Portsmouth Time Lapse

Over the past month or so I've been wanting to do a time lapse of Portsmouth. I was inspired by Will Rudman's 24 hours in Portsmouth video which he created in the winter time. As we were editing our Portsmouth show time lapse we had a chat about it and now I finally got round to starting it! I've been going around Portsmouth for the past couple of days taking time lapses as well as videos and putting them all together in Windows Movie Maker. I don't really recommend using windows movie maker if you're using more that 3 files..... it's constantly freezing and muting the sound..... not ideal!! But anyway, with a lot of patience and restarting laptops etc it's ok.

I started off shooting at Southsea Common, near the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and just busy enough to make the time lapse interesting. I positioned the camera so that you look straight down a path leading to the sea. There is also a lovely dog in the photo. I stayed in this location for about 5 minutes and took a photo about every 10 seconds.

I next strolled to the actual common and war monument. It's a huge field and I really wanted to show that in the time lapse. Since it was such a great day, there were quite a few people walking their dogs and having a bbq. There is a lot of movement in this scene, there was one moment where a whole load of birds went crazy, but unfortunately that was only captured in two photos so you can't really see it in the time lapse.

After that I went to the sea front. It was quite busy, so finding a spot where people wouldn't be in the scene was difficult. There were a lot of little sail boats everything as well as the huge ferries. The photo to the right shows a little sail boat that stood out against all the blue and white. It went ultra slow, and is then very quickly overtaken by a ferry! It's hard to explain but it looks great in the time lapse, I promise!

I then strolled to Albert Road. Not much was happening at the time, so I mainly took videos instead of time lapses. I did take this time lapse looking straight at the King's theatre. It reminds me of the framing of the first scene, with a road leading the eye toward the middle of the photo. I also like how on the top right you can see the sign "Albert Road".

This is a scene from quite while ago when I started the Portsmouth project. It's a scene from outside the bedroom window. It sounds a bit lazy... but I love it! In the time lapse you can see the shadow on the building to the left slowly rising. It looks really interesting. In the background you can also see a few ferries come by.

Towards the evening I went to the historic dockyard and took some really beautiful shots there. This first one is of the back of the spinnaker, a view that isn't as stereotypical. The sky is starting to turn a bit pinky/purpley which looks really nice. In the foreground there are some boats, which adds to the whole Portsmouth is an island concept and just behind that is Portsmouth Harbour station.

This shot is taken from the same location as the previous photo, but turned into a different direction. The pink sky is incredibly throughout this whole time lapse scene. I actually shortened the time lapse of the spinnaker because of the pink sky, but also because I love the way boats look on time lapse videos! I like the contrast between the little boats and the HMS Warrior. You can also see the little ferry going back and forth between Portsmouth and Gosport. This is definitely one of my favourite scenes.

I completely forgot to add this in. I also went to the Guildhall (obvious). I despise the fact that straight across from the Guildhall is a statue of Queen Elizabeth, and I'm sure any photographer would agree with me. Because of that statue, you can't take a front on geometric photo of the Guildhall! Anyway, I ended up taking a video there instead of a time lapse. A few people came up to me and posed for the camera, unfortunately that won't be part of the time lapse...

Lastly, another shot at the Historic Dockyard. This was complete luck. I left the flat at about 8.45 because we googled the sun would set at 9.21. When we got to the dockyard it was about 9 and the sun was quickly setting. I was lucky enough to get quite a long time lapse of the sun sinking behind the HMS Warrior. This shot is about halfway through in the time lapse. During this time lapse a huge ferry went by as well, which looks quite interesting, the whole new vs old thing.

Obviously I only added the stills from the time lapse in this post, but I did create a lot of videos as well. I really like the idea of combining still images with moving images, it brings the video alive. I will be doing some more shooting tomorrow. I will be going to Commercial Road, maybe down to the southsea shops and Gunwharf. Gunwharf has actually got a no photography rule..... which is a bit stupid.... but I'll have to go hide my camera somewhere so I won't get caught!!

52 Week Photo Challenge

It's week 17 and this weeks theme was "steps". The first thing I thought of was the Guildhall, which seems to be an ongoing theme. The Guildhall is where I'll be graduating this July so I'm extremely excited. The government also recently took some time to clean all the steps, making it the perfect moment to photograph it!

I wanted to mainly focus on the steps, but not in an obvious manner. That's why I kept the pillars out of the frame, as well as the ground. I think the two main areas of photography that I tend to go into are Landscapes and Abstraction. The photo looks like it's got a huge lens distortion to it, which frustrates me so much! But the steps actually do curve like that, so there's nothing that could be done about it. I like my photos to be straight and that's why I stood right in the middle of the Guildhall. You can see a line going all the way up in the centre of the photo, making it a little bit more into my signature style of photography, in spite of the rounded stairs.

52 Week Photo Challenge

It's been a bit of a busy week, so I completely forgot about last week's theme! The theme was "Statue". Again, not my favourite theme as you can't really find another meaning for it, but I had a couple ideas. Portsmouth has quite a few statues so I wasn't short of choice. At first I wanted to take a photo of the lions at the Guildhall, but as the week slowly passed and the next theme was announced, I decided to find a way to combine the two themes into one photograph. This would be a bit more interesting than just a statue, and it would mean I was back on track with my weeks! The theme of this week is "glasses", which I quite liked. It's a bit more broad than the previous themes we've had.

Across from the Guildhall is a council building which has got these very reflective windows (glasses) and there is a statue of queen Victoria in front of it. I really like how the photo looks, I like how the statue is centred and the Guildhall is directly behind it. It's also interesting because the windows are a lot more modern than the reflection it it. The flags ad a pop of colour to it. Another thing that I like about the photo is that is doesn't have any people it in, so there is nothing to distract you. And finally, it was a beautiful day so the reflected blue sky makes the Guildhall stand out more, and the clouds towards the middle of the photo add a bit of mystery to it.

The Bootleg Beatles

Last night Lauren asked me if I could come on a shoot with her at the Guildhall to photograph the Bootleg Beatles. Last semester she conducted a project about tribute bands, and has continued it this semester as a side project. I'd never been in the Guildhall before, and since I've done a bit of band photography before Uni, I thought it would be a great opportunity. 

When we entered the Guildhall, we got a special press pass which allowed us to basically do whatever we wanted. Before the show started we briefly met the members of The Bootleg Beatles, and had a chat about what to photograph and where to go etc. They were incredibly friendly, and seemed to be very relaxed. We took a few photos back stage, but the show was about to start and they were getting changed into their costumes, so we didn't have too much time. 

The show was absolutely amazing! We started off just walking around the audience trying to find the best place to photograph. It was a bit awkward to walk around while everyone else was sitting down, especially when we wanted to get some close-up shots right at the front. But as the show went on the more comfortable we got. There was a second level, although it wasn't in use, so we asked security whether it would be possible to go up there, and we could! 

We got some amazing shots, and after the show was finished we asked The Bootleg Beatles if they could sign our press stickers. I've just gone through all the photos and picked out 39 that are the best. I've set the contact sheet to Lauren, who is going to send both her and my contact sheets to The Bootleg Beatles. Once they've OK'd it, I'll be posting the photos on my blog and website.