This Blog is for portrait photographer David James Williams.
David specialises in Portrait Photography & is able to capture the perfect Individual portrait, the Loving Couple portrait, the Family portrait or Group portrait.
David shoots Portraits in Gloucestershire & the surrounding counties.
Living only 20 miles from the Morgan Motor Company factory, based in the Malverns, I thought it time to attend one of their factory tours. A fascinating 2 hour tour takes in each stage of the build of these cars. It’s amazing to see the craftmanship that goes in to building a Morgan.
Anyway, I didn’t have my camera gear with me, so took the following shots using my iPhone using the “hipstamatic” camera app :-
Above - Here is the rolling chassis for the £120K Morgan Aero Supersports
Above - Notice the Ash Wood in the arches.
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer, founded in 1909 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. His son, Peter Morgan ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003. The company is now run by his son, Charles Morgan
The waiting list for a car is approximately one year, although it has been as high as ten years in the past.
Above - Main body in place on the Morgan Aero Supersports
Above - Some of the Morgan Classics in bare metal
Amazingly enough 70% of Morgans are built left hand drive, ready for overseas customers. Morgans are only built to order, so in theory you should never see a brand new one for sale on the open market.
Morgan Aero Supersports being driven to paint shop
Lucky enough to be invited by IT & Voice Managed Services company Niu , to take some corporate photographs from IBM’s Regatta for 2010.
This was a 2 day event, with races taking place from Port Solent, Portsmouth, across to Cowes, Isle of White. An excellent couple of days, with some great guys from Niu & IBM making up the crews.
12 July, 2010 - 4:10 pmYorkshire Photographer - Lovely images David!
I assume you were out on the boats with the crews? Its something I'd love to do but know I'd spend most of the time fealing ill - I've never managed to go more than 10 minutes on a boat without getting sea sick! :(
12 July, 2010 - 6:00 pmDave - Thanks Alastair. Yes I did sail with one of the boats & like you had concerns about sea sickness. But to be honest the exhiliration of racing kept that at bay. I did however find myself swaying on land after 7 hours at sea !! ;)
13 July, 2010 - 7:12 amSimon - Really nice set - especially like #6
I’m hoping you have heard of the Rules of a Third, to help you compose Landscapes etc. Well don’t forget to try it on Portraits too.
On to portrait one as an example. Here you can see the eyes are on the top 1/3 horizontal, whilst the nose is on the right 1/3 vertical. This provides a very “pleasing” composition, whilst the tight crop provides some impact
Here we find a portrait where the face is more central, but you find the eyes both hit the intersections of the top horizontal 1/3 & both verticals. The mouth is on the lower horizontal 1/3
Now don’t feel you have to be spot on the 1/3. Instead try to use it as a general framework. In this portrait you can see the hand is pretty close to the bottom right intersection of 1/3′s, whilst the eyes are somewhere near the top 1/3 horizontal. In the end it produces a nicely balanced portrait
Hope this has been of some use & don’t forget, rules are there to be broken, so don’t get too hung up on it
Notice anything different about this Portrait ? What if I was to say I took it upside down !
No, I’m not going mad. Remember those big square cameras, called medium format ? Well one of the traits of shooting with some medium format cameras used to be the fact you would see the image upside down in the view finder. Now you might see that as a disadvantage. But there is a flip side to it (sorry for pun). Landscape photographers found that by viewing the image upside down, they no longer concentrated on the small detail, but found their eye drawn to the overall composition of the shot. They used to this their advantage & produced beautifully composed photographs.
Try it for yourself. Take any photograph & turn it upside down. Look how your eye is now drawn to the composition of the photo, rather than the detail.
Well back to the subject in hand, this is how I actually took the photo :-
By taking the photo from this angle it provided 3 bonuses :-
1. The eye was drawn to the composition of the arms, hands & hair
2. The models eyes were forced to look upwards at the camera, producing a more flattering look
3. I didn’t invade the models space. Shooting the other way would mean standing over the model. A bit intimidating for some.
Anyway, hope you found that of some use. As for me, I still can’t decide which way up I like the photo !!
25 June, 2010 - 10:49 pmphotoman022 - I understand that if you took the photo the other way you would have to stand over the lady. Does this mean that you were behind her head shooting down?
Ever noticed that just after the sun has disappeared for the day, that you get beautiful reflections on your car ? The whole sky is acting as a huge lightbox & providing wonderful light to photograph by. The alternative is to find an overcast day, where the clouds are acting like huge diffusers & once again providing wonderful light. Especially perfect for Mono photography.
So next time you look out the window & find the sun is hidden, don’t despair…… get out there & take some photos
10 June, 2010 - 4:55 pmanamit - Sigh! You have some very picturesque countryside in the UK...and it all looks so clean! If only India was half as clean!!! :(
10 June, 2010 - 7:28 pmDave - Hey, it's not always so clean here you know. Take a look at this Motorbike shoot I did
OK, you trawl the web & find lots of interesting info about photography, but sometimes you just wish you could watch some video clips on your Ipod, or listen to a podcast whilst travelling. Well have a little look here on iTunes :- Featured Podcasts about Photography . Now I haven’t listened to many yet, so would be great to hear feedback from others on the Podcasts they recommend. Good thing is most appear to be free & if you like a certain podcast you can subscribe too
2009 was a great year where I was lucky enough to photograph some wonderful people, plus even had time to shoot some landscapes. I’ve chosen a small selection below.
If you have a favourite please feel free to add a comment at the end.
13 January, 2010 - 9:39 pmColin Greenlees - #8 for me Dave, lovely tones.
13 January, 2010 - 9:49 pmGeoff - #10 for me. The bride looks beautiful
13 January, 2010 - 9:56 pmJanet P - It's between 4 & 5. OK it's number 4. Lovely work Dave
13 January, 2010 - 11:08 pmSimon - #2 - excellent lighting and perfect result
14 January, 2010 - 9:18 amJohn Williams - #4. Saw this earlier in the year.
14 January, 2010 - 9:19 amJack the lad - 2 here as well !
14 January, 2010 - 9:20 amIman - Another for number 2
29 January, 2010 - 5:54 pmBrian Fellows - The Infrared shots are stunning. Can I ask what filter you used for this please ?
24 April, 2010 - 4:14 pmHaroldH - Number 2 for me....
10 June, 2010 - 7:36 pmDave - Sorry to take so long to come back to you Brian. I actually shot this with a dedicated IR camera. Basically a DSLR that had been converted to IR . A much cheaper option is a Hoya R72 filter for your lens. Couple od downsides with a lens filter are a) you can't use viewfinder, as you can't see anything & b) exposure times are around 15-30 secs meaning use of tripod.
I've written a short Infra Red Tutorial that may be of use
I love the simplicity of my £130 HD Video camera, the Kodak Zi8. Not only does it shoot at 1080p, if you drop to 720P there is a mode to shoot at 60 fps. With the snow on the ground today, it was too good an opportunity to miss testing the 60fps, by taking the dogs for a walk.
Here are the results played back at 1/5th speed (warning HD so you need decent bandwidth or just hit “pause” for a while).
I have to say I’m impressed with the results.
7 January, 2010 - 10:01 amColin Greenlees - That looks good Dave, I might have to invest in one for that money. How about editing, is it easy enough?
Happy New Year btw!
Colin.
7 January, 2010 - 11:51 amDave - It actually comes with some software loaded on the camera for editing & loading direct to Facebook, Google etc & even includes a flip out USB lead. Very easy to edit. Just beware the camera has a fixed lens (eg. no zoom other than a bit of digital), but for the money & ease of use, & small size it's good to have just for fun :)
You’ve got to love the Apps on the iPhone 
by Dave
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