me a chunk on post processing time at home.

I'll be processing the shots as soon as possible and will upload them when I get the chance. For now here is one of the shots I that I feel came together pretty well. I used a low angle to capture the water trough in the foreground. I like to try and keep some interest in that section of the frame to keep the viewer interested. It also sets the scene of a rural area quite nicely.

The Long Man of Wilmington at Dawn

One of my objectives over the next few weeks is to capture some photographs of the magnificent yellow fields of oilseed rape that spring up around Sussex at this time of year. I did a brief reccy of the fields along the A27 on Monday and it seems there's not as much around as I remember from last year. I did spot some fields that are beginning to flower so I'll try for a trip soon to try to find some interesting locations.