Dobermann Rehoming Association show 2011

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Ryan

My very first time taking photograph’s at a dog show, i was very much looking forward to it, specifically due to the Dobermann being my preferred choice of breed if i was ever to own a dog. Another early start as it was quite a trek down to Camberley for the show, i met up with Emily and Alan who would become my assistants for the show!, we made good time and arrived around 9am where we sat up our photography stall.

“Do you have any change to give out” – What a great question that was, thankyou Alan!, No was the answer!, there were a couple of banks in town and we decided to head down there and change up £40 into ones and two’s.

4 or 5 banks in town with only 1 open?, i asked for the change and to my amazement a bank wouldn’t change my money into coins?, ive never needed to do this before so i just presumed the best place for this would be the bank!, obviously not.. i checked a few other places and the answer was exactly the same, Alan suggested the book makers, ok i’ll put a bet on and ask nicely as this was my last chance for some float!, i didn’t put that bet on due to the bookies not being part of a chain that was close to my home!! what if i’d won my bet?! how was i going to pick up my winnings!! Alan just asked outright for some change and luckily enough without question we took £40 in coins from them, im still sure they thought the change was for their fruit machines!!!

The dog show commenced and it wasn’t long at all before there was interest in my portrait stall, all of a sudden, and before i knew it there was a steady stream of customers all with different breeds and sizes of dogs that wanted their photo’s taken!

I was hoping that due to this being a dog show all of the subjects would be the most well trained obediant dogs ive ever met, funnily enough, majority were, a select few dogs were so well trained they just stood there like statues and didn’t even move until their master allowed them to!

As you can tell from the above photo, these three Dobermanns sat there as if they were statues all looking at their owner waiting for their next command!, i was very close in 1996 to buying a Dobermann puppy and for various reasons at the time i didn’t go ahead with this, luckily for me i have had the pleasure of living with a Dobermann and if there was a time in the future where i would consider to own a dog i wouldn’t hesitate to buy myself a beautiful Dobe!

The day itself wasn’t just about Dobermanns as you can see from my first picture, there were many different breeds with equally as many owners, each one of them with that one thing in common – their love for animals. my aim on the day was to provide a service that was fast, efficient, great quality and above all – cheap, ive already sent out majority of the prints to the customers and have been lucky enough to receive feedback in their emails, each one (thank god) have loved the quality of photo’s i have provided and were amazed at how cheap the service i provided was!, one thing is for sure i loved every minute of the day and have to say a huge thank you to Emily and Alan for introducing me to the show and specifically for helping me out on the day. I certainly look forward until the next dog show where i can hopefully do all of the above again for exactly the same !

Further DRA photo’s can be viewed on my website, just click on the projects / events tab and select “Pet Photography”

 Ryan

www.ryanhemmingsphotography.com

 

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Royal International Air Tattoo 2011 – Fairford

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Ryan

I would estimate that for about one week i had checked the weather reports for the Fairford area around 100 times!, rain, rain and more rain was due, how can you have an airshow in the rain?. I know the weather reports are always wrong so i held out that in my heart of hearts we were going to be in for an absolute stormer of a summer’s day – well, i was right and wrong!

We started out as expected, very early in the morning, this time i had my wife in tow and she has never had the pleasure of a 12 hour stint standing at an airshow whilst being ignored!, i guess there’s a first time for everything!. It wasn’t raining when we left and i had got my fingers firmly crossed that this would be true for the rest of the day. We drove to Mr Knowles who would be our chauffeur for the trip (if any of you know me then this would not come as much as a surprise mainly due to my day job!), we actually made Fairford in reasonably good time, unfortunately the traffic surrounding one of the world’s largest airshow’s coupled with the heaven’s opening up on us would delay our entry for quite a long time.

Here came the rain, it didn’t just rain, it fell down torrentially, luckily i had my boots and my waterproof trousers at the ready – unlike my wife!, she on the other hand was dressed in a summer skirt and flip flops!. Once inside the airfield there was only one thing to do in this weather, eat, we all indulged in the hog roast and so far this was the highlight of a very, very wet morning!

We walked up and down the flightline, on the tarmac and in the mud, the rain didn’t let up and was at times so disheartening that i was considering giving up and going home, the airshow itself was delayed as the cloud base and rain was just too relentless. At about 1130am a miracle started to occur, i swear i could see a hint of blue sky on the horizon, hope actually turned to joy as the rain let up, enough for everbody to start opening their bags and reaching for their cameras, i knew if the rain would hold off just for a little while the photo’s could actually provide quite a dramatic effect. In fact, this was just what the doctor had oredered, hints of sunshine with a wet atmosphere and plenty of stunning aircraft to be captured.

Aircraft started to buzz into action and the airshow got going, if not a little late, a shame because display jets had already been cancelled, most noticeably in the shape of the Saudi hawks. We headed to the flight line and began dodging and weaving through the untold amount of chairs and tents that has got continually worse over the years, i dont mind anyone marking their spot and plonking a chair or two down but for some reason they seem to now be used as barriers restricting space for others to squeeze in to. It didn’t take long before one nice gentleman took umbridge to our arrival, my only thought which was kind of out loud was to indicate to the nice man that this was an airshow and not a cinema!, i guess there was not much he could say to rebut this argument!, it turned out that he was seated quite a few rows back himself and had been guilty of exactly what he was accusing us of!

The sun shone in the afternoon and in fact roared down upon us, the whole reason i was at the airshow this year was for the Ugly American A-10 Thunderbolt – aptly nicknamed “The Warthog!”, a slight injustice calling it ugly but actually it has always been one of my favourite fighter jets, right back when i was a young lad and took great pleasure in building the aircraft from scratch as an airfix model!

The airshow ended and i must admit it was an enjoyable day, it wasn’t the best airshow i had ever been present at but again it wasn’t the worst, there was a noticeable lack of American involvement and the one U.S showstopper that i had come for went “tech” a quarter of the way through its display!, that put paid to the photo’s of the hog!

The evening light was now golden, blue skies all around, which was a stark contrast from the beginning of the day!, this for me is the best time to capture the rows and rows of static aircraft that the show had on display, with many heading for the exit it was now down to the remainder to grab those really beautiful golden light ground shots. This was once again the perfect opportunity to enter “photo mode” and just flit from aircraft to aicraft, hoping to capture that great light before the sun went down, at this stage i was aware that my wife was actually still with me – wow!, now that was a miracle!

We stayed until we were forced out of the grounds, i could of gone on for a lot longer, my camera battery was holding out far better than the others and the resulting sunset would have provided some gorgeous shots, it wasn’t to be though and our day in the rain and shine was coming to an end, what a fantastic day, i loved it, my wife loved it and Mr Knowles loved it, all that was required now was a spot of pub lunch on the way home and my day was complete!

Please visit www.Ryanhemmingsphotography.com for all your photography needs – “like” my page on facebook at RH Photography and follow me on twitter @ RHPhotographyRH

Thanks for reading!

Ryan

 

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Mach Loop – Wales

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Ryan

Three days in the Welsh valleys climbing hills (more like mountains for me!, so i shall refer to them as such…!) in order to take part in the sport which first introduced me to photography in general – Aviation Photography.

This would be my first trip to the area known as the Mach Loop, named as such due to its position of a number of valleys spanning from Machynlleth in the south (where the loop gets its name) to Dolgellau in the north. There are a number of Low Flying Areas (LFA’s) within the UK where military aircraft are put through their paces, whereby the aircraft can go as low as 100ft!, The Mach Loop is within the area designated as LFA7.

An Ex-Colleague of mine – Peter Fletcher (a seasoned pro around the loop!) was to be my guide for the three days, we set off for Wales with as much gear packed as possible, the journey surprisingly went quick, perhaps that was down to the excitement of seeing first hand the beauty that this area had to offer, oh and not to mention the noise of fighter jets whizzing over my head! – did i just say “over my head?!”, sorry i meant to say “below me!”

Arriving at the loop i couldn’t believe actually how amazing the scenery looked, mountains and hills and valleys as far as the eye could see!, we parked at a spot known as Cad West where we would spend the afternoon. The views from up above were breathtaking, the only trouble was – i had to get “up above” first!

We began our climb of Cad West, i was carrying my camera bag, chair, umbrella and carrier bag filled with food, within 30 seconds i was coughing and spluttering realising that my fitness was seriously being questioned!, Pete duly informed me that this was the easy part!, just around the corner was an incline to die for (and i quite nearly did!). To say that my legs were burning at this point was an understatement but a pit stop here and there i carried on, luckily we stopped about half way up and that was it, a number of photographers were already present at the location and finally i could sit down and get my breath back.

The view was awesome, we just had to wait for an incoming aircraft!, whilst we were in the car park two Hawk jets had already buzzed us and i was there and then formally introduced to the term “Car Parked”!. It seems there are two ways to spot the aircraft heading towards you, one – keep your eyes trained into the far distance for a glimpse of movement (be careful with those birds!) or for me the preferred second method – The Shout – “YEEEEESSSSSSSS”!, ive never seen people move so quick as photographers at the loop, the shout comes in and its action!, up comes the cameras, majority being adorned by expensive Canon and Nikon primes, cameras aimed at the on coming jet, once in range a plethora of shutter speed is all you can hear, the sound of mini machine guns as everybody keeps their finger firmly on the button hoping that the magic focused shot is captured!

This kind of aviation photography down at the loop is not too disimiliar to fishing, 99% boredom (and i like fishing also!) to an adrenalin filled moment of excitement, the thrill of the wait, not knowing what or if anything will come screaming down the valley. I heard the many stories of getting a “blank”, a whole day of waiting up a mountain with absolutely no aircraft whatsoever, luckily for me i haven’t experienced this yet!, in fact – quite the opposite.

We spent the night at a local camp site for an amazing rate of £10 a night, this bought a  bunk bed in a 6 person dorm, it wasn’t busy so we had a dorm each!, dinner was taken down the local pub The Red Lion, i do recommend the chicken tikka masala!, dinner was interupted by the almighty screach of two Tornado GR4′s hurtling overhead – now that was what you call “Pub Parked”!.

The next morning was an early one, we found ourselves up Cad West by 8am, a long day was also to be had, not getting back down off the mountain until at least 8pm. A very interesting day lie in store as traffic destined for the Fairford airshow continued to show up, apart from not getting a photo of these aircraft against a land backdrop everybody was excited to see the movements of some rare birds down their beloved loop!

My legs were now not my own, i didn’t think walking up hills would do what it did, the pain in my thighs was painful to the point of walking back down the hill proved a wobbly legged experience!

The final day saw us climb to the mid shelf of a point known as the Bwlch, all three days the sun shone so bright the light conditions in the late afternoon was nothing short of miraculous, and up the Bwlch on the last day was certainly no exception, the waiting game started, two Tiger beers were downed by 9:30am to the amazement or jealousy of our fellow photographers, by the way, the equipment that some of these guys (and girls) posess is quite frightening, prime lenses costing thousands of pounds on camera bodies that cost equally as much are almost everywhere up these hills, they are certainly the photographers choice when it comes to head on fast jet photography.

After the three days was up i had that feeling, that feeling of being instantly hooked to a new form of photography within the scope of aviation that i hadn’t quite been used to, the unstoppable boredom from hour to hour continuously watching the entry point to the valleys for a glimpse of that raw metal power – and then that feeling as a fast jet comes hurtling towards you in the distance, only seconds to react before its gone on to the next valley, the initial silence as it gets closer and closer, then wallop, the noise of the engines as it passes below you – Wow is all i can say….

To be continued…….!!!

Further aviation photo’s of mine can be viewed on the following links:-

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?photographersearch=Ryan%20Hemmings

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photographer.php?p=36

Facebook Page – RH Photography

Twitter – RHPhotographyRH

Ryan

 

 

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An Excursion to Viareggio – Italy

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Ryan

A 15 million Euro super yacht needs photographing in Italy before its released to its buyer, count me in please!, this is how this little trip all started, but due to unforeseen circumstances it didn’t end this way!. I got the nod on behalf of the very talented interior designer Angsumalin “Angie” Phijaranasan (www.Angsumalininteriors.com, http://tinyurl.com/yaqp3or) flight tickets sorted, hotel sorted, camera sorted, everything was ready to go until the dreaded email arrived – Bad news Ry!, the project was delayed and all tickets and reservations were non-refundable. Debating whether to go or not or to just waste non-refundable tickets is a decision ideally that needs to be made jointly, Angie gave me the go ahead to go “enjoy” myself regardless of the projects delay! with that in mind off i trotted down to my local airport for the couple of hour flight to Pisa, i am a big fan of flying and love the whole airport scene, i could just sit in an airport bar for days on end people watching!, once in the departure lounge thats exactly where i found myself, a couple of Guinness’s later and up popped my gate allocation on the flat screen. Gate 24 had a healthy Queue by the time i got there and i arrived just as the doors opened for boarding, a short walk to the aircraft through the rain was the way to go, up the stairs, a double tap on the fuselage for good luck (cant break that superstition now can i?!) and down i sat, all three seats to myself, i could get used to this!

An afternoon touchdown in Pisa, or was it?, the only aircraft on the apron upon arrival was a British Airways A320 and three Ryanair 737′s!!, had we doubled back and landed back at Luton?!, no, the sun was shining and it looked hot – It was most definately not Luton!. I followed the signs to the train station through arrivals and exited the airport, to my amazement as you walk outside the train was just sitting there?!, i worked out how to buy a ticket to Pisa Centrale and had 5 minutes to kill before the train left, great timing indeed!, the train was quite a beaten up sight, daubed in grafitti inside and out i felt quite at home!, it must have been 2 minutes later after the train set off that it stopped at Pisa Centrale, i could have walked that!. A new ticket and a new platform and sadly not a new train was next on my list to Viareggio, more grafitti inside and out!, about 15-20 minutes the train pulled in to Viareggio, not without a little action though, someone in a large party got stuck in the doors at one of the stations and was quite lucky to be pulled free!, both train journeys cost a total of 5 Euro’s which was cheap indeed, i was heading towards the Grand Hotel Royal and didn’t have a clue so after an 11 Euro taxi ride that took 3 minutes i just knew i had just been stung!

The Grand Hotel Royal as you can see is actually quite that – Grand!, Check in couldn’t have been smoother, must have been the quickest check in ever?!, i didn’t want to waste any time as i had only 2 nights in this beautiful hotel so bags were thrown on the bed, swimming shorts on and out i went down to the swimming pool, quite busy but i found a nice little spot on a sun lounger in the far corner, wow, this is the life!, 30 degrees at the very least with blue skies all around. Life around the pool was quite interesting, mostly elderly and most being from the UK, i know i had had a beer or two, definately not a skinful due to the 5 Euro price tag! but there was a 70 odd year old lady with fake “Pamela Anderson” style boobs, amazing really seeing as the rest of the body was a saggy brown leathery mess!, ive never seen that before and my eyes were certainly not decieving me through two beers!!

The evening came, alot quicker due to me falling asleep on my sunlounger!, opposite the hotel is the beach that lies just beyond an esplanade lined with designer shops and wait for it…. Pizza restaurants, oh there were Pizza restaurants and more and more, as far ar the eye could see, now these are quite upmarket pizza restaurants but nethertheless pizza restaurants!, i walked as far as i could go before hitting the marina and lost count at how many people were actually eating pizza’s!, i sat down and guess what, i ate pizza!, it was a mighty fine pizza to say the least!.

A slow walk back to the hotel catching the sights of the beach at sunset was now in order, the beach is actually quite nice but is quite littered with chairs and sun loungers (check google images and you will see!), no clouds to be seen but the sunset went from a beautiful clean blue glow to an orange one and then back to blue again, it didn’t get truly dark until gone 10pm.

My last day was spent chilling out by the swimming pool, buying a few beers and a coca cola, and boy didn’t that can of coke cost, i dont begrudge 5 Euro’s for a beer but 4 euro’s a can of coke, wow!, especially when all i got on the exchange rate was 1 pound = 1 euro!

The pool bar staff and lifeguard were a friendly bunch, i actually felt a bit jealous of the lifeguard, he must have been in his 60′s and had such a cushty job, i could sit around that pool forever!, my factor 15 Hawaiian tropic was doing a good job as it was easily 30 degrees, i didn’t move from my sunlounger from 9am – 4pm!, knowing that i was checking out the next day i decided to take a walk to the train station as i wasn’t going to fall for the “old tourist in an expensive taxi” trick again, after many a wrong turn i found the station, not far really considering, i walked street after street, quaint small streets around every corner with that mediteranean style architecture, what amazed me was the amount of grafitti this town posessed!, i knew and expected the trains to be artisticly adorned, but the walls and houses in the street were too, this was the only negative of my views on Viareggio of which on the whole was a lovely little italian seaside town.

Back at the hotel i decided to enquire about the train times the next day, pretty lucky really – “Sorry Sir, there is a train strike tomorrow”! came the reply from reception!, luckily there is a stop on request bus that stops outside the hotel hourly, good to know that my hour or so search of the train station was in vain!!

Up early the next day for breakfast and a two hour laze beside the pool before check out was in order, check out was as smooth as check in and it was now time to wave goodbye to Viareggio, the bus was on time-ish!, boarded and sat back for the hour ride to Pisa airport, a nice touch and end to my little trip was the bus driving directly past the leaning tower of Pisa, it certainly does lean!.

The airport check in was as manic as most of the european holiday hot spot airports, not really any control but more like a free for all, times like these i like to take a deep breath and go with the flow!, 10 euro’s left to my name which was duly dispatched on a couple of italian beers in a – wait for it……Pizza restaurant!

Ryan

 

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Tasha Pyne – The Next Pixie Lott?

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Ryan

I got the call whilst already deep inside London Town – “My friend is an up “n” coming singer who’s performing tonight in Earl’s Court, would you be able to take some photo’s?”, luckily my camera was by my side, not that i had used it yet!, that was down to my wife wanting to do some shopping rather than hunt down anything interesting occurring in town!. Now im not going to pass an opportunity to take a photo especially when the subject is a remarkably talented young lady by the name of Tasha Pyne, just 16 years of age she sings with a maturity that is seen in the most established of artists.

The venue, situated in Earl’s Court - My Place, is an underground establishment that oozes in funky vibes, no doubt adding to the flavour of fresh singing talent that London has to offer. The night itself was dubbed “Experiencia @My Place which hosted various artist performances during the evening.

Tasha Pyne would be first up, not before we took the chance to catch a few pre-set photographs, Tasha was joined by guitarist Dave Tither and Promoter Sam Samuels, so we headed outside for a few promo shots.

Tasha was born and raised in a rural Village in Norfolk where she lives in a converted Victorian school, Tasha began performing at an early age where she enjoyed dancing and perfoming lessons, it wasn’t until she sang at her dad’s 40th birthday that she realised her true potential as a singer!, from that day onwards you could say “The Skies the Limit”.

Tasha took to the stage and you could really tell she was enjoying herself, the crowd was a healthy one (ill get to that later!) which certainly warmed to supporting the 16 year old from Norfolk. Tasha sang a number of songs, a mixture of her own original work and a couple of covers.

“Not that Girl” – her original debut single, was performed effortlessly with a natural confidence that shone through the venue, check the youtube link for an acoustic version http://youtu.be/LfXHJ9QWv_s

“Perfect” a cover song that was originally penned by Pink was next up on the list, a raw and emotional song that speaks to every person thats ever felt a little less than “perfect” at one time in their lives.

“Welcome to my world” was another original song written by Tasha and performed with as much finesse as the previous songs, it’s quite clear to see that it’s just a matter of time before Tasha hits the big stage, perfectly delivered vocals with an amazing unflappable performance.

The final two songs saw a cover of a Bruno Mars favourite – “Grenade”, and another original named “The Giant”.

Tasha Pyne can be viewed on youtube and has a facebook page that you can follow (http://www.facebook.com/lesley.pyne?ref=ts#!/tashapynemusic), she can also been seen via the website Downtown artists (http://downtownartists.co.uk/tasha-pyne/)

Further artists performed at My Place during the evening and it turns out that my work was not entirely finished, not in the photographic department anyway!, i did mention earlier that the audience was “a healthy one”!?, unfortunately for one of the artists a lady in the audience decided to collapse onto her table halfway through the performance, 2 Police officers, a Doctor and an ambulance crew later the poor lady was taken upstairs and medically treated.

Further photo’s from the evening can be viewed at www.ryanhemmingsphotography.com

Ryan

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Dont work with Animals and Children?!

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Ryan

Pet Portraiture

RH Photography has now completed its first Pet Portrait photoshoot on 25th June 2011, RH Photography will now provide photoshoots for any pet!, whether that be snakes, rats and Guinea pigs or just your average pooch. There will be no difference in cost, time and attention to detail than the human photoshoot variety. I can take a photograph in almost any situation and location, your back garden, fish tank, vivarium or down the park, you choose where you want the photo’s and what kind of photo you would like to see.

As you can see Mocha the Dobermann was quite a shoot, in my eyes one of the most photogenic of dog breed you are likely to find, they say “Dont work with Animals and Children!”, i have over the last month realised why!, that just makes me want to photograph more, none of these subjects sit still enough for one minute – but i only need them to be as still as my camera can capture them, and my camera is one of the fastest out there, 110 photo’s in just ten seconds! – believe me it may be needed!

So, off i went, along with Doris and my trusty camera and headed out to Bovingdon, the subject of the shoot was the lovely chocolate coloured dobermann Mocha (On Saturday August 6th 2011 i will be attending the Dobermann Rehousing Associations dog show day as an official photographer so this was a great chance to test my set up). The weather didnt look the best as this shoot would be taking place in a backgarden, luckily i had access to a gazebo where i could hang my background in, this will be available on August 6th.

The shoot got underway and wow did this dog move, she certainly didn’t want to sit still for long, coupled with a fear of the black background crackling in the wind and a major thirst she made sure she was going to be here there and everywhere! Emily had her work cut out and it turned out that cheese was Mocha’s fancy, cheese certainly had her begging for more. In time Mocha got more used to the background and happily sat in front of it allowing me to fire off the camera, normally i take these background pics with full studio lights set up but the dog show wont have any power for me, so in this case my 580EX II speedlite was put into overdrive, i was very pleased with the results to be fair, seeing as the camera mounted flash will never match the studio lights. The shoot lasted a few hours and im not sure who was more knackered by the end of it – Mocha or me! Mocha had definately had had enough and i was more than happy with the photo’s i had captured.

RH Photography is now ready to capture your pets in all their splendour! , to see more of this photoshoot please visit www.ryanhemmingsphotography.com (projects/events tab)

Ryan

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Hong Kong , Singapore & Vietnam 2011

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Ryan

Hong Kong

Landing in Hong Kong is not what it used to be, the experience was not so different than from a ride at a theme park, twists and turns, ups ‘n’ downs and a 37 degree bank angle in what seemed like flying through the gaps between buildings before touching down at Kai Tak airport. Those days are gone, now its an efficient airport built on reclaimed land where a train whisks you into Kowloon within 20 minutes or so. Looking out at the view of Victoria harbour from my hotel room had my photographich juices bubbling, it wasn’t long before i would be heading out to Victoria peak to look down upon the skyrises that Hong Kong was well and truly famous for, Victoria peak can be accessed via a tram that meanders up the hills of Hong Kong island.

Once at the top you are treated to a panoramic view of the island and Kowloon, ive been up the peak a number of times in the past but each time it still manages a “Wow factor” for me, armed with my canon 1D i enter “Photo Mode” ! (My poor wife translates this to “Di Lam” – go work!). And go work is exactly what i do!, the views are phenomenal and photo’s don’t do Victoria Peak justice unfortunately, watching the darkness fall and the lights come on over the city one by one is a magic experience that is savoured in every last photo. The Peak is actually nestled at the top of Mount Austin and is 1811ft high, before the tram was introduced residents were taken to the top by sedan chairs! the year 1888 saw the opening of the peak tram and today it attracts more than 7 million visitors per year.

Another attraction Hong Kong has to offer is the Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride that takes you to Lantau island , this attraction i havent seen before and this trip would be my first time using it, walking up to the station the cable car system looked quite daunting, it certainly wasn’t a quick hop, this cable car takes around 25 minutes to get you to the destination. You are met with various packages and car variations including a glass bottom cable car!, yes! – if i was to scare the wife at all this would be the perfect way!, the views over the airport was amazing itself and worth the money alone, the distance from start to finish is just shy of 6km!. Once at the other end you find yourself slap bang in a tourist type village with shops and restaurants, what you cant miss is the gigantic Buddha that sits at the top of Po Lin monastary, this massive Buddha took 12 years to complete and the shipped part by part from China!, for the rest of the day i chose to visit a fishing village, i thought that the photo opportunities at the village would be ideal, unfortunately there wasn’t alot of fishing going on!, we stayed here for less than an hour before making the trip back to the cable car, the last car left at 6pm and i wasn’t planning on missing it. Once again the views on the return was something special, being treated to a panoramic sunset was immense, it certainly rounded off another wicked day in Hong Kong.

Singapore

From one impressive city full of lights straight to another, that being the island of Singapore, if you want clean, clean and wait for it – clean, then head to Singapore. Staying a stones throw away from Marina Bay our hotel room overlooked the Singapore flyer and the bay itself, joined by a massive complex of underground shopping malls its easy to get lost whilst heading back to your hotel.

Heading out in Singapore its far more cost effective to buy a subway saver card, getting around on the underground system is relatively simple and cheap. Clarke quay was on my list for a dinner and a beer (‘a’ beer being quite literally!), opted for a japanese restaurant as my taste was turning to sushi, Clarke quay is a beautiful area for dining and drinking right on the river, finding an irish pub and the black stuff was what dreams were made of, however the prices were that of nightmares, one Guinness later and £9 lighter i couldn’t see a session coming on in Singapore!

On the way back it was a perfect time to take a photo or two, Marina bay is a haven for photography and setting up on the esplanade was the way to go, my Joby tripod was perfect for the job as the camera sat quite nicely on the hand rail and didn’t cause too much of an issue in the wobble department!. At certain times of the evening the Marina Bay hotel and Casino puts on a light show, all cameras turn towards the gorgeously designed hotel as it runs through reds, blues, greens and purples illuminating it and the whole bay.

Vietnam

What can i say about Vietnam?, well, ive got to be careful seeing as my wife comes from Ho Chi Minh City!, the country has fascinated me ever since i first saw the news reels broadcast from the “Vietnam war” or the “American war” as its known in Vietnam. For a country where 4 million people were killed during the conflict there seems no animosity towards anyone, in fact quite the opposite, probably one of the most friendliest places i have ever visited.

Having a beer in the famous backpacker / tourist area of Pham Ngu Lao street is a must, here you can get a beer for pennies and a noodle dish named “Pho” for much the same. Sat in the sunshine outside one bar i begin chatting to the driver of a Cyclo, 20 years driving his bike for tourism he makes two 45 minute journey’s to and from his house daily to the tourist area. His English is not that bad, probably due to the 20 years of lugging around the tourists and picking up all the bad stuff!, but no!, “The Americans” he said taught him his english, he went onto tell me stories of war and how he was in the South Vietnamese army fighting the north, he was blown up twice and still has the shrapnel inside his arms to prove it!, if that didn’t deserve him a beer nothing did, ive never seen someone down a beer quite as fast!

Ryan

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London Street Photography

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Ryan

Google images for “London streets” , that’s what I did quite a while ago, I was pretty amazed at the lack of vibrancy and colour that image’s of the capital had to offer, to me the photo’s page by page actually looked dull – it was at this point I decided that I wanted to take the kind of photo’s that people would look at and say “Wow, is that London?!”

I set about trying to capture the capital in HDR (high dynamic range), a technique that allows a greater degree of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image, this technique can be done by merging a range of differently exposed images into just the one image to produce and an exaggerated artistic efffect.

Getting off at a random underground station somewhere in London I began to enter the unknown, armed with my iPhone sat nav for a bit of backup I set off aimlessly scouring the streets for suitable locations. One thing I have not quite grasped yet, which I keep telling myself, is to go on a Sunday morning, seeing as this will be the least busiest time to take photo’s in London. I manage to coincide with rush hour each time I go! The one problem this presents is the amount of people in the streets, a nightmare for capturing a series of three differently exposed images without ghosting people moving about their business.

It did cross my mind that if I kept this up, one day I may get to capture the whole of greater London, what amazes me is the amount of alleys and mews London has to offer, quite impossible to cover every one of them!, the problem that I encounter upon each occasion is the vast amounts of pubs and bars I walk past during the day, obviously it would be very rude not to stop off and use their toilets every now and then! That is the dilemma I face, the more pub toilets I visit the more I need (haven’t quite worked out why yet!!?).

Why am I doing this? I want to be able to Google “London Streets” and be presented with image after image of colourful and vibrant scenes that I know London has to offer, oh and I also want to sell a few framed prints in between!

If you want to see more streets in their full vibrant colours check “London Street Photography” in the projects / events section of my website – www.ryanhemmingsphotography.com

Ryan

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Ryan, Ryan, Ryan – get in the car….!

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Ryan

RH Photography doesn’t just do portraits, well – i suppose you could call these vehicle portraits instead! New to my projects page at RH Photography is the addition of photoshoots for cars, aimed at the enthusiast and lovers of all things mechanical i will gladly put on a photoshoot of your prized posession, whether you want pics for a portfolio, prints / framed or even a calender.

Saturday 4th June 2011 was dedicated to Mr Paul Knowles and his much loved and revered Mazda 3 MPS, Camera checked, batteries charged, lenses cleaned and an oiling of the old tripod kicked an early start off to the day. We headed to the beautiful Ashridge estate, Hertfordshire to see what images we could pick up.

Paul’s request was a photoshoot where he could grab some prints and also set up a 2012 calender. The morning concentrated on some high detail close up shots around the car paying attention to the little logo’s that his Mazda had to offer. It wasn’t too long before we became an obstruction to the 70 year old dog walkers who couldn’t drive through the space that we had left for the buses to pass!, luckily the harsh midday sun was directly overhead and there only seemed one alternative left – a pub meal and a pint at the Globe inn, Leighton Buzzard.

After lunch it was time to hunt for an underground car park location, with a couple of places in mind the first we found was not a bad choice situated in Hemel Hempstead, it was time to get down and dirty with the tarmac for that low perspective (getting up from these positions is increasingly becoming harder!).  The great thing about Paul’s car (apart from it’s looks and speed!) is its colour, the true Mazda red is probably one of the nicest reds ive seen on a car, makes great for photo’s.

We headed towards Watford in search of a better location and boy did we find one, the barriers were down and the lights were on whilst being virtually clear of any parked cars – result! , time once again to get busy, i had the photo in my mind for a week or two and now was the chance to create what i had imagined – the classic sweeping colour to black n white underground car park shot! took a few i know that, one of these i had to have nailed it!. It certainly didn’t dissapoint, my newly acquired Canon 24-70mm L f2.8 was put into overdrive, concerned with the lack of wide angle i was happy with the low light f2.8 it had to offer, i am very pleased with the results and needn’t have worried too much about the lack of a wide angle.

Late afternoon it was time to head off to Waterloo, London to see what Leake Street had to offer – Leake street is quite a famous tunnel that is covered in graffiti which attracts artists and petrol heads alike. 

Saddled up the sat nav and off we went, we made Leake street in good time and although the tunnel looked smaller than expected there was still an impressive array of classic graffiti. 5 minutes into our photoshoot, with me seeing everything only through the lens the squeeky tone in Mr Knowles voice rang out – Ryan, Ryan, Ryan get in the car…..! now once you get shooting you dont particularily want to pause but the sound in Paul’s voice said otherwise! realising that the tunnel we were in was less than savoury a car had turned up beside us with some less than savoury characters in it! this was followed with some even more less than savoury characters apparently knowing everyone entering the tunnel…. it didnt take a rocket scientist to realise 2 possible outcomes (3 we contemplated later but that was unless we were very unlucky!), i didnt fancy losing a tonne of camera equipement and Paul didnt want to lose a very nice car, so a quick getaway was in order….yes – to the pub, now i felt safe!

We finally resumed our shoot in Leake street without the undisirables present, overall we had a great day of photography with some nice pit stops and some laughs… i certainly will be looking forward to the next addition!

Ryan

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Its only a Bank Holiday Monday after all!!

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Ryan

10 minutes later i was in a town not too far from Luton, in fact i was in a leafy little village called Toddington, a stones throw from the mighty L.B! at 21 months old my next photographic conquest was going to take up all of the patience that my day job has taught me, at this age im sure there isn’t a huge amount of noddle of whats actually going on! why are those lights flashing at me! heeeelp! After a lovely cup of tea (Thank you Mr Mitchell!) it was time to fire off a few testers, Wow, this little fella reflects some light!, my two 500′s were a little too juicy at a quarter of the power, these had to be stripped down to the most minimilistic setting available – phew!, had some great working space on this one, set up with two lights, took the kitchen at the expense of the table and strapped the 70-200mm straight off. At this age its not just about the ability to take a picture but to have some audience participation! well done to Luke and Leanne for providing non-stop entertainment, by the way im still humming that bloody chicken song!!!

Ryan

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