Last year my family and I returned home to Montgomery, Powys for a short break to catch up with family and friends. We had booked a farm cottage close to the Welsh border near to a small village called Kerry. Perfect location which allowed us to freely travel between local villages and towns. The owners, an elderly couple made us feel very welcome and soon we became familiar with the surrounding area's.  Not more than 10 meters from our front door a small field opposite was the home to the landlord's finest of horses, wasn't long  before my son had found a new friend....

I think the images show how they got along.... 

www.martins-photography just hit 10,000 hit's - thank you all! 

Just wanted to share some recent images of my beautiful daughter, all taken in natural light!

For a four year old she really knows how to model!

Canon 60D and Tamron 17-50 F/2.8 non VC

 Stranger #03

I noticed that when photographing strangers if you target a small group of people often all of them will start asking question's about why / what you're doing, from this you have the opportunity to shoot a group of individuals in a matter of minutes. Read more... 

 Stranger #04

This guy was also interested in what I was doing and for the hell of it and in good English he said "Well, you can take my photo too" so I did! Read more... 

 Stranger #05

While snooping around the side streets we came across 2 young ladies hand in hand - both drunk or seemed to be, we asked them if it was possible for a portrait and they agreed - having 2 photographers works well on a busy day and having the ability to separate and keep both occupied is a bonus.. Read more... 

 Stranger #06

While approaching a small church I noticed a guy dressed in a long coat and tweed cap sweeping up some old leaves, I told Roland I want to photograph him! Read more... 

 Stranger #07

This guy was sat with a young lady eating some pommes "German for

chips" near to the end of his lunch I asked him if I could take his picture. The lady turned around and said "We both" I said no just him! for obvious reasons! Read more... 

 Stranger #08

Nope she's not in fancy dress, this is an actual German Female Police officer! She made me smile 100 meters away and I knew I had to ask her!  Read more... 

Stranger #02

While waiting for the carnival to get going we snooped around the side streets, images of people in fancy dress was not our goal but rather images of people with character roaming the surrounding areas. While crossing the road between the floats we bumped into this guy, beer in one hand and his personnel bag in the other - looked like he was living on the streets and was stinking of beer! Roland asked him if he could take his portrait, not a word of English came out of his mouth just warum and a few other slurred words, I explained to him in German as best I could the reasons why and he agreed - after Roland took his picture he asked me to take his so I did...

Stranger #03

I noticed that when photographing strangers if you target a small group of people often all of them will start asking question's about why / what you're doing, from this you have the opportunity to shoot a group of individuals in a matter of minutes. With this particular guy his wife / girl friend was the important one - while Roland was making his shot of the lady I told him about our 100 stranger project and thought it was cool and requested that I take his shot! How could I refuse, check out that head gear! awesome to say the least, even has a built in lens! He started to laugh and could not stop - nearly every time I took a stranger shot I requested that they not smile but look direct into the lens and act normal! for some this is difficult when the camera is being pointed at them, the younger generation find they have to play around while the older like to check there hair and outfit is pleasing for the camera.. as you can see from this image he looked pretty much normal! one of my favourite's from this day :)

Stranger #01

After an hour and 30 minute drive I met up with Roland aka Rivera in the city of Münster "Germany" for what is well known as Rosenmontags part of the festive season when celebrating carnival. Our task for the day and my very first in this type of photography was to photograph strangers. I've been wanting to photograph strangers for a while, ever since coming across Markus Schwarze 's 365 day stranger project, today was that day.

This is my first upload, we spotted him a good few meters away and it was people like this guy we wanted to target, people with character, people that stood out from the crowd and this guy was one of them. This was not the first person I had approached but by this time I felt comfortable enough to ask just about anyone. I asked him in English if I could take his photo but he assumed we wanted him to take a photo of us to which I replied no, we would like to take a photo of you and as you can see he agreed. We asked him kindly if he would move backwards a little, level with a large shop window that cast a lovely yellow light and made an ideal location that acted as rim light. I rattled a number of shot's off, 6 in total and this was my favourite - after the short session we said thank you and he continued on his way and we continued on ours..

Thought she would kill me if I uploaded this but the wife actually likes it :)

Inspired by top street photographers like Rivera, Benoit.P, Paul Mezzer, Markus Schwarze , Uncommon to name a few I want to dive into the world of stranger photography. This coming Monday directed by Roland aka "Rivera" I hope to learn the subtle approach to stranger photography, Roland tells me it's not difficult as you may well think! we shall see :)

The portrait below is a simple snap of my wife, taken in natural light "my favourite" I've used this image as a basis for my work flow - I've created an action that not only speeds up my PP but also allows me to keep to a similar level of processing for each image, still not 100% happy with it but I have time to improve..

any ways, without boring you all this Monday I'm in Müster and the topic is Carnival! should be a ball and I'm really looking forward to it!

Canon 5D Mark II - Canon EF 35mm F:1.4 L | 1/60 Sec | F1.4 | ISO 320

Last weekend "12/02" my family and I spent the day visiting Hameln "Germany" home of the pipe piper. I have an interest in Urban photography and I hope to do a little more, the area I live in is kind of flat and boring but the urban environments offer that little bit more. I also have an interest in stranger portraits which one day I will give it a go, I was close today but could not pluck up the courage even though the wife was ready to ask

Update * Monday 20th Feb will be my first stranger session :) 

Few shots from our day out.. 

Captured while walking along the beach during our trip to Blåvand in Denmark.... Once the sun had gone down an amazing beam of light created by the sunset appeared through a break in the clouds... 

 

Canon 5D Mark II - Canon EF 17-40 F:4 L | 1/8 Second exposure | F14 | ISO 50 | 17mm | Fired with Canon RC-6 | Single Exposure

Spending time with the children is very valuable to me and they also know how valuable photography is to me so from time to time we make a compromise to allow myself to have a short walk with camera and lens.

anyways, cut a long story short I have a few scapes from my trip and this is my first upload - Taken on Blåvand beach over looking the North Sea.

Canon 5D Mark II - Canon EF 17-40 F:4 L - B+W 110 Coated filter "10 Stop" 66 Second exposure at F11 ISO 200 - Single Exposure..

I've wanted to take photo's of this building for a while and today was that day - although the image is black and white a coloured version will really show the beauty of this building but today I arrived a little late and the light was not on my side..

(Quote) "It is a futuristic building which is the new headquarters of the German manufacturer of glass Glaskoch. Its main brand, "Leonardo", has been named this concept as unique and striking architecture."

I shall revisit the Glass Cube in the coming day's to take both day and night shots in an attempt to make some coloured images!

At the moment I have no time for landscapes but I've always got time for the children. Lucy loves to create her own poses and model for the camera but on one condition, she get's to see every shot on the back of the camera or it's not happening!

3 weeks I'm done with the cellar and then back to the great outdoors!

One of my favorite locations in the UK "North Wales" and only 80 Miles from my home Village. Snowdonia is the highest mountain in Wales 3,560 ft (1,085 m). On this day I was accompanied by my family, our goal for the day was to head up to the top via train but unfortunately the train service was fully booked for the next 4 days, maybe next time. Instead we decided to walk part of the Miners Track up untill lake Llyn Llydaw our final destination - beyond this point carrying a 3 year can be a bit of a challenge.

From the lower end of Llyn Llydaw I was able to capture some amazing shot's of both the lake and the peak of Snowdon. For this particular shot I waited for the sun to disappear and partly reappear from behind a cloud just enough to remove direct sun light from snowdon peak "see note" and light up the smaller mountain to the right of the frame.

My camera mounted on a tripod, I composed the shot in manual mode using Live View. To balance the light I used a Lee 0.9 3 Stop Soft Graduated filter - slowly dropping the filter in to it's holder untill I was satisfied I had the light balanced between foreground and background. Prior to using lee filters I was using Cokin, I'm gob smacked by the quality of lee filters and with zero colour cast!

5D mark II - Canon EF 17-40 F/4 L - Lee Holder - Lee 0.9, 3 Stop Soft Grad - F10 @ 17mm

 

I spend a lot of my evenings running and often I run past this house, I must say it's such a special place to live - the view is awsome!
5D Mark II - Canon EF 100mm 2.8 L IS Macro - 67mm Step up ring to 77mm B+W 10 stop... 7 second exposure...

*UPDATE - Added a second image with an alternative orientation... 

If you have never seen a dual Lee foundation filter holder before, this is what it looks like on a Canon EF 17-40 F/4 L.

The professional kit contains two basic filter holders that connect together via a tandem adaptor, allowing even more filters to be fitted in front of the lens. Each holder can be individually turned to achieve independent rotation of grads and polarisers.

I'm using a Lee 77mm Wide Angle adapter ring and not the standard..

To date this is probably my best shot of the Externstein Rock Formations, the frozen lake really added to the foreground. I wanted to capture the sunrise behind the rocks but as you can see from the lighting both on the rocks and autumn leaves it came up over to my left.

The image has a touch of Summer, Autumn and Winter to it - seasonal if you like, all that's missing is a little snow..

Want to know more about Externstein, you can read about it here

Canon 5D Mark II - Canon EF 17-40 F/4 L - Tripod Mounted - CPL for the sky

I went on a short hike last Tuesday, I've been to this location many a time but never when the weather has been so dull. I think the wet, muggy weather has added to the shot a little. I spent around 20 minutes clearning all the debris out of the stream to make the shot more appealing, on this trip I forgot my fold away hand saw! fantastic bit of kit for clearning up the scene, needed it too :( If you see me in these neck of the woods, I'm the one with the camera wearing wellies, yes I have wellies to keep my feet dry!

Camera was mounted on a tripod for this 37 second exposure @ F6.3, I first composed the shot during live view and adjusted custom white balance, then fitted a CPL filter to remove the reflection from the water. Once I was happy with composition and manual focus I fitted my ever loving B+W 10 stop screw in filter. While in bulb mode I used my Canon RC-1 remote release to start and end the exposure. After the first shot I noticed the underside of the bridge needed a little light to improve the shadows and prevent clipping, at this point I decided to use my Canon 430 EX II to bounce some flash around the scene.

It was at this point and during only one shot that my 430 EX II slipped out of my hands in to the water! Within 2 seconds I had already saved the flash from heading down stream, forgetting about the shot in hand I removed the batteries and shook the flash to remove the water - long story short, after getting home I stripped the flash down to it's bare casing and dried it using both hair dryer and radiator - It survived!

On a happier note, this morning I added a Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS Macro lens to my line up, looking forward to getting in low amongst those trees! should be here middle of next week..
 

Well here it is my very first big publication! I’ve had some of my work published before but not on a scale this size and I’m totally delighted! I think of myself being very lucky amongst the photography community, I have friends on web sites such as forums, blogs, flickr and in real life of whom push me to the bottom of the ladder in terms of quality landscapes and these are the guys I would love to see being published. I have a 3 page spread in the March issue of Digital SLR Photography magazine – seen here - the first 2 pages seen above have been taken up with a shot I took last year in Austria while on a trip woth Olli. The 3rd page contains 3 more images which I have labelled below, with each image is a short description with regards to set up, exposure etc

The following images have been published in the magazine:

Christuskirche - Church of Our Lord (Austria, Hallstatt)

Pebble Mill (Germany, Sande)

Colour Scape (Germany, Bad Lippspringe)

Wooden Pier (Germany, Rügen)

Included in the above shot is a rather large glass of my favorite German beer, Paulana...