Continuing my series of retrospective posts from 2022, this time it's the turn of May. This month was a busier month photographically speaking and I was driving around in a shiny new Nissan Navara pick up truck provided by new employer. I think I may have liked the car at first which is why I travelled around in it so much!
You can view April's post here: @fastchrisuk/my-photographic-year-in-12-days-april-2022
Explosions in a Paint Factory
In the UK, May nights start to become short. I'm not a big fan of staying up till 3am and would prefer to be tucked up in bed by then! This then leads me to look for new locations to shoot which are darker earlier at a much more hospitable time of day!
With a little research and a recce visit, I found Spinkhill Tunnel on a disused railway leading south from Sheffield. This was from my first visit here, the cool result of a misalignment but it worked all the same.
Spinkhill Nights
Of course, put me in a tunnel with a bag of lights and I will tilt and pan the camera!
Defracted
When you pack a fractal filter with all the heavy gear, it would be rude not to use it! Here I've used different focal lengths in one continuous long exposure to create this trippy effect:
Stepped Zoom Pull
I've been a big fan of this stepped zoom pull technique where I pull the zoom ring during a long exposure stopping momentarily along the way. This method doesn't always work with every subject but it seems to work here:
Continuous Zoom Pull in a Lime Kiln
I've been experimenting with splitting different colours lights in a lightpainting image. More to come soon with the technique!
Steet Graffiti in Digbeth, Birmingham
Another road trip, this time to Digbeth in Birmingham and it turned out to be an expensive one! The aim of the day was to recce the area for use in a model photoshoot and also to shoot the talented graffiti pieces around the area.
We had a succesful trip but a few days later a letter popped through my door with a £60 fine for non-payment of a Congestion Charge! When in the hell did they start charging for cars driving in to Birmingham? It turns out the gas guzzling pick up truck I was driving at the time is treated by the City Council as a cash cow! I paid the fine but vowed never to go back to Birmingham. If a city wants to attract visitors and tourist income then the way to go about would be not to skin the drivers alive!! (Rant over!)
This was a sample of what I got on the day.
I loved this abstract piece on a wall:
I wasn't taking notes on the day about who painted what but I do like the colours in this one:
Cute on a wall:
Some of the graff was quite profound in their message:
I found this artwork on a doorway quite fascinating and the weathered look only adds to the charm:
Street photography is my nemesis*
With this shot, I reverted to type and went for a long exposure to create a more abstract image. I'm also a big fan of black and white which I believe worked better here:
Waiting for a blurry train
Whilst waiting for the train home, I shot a stack of long exposures and stacked them in Photoshop:
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
