North Wales Images

I took my camera to various towns and villages in North Wales this weekend and spent the whole time taking photographs (i'm not obsessed or anything! lol). I took over 800 images and the below are a selection of just some of my favourites. I found that I am becoming much more comfortable with the camera and its functions and i'm quite proud of the images taken. 

I simply took my camera, lens and case with me.

Nearly all images were taken on manual settings as the weekend was a great learning experience for me.  When images weren't coming out how I wanted, I was becoming much better at realizing how to correct and improve images.  For example, a lot of my images were coming out to grainy.....I realised that I was shooting in far to higher ISO settings hence the quality of the image being of a much poorer quality.

The weather was very mixed and I walked over various different terrains so I had to adheer to health and safety at all times for example, wearing sensible gripped shoes to prevent slipping.

Images & general comments of interest

I used a high ISO setting for this to create a poorer quality image but felt it worked for this type of "moody" image!

I purposely over exposed this image but liked it that way as it shows a clear divide between the rail and landscape.

Used a low F Stop and a shallow depth of field to emphasis and detail the front facing rocks.

Image 4 - As above but I used a higher F stop to get both the slate and landscape in focus.

This image was slightly edited in photoshop to get this effect and used a fast shutter speed to capture the stone (as it is) being thrown.

Especially like this image as i actually do much editing after the shot.  This was naturally a darker image due to using natural light once the sun was going down.

Final Choice

After deliberating whether to choose to specialize in either Portraiture or social documentary, I have decided to focus on the latter.

Reasons why?

I personally believe that I take better images whilst being in a non-structured environment.  I also enjoy the thrill of "snapping away" in hectic situations and really capturing the moment.  I eventually want to set up a wedding photography business as I have experience in this already and already have 6 weddings booked for this year. I also have access to 2 cameras (should 1 fail - back up).  This will help me with my chosen subject of social documentary.

I have all the neccesary equipment needed for this area and already have a certain deal of experience within this subject.

From a business point of view, weddings, christenings etc are obvious events that I will be taking images of for my final portfolio but I am also keen to explore the area of "non-planned" social documentary images.  By the term Non-planned, I simply mean going out onto the street or any other area and simply clicking away at points of interest and try to capture an interesting moment, whether it be obvious or not.

"Social Documentary Photography may be defined as the act of recording, with a camera, human beings in their natural (ie unposed) condition. I am attracted to social documentary photography because it deals with reality; revealing and making permanent every aspect of human nature."

Also, my reasons for choosing social documentary is because I tend to be more interested in these type of images through Internet/book research.  

Social Documentary photographers of interest to me follows in my next blog

Understanding my camera more

This week I ordered a step by step training DVD for my Nikon D200 which apparently covers the following:

· Be Prepared (To Get the Shot)
· Shutter Priority
· Aperture Priority/Depth of Field
· Focus Alternatives
· Metering and Bracketing
· ISO
· Playback Options
· Understanding Histograms
· Exposure Compensation
· Flash Overview
· Custom Settings
· Shooting Menu Banks
· Programmable Buttons
· RAW (NEF) Files
· Composition
· Picture Project Software

Hopefully this will help with the use of my camera and in particular help me with its different functions instead of relying on automatic focus all the time.

I will report on my findings/learnings as I go.

Christening Images

To enable me to get to grips with my camera more and to become more confident, I volunteered to take images for a friends christening. I was quite happy with the results. Like any other day, some of my images worked better than others and I only had about 15 mins at the end of the ceremony to work within. I simply took my camera and lens with me for the shoot.

As I was in a church and there was lots of people around, I had to be aware of any health and safety issues involved so I was not putting myself or anyine else at risk of danger.


As i'm still quite new to photography, I found myself using automatic mode quite alot as I wasn't confident enough just yet to shoot manually too much under a very tight time constraint. I did however find myself having to increase the ISO on a number of occasions in order to create a brighter image. The focus ring was used alot also (manually) in order to place emphasis on the people and to soften the stained glass windows in the background.