Author: travel67

St. Mary’s Island, Whitley Bay

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This is where I spent my summers when I was a kid. At low tide you can walk out along a causeway to the lighthouse. When the seas rise, the causeway is submerged and St. Mary’s become and island once again. Not your traditional lighthouse photograph. Thinking about making a big print of this an putting it on my wall. This is a little surprising because normally I’m looking for clear blue skies and smiling faces. Sentimental value I guess. And just in case you were wondering where you’d heard the name Whitley Bay before… And now I’m searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades In any shooting gallery where promises are made To rockaway, rockaway, rockaway, rockaway From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay out to rockaway lyrics by Mark Knopfler, from Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits

Steam Power

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Spent an afternoon at Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum. Top brass 🙂 Probably my favorite photo of the trip. Love the level of blur in the background keeping the focus on the face, but still allowing you to notice details like the brass gauge and dirt under the fingernails as you look closer.

British Railways

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I chose my route back from Japan so that I would fly into Manchester Airport. On previous occasions I have flown to Heathrow and then taken a plane, train or coach up to Manchester. The first two are surprisingly expensive and the last one just makes the long trip so much longer. British Railways may once have been the envy of the world, but if I have to pay vast amounts of money for a ticket I expect the train to come at least close to shinkansen  in levels of speed, comfort and reliability.

Kelvin Mesmin Shoot (Part 2)

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A couple more sports inspired shots from Kelvin’s shoot. Clearly I will need to shoot a final “Run” image to get the trifecta, but pleased with the shots we got. The bike image has contrast increased a little and saturation decreased a little. I would normally process images to match, but it’s nice to show the differences here. Cleaning up the reflections of light stands in the sunglasses took an hour or so of cloning last night. Although not noticeable on web sized files, the clutter free image will look much better when printed.

Bianca, Essa & Suzanne

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Another location shoot, this time with Essa and Bianca on the beach in Uruma City, Okinawa. Bianca is wearing pieces by Suzanne Somersall Jewelry. More images to come, but currently on the road so will upload more when I return to Okinawa. Horses are somewhat fidgety models, and similar to kids and babies, spend a lot of time pulling faces and sticking out their tongues. In this shot Essa was suddenly tranquil and I could capture the image I wanted. It turns out that horses can either pull funny faces or relieve their bowels, but can’t do both at the same time.

Snorkeling on Okinawa

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Along with the other images from the shoot I thought I’d try and get a snorkeling stock image. The ocean isn’t normally so flat, but it was great to get such a clear reflection. If anyone’s interested, I think the best spots on Okinawa for snorkeling are Sunabe Seawall for the vast gardens of soft coral, Cape Maeda for the easy access and the Blue Cave, and Channel Crevices for its shallow tide pool and interesting rock formations. Just remember that when snorkeling don’t rely on an inflatable ring or an air mattress if you’re not a strong swimmer. There have been numerous cases of mainland Japanese drowning after they are pushed out to sea by the wind, or their floatation device is popped by sharps rocks or coral. Also be careful if you snorkel out past the reef edge and the breaking waves. If the winds change and large waves suddenly appear, you may find yourself unable to get back to shore without going through a gauntlet of churning surf.