Cornwall Wedding Photographers | Travel Wedding Photography UK

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Exploring Kingsand Cornwall | Photography

Last week I photographed a Wedding with friend and fellow photographer Andy Green at Polhawn Fort near Torpoint in Cornwall, needless to say it was a good wedding and Polhawn Fort was once again a great venue. However I also went to photograph the groomsmen in the morning and despite being only 20 minutes from my front door, I found a couple of new small towns, yes I knew about them, but in my naivety I suppose, I had never visited Kingsand before. So Yesterday, Saturday 30th March 2013, one of my last weekends wedding free for a while, myself and Poppy went to explore Kingsand near Millbrook. As it turned out Poppy knew the area from childhood, but it was all new to me. People often say ‘what a nice place of the world you live in’, which I always shrug off with ‘you get used to it’ but yesterday going to a few spots that I had never explored before, I was pleasantly surprised! :) Below are a few pics shot as we walked along the front at Kingsand, Cornwall. I think there are probably more pictures of Poppy than the scenery, but thats my visual memories!

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– by Barney Walters

Fowey Royal Regatta Red Arrows Cornwall

The Fowey Royal Regatta in Cornwall at Fowey features and highlights with the Red Arrows nearly every year. Being a local to the area it is normally an annual event where we make the trip down to the outskirts of Fowey to watch the Red Arrows. I have been meaning to blog these pictures from the 2012 Fowey Regatta Red Arrows for a while and have finally got around to editing a few frames and sharing them with you here.

Last years Fowey Regatta Red Arrows display was slightly different to previous years. Firstly because of all the incidents that the Red Arrows display team had publicly had during the 2012 season and the lead up to the 2012 season. Due to these unfortunate accidents and deaths the normal 9 strong display team was reduced to only 7 and with bad weather, low cloud cover and a murky day, it was not the best display I had ever seen, none the less it was a good afternoon/evening out.

From a child I have seen the display nearly every year and have been lucky enough to see them up close and personal during other air shows such as Yeovil and Culdrose in Heslton, Cornwall. My fondness of aircraft can also be attributed to my early life Work Experience at RNAS Culdrose in Helston some years ago now, and if asked what I would do other than photography then I will normally respond with my tale about how I accidentally ended up being a photographer and put my academic life away which was, at the time of going to college, focused on becoming a pilot.

Enough about me and time to enjoy a few pictures of these artists of the sky. For more information on the Red Arrows and the Fowey Royal Regatta please see these links.

Were you at the Fowey Royal Regatta last year ? – Leave a comment at the bottom of this page. :)

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Instagram: Amateur to professional in two clicks.

No weddings this week. Instead, I’m out of Cornwall and into the French Alps skiing with a few friends of mine that don’t know a lot about photography. The idea for this blog came about over a few beers and pizza while chatting about the days snaps. It soon occurred to me that their pictures were somehow better than mine, theirs were edited and mine were mere RAW files. How ? Was I loosing it? Drinking a little too much perhaps..? No. Something called Instagram.

I am of course aware of Instagram, SnapSeed, Hipstamatic, VSCO and other iPhone editing consumer ‘software’, however I have never really seen any results from Instagram and was almost stunned at the quality on the 3″ display of an iPhone. Obviously I appreciate the limitations, many of these Instagram pictures look the same and have the original camera floor of being of a smaller quality than conventional pictures, however in an ever growing web sharing world, and if good light is available, there is a lot to be said about these consumer editing applications that are of course free to use.

“The idea is very simple, you can take a picture using the iPhone camera and with one touch, crop, layer and add several different presets before adding a border and blur effect to your chosen photo. Through in a quick description and a couple of hashtags and your photo is shared with your world.” – Sam Cudmore

“With Himstamatic I have to worry about editing the picture now, with Instagram I can edit it at any point in the future.” – Alex Pollard

I am a strong believer that many people feel they are a photographer and many think that a professionals jobs is easy, of course with a brief look at Instagram you could believe this to be the case. My question is this… is a photographers job no longer just about image creation or is quality and a trained eye simply enough ?

Here are are a few frames which I can take no credit for. All frames shot on iPhone 4S using stand alone camera and Instagram App.

Lets here your thoughts below…

by Sam Cudmore

by Alex Pollard (of Barney)

by Sam Cudmore

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Praa Sands in Cornwall

Praa Sands in Cornwall is a small town on the South Coast between Porthleven and Perranuthnoe on the road between Heston & Penzance. I spend most Christmas weeks down in these ‘depths of Cornwall’ with family and this year was no different. It’s not often I post blogs with personal pictures so this blog is a little different, a few frames from an hour walk along Praa Sands beach with the family on the 27th of December – walking off all that turkey!

It has been a few years since I have actually been down on to the Beach at Praa Sands, yet I doubt many days at Praa Sands were like this one, the surf was large and the low beach shelf meant the surf break on this particular day was only 2 or 3 meters away from where we were walking, however the beach was extremely sheltered and all the wind that was obviously causing the great surf was not translating into gale force on the beach.

When I’m just with family or on my own taking a few pictures, packing light is always the aim, and normally the same light kit (as light as it gets anyway). All the pictures here are shot on a 50mm f/1.4 using a Nikon D3 and all at f/2 – simple. Every single frame was then processed exactly the same with a Portra 400 film effect, adding a little warmth, grain and film magic. :) –

Whilst I only do pictures like this once or twice a year with my family, I get the chance throughout the year to do this several times with a few families whom I have shot weddings for, or who simply want some lifestyle natural pictures of their own family and if you ask me, locations don’t get much better than the beaches in Cornwall & Devon. The approach of these shoots is very relaxed and I nickname them ‘the adventure‘ simply because its about the family having a day out together – an adventure. Very little posing – if any and just some good fun. More information about my lifestyle shoots here.

So here are a few pictures from my families Christmas walk at Praa Sands Beach.

P.S Did anyone notice I managed to write a whole blog without mentioning the W word. Wedding. Opps!

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Apple iPhone 5 Camera Panorama Mode | iPhone 4S iOS6 iSight

Apple iPhone 5 Camera Panorama Mode | Also on iPhone 4S with iOS6 iSight

My pocket camera just got better. The Apple iPhone 5, yes I have one, even though it arrived a few days later then expected. My iPhone is also, as is to many people, much more than a Phone, its my calendar, my note taking device, my iPod, my reminder, my mobile networking, my finance manager and much more, but as well as all that its my Compact Camera, the camera I ALWAYS have with me, and usually the the only camera that gets full up with all my personal stuff. So now after 2 years of loyal service, I have replaced my iPhone 4 with the new iPhone 5 with iOS6 which includes the new Panorama Mode built into the iSight Camera and the Software.

Yes, iPhone 4S users can do this too.. and this is not a comparison between either cameras in hardware, nor is this a comparison between other cameras using Android that have had this feature for sometime, this is simply a blog with a few pics to illustrated the capabilities that I have found with the new Panorama feature in the New iPhone 5 over a few days mild testing in sunny Spain.

(All the pictures below have been shot with an iPhone 5 using the Panorama feature built into the iSight Camera App bundled with iOS6 from Apple. All pictures are out of the camera (iPhone) without any processing at all – other than a black border)

The first few times I used the feature I was stunned! In seconds I had what would take 2-3 minutes and then a further 5 minutes in Photoshop with my regular DSLR. Not that I expect the print quality to be anything like my big kit – but for digital use it has impressed me. Photoshop gives me a sample dimension of 8 inches high and 35 inches long at 300dpi to print. – Fairly impressive I think, I look forward to printing soon.

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After my initial few tests above, I started to use it a little faster, about 5 seconds for a 180 degree sweep instead of about 15 seconds previously. This caused a few minor problems, the image below will need to be cropped. As you can see there is black marking on the sides (top right and bottom left) – where I have moved the iPhone up and down too much whilst taking the shot. Also faint lines start to appear, where the images have been stitched together. (noticeably on the left hand side here where the sea and sky are lighter then darker in exposure)

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Afterward, I then attempted to use the feature over a shorter distance at night. Battling now with shutter speed times and high and noisy ISO’s in the iPhone – I was still fairly impressed with the result. The new lens optics and wider aperture are likely to make night or indoor use of this feature much better in the iPhone 5 in comparison to the iPhone 4S.

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Overall I am very satisfied personally with the addition of this feature in iOS6 and will probably use it in moderation in the future. I can only imagine that as Phone sensor technology increases it will become more useable inside and outside during darker hours of the day. However it is likely that distortion will play a factor in tighter spaces and without knowledge of how to solve some distortion in post production it may be best used for wide open spaces for the majority of people. Give it a try!

I leave you with my last Panorama picture for this Blog – adding some human touch to the landscape. :)

iPhone 5 Panaroma Picture Using IOS6 iSight

(all pictures, thoughts and opinions are my own and I am in no way endorsed by any person or company)

View the apple introductory video here by Phil Schiller at Apple unveiling.

Wedding Photography Paris France | British UK Photographer Cornwall

Several months ago I took a weekend break to Paris with my partner. The weekend was suppose to be a few days away from work of any nature for the both of us, and to an extent, for my partner, it was. However when we caught the train from Disneyland Paris into central Paris, just next to Notre Dame the iPhone went away and out came my 5D2 and 50mm. In fairness I only shot around 100 frames covering two weddings. Much less than the three thousand I often shoot at a wedding I am actually invited to photograph.

Below are 5 of my frames from the couple of weddings I witnessed on my travels in Paris. I also spent the day photographing various different types of people in the city, as well as some of the impressive architecture, I will blog these pictures soon under a travel photography blog that I am hoping to set up in 2012.

I was asked earlier in the year to photograph a wedding abroad in Italy but unfortunately was already booked for what turned out to me a various glorious wedding in Cornwall. Luckily I am off to Greece for a wedding in May, however I am very happy to travel abroad for a ‘destination wedding’ weather it be Spain, Italy, France, The Channel Islands or somewhere further afield. Please get in touch for a friendly chat.