ITS LOCKDOWN!!!!!

I Write this blog as the UK has gone into full lockdown over the coronavirus, and I have been contained to my own home for the foreseeable future. So in this world of crazy times, lets see if I can cobble together some images to show what took place up until the lockdown was put into action in March, and keep some form of sanity over these testing times.

Starting things off at the beginning of march with the distinctly underwhelming Bristol Aquarium, which for £15 is taking the piss a bit in all honesty for what it provides. It was a place I had been meaning to visit for a while, so with the coronavirus looming I went along on a quiet afternoon to hopefully get some nice images as I walked around.

Now photographing in aquariums is tough going at the best of times, but here I really seemed to struggle and came away with only a couple half decent images worth even editing. I took my 100mm F/2.8 Macro along for the ride which was always going to be my best bet in these sorts of conditions, but even this struggled in the dark and gloom of the majority of the exhibits that the aquarium had to offer. even the few that were outside had very scratched windows so viewing was not exactly great let alone photographing through it.

A final note on the images I took in the aquarium was that I tended to favour black and white, as the ISO required to get a quick enough shutter speed to capture the fish as they moved around just killed a lot of the images with grain for me. This point is highlighted in the image above which is slightly blurred with grain beginning to creep in.

Black and white does seem to cope better with the added grain, but due to the low light in most of the aquarium, getting a fast enough shutter speed would have sent my ISO through the roof and therefore grain in the image. overall not exactly an ideal place to get some images making it my one and only visit that’s for sure.

Following on from some more atrocious weather, came a trip to Amsterdam. I was only there in the end for a stag do weekend after my longer planned trip was unceremoniously cut short due to the Coronavirus. With this then, the opportunity to get any images over the course of the weekend were few and far between. It was overcast, sometimes rainy and windy throughout so this also did not help but this being said I was able to grab a few hours in the uncharacteristically quiet Amsterdam streets before my amended flight home to get a couple of images.

I did find wandering around the red light district alone with a professional camera a bit odd so I really kept the photos I took to a real minimum and again reiterate that street photography just does not seem to be something I enjoy personally compared to wildlife and macro etc especially when I am alone.

I did also bring my drone with me on the trip but only got to get it up in the air the one time for a few minutes to try and capture some of Amsterdam from the air. The wind was particularly strong on this day but the drone still managed to provide some great images of the city. I flew it from a park on the outskirts so was unable to go too far into city itself which I would have liked to have done given more time. I was however grateful that I was able to get the drone up at all so beggars can’t be choosers.

Back in the good old UK, I was able to get some last minute drone action before total lockdown, with a couple of walks in the English countryside.

As always with my drone, I am looking for patterns and shapes in the landscape that I can hopefully create some interesting images with.

The images below were taken over Blagdon Lake in the mendips on an overcast and windy day.

The reed image above was a particularly interesting subject. I positioned the drone directly over a small break that was running through the reeds, then bumped up the shutter speed so the reeds were in focus as they swayed in the wind. I brought down the highlights is post production to accentuate the dark water, and bring out the reeds which look almost like hair against the dark water around.

As well as the reed beds, I found myself particularly drawn to an overflow weir that fed out at the bottom of the lake. I tried to position the drone directly above, looking down to get a more abstract view of the weir below. I particularly liked the cold dark look that the water created as it flowed and cascaded over the concrete ‘steps’ of the weir. I tried several arrangements to show this as you can see below.

There were some fields of particular interest as i flew around the area with patterns, shapes and colours created my livestock making really interesting and quirky subjects. I honed in on this particular field (below), which had some interesting colours and lines that came out quite well in the final edit.

There was one final trip out and about before the full lockdown, and that was to the coast to brean beach where everyone seemed to have also had the same idea. It did however give me a chance to fly the drone on its wide open beach, which also meant I was able to practice controlling it close to the ground. It does still amaze me the precision it gives you, and how steady it is able to be even in strong winds.

So that’s about it for photos really. Now the quarantine is in action the drone has gone back in its box and my scope for photography has become distinctly limited. But I have found a way to keep busy which I will reveal in my next entry so I can have something to do with my time indoors.

FIN