Shooting The Night Sky

I am finally getting around too finishing this blog post, I have been so busy since then i just didn't have a chance. During the week of the 12th of August people around the word were treated to the pressed meteor shower. After the first night I went out to have a look I decide it would be a nice time to try out some Astro photography. 

This was one of the funnest type shoots I have done, the cold, clear August night really helped letting us all see this wonder. Capturing the stars alone isn't easy, but capturing a meteor streaking across the sky is a whole other ball game. The meteors are only in the sky for a second or two and in random locations around the sky making it even more tricky to capture the shots.  I hope you enjoy looking at these photographs as much as I did capturing them. All the shots below are available as fine art prints, simply use the contact form at the bottom of the page to get a quote for a once off print. 

1 - Fly by

2 - Streak

3 - group streak

4 - Sun Set

5 - Creeping Clouds

6 - Past the Milkeyway

7 - Two is better then one

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1 - Fly By 2 - Streak 3 - Group Streak 4 - Sun Set 5 - Creeping Clouds 6 - Past the Milkeyway 7 - Two id better then one

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Travelling to Delf and some Medium Format Film

Delft

Recently I was lucky to get the chance to travel to Delft, a city in the Netherlands.  The city is a quite architecturally beautiful, with many of the building being centuries old and of typical Dutch styling.  The Small streets, the many canals and bridges along with the churches really do make Delft what it is. 

We spent a few days wondering around, sampling all that Delft has to offer, the food, the sights and the atmosphere.  We Explored both the Old and New churches, which have significant links back to Kells, Kilkenny through William of Orange. Below are a few shots of Delft and the final shot is of a walk way in Amsterdam on the way home 

While there I came across one of the coolest vintage camera shops I have seen, they had a wide selection of vintage film cameras, from the Nikon F to Hasselblad 500C's and everything in between. I was looking for a Medium format camera, although lusting after a Hasselblad, I knew they were out of my range starting at €700 just for the body with no lens. Looking around I seen some Bronica's, Lubitel's, Roleiflex to name a few.  After taking to the shop assistant, I finally decided on a Mamiya M645 camera.

Shooting with the Mamiya was a challenge in its self, with no metering and no hand held light meter I had to first test expose with my digital camera and then take the shoot with film,  The view from the waist level finder and ground glass was very similar to the experience I had shooting a Hasselblad 503C, Which is in a previous blog head over and check it out Here. I also found myself using the Sunny 16 rule and making an educated guess at what what the photos would come out like. Taking photos with this camera was a thrill, even more as I couldn't wait to find out what I had captured. 

Scanning the film presents another challenge as at the moment I havant got a backlight scanner, so I have to take a photo of them using my digital camera and my computer screen as a light source. It isn't the best quality so I haven't scanned many. but here is a small low quality sample of whats to come when I get a scanner. The films used are Fuji Reala 100 and Lomography Colour 100, 120 Rolls. and C41 processed. I do have some Ilford Delta 100 but that will take a while as it has been sent off to be hand processed.  Below The top picture is Kells, Kilkenny where I was using the end of the rolls, below that is Up a windmill in Delft with my Folks. 

Phantom Parkor

The aim of this shoot was to capture some action shots along with some portraits of Adam practicing parkour, At the time i was based in DCU which leant itself perfectly to the shoot. The high modern buildings acted really well as the back drop for this modern street art and discipline. Living there at the time I had plenty of ideas of where to shoot, but with the building of the new entrance with wooden poles this allowed me to create some unique shots.

A word From Adam " Phantom"

In the beginning I was a gymnast, I took it up during my fourth year in secondary school, and for a while I was really into it. I started training with my younger brother every weekend and as the club grew in people it moved to a bigger hall, giving it a chance to run more classes more regularly and eventually began running this thing called parkour. For a while I had been getting this feeling of being tied down with gymnastics, I never really got into the regimented style of it. I had been trying it outside for a while, applying it to what I could, trying all these movements outside with no mats or safety nets. When I finally joined this class all I could think was 'Wait, there's a name for what I've been doing?' and I suppose that's where the romance began. I was hooked and never missed a class, in fact it's probably justified to say that it was the only thing getting me out of bed on a Saturday morning. Eventually I struck out on my own, in search of others in the sport and in its wider community. All of this has lead me to where I am now. To me, parkour is more than a sport. It's more than a hobby, a past time or something that gets me out of bed on a Saturday morning. It's a movement, an expression and a liberation. It lets me be who I am and explore the boundaries of what I can or can't do. My favourite thing about it is how after starting it nothing looks the same again, the whole city scape changes in turn with your possibilities. With parkour, you take what has been built, the ugly, cold concrete and monolithic buildings, and you make it yours. It gives me freedom.