The colourful buildings of Parga, Greece - another new image on my travel photographer web page

Today on my photography blog another image from my new travel photographer page. This is a photo of the colourful buildings of Parga on mainland Greece, captured using my Canon 6D and Canon 24-105mm lens.

Rick McEvoy Photography - Travel Photographer

Finally, I have my travel photographer page live on my website

Check out this new page on my website, called Travel Photographer. Yes you have guessed it - it is a collection of photos from my travels.

This is a brand new collection of images which I have put together which are just 12 images I like - nothing too scientific here. 12 images from 12 locations.

The picture on this post is one of those images, taken on the stunning Vrika Beach on the lovely Greek Island of Antipaxos, which I am looking forward very much to returning to. It shows the famous, lovely, crystal clear water of Antipaxos.

This picture was taken using my travel photography set up of Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens. The location is the place where the boats from Corfu drop you off and pick you up.

Rick McEvoy Photography - Travel Photographer

A lovely warming Santorini sunrise picture to warm us all up after the last week or so

Some nice Santorini sunrise warmth for a Sunday morning.

Taken on my Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, using a focal length of 45mm, aperture F22, ISO 100.

So why F22?

This is the aperture I use to get the starburst effect.  Try it with your lens and see what happens.

The first exposure was at 1/000th second.

To ensure that all the images were taken with exactly the same content I mounted my camera on Manfrotto tripod, not necessary with a shutter speed of 1/1000th second.

Necessary for me for my composition though!

The 3 shot bracketed sequence was merged together in Lightroom, then the single image processed in Lightroom and cleaned up in Photoshop.

Just to cheer us all up and remind us that Spring and Summer are on the way. 

Happy Sunday everybody

Rick McEvoy Photography - Travel Photographer

As featured on the National Trust Twitter feed - 12 months ago today

This is what I posted 12 months ago today. I remember this post.

"I was contacted by the National Trust recently, and asked if they could use the image above in their social media feeds.

I said yes of course. The National Trust. What an absolute privilege. 

This is the link to the Tweet - feel free to all head on over there and re-tweet this post!  I have!

The picture was taken on my Canon 6D with my Canon 24-105mm lens at in the woods at The Vyne. 

I wanted to capture the sun shining through the trees, and love this slightly overexposed image, which has a lovely, light natural feel to it.

I will be returning to The Vyne, and lots of other National Trust sites, to take more pictures. The National Trust sites are great locations to photograph any time of the year. 

Rick McEvoy Photography

Landscape photographer

Thursday 23rd February 2017."

How has the quality of the production of blog posts improved over the last 12 months?

Quite a bit. Technical stuff has improved such as

• Shorter page title - some of my old posts had titles so long the important bit was probably lost in Google.
• External links - better quality, relevant external links
• Blog post URL - shortened to have more effect in Google
• The content has refined over the last 12 months as well, not that there was anything wrong with the content, but it is bound to evolve.

I do remember this post, as well as the National Trust making contact with me - the big question is - what impact did this have on my photography business?

Not a lot to be completely honest. And that is one of the problems with social media - we are all so obssessed with posting, likes, shares, thumbs up etc etc.

For what?

That is the thing I am not sure about. And the thing I think I am going to write about in an upcoming article on Improve Photography.

Rick McEvoy Photography - 12 months on

A deep red sunset and a flat sea are the stars of this picture of the Madives which is my image of the week for this week.

This is one interpretation of this picture of the sunset viewed from the stunning Meeru Island Resort in the wonderful Maldives.

I processed this image, captured on my Canon 5D with Canon 24-105mm lens, in Lightroom. No Photoshop required.

The processing was mainly in the basic panel, with a bit of tweaking of the colours in the HSL panel.

The biggest problem I encountered was getting the white balance correct, as this is a very long exposure, a whopping 150 seconds at F8 with an ISO of 50.

This is why I enjoy travel photography so much. I get to take photographs like this! 

I am going to post a couple of alternative edits of this picture of a Maldives sunset. One a variation in colours and tones, and the last image for today a black and white version. 

Rick McEvoy Photography - Travel Photographer 

The final edit of the picture of the Acropolis at Rhodes at sunrise - plus my equipment set up and a short video

This is the final edit of the picture of the Acropolis of Rhodes. 

Image capture details. 

• Exposure - 3.2 seconds
• Aperture - F8
• ISO 400

THe picture was taken on my Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens secured on my Manfrotto Pixi tripod. This was pretty much all the photography gear I took on this trip, which sat nicely in the bottom of my Peak Design Everyday Backpack, which also took my non photography hand luggage. 

This is the set-up for this image, taken with my iPhone 7 Plus.

Canon 6d on my Manfrotto Pixi tripod

As you can see this is quite a simplistic set up, and with just this kit I managed to get a tack sharp image using an exposure of 3.2 seconds.

This is a great example of knowing your photography gear - I was confident that with this minimalist setup a sharp image using such a long exposure was perfectly achieveable.

And here is the scene in a short video showing the moving water as well as a bird flying by.

Rick McEvoy - Travel Photographer

A picture of my Canon 6D sat on my Manfrotto Pixi looking at a fantastic sunrise view

Well worth getting up for!!! I was on a family holiday to Rhodes, and had packed light. All I took was this

Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens

Manfrotto Pixi

Spare battery and charger

A couple of SD cards

Pec Pads and Eclipse lens fluid

And that was about all. I reconfigured my Peak Design Everyday Backpack

So my camera gear was in the bottom of the bag, leaving a large space for other non photography stuff. This was my hand luggage too - and extremely versatile it proved to be too. 

And of course my iPhone 7 Plus, with which I took this sunrise picture of my minimal travel photography gear. And my iPad Pro.

Thats it. 

Pointing out into the sunrise from the concrete jetty at the far end of Lindos Beach. 

Nice.... 

 Rick McEvoy MCIOB, LBIPP - Travel Photographer 

The black and white version of the picture of the Acropolis in Rhodes

Today I decided to post the black and white version of the picture of the spectacular Acropolis in Lindos, on the lovely Greek island of Rhodes.

The picture was taken with my Canon 6D and Canon 24-105mm lens. 

The question is - does the black and white image work as well as the colour image? 

Let me know what you think. 

Rick McEvoy MCIOB, LBIPP 

Travel Photographer - Greece

The Acropolis at sunrise photographed from Lindos Beach

Another picture taken in Lindos, this time of the Acropolis and the lovely main beach at Lindos.

Photographed at sunrise using my Canon 6D and Canon 24-105mm lens. 

Rick McEvoy MCIOB, LBIPP 

Travel photographer - France, Greece, Italy and beyond  

A stunning picture of the sunrise at Lindos Bay - check out this golden warming gorgeous travel photography picture

Travel photography. I just love it.

I took this picture earlier on this week on a family holiday to fantastic Rhodes. I got up at 4.45am and drove to Lindos to get this view.  Well I was going to photograph the Acropolis at sunrise but what can I do when presented with a scene such as this!

Well worth it. 

This picture was taken on my Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens - the only gear I took on this trip. I restricted myself to half my Peak Design Everyday Backpack for camera gear - that focuses the mind. The other bit of kit I did take was my Manfrotto Pixi tripod - great for travel photography too! 

This picture was captured hand held, with the following settings

Aperture - F8

Shutter speed - 1/800th second

ISO - 400

Edited in Lightroom Mobile on my iPad Pro from a single image capture. The processing was minimal, which is good. 

I hope you like this image - let me know what you think! 

Rick McEvoy MCIOB, LBIPP

Travel photographer

France, Greece, Italy

A rare photo indeed - one with me in (taking a photo of course)

Yes. A picture of me. That makes two. The one on my profile here and on my website, and now this one. 

This is a picture of me taking a picture of Durdle Door with my Canon 6D and Canon 24-105mm lens. Edited on my iPad Pro using Lightroom Mobile.

Wearing my special Animal hoodie, branded with the town where Animal is based, Poole in Dorset.

I processed this picture of me myself - well I would do wouldn't I! 

Rick McEvoy Photography

Dorset Photographer

Tuesday 6th June 2017

Picture of Porsche Portsmouth - check out this black and white picture of this stylish car dealers at the Lakeside Business Park in Portsmouth

Here is the black and white version of the picture of Porsche Portsmouth that I posted yesterday. 

The picture was taken on my Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens on my Manfrotto tripod.

Rick McEvoy Photography

Commercial photographer in Hampshire

Friday 2nd June 2017

Picture of Porsche Portsmouth - check out this rich colourful picture of this stylish car dealers at the Lakeside Business Park in Portsmouth

I like modern new buildings. I like cars. I love Porsches (one day I will have one).  So why not take a picture of the Porsche Dealer in Hampshire?

Why not indeed.!

And here it is. 

This picture was taken on my Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens sat on my Manfrotto Tripod.

 Rick McEvoy Photography

Commercial architectural photographer in Hampshire

Thursday 1st June 2017

Catnic lintels - this famous brand feature in picture number four in my series of construction product photography pictures

A picture of a catnic lintel on a live construction site.

Another big name on the construction product market is Catnic, who make lintels.  Yes the phrase catnic lintel still makes me smile.

I know....

For those non-technical people those are the things that sit over the windows and take the weight of the wall above. I photographed the Acheson Construction site at Corfe Castle, where a new Doctors surgery was being constructed. The image featured on this page is one of my creative mages, with a dark overall image with the colours removed apart from the orange in the Catnic label on a lintel on the construction site. I also selectively brightened the label on the lintol.

As well as conventional product photographs, I try to provide the client with alternative, creative images wherever possible. This is one of the few times I have gone for selective colours, which is fine here as it is all about the logo on the product on an actual construction site.

This picture was taken using my Canon 5D and go to Canon 24-105mm lens on my Manfrotto tripod. I like this set up as the lens gives me a great range without having to keep changing lenses which is an important consideration when photographing on live construction sites. This site was very dry and dusty on the day of the shoot. My gear has to be compact, weather sealed and quick to move from place to place, which is why I have so happily settled with the Peak Design Eveyday Backpack, which makes getting to bits of gear I need so mush easier, and leaves both my hands free to do my work.

This is the kind of work I really enjoy, getting in and amongst it all on site – it takes me back to my first job after leaving school!

Rick McEvoy Photography

Construction product photographer

Monday 29th May 2017

Rick McEvoy Photography Image of the Week - the picture of the woods with the sun shining through in the background

I liked the full composition of this image. The crop I like even more. It was the sunlight striking through the trees  in the background that led me to take this picture. 

I could have cropped down a bit more, but you have to draw the line somewhere! 

Thankfully there is enough resolution in my Canon 6D, and enough quality in my favourite lens, my Canon 24-105mm F4 L Lens, to allow me to make significant crops if I want to. 

Of course I always try to get the composition how I want it in camera, but cropping after taking an image opens up new possibilities, and of course ideas for the future. 

Rick McEvoy Photography

Image of the Week

Friday 24th February 2017  

As featured on the National Trust Twitter feed - this picture I took of the woods at The Vyne with the sunshine bursting through

I was contacted by the National Trust recently, and asked if they could use the image above in their social media feeds.

I said yes of course. The National Trust. What an absolute privilege. 

This is the link to the Tweet - feel free to all head on over there and re-tweet this post!  I have!

https://twitter.com/nationaltrust/status/829963331540692992

The picture was taken on my Canon 6D with my Canon 24-105mm lens at in the woods at The Vyne. 

I wanted to capture the sun shining through the trees, and love this slightly overexposed image, which has a lovely, light natural feel to it.

I will be returning to The Vyne, and lots of other National Trust sites, to take more pictures. The National Trust sites are great locations to photograph any time of the year. 

Rick McEvoy Photography

Landscape photographer

Thursday 23rd February 2017. 

On location with the Peak Design Everyday Backpack - The Vyne

This is my go to camera gear. 

Canon 6D 

Canon 24-105mm F4 L Lens

Manfrotto 190 Go tripod

Peak Design Everyday Backpack

And my red hat by North Face

This is not all my gear, just the gear I go to first unless I know I specifically need something else.

Rick McEvoy Photography

Camera gear explained! 

Tuesday 21st February 2017

An atmospheric picture of the winter colours in the woods in Broadstone in Poole

This is shot was taken a bit further on from the last shot. The mist has come back in. I am further away from the sunshine in the woods.

My Canon 6D is fantastic at working in low light, and also for pulling out all the details in a picture.

And this image is no exception.

The intention with this image was to lead the eye into the picture and down the path, off into the mist. That was what I wanted to capture. That was the story of the scene.

Even though the photograph was taken in the winter, there is still lots of natural colour in the scene.

The trees are covered with this wonderful vibrant green, and the leaves on the ground are still showing the browns and oranges.

The mist in the atmosphere has added atmosphere to the scene, which helps draw out the natural colours especially in the leaves on the ground.

And the other part of the story of this picture is the path leading off in the misty distance.

This image reproduces  what I saw.

And when I look at one of my pictures and what I look at on my screen is what I remember seeing when I was there I am happy that I have done a good job.

This picture has bags of mood and depth.

So what did I do to produce this image?

Some of the key elements of my image capture and processing were these

Image capture

• Mounting my Canon 6D on my Manfrotto 190 Go tripod
• Back button focus – I focussed a third of the way into the image then re-composed for the shot.
• Composition – I used a focal length of 105mm on my Canon 24-105mm lens to get the telephoto effect, bringing the distant path closer and excluding things I did not need need in the image. And also compressing the scene.
• Set my aperture to F8 for the sharpest capture
• HDR bracketing – 3 shots merged together in Lightroom

And for the processing of this image in Adobe Lightrooom

• Auto-white balance - manually corrected
• Camera calibration using the Landscape Profile
• Initial processing is done on import into Lightroom using one of my Develop presets
• Further subtle editing using the Basic Panel
• Further tweaks in the HSL Panel to adjust the saturation and luminosity of some of the colours in the image
• Finally, to finish off, dodging and burning
• Oh yes. And a vignette to polish things off.

And that is the colour image produced.

The only question outstanding regarding this image is – will the black and white version of this picture be better than the colour one?

There's only one way to find out – call back to my blog tomorrow to find out

Rick McEvoy Photography

Tuesday 14th February 2017

Fantastic textures, light and mood in the woods - original landscape photography in Dorset

I look at pictures like this and marvel at just how good my Canon 6D is. The amount of detail in this picture is fantastic.

It is times like this that I stop thinking about other photography gear and just enjoy what I am fortunate enough to have. A great Canon DSLR which does exactly what I want my camera to do, and some great L series lenses.

This is another picture taken using my go to combination, my Canon 6D and Canon 24-105mm F4 L lens.

Now there are going to be some gear changes coming soon (hopefully) but the change I am planning is all about helping me to take better photos.

I only buy photography gear that will help me improve. I am over buying gear for the sake of it.

Finally.

Watch this space for this potential piece of news and an interesting development in my image capture style.

Unfortunately it is not the purchase of a brand new Hasselblad – I wish!

So back to the photo. Sorry for the digression.

There is a lovely depth to this image, with the sunlight catching the trees at the back of the image.

• This is what I saw.
• This is what made me stop.
• This is what I wanted to capture.

As ever, the light is the star of he show. The light makes the picture. The light and how it interacts with the scene, and how it illuminates parts of the scene but not others.

And the lovely natural colours and textures in the image.

I did a very slight crop to this image, and then processed the image entirely in Lightroom. This is another HDR picture, and the processing in Lightroom was done in the basic panel, the HSL panel and then dodging and burning to give the depth to the image.

No Photoshop required for this picture, which is always good. It's not that I don’t like Photoshop, but I like it when I don’t need to go into Photoshop.

This image really conveys the feeling of Delph Woods on that cold late December day, when the mist was moving in and out of the scene, allowing the sun to burst through every now and then.

This image is about the capture of a moment in time when the sun illuminated the trees in the background – the moment ended as I was lining up to take another picture.

So this really is a capture of a fleeting moment in time, never to be repeated.

Just the back and white image to go then, which you can see here on my blog tomorrow at 11am.

Please let me know what you think of this image – you can get in touch with me by phone, email or using the contact page on my website.

Rick McEvoy Photography

Sunday 12th February

Fine art landscape photography in Poole

Was this stunning landscape photography picture really taken in my local woods? Yes it was!

Delph Woods – yes this really was taken in the same woods on the same day as all those misty moody images

Seriously. I had been walking through Delph Woods, armed with my favourite photography gear

My Canon 6D

My Canon 24-105mm lens

My Manfrotto 190 Go tripod

And everything else I could carry in my enormous back pack (thank you Peak Design for sorting that issue out for me!).

As I was saying, I was walking through the woods when I came across this lovely little pond.

Is it a pond?

It’s not a lake for sure – I walked round it in minutes. Ok let’s call it a pond.

With the flattest most reflective water ever.

And no mist. Just the bright vibrant colours of winter sunshine in the woods under a clear, striking, blue sky.

Minutes before I was tramping through the damp misty woods.

Literally minutes before.

Yes, I did check the metadata on my Canon 6D – the previous picture posted the other day was taken a good 12 minutes before – the delay being the time it took for me to walk around the pond and choose my view, and then for the lovely calm tranquil water to settle after a large dog ripped through it!

I even felt a bit of warmth from the sun.

I had no idea this place existed, having driven past if for years looking for things to photograph.

The lesson for today is?

Explore your local surroundings.

Don’t just photograph the obvious. You know, the obvious tourist locations. The scenes everyone else photographs.

I am really enjoying finding new locations to photograph, places I have not seen photographs of before.

If I had not made the conscious decision to go to my local woods on that day, and just to those woods and nowhere else, I would not have this image, or any of the other images I captured. This afternoons walk was a most productive, and I must say an enjoyable one.

Tomorrow the black and white image will be appearing here on my blog – I am looking forward to that!

Rick McEvoy Photography

Dorset Photographer

Monday 6th February 2017