UK Snow 2013

Posted on by Chris

…or How I wish I was better at titles.

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Canon 500D – Settings: 160th @ f/2.8 ISO200 28mm 

It’s that time of year again, or was last week, that the UK comes to a standstill and havoc plagues the roads and public transport systems. It’s snow and I love it, well I love how it makes everything look special and different not the mass panic and problems people have with transport.

I have this fascination with snow, have done since before I can remember. There is something about it that makes the world just look right to me and I cannot really explain but I know that it makes me happy deep inside and again I have no clue what triggers that emotion but I cannot help but smile when I am surrounded by snow.

SnowSelfPortraitCanon 500D – Settings: 160th @ f/2.8 ISO200 28mm

As a side note, how do people use DSLR cameras to take quick self portraits like this, at least with the 28mm lens its far to much of a pain… I get distracted easily.

So after living here in Weston for 4 months now I have become accustomed to seeing the local area were I live near Grove Park but with the whole thing covered in snow it was a totally new world for me so I was out earlyish before most people got out as I love the fresh snow fall. I ran around the park taking photos and then headed out to the beach and went to look at the pier were I saw this scene and took this photo:

Weston_1

Canon 500D – Settings: 320th @ f/2.8 ISO200 28mm

This photo is already one of the favorites that I have ever taken. I love it and that, to me, means a lot. I never thought I could do landscape photography but I keep showing myself that when I put some thought into it I can make beautiful photos. This particular one I posted to a few of the UK based subreddits on Reddit.com (/r/unitedkingdom and /r/britpics) and the feedback I got from that has boosted my confidence in my work a whole load. Another massive boost to my confidence was getting this photo posted on the BBC news website in their live news feed for the Friday 18th snow news section. So below is a selection of the photos that I took and like, they can also be viewed in the Weston in Snow 2013 portfolio item, granted I am not sure how long I will keep that up as its own section but for now I like it so it is staying.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the snow as much as I did,

Chris

Starting out fresh: A 300 mile move

Posted on by Chris

Things can get too comfortable at times. It makes people become overly relaxed and that leads to not pushing yourself past your comfort zone and as such means that, at least for me, you don’t truly strive to become a better person at what you do be it Photography, Barista, Mechanic or Astrophysicist. Perhaps not the last one on that list but all the same. A shake up in location for a small photography business can be a huge curse or a blessing depending on how you view it. I am going to go over some of the things that I have felt and feel after moving from east cost England over to Weston-Super-Mare on the west coast.

I have known I am moving for the last 6-8 months, I just never quite knew when as it was going to be a move based on my other-half’s brand new shop opening here as we used this chance to make a big jump and move in together. So for the last 6 months I have been slowly winding down the small business that I had going back in Colchester. I was not huge with loads of clients I just had a few that I did work for every now and again and I was happy with that at the time, this comes back to the comfort zone problem. Now I am the other side of England and have to start again with the list of clients. This for me is great, it is giving me the kick in the butt I needed to push myself to be a better photographer and to get my stuff sorted out right this time.

How am I starting out? The basics. Camera, Light, Exposure. I picked up my camera a few weeks ago and said “lets get to know each other again” so I went out and took photos of my other-half and the park that we live next to, this is good as I have a wonderful location to shoot in 10 steps from the front door now. I am going back over old teaching materials that I have, I have loads of CreativeLIVE courses that I am re-watching. Another thing that is both a blessing and a curse is that I do not have a internet connection at the moment. I have to rely on my limited mobile phone internet or go down to the coffee shop to use their WiFi so this is cutting the amount of distractions that I have.

I am setting up my “online presence” again when I do have access to the tubes. I am finally starting a Facebook page, this site will get a content overhaul when I have my main internet connection back. This has been a great chance to clear my head of my old bad habits and ways of life and start over, mentally preparing myself to go out there shake peoples hands and say “Hi, my name is Chris, I am a photographer (please help me pay my rent.)” and overall its a very therapeutic thing. I have been generally in a better mood since I have moved and I know that will reflect in the new work that I have planned for this autumn/winter period. Living on the coast opens up even more possibilities for fun winter shoots. But for now, I have my to-do list and need to work my way though that so when I start my business drive soon I am in a position to deliver what I promise I can.

I have started posting random photos to my old Instagram feed. Mostly as its quick and cross posts to facebook/twitter for me so I don’t have to. You can find it @ChrisTrudgen or just follow me on twitter at the same handle, granted I use twitter as a general throw out for my brain so its not always photo related.

As this is a Photographers site, I should really add some photos so here are a few photos from around the park on my doorstep, more portraiture focused posts soon!

-Chris

Instagram release for Android!

Posted on by Chris

iPhone fanatics get burned as more apps make their way to Android.

So today came the long awaited release of photo shoot and share app Instagram for Android devices and with that an outcry from iPhone fanatics that “Instagram just lost 80% of its coolness” and other similar things as seen here: http://i.imgur.com/c7Bru.png (warning, Twitter search screenshot…).

You can pick up Instagram for your Android device here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.android

Now another point I wanted to talk about and its about the pointless rivalry between things such as Windows vs Mac and Android vs iPhone. I know this is Internet war territory but I have been thinking lately, what’s the point in it all?

Myself, I use a top of the line custom built PC designed for maximum performance and I use Android phones. Why? Because when I was using Mac and iPhone everything was a pain for me to get done, nothing seemed logical to me and I generally had a hard time. Granted, I started life as a PC user and tried out the Mac after years of PC use. I just find that I work better on a PC overall, I know the system inside out after working with it for years and my PC, in terms of raw processing power, is faster than ANY Mac on the market, and probably any Macs that come out soon as Apple seems to love using hardware that’s not quite top of the line for their new top of the line computers. Seems odd to me.

The iPhone was my first smart-phone (I got the 3G 3 years ago) but by the end of its life it was very behind in terms of raw power and made my life really annoying so I decided to try out an Android device. Based on what people had told me I went ahead and get a Xperia Neo and so far its been great. I have been able to do everything I need my phone to do easily and better yet I have practically no barriers stopping me from doing anything I want on this platform, I have everything on my phone mirror to my cloud account, I have all my contacts synced with my Google account that also houses my calendar and works as part of my bookings system. All of this was a headache with the iPhone for me.

Overall, I guess my point is why do we “hate” on each other for what hardware and software we use to all get to the same goal. I use what I feel works best for me and I have tried both ways. I wont outright tell you that you are an lesser human being for use Linux for example, people use what they use for their own reasons and as a human being I respect that. End of the day we all have a job to do, some of us do it one way others do it the other but as long as we use the method that allows us to get the work done.

Or could I just have summed this all up as the Internet loves drama?

-Chris

The Exhibition is LIVE!

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Just a short post now that my work is hanging in a gallery on show for the world to see. Eep.

I posted a new item to the front page with more details here:

As for my feelings on the whole thing, I was unconvinced until I saw it all set-up myself this afternoon. I was worried that it would not fit in with the other work on show or that it was not of a high enough calibre to be showed on a wall in a gallery at all. After walking around for an hour in the main hall, I am darn proud of my work I think it really shines and shows what kind of photographer and artist I am.

Looking forward to the feedback that I get from the event overall as well, should be a good experience overall.

-Chris

Editing for Exhibition

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Or – How I beat myself up about my work.

The last few months I have been trying to wrap my head around an exhibition that I have coming up at the end of March (details later!). I have been told I can exhibit pretty much anything I want, but that’s not a good thing for me as then I decide that all my work is not good enough. Over the last 3 weeks I have been printing contact sheets of the last year of my work and sticking it to my wall. Then I take a marker and scrub off the stuff that I don’t like while writing notes on stuff that goes well together and in the end I have gone from “Hey let’s try something I haven’t really done before” to “I really have no good work what so ever” and all the way to what I have finalised on.

I decided to try and push a subject that I have a little interest in and take something that I am interested in, only it’s turned into two things that I am interested in. I am doing portraits, focusing on faces and Places. Or well, place as I have just covered one place in Colchester that I really like but hopefully it can be seen in a new light* with the way I have photographed it. As for the people shots, I have some older shots and a few newer ones too and I want to try to add a few more to the pool in the next few weeks just to shake it up. Yes I have a deadline that I have to be printed and mounted by the 21st of March but now I am getting excited, I have a deadline and some work that I am really starting to get passionate about.

The exhibition is taking place at Slack Space Colchester. They have recently moved into a new gallery space and it’s a lovely space I will throw up a map to the location at a later date. The exhibition is running from the 28th March until the 14th of April 2012 and we are currently looking into running some workshops during the exhibitions running as well to try and inspire some people to get out and shoot more (I know I need to take my own lessons more) so I am looking forward to this, should be a good life experience.

Other general bloggy things, the site is still not finished. I keep making progress then having to reset or update something that breaks what I was working on but I will get a basic 2012 price list up soon, in the meantime just throw me an email if you want to ask about anything.  I have recently added a few more photos to the current selection of galleries.

More detailed details on the exhibition in the coming weeks!

 

-Chris

(*Yes even my bad pun alarm went off on that one)

Before and Afters – Jan2012

Posted on by Chris

So I have had this blog thing up for a while and never gotten around to posting anything to it. Normally when I have good ideas for posts I look around and see everyone else have the same idea so I don’t bother with it in the end, WordPress thinks I have “Publish Button Anxiety” with with amount of drafts sitting on my dashboard just waiting for their chance at glory. Shame that wont happen.

So Photography huh… Well this month for me so far has been about geting out and shooting stuff I would normally not shoot. So for me, this is mostly Landscape, Wildlife and other outdoorsy things of this nature. Below I have added some Before and After shots of some of the things I shot so far during 2012 for myself. This is me mostly playing with Lightroom4 and just trying different things out.

For personal work, I like what I have done with these.

-Chris