Tuesday 26 November 2013

National Parks England - Twitter competition winner

Over on Twitter @NationalParksEngland, @NorthYorkMoors and @NewForestNPA were doing a "Tweetathon" this evening, asking for people to tweet their favourite pictures taken in some of the countries National Parks. So, I tweeted a few I had taken...and was selected the winner :-)) This was the image that got it. Don't forget prints of this are available from my website. www.kevinbrownephotography.com 

The prize is a voucher to be used on Derek Fogg's website (www.britishlandscapephotography.com), but for me it's more about the buzz that a professional photographer and large organisations that run our #nationalparks selected my image as winner. 

I'm glad I stayed in tonight instead of heading to the local pub quiz with some neighbours as I usually do on a Tuesday :-)



Certainly makes up for missing out on that sunrise opportunity this morning :-)

Don't forget to comment or share with your friends and family. 

Kevin. 


Location Frustration

Sunrise this morning was one of those clear, crisp and colourful affairs. There were beuatiful colours in the sky and a bit of light frost on the ground. With those ingredients all coming together I headed off to work a little earlier than usual (at this time of year you don't need to be up at stuipd o'clock to get a nice sunrise photo), knowing just where I wanted to shoot.

On the route I take to work there is a gap in the hedges of the narrow country lane that, when you drive past it, you can see through and down into a nice little valley. The plan was that the sun would have been behind me and I would have been shooting down into the valley to capture the first rays of light hitting the tops of the trees poking out of the frosty mist. I had checked The Photographers Ephemeris a couple of days ago, so knew which way the sun would be shining, and the weather conditions were perfect. It was all falling into place.

There aren't a great number of places to park along that road as it is a narrow single-track lane with areas that you can pull in to pass other vehicles if you meet one coming in the other direction, but I was able to park up in the wide area just in front of a gate into one of the farm fields. I was feeling confident at this stage.

I changed into my walking boots, grabbed my camera bag and tripod from the back of the car and set off into the gap in the hedges, visuallizing in my head what the finished image would look like and getting excited about uploading it to my website, Facebook page, Flickr and 500px accounts. It was going to be all misty and atmospheric with cool dawn colours leading upwards to the warmth of autumn leaves being lit by the first rays of morning sunshine.

Walking through the hedges onto a public footpath I was faced with an eight foot high fence all the way along the side of the path that I wanted to get through!!! I hadn't planned for that had I. Doh!

The moral of the story? Sometimes a quick spur-of-the-moment shot can produce a stunning image, but if you've gone to the effort that I have as described above then I really should have stopped there on my way home one evening to take a little walk to ee what the view would be like. I then could have saved myself the time this morning and headed to another location without the frustration of wasting a beautiful sunrise.

Be warned beautiful sunrises of the future...I'm coming to get you!

Monday 25 November 2013

My images now selling on Photo4me.com

Since launching my website I've been looking for suppliers that can provide me with quality prints on acrylic, aluminium and other formats so I can provide the full offering direct from my website. However, this has proved quite hard as a lot of suppliers prices are very high, so by the time I add even a very small margin for me it would put the cost up to a level that no one would expect to pay.

So, I have recently uploaded some images to Photo4me.com who offer sensible prices and have a good reputation on quality. To view my images and buy as prints (framed or not), acrylics or phone cases you can follow the link below:

http://www.photo4me.com/canvasprints/Kevin-Browne

As usual I'd love to hear any feedback. You can email me as well.

Many thanks

Kevin.

Friday 22 November 2013

Ooh to have some more spare time!

I have sooo many photographic ideas that I want to try out at the minute that I am finding it really frustrating that I don't have enough spare time to do them all. The reason...life! More specifically my job, my kids...and everything in between.

Don't get me wrong, my job is interesting and exciting (a little too exciting at times with things going wrong just days before we are due to launch a big new offering to the television viewing public), and I adore my kids and would do anything for them.

I suppose this post is just me pouting my lips like a toddler and stamping my feet wanting more time for me and my camera to get out and about. I'll calm down over the weekend when I've relaxed after a hectic week at work...honest!

Anyway, last weekend I did manage to get out with my camera...and my eldest son for a few hours. We headed out in our campervan to Milford-On-Sea in Hampshire for lunch at the Needles Eye cafe and then a wander along the beach. Surprisingly, for mid-November it was actually very mild and calm. We didn't even need to zip our coats up, and the sea was really flat.

I took my Canon 70D with me, but also took along my old Canon 1000D for my son to take some pictures if he wanted to. We walked from the car park at the cafe out along Hurst Spit which leads out to Hurst Castle. We didn't make it the whole way as my son started complaining about walking so far and all he wanted to do was clamber over the rocks that make up the sea defence.

I had recently bought a Lee Big-Stopper ND filter and thought this was the perfect chance to see what I could do with it. Now when I say I bought a Big-Stopper, that bit is very true, but I haven't managed to but the holder system for it yet, and it is too big to fit in my Cokin P-Series filter holder. So, there I was with my camera on the tripod, set up for a 25-second exposure at f/11, and I was stood crouching over the top of the camera holding the Big-Stopper against the front of the lens trying not to move too much and keep from making the camera move and ruin the photo.

It may sound like a bodged attempt at doing this, but I really am quite happy with the results. I am now really looking forward to getting out again (whenever that might be) and doing more work with the Big-Stopper. Filter holder will be ordered very soon.

I'd love to know what you think of these images.


AS usual, these have been added to my website where you can buy copies as canvas prints:
www.kevinbrownephotography.com

Many thanks for looking (and I'd love to hear your feedback).

Kevin.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

New image added to website

I've had some very nice comments about my photo of the tree at Brately View in the New Forest, including enquiries about it in portrait format. Seeing that the last canvas I sold was of the portrait version and it sounds like there may be another order coming for the same one I thought it was about time I actually added it to my website. That way, potential customers will have the choice :-)

http://www.kevinbrownephotography.com/#!Bratley-View-Portrait/zoom/galleryPage/image1n2l

 
I'd love to know what people think of it, so please feel free to comment (or share with your friends).

Friday 8 November 2013

One of my images is being printed in a magazine :-)

I got an email this morning telling me one of my images is printed in Issue 32 of Photography For Beginners magazine (on sale from 14th November if you fancy buying a copy...and no I don't get anything for it).

This is the image:

http://www.kevinbrownephotography.com/#!Sunflower-Field/zoom/galleryPage/image1otg

Happy days :-)

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Another happy customer

I've just delivered a canvas print of sunset at Bratley View in the New Forest to one very happy customer. A few more like that would be very welcome :-)

I've also been doing some minor fettling with the website today and have now added PayPal buttons to the Pries page to make it even easier for customers to place orders. 

www.kevinbrownephotography.com