mainprize.net Blog

Monochrome North Bays

Scarborough North Bay

Here are two of my latest monochromes. I really prefer monochromes to colour images, although I have recently been exploring the light using colour, especially pastel shades and twilight.

Bridlington North Bay

Sunset surfers

Sunset surfers

Surfing in Scarborough almost never ends. I have seen night surfing but not often, and I rarely see surfers at sunrise in summer.

Having had a week off when all the sunrises and sunsets were obscured by amorphous grey cloud this week when I am back at work the sky has lit up on several occasions. I managed to get to the coast for a couple of these mornings and here is a monochrome conversion of one of these times at Scarborough.

Scarborough South Bay

Hipstamatic return

Having avoided posting for a significant time I have not neglected the photography, but have been putting together several new projects and appraising previous images. Having travelled around the UK recently to various cities (not my favourite places) I have used the iPhone to capture the essence of one or two places:

York street

The rain glistened off the old cobbles.

(Hipstamatic iPhone 4S)

Across The Backs

View across to Kings and Clare Colleges, Cambridge

(Hipstamatic iPhone 4S)

The latest snow in the UK helps my favoured minimalist photography but can also help in the moody monochrome as these Hipstamatic images of Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire demonstrate:

Ice trees

These patterns were in the ice all along the edge of this water garden.

26 August 2011 - Hipstamatic

Littletown, Dornoch, Highlands

I have been playing with an app on my iPhone - Hipstamatic. It is a camera that you get with a couple of lenses and films built in, however you can purchase others within the app.

Shed, Skelbo, Highlands

These images were all tinted in Lightroom, but otherwise just have their Curve adjusted to increase contrast. The texture, degrading and vignetting are all added by the app. I love it's effects.

The road to Skelbo Castle, Highlands

The main thing I have learned is that you should have a main feature in the image to get the best out of it. Although I include no portraits here it is good for these, but you have to experiment as the effects are not entirely predictable.

Skelbo, Highlands

Dornoch cathedral, Highlands

21 August 2011 - Return from 2 weeks in Scotland

Skelbo farming
Taken with the Canon G12 out of my cottage window at sunset

Just returned from 2 weeks in north east Scotland. The weather was good - changeable with sun and rain, fog and mist.

I have a lot of images and concepts to process and will be posting regularly to the blog, website, Flickr and photo.net. Hope you like the new projects as they are posted.

17 July 11 Photo of the day - Cayton Bay

Cayton Bay sunrise III

On the sands by 0315 this morning I watched it get light and then there was a super sunrise. This is a panoramic stitch of 3 images blended and cropped in CS5.

16 July 11 Photo of the day - Scarborough rocks

09 July 2011 - Why do we do it to ourselves?

Filey Brigg sunrise

A landscape photographer has to take advantage of the golden hour, or so the books say. Today I got up at 3am and drove to the coast 5 minutes from my house. I then descended the cliffs and walked out to the end of a rocky promontory to watch and photograph dawn and sunrise. I spent time looking for the shot I wanted and then was watched myself by a grey seal and a flock of common eider that I could almost have touched. There was silence except for the waves, the gulls and the occasional oystercatcher. I did not see another human being until I was walking back to the car when 3 fishermen walked passed me.
So why did I get up so early knowing I will be tired for the next couple of days? Whilst getting there I asked this constantly, especially when the alarm clock went off, but once I was there I knew the answer and returned fulfilled. Then when I viewed the images on my computer I knew that in a couple of days I will do it all again.

Peeping over the horizon