Most of the images I produce are a faithful reproduction of the scene and subject.
However I do like to put some additional creativity into some of my images, to distort reality. So the images in this Series are not quite what they may seem.
Inside the Aldgate East London Underground station, I was taken by the almost perfect symmetry of the scene, and the choice of exits. My wife Sam obliged as the main subject here. Shot from the opposite platform, we had to do a number of pre-choreographed takes to get a suitable pair of images, as passing tube trains and many other passengers tended to get in the way. Once captured, the handheld image layers could be aligned in post processing, to reveal a figure apparently heading to each exit.
I earned this image - three hours waiting in a roadside drainage ditch in July 2016 enabled me to capture the Tour de France peloton in the way I wanted. I was lucky that the yellow jersey wearer (the leader and eventual winner of the 2016 race), Chris Froome, happened to pass on my side of the road. He was closely chaperoned by his Sky sponsored team mates, riders so organised in a protective line around him that they are often referred to as the Sky Train. In post processing I added some additional interest to the image by creating a horizontal reflection of the original photo.
This image is not of a tree on an island. It’s actually based on the image I took of a tree on the shores of Lake Bassenthwaite, in The English Lake District. The image has been horizontally reflected down the trunk of the tree in post processing, and then offset from centre. The intention is for it to look like a tree on an island on very first glance. Hope it works!
How do you produce a different image of one of the most famous sights in Rome, Italy? And how do you fit it all in a single frame? Lots of individual images taken, overlapping and at different angles, to allow a reconstruction of the fountain in post processing.
Most famously photographed by the legendary Ansel Adams, the mighty Yosemite National Park in California, USA, is a real draw for landscape photographers. Half dome is a much photographed subject, so again how to capture something different? I mounted my camera on a tripod and shot a series of images at c 2 minute intervals as sunset developed, came, and went. In post processing I was able to demonstrate the progression of the sunset over the scene by splicing together the image slices I had recorded.
I entered this image into a competition at my local photography club, and was delighted that the judge dismissed its credentials out of hand, concluding “anyone can take a photo of an old poster”. It was actually created from a “straight”photo, post processed in a similar style to the old railway posters, with text added and then finished with an ageing effect to give the impression of some deterioration and water damage.
Saltburn cliff lift is the oldest operating water-balance cliff lift in the UK. Construction began in 1883, the lift becoming operational the following year. It has a height of 120 feet (37 m) and a track length of 207 feet (63 m), resulting in a 71 per cent incline.
The wonderfully retro Rendezvous Cafe sits on the promenade above the beach, just north of Whitley Bay in England, UK. The building has been around since the 1930s, and has a traditional tea, sandwiches and ice cream menu. I took a series of images at opening up time over the space of five minutes or so whilst the one guy went through his opening up routine. I overlaid them in post processing and used a gentle old film effect filter to add a slight retro feel.
