Author: Lee

Sourton Tor, Meldon View

Sourton Tor, Meldon View

Last year, when visiting Lake Viaduct, I wrote about a choice of return route. We could have headed to Rattlebrook Railway area, or up over Sourton Tors.

We chose the Tors and it was a great choice!

When we got to the top the view was amazing and then the sun came out and gave everything a warm feel producing some lovely photos.

The Tor itself is quite spread out and quite a dark rock, so a little light really added to the final images.

It’s also quite an easy access to get to, so well worth exploring.

The car park is a couple of hundred yards before this gate.

Autumn was Short

Autumn was Short

I haven’t written a blog post in ages (how many times have I written that) but I really should.

I have done lots of photography, Portraits, Pirates to Body Confidence shoots, and lot exploring dartmoor and crossing off the 365 squares. So, there has been lots to blog about.

So lets try and remedy this.

Autumn was short and wet, which meant not much time to capture the lovely colours. However as seen in ny last posts I did managed to capture some of it.

Some photos I didn’t post, were a surprise, it happened at the end of a walk and I was lucky that I had time to return to the car, and get the tripod and capture some lovely photos in the space of about 20 minutes.

However, before that, our walk started with a search for a small cross and a long walk up a path.

This is one of the closer locations for us on dartmoor and we hadn’t visited it before. We were of course crossing off another couple of Dartmoor 365 Squares on our Map.

Our walk took us through fields and then followed the river. I hadn’t taken the tripod from the car and actually was glad not to be hauling it on this long walk, so I had to improvise with my method for take the longer exposure images.

The river had some lovely locations, with little obstruction of view.

One the closing section of our walk and about half a mile from the car we came across a lovely location. This is what I mention at the start of this post and I just had to go back to the car to get the tripod to get these shots.

The copper beech tree was absolutely stunning

Definitely on my list for future visits.

Autumn is short

Autumn is short

Autumn is a lovely time and it a time I want to photograph, but quite ofter miss out. So this year I’ve tried to make more of a effort.

So, last week I combined another D365 square, with some autumn colours.

Although the main bridge was difficult to photograph from the intended view, the surrounding brooks were a photographers paradise.

Right next to the very small parking area was this from the road cross over it.

A slight change of positions gave you this

and a 5 minute walk (if even that), was this place.

The river was very fast flowing and so not very long exposures was needed.

I wanted to capture the 2 streams joining and I wanted a low angle, so placed the tripod in the river, low down and took another shot.

There was more to explore, but the weather was against us again and time running out.

I hope to get one last chance at autumn soon.

* Some of these photos and more are available to buy as Prints and Framed photos on my PicFair shop (LeoPhotographyUK)

Dartmoor Rivers in Autumn

Dartmoor Rivers in Autumn

If you follow my posts (I hope someone does) and you know I recently visit Dartmoor, you’ll also know that at about this time last year I started exploring long exposure photography and struggled getting good result. You can read about it here > Long Exposure Photography (Part 1).

By the beginning of the year I was starting to get good results. I did a little more in the summer, but Autumn is really were this comes into its own.

I don’t tend to resist places very ofter, but whilst on a walk a couple of weeks ago, I found this lovely location. Using a Woolly Hat as a support and hoping the big tractor that past during these photos, would rattle the camera into the brook, I managed to get this lovely photo.

Now as we all know, autumn is a very short time of year, so finding good locations is a must and then hope for good weather and also hope the storms hasn’t blown the leaves off the trees!

Our recent trip to Burrator was really good weather, but after exploring the reservoir we revisited the above location, with tripod in hand for some more photos. It started raining!

So, this made photographing the river under the trees even trickier. It was darker and trying to keep the rain drops off the filter was very difficult. Needless to say, I didn’t always succeed and some photos had water droplet marks on them.

The wet conditions though did really make the colours pop!

It’s always lovely when you come home dry off the gear, download the photos and see what you have!

The exploring continues… look out for part 2.

* Some of these photos and more are available to buy as Prints and Framed photos on my PicFair shop (LeoPhotographyUK)

Burrator Reservoir

Burrator Reservoir

I’ve been out and about a lot recently on Dartmoor, taking photos as I explore and hike around.

This is great fun and gives me lots of interesting photos. The downside is so many to get on the website and highlighted for people to see.

So, I thought I’d mention my recent trip to Burrator Reservoir. I posted it on facebook and it got a lot of interest, so thought I share it here!

It was the first time I’d been there, although we had been at the far end the week before on another walk but not close to it.

We had some great weather, to start with…

The dam itself is a really nice design and you can get quite close.

Quite a tight angle top view, but creates an interesting photo.

We also found a way to get down to get a nice front view.

There a few view points and some lovely little bit around the reservoir, however on this occasion, I had a plan in mind and drove to the other end of the reservoir, to where I need I could get some nice long exposure river photos.

I’ll put that in another post, but it was a challenge as it had started to rain!

Some of these photos and others are available on my << Picfair Store (LeoPhotographyUK) >>

Gotland Gin, Blackberry

Gotland Gin, Blackberry

Our local gin company, Gotland Gin have created another limited edition.

I was contacted just 2 days before release to photograph and created their latest promo photo.

Keeping the same style that matched the earlier release, just 4 hours after receiving the bottles the photos were done and delivered!

I must say, I don’t and can’t always turn photos around that quick, and like a bit of time to review and check the work. But, if really needed, it can be possible.

If you run a business in Devon and would be interested in commercial or product photography, please get in touch.

Lake Viaduct

Lake Viaduct

I love exploring and regularly explore Dartmoor, finding new places and crossing off squares on my 365 page.

Lake Viaduct was one place that we had tried to visit earlier in the year, but had to abandon. However, this had given me a chance to review the route and when we revisited we approached from a different direction.

The descent to it was quite steep though and it disappeared from view. We eventually got down to the river and followed that towards the viaduct.

Getting up close to the viaduct, and underneath it, provided some great detailed photos.

Then we decided an ‘easier’ return trip heading up the ridge of the valley to the top.

Then finding a view back down the valley with the viaduct at the end. You can barely see it in the photo.

From here, it was either towards Rattlebrook Railway, or Soutron Tors. We chose the Tors and as it turned out, I got some amazing photos… that is for another post!

Explorer Cosplay

Explorer Cosplay

When I recently did a shoot with a re-enactor, he told me he also has many costumes covering many styles. One of them as an ‘Indy’ style explorer costume.

I jumped at the chance. I mean, who doesn’t like Indiana Jones!

This was great, it gave me so much scope for creating interesting explorer images!

I recently visited an area in Dartmoor that gave me a great jungle look image.

He’d brought a lantern, so I edited that to make it glow and put him in some old cave/dungeon.

The next couple were jungle or forest styles

followed by caves….

…and a crypt.

As I’ve mentioned before, my re-enactor and also cosplay portraits are available to all. They all have digital backgrounds incorporated from photos that I have taken, making them all unique to me and my style of portraits.

Photos of the Week, February

Photos of the Week, February

I know, it’s September, but as I mentioned in the previous related post, I’ve only just decided to do this.

In this month I was really beginning to make progress with my new photographic filters for long exposures.

So, here’s…

February

Week 5 – Millook Haven

Week 6 – Collybrooke

Week 7 – Week 8 (Half Term)

Week 9 – Red-a-ven Brook

Sometimes there may be a few gaps I think!

Tudor Portraits for Website & Promo

Tudor Portraits for Website & Promo

At the end of last year I had a re-enactor contact me requesting a Re-enactor Portrait session. He wanted some photos taken for his website to promote his musical service.

We had one slight problem, his costume was still being made. After many months of delays, the costume was finally ready and we were able to do the shoot.

Although the majority of my re-enactment portraits are shot in a portrait format, if I know your requirements beforehand, I can make sure I shot some images to give you flexibility of their use.

The below image allows for web text to be overlaid on the right of the photo.

Backgrounds can be added from images I have previously shot to create realistic looking environments.

Texture backgrounds can be coloured to fit in with your website’s colour scheme.

Square format images can also be produced…

and of course, images are tailored to your requirements.

Within minutes of the final images being sent to the client, they were on his website and on his social media!

If you do any form of Re-enacting or Cosplay, please contact me if you are interested in a shoot. The shoots can last between 1-2 hours depending on how many costumes you have, but you will also need to allow for initial costume dress too.

Photo of the Month? (or Week!)

Photo of the Month? (or Week!)

I take so many photos and post them to my website, but they get lot in the numbers.

So I thought I should maybe do a photo of the Month and backdate it to January this year. The problem is, I take lots of photos a week and sometimes really like a lot of them! So choosing a photo of the month is tricky.

So, I failed for January and really wondered if I should do photo of the week!

As its a new thing, lets say photo of the week.

January

Week 1 – Widemouth Bay

Week 2 – Belstone Common River Taw

Week 3 – Meldon

Week 4 – Speke’s Mill Waterfall

Week 5 – Nine Maidens Stone Circle

So, maybe POTW, posted Monthly!?