Olloclip field trip

Ōlloclip have released their Lenses for the iPhone 7 (finally). I was able to get their core lens set from the Apple Store on Monday and in a nice coincidence it was also a sunny day. I headed down to Holyrood Park from the centre of Edinburgh to see what I could capture. The Olloclip core lens set comes with three lenses: Fish Eye; Super Wide and Macro (15x). 

 

Holyrood Park (also called the Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its 650-acre area. The park is associated with the royal palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a 12th-century royal hunting estate. It also has the small hill of Arthur's Seat to climb.

The park is a short walk from the centre of Edinburgh and provides plenty of great photographic opportunities. The shots below were taken mostly with the super wide lens attached to my iPhone with a couple of fish-eye shots thrown in for fun :-)

 

Project work

IMG_6854.JPG

'Starting' to finish a couple of projects that I have been working on. Getting started was slow process but I can finally see the progress coming together.  

Over the next two weeks I should have one new website up and running and another 'over-hauled' allowing my own consulting page to go live on this website, which will also be re-branded. 

It has been over a year now since my good friends at Florence and George launched. Watching their business come together has provided inspiration and ideas of what individuals, small businesses and clubs require from a web designer/coder. My plan is to provide a more personal feel with clients in a 'Jerry Maguire' kind of way.

It has been my experience that many people are intimidated by the internet and talking to designers when they have not had much exposure to this technology. It is my hope to provide a 'safe place' where they can talk over their ideas and to feel that they can ask any question no matter how simple or complicated. 

Sabbatical over? Or is doing what you love not really a job? 

 

Reflective Practice

Recent circumstances have left me thinking a lot about reflective practice. 

Reflective practice is a process by which you: stop and think about your practice, consciously analyse your decision making and draw on theory and relate it to what you do in practice. Critical analysis and evaluation refocuses your thinking on your existing knowledge and helps generate new knowledge and ideas.

I was first formally introduced to this idea when I was enrolled in a teaching in higher education diploma. Primarily I was encouraged to have a teaching / demonstrating program before the lesson and to reflect on what went well and what could be done better by reflecting on the experience afterwards. It is a particularly powerful technique for advancing teaching standards.

I think this had been drummed into so much that it has crept into all other aspects of my life (perhaps subconsciously). I realized this recently with website consulting work that I have been doing and my photography.

I spend a lot of time reflecting on what went well in my photography and things that could have been better and why. After a recent meeting I also found myself wondering what could have been better and did I miss anything out; more importantly would I get the chance to rectify this? 

Easily done with photography, not so much with a paying client.

 

 

Social Photography

In the years that I have been taking photographs it has been primarily a solitary pursuit. In fairness I have always enjoyed the freedom of wandering wherever and whenever with my camera. It never really occurred to me before to meet up with strangers to go take photographs.

This changed a couple of months ago when I started chatting to some people through Instagram and after (what can only be considered to be way to much beer and not enough planning) we decided to get a group together to take photo's on the wettest day Glasgow has ever seen.

Even though the day was wet the spirits were kept high and this led to a second meeting with new (and familiar) people yesterday in Edinburgh. The weather was a mixed bag but eventually blue skies presented themselves at Newhaven Harbour. 

I feel very lucky that I have met such great group of people that are always willing to share experiences and knowledge that makes the day so much fun. The group selfie was taken by @alycoste and includes @lisajparis, @chappygbr, @davidgulliver_photography and @redinscotland.

Have posted a few of the shots from Newhaven Harbour below, click for the large versions. 

 

 

 

A splash of colour.

I have been spending a lot of time processing photographs into black and white for my Instagram account. As fun as that is, it does make the world look a little grey. On my last visit to Edinburgh I thought I would have a little fun taking some shots of shop fronts that had nice colour in them, inject a little colour back into my stream.