One of the things I love about photography is that it constantly challenges me to see things differently; from different perspectives.  I love this because it forces me to appreciate things differently, to see things differently and in new ways.

There’s been talk amongst the Fab Collective recently about photographing family and one particular photographic project has stirred many of us.

Days with My Father

Those of us who are lucky enough to have family…  Well…  Maybe, it’s time you took another look at them.

There is nothing more important to me than my family.  I’ve spent my entire life with them and they’ve helped to shape me into the person I am today.  But we’ve all flown from the nest and live miles apart from each other.  So, what I want to do is to take another look at them and the life we share.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to capture the essence of what that means to me and share some of that with you.

Around the tail end of 2008, a diverse group of Merseyside-based photographers found each other through the power of Flickr and decided they wanted to work together as a collective and put on an exhibition to showcase their work and also the city which brought them together.

Through the months that followed, much discussion took place both online and in real life together.  Through a great team effort, this has resulted in the formation of the Fab Collective and the booking of St. Luke’s church for an exhibition in August 2009.

Since its birth, the Fab Colective have undertaken a number of additional projects as a means of building awareness as well as for an opportunity to take photographs and have some fun.

If you’re in the local area and it’s somewhere with photographic interest, who knows, they might come and visit you!

Photographically, January yielded three shoots; the first was Liverpool’s Transition party celebrating the end of the city’s year as the European Capital of Culture, the second was with the Wirral Flickr group at New Brighton, and the third was spent photographing the Chinese New Year celebrations in Liverpool’s Chinatown.

More recently, a couple of large organisations have expressed an interest in using some of my shots of the Transition celebrations.  And who said Flickr was only good for posting snaps and ego back slapping?

The first week of February has finally seen some decent snowfall in the UK including here in Liverpool although it’s not as thick as on the south and eastern parts of the UK.

It’s funny, as I was sat in a meeting room this morning discussing the technical intricacies of passing data between front end and back end systems, I couldn’t helping noticing the snow falling outside and thinking to myself,

I’ll bet there’s some fantastic photo opportunities out there today.

I enjoy my work, but photography goes a long way in helping to restore some equilibrium by taking me away from the technical architecture, coding standards, SSL certificates and search engine marketing campaigns.  It also makes for a great reason for Mrs & me to get away somewhere away from the routine of everyday life.

Spending the day photographing the Chinese New Year celebrations in Liverpool’s Chinatown was fun, challenging and frustrating.  It would have been good to have been able to apply the lessons learnt to the Manchester celebrations which took place yesterday, but the garden was crying out for attention and I could hardly leave others to heavy labour whilst I go off galavanting around Manchester.

It would have also been great to get out in the snow with a camera this evening, but instead I chose to sit in a room full of photographers!  One of the local Flickr groups is trying to put together an exhibition of work from individual members.  Not having had much interest in viewing art exhibitions in the past, I’m left wondering what to make of it when there’s a possibility of my own work being in an exhibition.  As I see it, the least I owe to myself is to find out more and see where I land.

Liverpool has been a central part of my life from the day I was born.  Well, not Liverpool per se, but its people have had such a profound impact on my life.  And despite the elements of Liverpool life I don’t regard in such good light, I can’t escape the significance the city has.  So when I’m looking at a photo of the sun rising over the Liverpool cityscape, I’m not just seeing buildings, water and colour; I’m seeing every single person who has been a part of my life.  This is what Liverpool means to me.  Whether or not this is something I can convey through images and whether or not anyone would take any interest or even be able to perceive it in that way is another matter.

The exhibition group is passionate, there’s no doubt about it.  Whilst most ‘normal’ people were sitting in the comfortable warmth of their living rooms, twenty-so of us were sat in the freezing cold function room of a city centre pub.  Tonight’s discussion was all about deciding on a possible theme for the exhibition, but as I left them two hours in, nothing definite had been decided let alone short-listed.  Without some clear co-ordination, the task of organising an exhibition with so many opinions to be heard seems like a daunting prospect.  Hopefully, some ground will have been covered in the final third of the meeting.

Coincidentally, at the meeting, I met the girl from the National Museums Liverpool who had contacted me about using one of my Transition photos for one of their newsletters.  Fortunatley for her, the invoice is already being sorted out. ;O)

For me, Christmas was very much a family and friends affair which meant it was a great chance to spend some time getting to know my 5D.  I managed to shoot  approximately 1,500 frames mostly indoors and under mixed lighting conditions which in itself provided a challenge when it came to post processing and correcting colour casts of varying types.  Still, it’s good experience and converting some into black & white makes the problem go away quite easily.

Gatherings of people being festive often provides an excellent opportunity to catch a wide range of expressions and emotions especially when there are babies and toddlers involved.  In order to cause the least amount of disruption, I relied on ambient light and shot mostly at ISO 800/1600, wide open with 50mm f/1.4 and 24-70L f/2.8 Canon lenses.  The 24-70L is what I got to replace the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 which was my preferred walkabout lens for a cropped sensor body and although it’s not equipped with IS it’s shown itself to be an excellent lens that provides fantastic image quality over a very useful focal length range.  I still think Canon are sorely missing something like a EF 17-85 L f/2.8 IS USM lens in their line-up, though.

The EF 50mm f/1.4 is also a cracking lens for low light conditions that can be tricky to use with its very shallow depth of field, but when I got the focus right it produced some shots that distinguished themselves well.  That said, it’s not the sharpest lens I’ve used and there were times when I would have liked a bit more depth of field, but it’s still a very likeable lens.

Unfortunately, I was struck down with the flu that seems to be sweeping across the country just before Christmas and so haven’t been able to spend enough time outdoors for a proper shoot with my new kit.  So I’m still itching to get back over to the Wirral to get take some more landscapes.  The West Kirby Marine Lake webcam was showing a gorgeous sunset earlier today and the sky was mostly clear with some interesting cloud formations.  Hopefully, some of the photographers I spotted through the cam will post their shots onto the Wirral Flickr group so I can see if it was as good as I thought it looked.

If the people who bought some of my prints from RedBubble recently are reading this – thank you! :O)  Hopefully, I’ll be able to add some new images to my collection soon.

A small number of us met for a tapas lunch which was very tasty and then went onto the German Christmas market that was being held in the city centre for a quick photo session.

I’m not used to taking candid shots or street photography so it made a change for me.  As did shooting with my 50mm lens which I’m only really starting to appreciate.  Not only does the fixed focal length mean I have to put my feet to work instead of the zoom ring, but it also forces me to think differently about the shots I might want to take.  I say ‘might’ because sometimes I’ll change my mind about a shot once I’ve seen it through the viewfinder.

One of the main things I like about the 50mm is the very shallow depth of field at f/1.4 and even at f/1.8.  The difference in bokeh compared to f/2.8 at 50mm is seemingly huge.

I’d like to see what the 50mm f/1.4 can do on a full frame camera which would allow me to get much closer to a subject for the same field of view and this is one of the reasons why I want to go full frame.

Anyway, some shots in my Liverpool set on Flickr.

Seriously… Is there anything more corny?