Sunrise in Scarborough

Winter is definitely the best time for taking a sunrise photo, I took this at the reasonable time of 0830 in January. Not ideally however was the fact that the tide was low and on it's way back in... let's just say that the tripod and my feet got a bit wet this morning. I'll speak more about planning your photos in another post, along with using filters when shooting into the sun. I did neither here, and it created a bit of a headache. More on this in my next post...

Scarborough Harbour at Sunset

I told you that I might return to that earlier harbour photo with a tripod, and I did. This winter gave some amazing sunsets and I had to really think about how to use these for the best photos. Joe Cornish is one of my inspirations, and in his book "First Light" he talks about how it can sometimes take years to get the photo you want from a particular landscape. You might hold that image in your mind and know the photo you want to take, but actually getting the finished product takes patience. The light source needs to be right, as well as composition and this may only be the case in a few weeks of the year. I found this to be true on this photo. I wanted a good sunset, low on the horizon with a reflection in the sand. The tide had to be out for this at the same time as sunset. Then there was the wind. The wind was so fast that it nearly knocked the camera over, and it caused the boat masts to sway causing blurring. I can now see how a photo like this can take years to perfect. I'm still not happy with it, that chain breaks the photo in two. But then again, a friend of mine said he liked it that way. Sometimes the "perfect" photo you have in your head may not ever come to light. Then again, many others may love the ones you would have otherwise dis-guarded.

Autumn is in the air at Aysgarth

I visited Aysgarth falls during the summer when I went away for a weekend to Masham for my 10th wedding anniversary with my wife Kate. (Yes, Kate Middleton!) The Upper Falls really do lend themselves to a good photograph, but on the day we went there the sunlight was very bright. In order to take a nice smooth water flowing shot, to get the sense of movement I wanted a shutter speed of about 1/4 second and even at f22 it was just not possible to get a good exposure with that massive amount of light (I don't yet own a polarising filter or a ND filter, mental note for Christmas). So I revisited the falls in Autumn when the light levels were much lower and the trees were turning red. Managed to get a fairly good shot, the sky was kind on that day, giving me some clouds to work with.

Haybale

I love this. It's a typical English countryside, sunshine and rain clouds looming - I can almost feel the thunder in the distance. This photo was very much down to luck. I nearly always carry my camera with me, but not always a tripod. I was driving home when an accident on the road lead me down a diverted route, through the back roads. I just caught this out of the corner of my eye and jumped out to get it. I wanted a HDR shot, so rested the camera on the roof of my car and got this result. Just as I was taking it, a break in the clouds appeared and a shaft of sunlight illuminated the haybale, as soon as the photo was taken the sun disappeared. I got totally lucky with this one. 

First Photo...

Scarborough Harbour, North Yorkshire. December 2011. Happened to be out and with my one year old daughter as she loves walking on the Beach. Didn't have a tripod with me, so I rested my camera (this was taken on a Nikon D50) on the harbour wall and took three exposures to try and get a HDR photo. The tide happened to be out, reflecting the sun nicely on the sand and I think the boats orientation lends themselves nicely to leading your eye into the picture. I will revisit this in future to get a good photo with a tripod. (Spoiler... I did. See photo later in this blog.)

Welcome

Welcome to Kieron Middleton Photography.

I'm an amateur photographer and this is my personal portal for sharing some photos that I've taken. I've uploaded them as a relatively small resolution, however if you want a higher resolution image either in print form or to download, just email me at kieronmiddleton@gmail.com There will be a small charge for this but it will be a very reasonable amount.

If you would like to use any of the low resolution images for marketing or publication (right click and save image), all that I ask is that you seek my permission using the above email and credit the photograph with my name.

This is only a hobby, I'm not in it for the money - I just hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoy taking the photos. I will try and put some story behind each photo to tell you why it was taken. If you have any technical questions about what camera or lens I use or how I process the images, I'd love to explain further. Just email me or leave a comment.