Tattoo Freeze, 2010

Tattoo Freeze, 2010

The International Centre, Telford played host to this, the towns 1^st Tattoo Convention.

Artists from around the world descended upon the town, some from as far away as New Zealand, to demonstrate their skills in traditional tattooing methods.

© John Powell, 2009

My intentions were to photograph some interesting characters to strengthen my exhibition portfolio. Sadly that wasn’t to be. Although there were many willing candidates the lighting and sometimes the backdrops just weren’t right. Nonetheless, it was a good day out. The planned meet up between fellow DAPA Group members also went well and a good day was had by all.

PAGB Great British Cup, 2010

PAGB Great British Cup, 2010

The Great British Cup is an Inter-federation photographic competition organised by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. The camera club I belong to is DAPA Group, a member of the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF).  The GB-Cup is an annual event; divided into two competitions, one for large clubs the other for small, both competitions take place in early January. The rules of engagement are simple; large clubs must submit 18 images, from a minimum of 7 photographers, small clubs; 12 images from at least 4 photographers.

This year four of my images were chosen as part of our entry; Days of Despair, Urban Existence, Living in the Past and We Can Make It. All of them at some point have done well at National and International level over the past year; hopefully they will prove to be an asset here too.

Days of Despair © John Powell, 2009

Each image entered is scored between 2 and 5 by three judges, which gives each image a possible score of 15 points. The points scored for each image are totalled up and the club with the most points is declared the winner. Individual awards are also given out to photographers, whose work has caught the judge’s attention. In 2010, a total of 14 medals were awarded, including Best in Show for both large and small clubs.

In 2009, at our first attempt, DAPA Group was awarded 6^th place alone side Carluke Camera Club. Judging by the wealth of photographers this country produces moving up beyond 6^th place looked pretty slim. Nonetheless, DAPA Group have had a very good year, beating Wigan 10 in the DSLR User Magazine – Battle of the Clubs competition and with a long list of members picking up a haul of International awards we were on a roll and raring to go.

Living in the Past © John Powell, 2009

The weather conditions in the UK throughout January were awful, arctic conditions prevailed everywhere with temperatures as low as -15 degrees in some parts of the country leaving some road impassable. Of the nine judges booked to do the job only 3 made it up to Dumfries. Even trying to enlist the help of judges from nearby Cumbria failed. Nonetheless, the competition went ahead with Libby Smith MPAGB EFIAP, Anne Greiner MPAGB and Barbie Lindsay MPAGB EFIAP judging the GB Cup for small clubs and Libby Smith MPAGB EFIAP, Anne Greiner MPAGB and Russell Lindsay MPAGB AFIAP FBPE judging the large club competition.

Because of the efficient way in which these competitions are now run the results can be sent out to club representatives in a matter of hours after the judging has taken place. The Question being, could we equal our 6^th place position of last year? Well, we didn’t have long to wait, the results of the large club competition were delivered via e-mail at precisely 1.29pm on Sunday 10^th January, 2010. As I cautiously opened the .pdf attachment, which contained the results, my thoughts were firmly focused on bettering our 6^th place spot, had we done enough?

Urban Existence © John Powell, 2009

What happened next had to be seen to be believed, me a middle aged bloke, sent whooping and jumping around the kitchen like a cat on a hot tin roof! Which in turn, sets the dog off barking and the neighbours wondering what the hell is going on? I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! DAPA Group was in second place ahead of Smethwick Photographic Society, Arden Photo Group and not to mention Wrekin Arts, Wolverhampton and Stafford. Was I excited? Bet your bloody life I was!

Coming second to the mighty Wigan 10 is no disgrace. My congratulations go to them not only for winning this competition, but the PAGB PDI and Print Championships in 2009.

We Can Make It © John Powell, 2009

My celebrations didn’t end there; just a few days later learnt that I had been awarded, not one, but two Gold Medals Certificates for Urban Existence and We Can Make It, courtesy of Russell Lindsey AFIAP MPAGB FBPE.

What a result!

35th Smethwick International, 2009

This was my 4^th entry into the Smethwick International. I did my first way back in 1990, having gained just 2 acceptances, Impressions of Autumn and All Lined Up. I look back on those images now with horror, but even 2 acceptance back then was an achievement. Ask any exhibiting photographer in the UK what’s the best UK International and the answer would be Smethwick. My only regret was not to continue with my photography during the 1990’s. It wasn’t until 2007 that I started exhibiting my work again, a break of almost 17 years!

Impressions of Autumn © 1991 John Powell

In 2007, I gained 5 acceptance, 3 monochrome prints and 2 projected images. In 2008, 6 acceptances, 2 mono prints, 2 colour prints and 2 projected images. I narrowly missed out on a HM when, Living in the Past, which scored a 14 with the judges.

Living in the Past © 2008 John Powell

Smethwick Photographic Society staged their 35^th International exhibition in January, attracting over 8000 entries worldwide. After 3 days of intensive judging those 8000 entries are whittled down to just 2000. I was fortunate enough to have gained a total of 9 acceptances, including a Royal Photographic Society Gold Medal for We Can Make It, which was also featured within the catalogue.

We Can Make It © 2009 John Powell

Back to my Roots

Well, after 12 months of, Shall I, Shouldn’t I? I’ve finally done it! I’ve gone and sold all my Canon gear, every single item, three bodies, all with battery grips, an assortment lenses and flash guns. It has taken me a long time to make up my mind, but it’s done and there’s no going back. In fact, the decision to sell was quite easy once the right sort of money was offered.

Morton Corbet © John Powell, 2009 Nikon D2x/18-200mm VR

If the truth be known I’ve always been a Nikon man at heart, my first proper camera was a Nikon, purchased second hand way back in 1986. Between ’86 and ’91 I owned more than 6 Nikon bodies, from the simple, easy to use, EM to magical FA. I never did quite manage to buy myself the F3HP/MD4 combination I dreamed of owning, but hey! That’s all in the past now, time to move forward.

For those of you who are regular readers of my Blog will know that I gave up photography for the best part of the nineties, it wasn’t until digital cameras came along that I was tempted back. I picked up a relatively cheap Canon D30 and it all progressed from there. Until just over 12 months ago!

Stained Glass Window © John Powell, 2009 Nikon D2x/18-200mm VR

It was just before my 5oth Birthday, in 2008, I was given a Fuji Film S5 Pro, an absolutely cracking camera based around a Nikon D200 body. From the moment I picked it up I fell hopelessly in love with it. In truth, we’ve had a brilliant partnership, picking up awards at National and International level throughout the year. The latest, only a few days ago, RPS Gold Medal in the Smethwick International, 2009.

Having sold all my Canon gear the question was, “What shall I replace it with”.

Since my early days as a Nikon shooter, I’ve always want to own one of their flag ship cameras. The D3, although launched in 2007 was still beyond my budget. Nonetheless, I did manage to find a very nice, late model D2X, which has everything I want and more! Besides, I’m not particularly bothered with having a full frame sensor or shooting at ISO 3200!

Along with my newly acquired D2X I also purchased the highly acclaimed AF-S 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED (VR) DX for those times when you want to travel light. With my Sigma 10-20mm on the S5 and the 18-200mm on the D2X, I think I’m pretty much covered.

All I need now is something worthwhile to point them at!

The Cotswolds – Gypsy Horse Fair, Stow-on-the-Wold, 2009

This ancient gypsy horse fair has, since 1476, attracted hundreds of Romany Gypsies to the small and idyllic town of Stow-on-the-Wold, in the Cotswolds.

The fair is a bi-annual one day event, which takes place on the nearest Thursday to 12^th May and again on the nearest Thursday to October 24th. These dates were decided upon by charter, the feast of Saints Philip and James in May and the feast of St. Edward the Confessor in October.

Although horses are still traded at the fair the emphasis these days tends to be more along the lines of a meet and greet affair. The people are friendly and very approachable; many will happily chat and pose for pictures – if you ask them nicely.

Special thanks to Rob who did all the driving on the day and to Bob & Peter for giving us a MasterClass in Photography. T’was a pleasure to watch you work, hope to do it again sometime.

Shooting Infrared images with a Nikon Coolpix 995

Having decided not to go to the expense of having one of my DSLR’s converted to shoot infrared, instead, I decided to have a go at doing a conversion myself. The camera I had chosen to convert was the Nikon Coolpix 995. Although these cameras were quite expensive in their day you can pick them up relatively cheaply on e-bay. Because I’d never attempted anything like this before, I was reluctant to pay too much for my 995. I set myself a messily budget of just 50 quid, not a lot of cash granted, but enough if it all ends up in the dustbin! Like I said, I’ve never done this before. . .

Copyright © John Powell BPE3 . All Rights Reserved

The Coolpix 995 I won on e-bay set me back just over 30 quid and to my surprise was in pretty good condition. It came with 2 new batteries, a leather case and the manual, none of which I was expecting for £30.50 pence! In fact, it was in such good condition it was a shame to dismantle it.

The reason for dismantling the camera is to remove the infrared blocking filter, known as the hot mirror. With the hot mirror removed the CCD inside the camera will be sensitive to light-waves up to about 900nm. Because Infrared wavelengths start just beyond the deepest reds of the spectrum at 700nm we need to block out all light-waves below that figure. To do this we replace the hot mirror filter with a 720nm infrared filter. Once this has been done the camera will be just as sensitive to IR wave-lengths as it was to normal light before.

Copyright © John Powell BPE3 . All Rights Reserved

Dismantling the camera is pretty straight forward, once you know where the screws are! In fact, only eight screws hold the body casing together with only another two screws holding down the circuit board, located just above the sensor.

The hot mirror is held in place by means of a square rubber grommet, you will need to remove the hot mirror and use as a template to cut your IR filter too. Note: your new IR filter must be the exact same size as the hot mirror filter it is replacing. Once this has been done re-assemble the camera in reverse order and make a few test shots to see if all went according to plan?

Copyright © John Powell BPE3 . All Rights Reserved

Now! All that sounds pretty straight forward, but it did take me almost four hours to do my conversion, simply because I had no previous experience. If I had to do another 995 conversion I reckon I could do it in under an hour, no sweat!

As for the results, well they’re pretty amazing too. By setting up a custom white balance in camera you will remove most of the red cast caused by the filter and your images will become almost monochromatic, reminiscent of those taken on high speed infrared film.

Copyright © John Powell BPE3 . All Rights Reserved

The beauty of digital infrared is that you can process them in many different ways depending on your mood at the time. However, the best thing for me is I now have a full converted IR camera, which cost less than 50 quid and I don’t have to carry a tripod around with me every time I want to shoot IR.

Copyright © John Powell BPE3 . All Rights Reserved

Just one word of warning! If you decide to have a go and convert your own digital camera don’t blame me if it goes horribly wrong! I took a risk and it paid off. Nevertheless, if you value your camera and you don’t want to lose it, have it converted by a pro!

Larger and more detailed images can be seen by visiting my Flickr Photostream . .

Shooting Infrared with a Nikon Coolpix 700

My interest in infrared photography goes back a fair few years, having shot my first roll of Kodak High Speed IR film some 20 odd years ago. My results back then were pretty much unpredictable, but today things are quite different. You can, with practice, get a very good indication of how your images are going to turn out, just by looking at the screen on the back of your camera. However, not all cameras are equal! In fact, some are down right useless!

Much has been written over the past few years regarding the suitability of digital cameras for infrared photography. One particular make and model that stands head and shoulders above all others is the Olympus C-2020, which has a Sony a 2.1 mega-pixel sensor.  What a lot of photographers don’t realise is that Sony also made the same 2.1 mp sensor for other companies too.

Nikon fitted this same sensor to some of their early digital cameras; notably the Coolpix 700, 800 and 950. Sony also placed this sensor into their S50 too. As you would expect the results from these cameras are pretty much the same. The only difference you’ll find is in the price! Because the C-2020 has risen to world wide acclaim for being the most sensitive digital camera to IR light so too have their price. Expect to pay around £100 for a good working model, but remember, you have to add one the cost of your lens adapter and Infrared filter too.

The shelf life of most digital cameras is around 2-3 years, after which most people either don’t use them any more or they stick ‘em on e-bay! After a fair amount of searching this is where I found my Nikon Coolpix 700. I paid – believe it or not, just £7.20 for it! OK, It came with a busted battery catch, but a phone call to Nikon soon put that right.

The lens on the Coolpix 700 has a filter thread of 24mm, finding an IR filter that small is pretty much impossible so be prepared to improvise! Because I’ve been shooting IR for a long time I have several IR filters in a number of different sizes. The smallest of which is 58mm (750nm) filter, which for my trial shots, I fixed the filter to the camera using 2 small rubber bands! Not the most aesthetic way to approach the matter, but it worked all the same.

I have since made a custom filter holder out of a round plastic bung, the type used for plugging the ends of those round photographic tube mailers. Believe it or not, but he finished item blends seamlessly in with the Coolpix design!

All the images shown here have were taken, hand held, using a Coolpix 700 and a 750nm Infrared filter. The resulting .jpeg files have been processed in Photoshop using auto levels, a medium contrast curve adjustment, followed by some selective dodge and burning.

By using a 750nm filter, instead of the more popular 720nm (R72), almost all normal light-waves have been filtered out, rendering the image, virtually black and white. By adding a touch of grain and/or a small amount of diffused glow the resulting 10” x 8” prints are pretty much indistinguishable from the infrared prints I used to make back in the eighties.

If you like you’re infrared images with a blue sky (channel swapped) I would recommend you use the R72 filter instead as this filter isn’t strong enough to block out all normal light-waves. These jpeg files take on a brownish tinge. By swapping the red and blue channels in Photoshop you end up with a blue sky. However, depending on the amount of Infrared light around at the time you take the shot, more is better; channel swapping can leave your foliage looking slightly magenta! Personally, I like my Infrared to have that authentic moody, grainy – slightly out of focus look about it. In fact, you can process your digital infrared images in any way want, who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong?

Happy (IR) Snapping . . .

John is the founding member of the Infrared Photographic Society (www.irps.org.uk). The society is free to join and is open to all interested photographers the world over.

Tough Guy – Nettle Warrior, Perton, Wolverhampton

Having covered the Tough Guy competition back in January, as a photographer and not runner, I couldn’t wait to go back and have another crack at it. I managed to achieve two award winning images from my first visit, not sure if I could top that again this time, but I was more than willing to give it ago! The day started off with a drizzle of light rain, just enough to wet the course, but no where near enough to dampen our spirits!

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Tough Guy Challenge, I’d best explain.

The phenomena, which is Tough Guy has now evolved into cult status with mythical legends to a world wide audience. Competitors from every continent come with the intent of finishing the course, some do, but many leave a shivering wreck!

Tough Guy is open to individuals and teams, set in over 150 acres of fertile land at Perton, Wolverhampton. The challenge is the safest, yet most dangerous and physically enduring event in the world. Tough Guy is mentally demanding, fear inducing and visual spectacular.

After the entrants have signed their Death Warrant! The race starts promptly at 11am, but it’s usually around 12noon before they  make it to the Firey Holes. This is a part of the course where the runners have to wade, repeatedly, through waist high water, reported to contain donkey sewage! And then run the gauntlet of flaming hay bails.

For the photographer, this has to be the best part of the course, but get there early and pick off small groups of runners. Leave it too long and you’ll miss out.

After the flames have died down and last of the runners have gone through it’s off to Stalag Escape. This part of the course is based on the infamous Stalag 17 Prisoner of War Camp, which consists of a twisted, tangled web of barbed wire strewn across runner’s path. The only way to pass is to lay face down in the mud and belly crawl the 40ft under it to (comparative) safety at the other side.

By 2pm some of the tough guys (and gals) are passing the finish line! Me! I’m totally knackered just taking pictures, let alone running the course. Nonetheless. like most of these competitors, I too, will be back next year!

The next Tough Guy Challenge is scheduled to take place on Sunday 31st January, 2010. Don’t miss it! Full details are available from the Tough Guy web site: http://www.toughguy.co.uk

I hope you enjoy the pictures; I’ve posted a few more on my Flickr Account should you wish to see some more.

SVR – 1940’s Weekend, Part 2

For my second assault on the SVR-1940’s weekend I drove to Arley Station, parked the car and make my way to Kidderminster, via the train. Although I’ve been to most of the stations along the route and photographed many of the volunteers’ I’d never actually travelled on the train.

The Station Master ©John Powell BPE3

I made the twenty minute journey to Kidderminster in the first class carriage, not that you would have guessed with all the creaking and squeaking going on! At least I arrived at my destination in one piece, just! Kidderminster station was awash with Germans, French Police, Land Girls and Winston Churchill himself!

Winston Churchill ©John Powell BPE3

Luckily for me, I was born a few years after the war had ended, but I can still remember, with affection, the old Anderson shelter, not to be confused with the Morrison Shelter, which was introduced in March 1941, for people without gardens.

Not only did Kidderminster put on a splendid display of war-time memorabilia, Duty Warden Peter Haskett, seen here with his wife, were dressed to perfection in their original uniforms of the day.

Duty Warden ©John Powell BPE3

It was just is if the entire station had been transported back to the forties, the only tell-tale sign of us being in 2009 was the price beer! £3-a-pint and the £5.50 train fare back to Arley!

Still, it was all worth while and very enjoyable.

Best picture over the two weekends has to be this one, Days of Despair, which is totally a candid shot, but conveys the anguish of a family at war.

Days of Despair ©John Powell BPE3

SVR – 1940’s Weekend, Part 1

For two weekends (June 27-28 & July 4-5^th) the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) goes back in time when it hosts its annual 1940’s weekend. Ironically, it was during the 1940’s that passenger traffic on the SVR started to dwindle, largely as a result of the motor car. However, it was in 1963 that the line was finally closed, with the track north of Bridgnorth dismantled.

Seeing everyone in 1940’s dress really brings the line back to life.

Local Invasion Committee, Bewdley Station © John Powell BPE3

After an un-eventful visit (photographically) to Bewdley Station on the Saturday, I decided to pay a visit to Highley Station on the Sunday.  Not knowing the layout of the station or what to expect when I got there, my only plan of action was to be at the ready as soon as an opportunity presented itself, I didn’t won’t to go home empty handed again.

All American Sweetheart © John Powell BPE3

The good thing is all these people love dressing up and playing the part, if you ask them nicely none of them will decline your request for a picture or two.

Luftwaffe Aces, © John Powell BPE3

If the weather holds well, I’ll be off to Kidderminster Station next, for part two of this report.