There is a little known phenomena about red and blue colours that effect the way we see things. Things that are close to us generally have stronger colours than things that are further away, in fact in landscapes things in the far distance often look very blue. So when we see two things together and one is coloured red and the other blue we tend to think that the blue item it further away than the red item. So you can give a feeling of distance or depth by putting red things closer to you and blue things further away. Take a look at the next 2 photographs. In the 1st one the 2 people are side by side, but it looks like the girl in red is closer. In the 2nd photograph the girl is actually about 3 paces behind but looks like she is level with the man. The further you are away from the photographs the more pronounced is the effect.

photograph of 2 people girl in red behind the man in blue

photograph of 2 people standing side by side

When it comes to landscapes generally the best light to take such photographs in is either during the one to 1.5 hours before sunset or during the one to 1.5 hours after sun rise. At this time of day the light turns from being very bright and white to a softer light with a hint of orange or pink and it is not so contrasty. Compare the 2 shots taken below, one was at 3.00pm in July the other was about 8.00am in October. In the midday(ish) photo St Paul’s is very bright and white and the contrast between that and the shadows under the bridge is great. In the photograph taken early in the morning St Paul’s is much less bright and the sun is still low enough to almost be under the bridge so the shadows are not so dark, so the contrast is much less and therefore easier on the eye. The early morning shot is much warmer, the midday shot looks a little cold even though the sun was out.

photograph of the Millennium Bridge about 2 hours after midday

photograph of the Millennium Bridge about 1 hour after sun rise

St Anne’s Manor Wokingaham is an old building that has been extensively enlarged and so it is hard to see where the original building is. As a modern hotel it is very functional from the outside and very comfortable on the inside. From a photographic point of view it has a nice area out the back of the hotel with a fountain and some very high trees for shade and clean backgrounds. See the photograph below to get an idea of what the property looks like.

photograph of St Anne's Manor Wokingham

Tylney Hall is always one of my favourite venues for photographing weddings, there are so many different areas that can give different backdrops and surroundings are beautiful. Not only that the staff are very attentive and the decorations are in keeping with the style of the property. At night it is lit and the water on the fountain at the front glows.

photograph of Tylney Hall front at night

A couple of years ago I went to Venice during their carnival week, this is always in the winter either late January or early to middle February, the dates change each year. Their carnival is not like most other towns carnivals with processions through the streets (too narrow, the ones that aren’t canals!). People go along in the most elaborate costumes you can imagine and stand and pose to be photographed or walk slowly through the streets. They are all masked and sometimes you would never recognise the wearer, even if you know them. Men as well as women dress in the most beautiful dresses and pose.  I arrived on the Grande Canal front at 7.30am on 2 occassions and the place was already busy with models and photographers making the most of the beautiful early morning light. Over the coming weeks I will post some photographs from that week to show the sort of thing that goes on. Here is the 1st one of the models by the Grand Canal.

photograph of masked person at Venice Carnival

Just thought I would write a few hints and tips on planning your wedding from the photographic side of things.

Most people when planning a wedding concentrate on the venue from the point of view of location and cost and rarely think about the photography  that will happen on the day. When selecting a venue things to think about from a photographic point of view are:

• in the event of rain (or other freak weather) where will the photographs be taken, is there an area under cover (does not have to be inside a building, just under cover i.e. an entrance canopy or 3 sided barn) with enough light and space for all the people and the photographer.
• Is there space enough in the gounds for the group photograph
• if there is bright sunshine is there a shaded area for the photographs to be taken in, you need this for 2 reasons, 1/ bright sunlight for people photography does not make for good pictures, so you need shade to remove the bright areas from peoples faces and remove people squinting or sunspots (those bright dots of colour in pictures where you are pointing the camera in the direction of the sun), and 2/ to keep everyone cool on a really hot day.
• Look at the voliage around, is it fairly consistent and not too busy, are there pretty flowers around to be used in the background.
• Is there a building site on the other side of the fence of the property, makes for ugly backgrounds and possibly noise so making it hard to give instructions.
• how far from the bar is the area to be used for photography too far and it will take ages to get the people needed in the picture to the right spot and so the photographs will take ages to complete (if they do get completed).
• how close to the church are the photographs going to be taken, are the bells going to be ringing and so make it difficult to hear people.
• what kind of ground do you need to cross to get to the area to be used, is it a long way for people in high heeled shoes (a complaint I often hear) or across wet ground or soggy grass.

I had the most amazing day out on the August bank holiday weekend at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex at the medieval festival held there. There were lots of people dressed in clothing of the era re-en-acting life of the medieval times including cooking and living like they did then. There were battle re-en-actments with canon and archers, knights and wenches!!! There was jousting and various archery competitions as well, plus craft stands and stalls selling all sorts of things. A most enjoyable day, so below are a couple of shots from the day of the knights getting ready to go to battle and then on the battle field walking towards their opponents.

photograph of knights waiting to go to battle

photograph of knights walking into battle

If you click on the link below it will take you to the website for the Herstmonceux medieval festival.

www.EnglandsMedievalFestival.com

Getting back to composition (sorry had a slight diversion in to holiday snaps there), there are several ‘rules’ to composition (all rules can be broken), today I want to discuss straight lines or the lack of them. When composing a picture always try to angle the shot so that you remove any straight lines particularly where people are concerned. That is not to say that you remove ALL straight line e.g. horizons should always be straight and level particularly where water is concerned. Lets use an example: below is an image of 2 people who happen to be roughly the same height, if they had their heads were at different heights or the shot was cropped much more so that only their head and shoulders can be seen it would be more dynamic.

Not good-photograph of 2 people with heads at the same height creating straight lines

Take a look at the next photograph where the 2 people are at different heights and so create a diagonal line between the heads and so looks a little more dynamic.

better-photograph pf 2 people with heads at different heights and so creats diagonal lines

Next time I will look at how this can be improved some more.

Back to the Orkney Islands: one of the main tourist attractions in the Orkneys are the ship wrecks that litter the coast line. Some are visible from dry land but most have to be seen by Scuba diving. Both my husband and I scuba dive but I like staying above 30m and looking at fish and he likes diving deep and dark to see ship wrecks. So on this trip, whilst I travelled around the islands on dry land and boats he travelled round scapa flow on a boat which he then leapt off to dive under the water. You can still see some of the boats that were wrecked off Scapa Flow to block the channels and keep the German submarines out, below are 2 photogrpahs I took of the bits of boats left sticking out above the water line when a sea fret had rolled in and obscured what I had set the camera up for (these fogs roll in very quickly). If you want to know more about the historyof Scapa Flow and the Germon high Fleet scuttled in WW1 click on the link here:

http://www.scapaflow.co.uk/

photograph of ship wreck of the coast of Orkney

photograph of engine block of ship wrecked off the coast of Orkney

This is a beautiful little chapel made from old nissan huts and concrete! During WW1 the Italian Prisoners of War (PoW) were used to create the Churchill barricades (to stop the submarines getting into Scapa Flow) but because the Geneva convention prevents use of POWs for war activities they also built roads across the barricades and said they were building permanent roads for the locals to use!!! (There is always a round these things), the Italians being quite religious wanted somewhere to pray so they used left over concrete and created the front of the chapel and lined the inside with plaster and concrete and painted it to look like it was tiled and had paintings hanging. It is stunning, as with all things Orkney small but beautifully formed and well worth a trip if you are in Orkney.

Photograph of the outside of the Italian Chapel

Photograph of the Italian Chapel inside showing the roof and pulpit area

Photograph of the Italian Chapel detail of pulpit