N Spiers Photography » promenade

Summer is fading fast….

Neil — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:55:27 +0000

….and along with may go these beautiful sunsets we are experiencing at the moment due to the high pressure sitting its wonderful self over the North West of England.

Any how I have been trying over the past few days to get a sunset shot that I am really happy with. After numerous attempts I still was not happy with the outcome so I turned to Photoshop Elements. I am still ropey with this software and currently STILL with a borrowed book, studied at ways of making the shot look that little bit better. And thanks to shooting in RAW there was a way by correcting the white balance and adding some saturation to the image.

So as you can see the image turned out quite well and one that I am particularly happy with. This was taken once again up at North Shore in Blackpool, plus I wanted to get the edge of the kart track in the image with the sunlight slightly bouncing off it. Getting shots like this make me want to continue plus start to put money away for more kit…. donations anyonr hahahaha.

Image Details:

Camera: Sony A200
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Time: 1/25
Aperture: F10
Extras: ND4 Filter

Stormy day at home!!

Neil — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:31:25 +0000

After waking up at 8am on a Sunday… not impressed at all. I sat in the mancave reading a book and suddenly noticed it was pouring down and blowing a gale. Therefore no oppurtunity to get out early and take some shots. I was pretty gutted about this because I’d built up in my head a day of photography with my lovely (pregnant) wife out and about somewhere. Then out of nowhere the rain stopped, the clouds lifted but the gales continued, not to be put off I thought that with it now being clear and sunny it would be perfect to take some shots down on the Promenade. I checked the high tide time which was 13:10 and then made sure I had everything ready, including my now trusty Neutral Density filter (ND). Two cups of tea and a breakfast later, myself and Liz were on one hell of a blustery Promenade, we braved the walk down to the sea defences at North Shore and luckily the waves were not breaking on us.

After remembering reading an article about trying to get a few shots fired off underexposed and overexposed, I had just over 40 shots, all taken in the space of 10 minutes. We headed back home as Liz only has a small lung capacity (her words not mine hahaha) but then again she is carrying our first child, so i’ll let her off…only this once mind you. Brew in hand and sat in front of the PC I then went about trying to get the best image of the bunch converted into black and white. With help from a book that a friend has lent me, I found the best way of doing this with the original image being in RAW format and must admit I am very happy with the end result. Let me know what you think, with a comment or two.

Image Details:

Camera: Sony A200
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure Time: 1/500
Aperture: F9

Random walk in Cleveleys

Neil — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:15:54 +0000

Woke up and decided Sunday was the day to clean the house up. So myself and Liz gutted the place and after all this drove up to Cleveleys for a walk down the new promenade area that has been created. Came across a fishing tournament and tried to fire off a few shots but was to much sunlight in my face so did not turn out as I wanted. Continued to walk and came across a flock of 4 birds which seemed quite strange to me as usually your looking at around a flock of 15-30. Was lucky enough for these birds to land not to far from us and noticed 3 were Ringed Plovers and 1 was a solitary Turnstone. Fired off a few shots of the Ringed Plovers and then noticed the Turnstone close by, started to take some shots until some ignorant woman with her dog decided to scare them all off!! She could quite clearly see what I was photographing and just continued to walk into my view with a sly smirk on her face (if you werent a lady I would of said something off hand!!!).

The shots of the Ringed Plover were taking with aperture priority and because so close was able to keep this at F16 to have a nice depth of field, seeing as the birds were quite camoflaged against the shingle. The Turnstone shots never turned out due to the annoying dog walker, gutted by this.

Continued the walk down and came to the new Cafe that had been built on the promenade. Did not stop for a brew but noticed the strange structures on the top of the cafe that seemed like wind turbine blades all woven into each other. Obviously were not these as the wind was blowing but these sculptures were not moving, still took a few shots looking up towards them and noticed an aircraft in shot so fired of a few more. Image can be seen here or within Landscape catergory.

All in all a quiet day but still got home in time to watch the mighty Toffees play, shame they are currently getting beat as I type this!!!!

Corroded Railing, North Pier

Neil — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:20:12 +0000

Corroded Railing, North Pier

Ghostly Fisherman

Neil — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:15:08 +0000

Ghostly fisherman, taken @ Starr Gate, Blackpool

Sunset South Promenade, Blackpool

Neil — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:32:29 +0000

Taken during the summer months (seems long gone now that the leaves are falling). Decided after seeing the sky being a bright orange from my living room window, I would take a drive down to the Promenade and see what I could get with one of my first sunset shots. Done a few more since but this is one that stand outs.