Framedlight

The last technique I explored in Hastings was taking multiple exposure pictures in camera and mostly using some ICM (intentional camera movement) to blur the picture a little. I normally took 5 pictures with my Nikon which uses additive exposure so that the final image is not overexposed. The real lovers of multiple exposure are those possessing the Canon 5D mk 3 where the camera will blend the exposures together using different blending modes such as dark or light, which allows for some nice effects. I have tried similar with the Nikon but by taking separate pictures and blending them together in Photoshop afterwards, which is pretty labour intensive. Here are some examples of shots taken in Hastings, in a couple I was using the Holga lens as well.

Holga make a plastic pinhole lens available in both Nikon and Canon fit. Here are a very few pictures I took using it on the beach in Hastings. The pier was facing directly into the sun which gave some lovely light effects on the water. I took a very light tripod to use just with this lens as t really not enough light gets onto the sensor to be able to hand hold the camera At the end there is also one picture taken using the Lensbaby 35mm optic. I only used this a few times as I found that I preferred the Holga lenses in this particular scenario.

Hastings is a great place for photography and on Monday we spent our time in the area around the pier and the fishing boats. The boats were buzzing with activity and were being hauled onto the shingle and being spruced up. I had gone as part of a workshop concentrating on  alternative in-camera effects. I had taken with me a pinhole lens, a Holga lens and a Lensbaby and we also worked with multiple exposure and intentional camera movement. Here are a few of the pictures I took with the Holga lens, a cheap plastic thing (I bought mine in a Nikon fit, secondhand for £15.00). It fits on the digital camera and can sort of be focussed using little symbols for one person, several people, mountains etc as a guide. I found that it produced some rather nice pictures of the boats, rather like illustrations for childrens books. The last picture is a multiple exposure as well.

I visited Ingleton in Yorkshire and 'did' the waterfall walk, although  I hadn't suspected before I got there that the walk would have all been paved and that the views would have barriers around them (also that I would have to pay for entry). The next day I did half of it in the reverse direction - you don't have to pay if you go in at the end unless you come out at the beginning. The last falls, Beezley to Snow, are much more dramatic and run through a deep, dark, moss laden gorge. I split the days so that the first I took mostly conventional pictures and the second I also used other techniques. I must confess that I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked, but here are some of the pictures. The fuzzy ones are done with a pinhole lens, there is one 'self portrait' of my shadow and the last two are a monochrome conversion and a channel swop conversion of an image taken with a 720nm infrared filter. There is one ICM image, no prizes for guessing ...

At the end of last month I went to see the orchids in the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge. This was a chance not just to admire the orchids, but to look at the rest of the hothouse occupants and the spring flowers in the garden. We had lunch in the modernistic restaurant.

After the storm in Happisburgh we drove round to Horsey beach to see if there were any seals left. There were a couple of young ones and a few adults who were very blase ´ about human contact and let me get within 6 ft of them (they were a bit large and a little scary though). One of the young ones did not look well. I guess they have all been lucky to have survived. The wind was causing the sand to move across the surface of the beach and the waves were rolling in.