Nice day out at Revival

This weekend just gone was the annual extravaganza that is Goodwood Revival, where loads of pre-1966 cars race around the old Grand prix circuit near Chichester in West Sussex. About 90% of people who go along to watch dress up in period clothes and make a real effort with the whole thing.

I usually go along with three friends and we hire a motorhome and stay there for four nights to watch all three days of racing...and generally have a few beers and a good laugh. This year was just a day trip because the other guys couldn't make it. I wasn't originally goimg to go this year, but some of my girlfriends friends had suggested going so who was I to say no to a day out at Revival. Ok it would be different dynamics, but I was still really looking forward to it.

We arrived by train and got the shuttle bus from Chichester station to the race circuit by 10am and we had a quick wander around to show the girls where some of the main attractions were. Then the bottles of fizz popped :-)
More than one bottle of fizz ha ha!

Being the only man among a group of six women certainly was different from what I have been used to in the past, but I'll definitely be doing it again. Ok, so I didn't actually get to see any of the racing but that's ok...I see that now. it was a great day out and I really enjoyed it.

I did bring my camera with me and got some lovely photos of the ladies in our group, and I hope they all like them. here's a couple of my favourites.

This is Melissa, my gorgeous girlfriend, looking absolutely stunning in her dress and 1950's hairstyle. I think she has amazing eyes and just love taking pictures of her.

This is Melissa and her good friend Kate. I absolutely love this shot!

This was one of those moments that works out perfectly. melissa and Kate were just having a lovely chat and laughing with each other and when I pointed the camera at them they both just peaked over the rim of their sunglasses and pulled this brilliantly fun pose for me. Think I'll get it printed :-)

If you would like to see what normally happens at Goodwood Revival then you can head over to my Facebook page and have a look at one of the albums I created from previous years. Just use this link here.

While you're there why not press "like" on the page so you can see my latest photos as they are published? 

I am also on:

Twitter ; @kingkevb

Instagram: @kevinbrownephotography

Until next time,

Kev.

I finally captured the Milky Way

Hi,
As I mentioned on my last post, myself and Melissa had been invited to Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire by a friend of hers who is a member of the HantsAstro group. The group normally does members only evenings, but this was one of those evenings when friends and family of members are welcome to come along
Now, I was expecting to see some cool looking telescopes, but the ones that were there blew me away! I think I was expecting much smaller telescopes...ones that would be easily carried and transported in a car! Nah...these guys don't do things by halves!!! The majority of the telescopes that were set up were on rotating swivel boards and were about 2 feet in diameter and about 6 or 7 feet long. All evening long you could hear the whirr of automatic motors turning the telescopes as they tracked whatever stars or constellations the operator was looking at. They were all very willing to let us guests come and have a look at what they were seeing and would happily explain what particular systems we were looking at.
This was a very well organised event, with talks on astro imaging and the history of astronomy...and pizzas. Lots of pizzas :-)

Of course, I had brought my camera with me as well. I always like the opportunity to capture a nice star trail so set it up near the back of the group with the idea of capturing some of the replica thatched buildings in the scene. I realised very quickly that the image would also capture quite a lot of people movement as they milled around their telescopes and the wavering red lights that they wore on their heads, but I thought this would add something a bit different to the scene so decided not to re-compose.
Condensation turned out to be the enemy that night! The sky was as clear as I had ever seen it and was happy sat back in my chair staring upwards to spot any sporadic Perseid meteor that hurtled past. Every now and again I would check my lens and it was completely misted over. I could hear several of the astro guys complaining about the condensation as well.I have downloaded the start trail images onto my laptop and started working on them last night, but i think I'll have to do quite a bit more work to rescue as many images as possible before trying to stack them into the final trail image. I'll keep you posted on that one.

The evening wasn't a total loss however...and this is the one I am really excited about. Once I stopped my camera taking trail images I recomposed to try and capture the Milky Way which was directly overhead. Now, I have tried several times in the past to get an image of our galaxy but have always been scuppered by bad weather or light pollution. This time I was successful :-)

To view a bigger version of this image have a look at it on my Facebook page here. While you're there why not "Like" my page to keep up with the latest uploads and updates.
This was taken with my Canon 70D, Sigma 10-20mm at 10mm, f/3.5, ISO3200 at 30seconds long.

Next on the agenda for me is trying to find some clear skies somewhere around Hampshire, Dorset or Wiltshire tonight to watch the peak of the Perseid meteor showers, and possibly do some light-painting with a friend of mine. He had originally suggested going to Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire, but is now also talking about Corfe Castle as there is the possibility of thunder and lightning! Whatever happens...and wherever we end up I will hopefully have some new images to share in the next few days.

Speak to you soon.

Kev.

Wow, it's been a busy time here!

Hi,

Yet again I've been really busy and not taken the time to update my blog for a while...but there a really good reason for that! We moved house :-)

We put the offer in for the house way back in December last year and we finally got the keys just over two weeks ago! That's just over 7 months from start to finish! And we've still got a few boxes to unpack. 

4 days after we moved we went on holiday to Corfu. Nothing like timing things to add to the stress ha ha. 

Corfu was hot. Real hot! I don't handle the heat very well and was glad to get back to our room each night for the air con :-)

The kids loved the holiday of course, even though my youngest one got ear infections in both ears because he was never out of the swimming pools. The on-site doctor was really good though. 

I took my proper camera with me just in case I got the chance to grab some nice shots. The chance for that came one evening when we were having dinner at a gorgeous little restaurant called San Carlos just down the road from the hotel in Agios Georgios (if you're ever in the area I can highly recommend it). 

We were eating dinner outside when the sun started creeping towards the horizon   I excuses myself from everyone else at the table and ran down the steps to the beach. I grabbed a few shots...several of which were interrupted by people walking past. I normally don't include people in my landscape shots but when I saw this one I knew it was the shot of the evening. The couple walking past really add to the atmosphere of the image...it's just a real shame they weren't holding hands. 

So, you go away for a week with those closest to you and you have to come up with a memorable way to round off the holiday for your kids. What do you do?

You take them up on a parasail of course. 

Even my 5yr old was super keen to have a go at it ha ha. 

The guys on the pontoon took great care of us and even used a shorter rope so the kids wouldn't get too scared. They did the obligatory dunking up to the knees at the halfway point and then performed a precision landing right in the middle of the pontoon so we didn't end up in the sea...much to my 9yr olds disgust ha ha. 

In recent months I have been working with a local design company after they asked me to do some photos for their new corporate website. I got the nod from them today that the new website is up and running and open to the public. I would really like this to turn into something of a regular thing as it is a real buzz doing portraits and product shots for real companies. 

Have a look at www.gemma-international.co.uk to see how they turned out. 

If you know of any companies looking for photographic help then I'd be more than happy to help out. 

What's next?

More unpacking of boxes in the house and finding homes for things. 

On Saturday evening myself and Melissa are going out with the Hampshire Astronomy Group to eat pizzas and watch the skies for several hours. A perfect opportunity to bring the camera and get some night shots. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that the clouds will stay away...and that there may even be a few meteors, as we are getting close to when the Perseids will be doing their annual display. 

I'll let you know how I get on. 

For now, have a look at my website (www.kevinbrownephotography.com) or why not follow me on my Favebook page (www.facebook.com/kevinbrownephotography) 

See you soon. 

Kev. 

A dull sunset turned into a lesson in car photography

Myself and my friend Mark from Twiglet Images headed down to Kimmeridge Bay in #Dorset last night to hopefully shoot a lovely sunset involving the "Land" statue created by Sir Antony Gormley to mark the 50th anniversary of The Landmark Trust. 

The weather reports were looking perfect, patchy cloud with sunny intervals which could potentially crest some lovely colours in the sky. The tide was in our favour as well with low tide just after sunset. 

We had hoped that the clouds would break completely after sunset to allow us to capture the Milky Way...but the forecast wasn't playing ball with that part. 

When we were getting close to the village of Corfe Castle we saw a massive amount of pud coming from the direction of the sea so our hearts started to sink, thinking that all hopes of some sky at the cost were now squashed. When we arrived at Kimmeridge Bay we saw some clear sky but that the clouds were being formed right above the cliffs in the bay next to Kimmeridge. The wind coming off the sea was hitting the vertical cliffs and being pushed upwards where it condensed into heavy clouds...it was pretty spectacular to witness but it meant we weren't going to be able to catch the sun going down because of the angle of those clouds. 

Nevertheless, we clambered done the rocks towards the statue and set up our cameras to see what we could create with what nature was dealing us. 

I found a nice composition that I think works well, even if there was very little colour in the sky. What do you think of the picture below? 

When dusk was over we headed back up to the Clifton car park for a very welcome coffee from the flask I had brought with me. We then decided to turn the car around and play with some shots of that instead. Now, I have never tried any automotive photography before. I have admired the work of Tim Wallace from Ambient Life for quite some time but knew that I would NEVER be able to create anything near his quality of work...he is the master after all. 

We set up our cameras (my Canon 70F and Marks Nikon D600) on high tripods and set the intervalometers to take a succession of shots while we lit the car with a LED torch shone through a hand held softbox. 

This is my version...a composite of 25 shots all merged together. I'm quite pleased with it but I've obviously got a very long way to go. 

Whereas this last picture is Marks version...a 3-shot composite. 

I LOVE Marks version. 

The difference between my crop-sensor camera and his full-frame is quite evident. Wish I could afford to go full-frame! 

Until next time :-)

A lovely February beach walk

Yesterday we went for a walk along the beach at Lee-On-Solent with the kids. There 9 of us in total. 

It was such a lovely day I couldnt resist taking the camera. But, I wanted to push myself to use different lenses than I normally do (Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5), so I only took my Sigma 105mm macro and popped my little nifty Canon 50mm f/1.8 in my pocket. 

After using the 105mm to get some portrait shots of my kids I swapped to the 50mm to get some group shots a dog the boys playing with a rugby ball. 

The sunset started to look like a proper good'un so I challenged myself to get a decent photo of it with the 50mm. Is it possible? Yes :-)

What do you think?

Durdle Door, Dorset

Has it really been 3 months since I've written anything on this blog???

There's been a few things happening since my last post (about my trip to Iceland):
1) I nearly moved house, but it fell through on the day of exchange :-/
2) I moved in with Melissa :-)
3) I bought a Canon 100-400mm lens :-)
4) I spent £1,100 to get my car fixed after it broke down on me :-/

On Saturday 7th Feb I went out with my friend Mark to shoot sunrise at Mupe Bay in Dorset. I had seen a beautiful picture of it on Facebook and wanted to create my own version of it. However...there's alway a "However" isn't there!...to get there you have to walk about 1.5 miles over military firing ranges which are only open at weekends and public holidays. Little did we know when we arrived there that the military ranges didn't open till about 9am! That'd be no good for sunrise!

Plan B...we drove to Lulworth and parked up with a view to walk over the South West Coastal Path to Mupe Bay. However...here we go again...the path was closed off because of a landslide! It seemed someone didn't want us to get there that day.

Plan C...Durdle Door.
All nicely wrapped up warm, camera bags on our backs and a big flask of hot coffee off we set. Apart from tripping over a rabbit hole when Mark said "Look at the moon" it was a lovely walk down to the Door. We didn't fancy the rough clamber down to the beach so we walked a bit further along the clifftop to be able to get a shot of the sun coming up over the horizon beyond the Door.

I did a few different compositions, but the 3-stitch panoramic I took really pleased me and has been retweeted loads of times on Twitter (it even got retweeted by Boycie from Only Fools And Horses...bragging rights ha ha ha).

As always this image is for sale as a canvas print on my website:
www.kevinbrownephotography.com

Speak to you soon

Kev.