Event Photography - Pedal For Scotland

I had no idea how much hard work photography can be. I mean, physically.

On Friday I heard that Pedal for Scotland (a 51mile cycle run between Glasgow and Edinburgh) was taking place on the following sunday. I though, "why not go along, get a few snaps and see if any of the cyclists would like to buy them off me, it might be worth it for pin money towards my next lens" (I REALLY want that 100mm-400mm Canon L zoom - just a couple of grand!!!). Little did I know what I was getting myself in for!

It turns out that pedal for Scotland is the biggest mass cycle in Scotland - this year 9000 cyclists took part. I found this out on Friday afternoon and started to doubt how I could practically cover this. In the end I thought, "Just have a go, it might be fun". So Sunday morning off I set (missing my usual Sunday big breakfast, grrr!) and got to a spot just outside Kirkliston that one of my cycling mates had told me about. A nice shaded area (less contrasty shadows at the expense of a slower shutter ), at the top of a steep hill (slower cyclists, working hard, out of the saddle and nicely strung out), just past Kirliston (3o mins drive fro my house - yay!). I was there 45 mins ahead of the first cyclist and had time to scout out a good spot and even ask a local to pose for a couple of snaps while I worked out the exposure from a reflected light reading from him. The lighting was difficult though - contrasty, as the sun kept poking through gaps in the trees and I had to make the brave decision to shoot manual exposures.

About 10am I heard a "whoop!" as the first 3 cyclists - obviously comfortably miles ahead of everyone else - came battering up the hill. Big smiles from two of them and I got to talke my first shots. It was exciting! I knew this was thhe start of thousands of cyclists coming my way. And it was. in fact, over the next 3 hours 45 minutes, I took over 3800 images. That's one every 3.5 seconds, manually exposing, auto focussing, manually zooming in and out. It was frantic and full on for hours. The barrel of the zoom actually got hot to the touch. Several cyclists stopped beside me to rub cramped legs (theirs not mine!) and I was embarrassed that I too was cramping up. My back was sore, I had been holding my camera aloft (elbow above my head) and rotating the zoom continuously for hours. Doesn't sound like much. Go try it. My camera weighs 3.5 kilos, so get a bag, put two 1.5 litre bottles of water and a packet of butter in the bag and hold it up so the top of the water bottles are level with your eye. Stay that way for 3.5 hours. See what I mean? Twice my hand cramped, once enough to make me yelp, and three times my right arm cramped up. Exhausting. And my cheeks hurt. For some reason I was smiling at every single cyclist as I snapped away at them - I was having a blast. And oh, the Glasgow banter, as they struggled up the steepest climb of the course - "dinnae send me the photae, send it tae ma wife, she can put it oan the coaffin!".

About 1:45pm I couldn't physically do any more. Cyclists were streaming through but I had to go home (I'd also promised to be home by 12:30pm, oops). I actually felt awful that people were struggling on and I wasn't going to be there to give them the opportunity of a momento.

So that was that. Err... no... How would people find my photos? I had to look at each photo (!) remove the blurred ones (about 10%, not too bad) and then sort each one by bib number into a folder so that the cyclists could fine their images quickly, and then upload them to my sales site (www.PhotoForMyWall.com/events). 4 days. 4 days it took, including me taking time off work on Monday to do it, and the 32 hour image upload, with my wife starting off various batch jobs.

And then I realised I had a competitor, a big fancy company with loads of photographers. They took far more images than me, but not any better quality (I think). I actually got my images loaded up ahead of them, and I charge 65% of their price because I'm not looking for profit, just hobby money, but they can advertise. So I am up against it. I have tweeted, joined forums, facebooked and flickered. Now, I need to wait and see if I sell (m)any. Either way, one of my main targets was to boost traffic to my landscape photography website, and after 4 days, traffic is up about 1000% so that at least has made it worth it. I'm hoping for multi pound sales, if I'm lucky.

It's been an experience, and I will probably aim smaller next time, but I'm delighted - idea to shoot in 48 hours, to product available for sale and marketed 72 hours later. Not bad, and I've been able to compete with the big boys and hold my head up! Now, if I can just get the feeling back in my arms, all will be well again.

Walking Season

The sun is shining, the sunsets have a warm glow, interesting shadows abound. At last, summer. Apparently we skipped spring after a 6 month winter this year (it snowed at some time in every month in West Lothian from November 2009 to April 2010!). I dont remember that happenning before.

But here we are, it's time to get the hiking boots on and start yomping about the countryside, looking for new locations. To make it even more fun, I bought a dog over the winter (for about the cost of two lenses - did I do the right thing!!). So, as I hadn't seen my trusty native guide, TB, in quite a while and she was keen to see the new pup, I asked her to show me a part of Edinburgh that I've always wanted to visit but had never found the way into - the Cammo Estate.

You've probably seen it if you've driven from Newbridge to Barnton. The big tower on the left with no apparent purpose. I've always found it curious and wondered if Rapunzel was up there waiting for me to give her hair a wee tug. So, font of all geographic and historical knowledge TB came to the rescue - she's been hiking round there for years.

Cammo is an ancient estate that was deliberately run down to ruins by the last owner before being set on fire by vandals in the 1970s. It was a huge estate with many ancient building, the grounds were the first landscaped gardens in Scotland and the great tower I had seen from the road was a water tower. Only the tower remains in it's former glory, the rest has been reclaimed by nature and dog walkers. We had a good walk around the place, with the wee pup, Oscar having a whale of a time bounding throughthe long grass an dpretending to be brave. TB told me that the place was supposed to be haunted buut would tell me no more. Consider my interest piqued! On the way round I spotted 3 angles that though would make good images (no camera with me!!!!) and decided I would return soon.

3 days later, having read up on the ghost stories (masochist!) off I set, sans dog, avec camera. No sign of the white lady, the man in the top hat or the phantom dogs, but I did jump at every rustle in the bushes and tried to laugh at myself. It can be a lonely and spooky feeling place! First up was the main shot the classic scene of the tower itself. I was lucky and found some tractor tyre lines through the crops to act as lead in lines and was torn between a slow shutter speed to blur the wind blown crops and clouds scudding in the sky or a fast shutter to freeze the detail of the foreground crop leaves. So, this is a digital world and shots are free - I took both. In the end I went somewhere in the middle and got a little movement in the crops and some pretty nice clouds. Very pleased with the shot in the end.

Next I struck out for the tree covered hill, aiming to use a couple of low hanging branches and tree trunks to frame the tower. Hmmm... didn't work out as I had envisaged it. Never mind. I reckon a summer early morning could be good though if you could get some mist shrouding the tower. On the way back I thought about an arty shot, using the wide angled lens to curve the tower round the trees on the hill. It needed to be HDR though to get the detail in the stone. It works quite well but I thought it was a wee bit cheesy. Still, a keeper.

Last shot was back down by the car park where there is a meadow with some ancient and impressive trees. The sun was nice and low by now, kissing the leaves of the trees with bright warm light and I rattled off quite a few shots from different angles. Finally, when I was happy with the composition, I decided to counteract the strong contrast of the late sun by taking another HDR shot (or seven shots to be precise). There was a little wind and this, combined with the movement of the clouds gave the whole seen a slightly soft but pleasing feel. I often use the minor movements between HDR shots to give a softened other-worldly feel to an image. Not what HDR is designed for, but I like it! another shot that I was pleased with.

So I went for three shots, got two of them and a new one and all good enough to sell on my website PhotoForMyWall.com. That's a pretty good strike rate and really brings home the value of walking the scene and envisaging your shots ahead of photographing them. In all, the whole shoot took less than an hour, which is incredibly fast work.

I liked Cammo. Me and the dog will be back, again, without the camera.

Inspirational Photography

I've mentioned it before, but I am a member of the New York Institute of Photography. In fact I am a student there (distance learning). I am woefully poor at getting on with the lessons and the hand ins but I DO like to take part in the forum. Recently, to celebrate 100 years of teaching Photography, all of us Forum members, were asked to take part on a project by selecting our best shot of 2009 and sending it in. The best 100 would be chosen and added to a slideshow to promote NYIP. I was delighted that my image was amongst the 100 - here is the video/slideshow.

Check out NYIP.com for more great photography tips!