Spirits in the Woods is a panel of manipulated photos I originally put together eight years ago, when I entered my first annual exhibition organised by Croydon Camera Club.

Not having entered the exhibition for several years, due to various reasons, but with this year being the 125th anniversary of the club, I made the effort to enter the Photo 2015 exhibition with a re-imagining of that panel.

View the Panel It's the same theme and ideas, reworked into four images, and created from photos I specifically went out and took for the panel. This was a first for me - generally I'll go to take photos of whatever I might find, occasionally with vague notions, but without a clear intent/goal. My previous panels were all put together independent of the shooting stage.

Having set myself the aim of re-creating the panel, I made notes on what that meant; what I wanted in it. I then decided on a location I hoped would provide the necessary scenes, waited for appropriate weather, then went out solely to get the shots for the panel.

Note: This write-up was made over six months ago - the exhibition ended on 28th March - but circumstances have prevented the article from being finalised and put online before now.

Exhibition aside, it was a good experience and I'm glad I did it. If you're interested in details you can continue on to the full article for a write-up.

At the weekend I went to the Folkestone Airshow, being held to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - the first in the area since the last Shepway Airshow held in 2003.

After an overcast start to they day, fortunately the sun came out and the sky cleared enough to make for some photographic opportunities by the time the planes turned up.

The photos were taken using a Sigma 70-300mm - a cheap lens with slow and noisy auto-focus - and I was uncertain how well it would perform, but I knew I wouldn't get the necessary reach with my standard 18-70mm, so I gave it a try.

As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. Whilst I did have issues with the lens, I was still able to get some shots I was happy with.

Below is a selection of images, with more being available in the gallery.

(The Red Arrows started the display with seven planes, and unfortunately Red 6 had technical problems, further reducing the display to five - but they still put on a good show.)

It's been far too long since I last posted anything, so I'll kick-off what I hope will be the start of more frequent posting with a couple of photos taken down on the UK's south east coast last month, immediately after some incredibly stormy weather.

The winds were still very strong and the evening sky nice and atmospheric, allowing me to create these two images:

The exhibition ended last night, and it was a good show this year, with a lot of excellent photos on display.

I did reasonably well - whilst I didn't win any of the trophies, two of my images received certificates of merit, plus I received a panel certificate for my "Elemental Views" panel.

This was a set of extra-wide landscapes with ratios between 4:1 and 8:1 - showing that it is not necessary to stick to the 4:3 or 3:2 standard that comes out of the camera, and photographers should instead consider what shape suits the image best.

Both my print panel and digital set of images are now available to view online:

Elemental Views

Stormy Weather

This coming Monday 9th March, I will be exhibiting a panel of photographs at my Camera Club's annual exhibition, Photo 2009, to be held at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.

In total there will be more than 150 mounted prints, plus over a hundred slides and digital projected images. These latter two will be displayed when the Exhibition is officially opened by Damian Demolder (Editor of Amateur Photographer), at 20:00 on Monday the 9th.

The prints will be available to look at all week long, at any time that Fairfield Hall is open - starting on the morning of Monday 9th and running until the evening of Saturday 14th.

The exhibition and opening event are both free to attend, and with Croydon Camera Club regarded as one of the best clubs in the region, there are sure to be some excellent pictures on display.

Anyone remotely interested is strongly encouraged to visit.

View the full article for a sneak preview.

Update: For the full panels see my post Elemental Views & Stormy Weather.

For the next week, I'll be staying in York, wandering around and taking photographs of whatever I find up here.

Each evening I updated this post with what happened that day, and show a quick selection of the photos I've taken.

I was asked how to crop an image with IrfanView, so I created this basic tutorial, and decided I might as well post it on my weblog.

Please feel free to let me know what you think of it.

On Saturday I went up on the London Eye, and took a few photos. It wasn't that easy to get shots because the pod was over-crowded, but I still had a good time, and I've decided to put my photos into a gallery, called Views of London. Most of the images have only been quickly tweaked (exposure, white balance, cropping, etc) and could do with some extra work, but feel free to give comments about any of the images as they are.

Here's a picture looking west along the Thames:

Well the exhibition has ended now, and I'm happy with the reception my images got. Whilst it wasn't undying praise, the general consensus seemed to match my own opinions of my prints, which is always a good thing. :)

Here's a photo of my panel:

I was pleased that the exhibition judge came up to me on the opening night and let me know he liked where I was going with the prints, though pointed out that the print quality needs attention (it does; I need to get some decent printing paper instead of Jessops brand stuff).

For anyone wanting to see the images properly, I have thrown together a little webpage containing my panel, entitled Spirits In The Woods.

In just under a fortnight I will be exhibiting a panel of my pictures, as part of my photography club's annual exhibition, Photo 2007.

The event takes place from the 5th to the 10th of March, at Fairfield Halls in Croydon.

If seeing my beautiful pictures is not motivation enough for you, twenty six other club members have work on display, a total of nearly two hundred and fifty images (prints and slides) on display, covering a great range of subject areas.

If you're in any way interested in photography (or art in general) I definitely recommend you come along and have a look — it's completely free and there's certain to be some great pictures on show.

Update: You can see my panel here.