Purple Clouds Photography – Phil Oldham’s Photoblog

Christmas Bank Holiday. Fantastic. Another day in the way of the life… not even the chippies were open. Depressing. Thankfully, Mr Gary Eddleston from ‘near Liverpool’ but not ‘South Liverpool’ doesn’t work bank holidays.

We started the day off with a slippery trip to Etherow Park, at Compstall, Stockport. The hide was full on arrival so we went for a wander in Ernocroft Wood.. got bored and headed back to the now empty hide. We set up our perch and laid some seed out for the birds.. and it was business as usual! Even Gary got some shots

The cold set in after lunch time and we decided on some lunch. Lunch was had. Next up?

Strobism! I took Gary to the deserted Reddish Vale, at the Denton end and we found some snow and funky trees and had a play with some off camera flash – the sunsetting was just lucky, but as ever.. we weren’t quite lucky enough to catch the best bit!

The attached shot consists of a reflective umbrella, high to camera left and fill provided with a shoot through umbrella, low to camera right. Wonderful!

With snow on the ground, and Amy home from university for Christmas, how could I not want to a shoot? We had been intending on doing a 1940s style shoot for some time so decided to go down this route. We were somewhat limited with the wardrobe with most of her clothes still being at university but I don’t think they came out too bad!

The shoot took place in the walled garden at Chadkirk Chapel County Estate, near Marple, Stockport. Equipment used to light this shot was a shoot through umbrella, high to camera right.

A little bored, I went out into the garden to play around with the strobist gear. The aim – catch some moody images with the cloudy skies. Don’t you just love winter!

Lighting was provided by a light to low camera left, through a shoot through umbrella at 1/2 power, and an extra light providing a little extra depth to camera right at my rear, set at 1/8 if memory serves. God provided the sun burst which came out just a moment before the shutter fired… I was expecting something nasty but I’m quite pleased!

I was intending on visiting Salford Quays to do a recce for a future shoot, but when Shaneel Melvin, from the Educated Thugz asked for some photos, how could I say no? It gave me a chance to test the lighting and how it’d work out with the natural lighting (and weather…) at the Quays.

He is a fantastic guy to work with… and with modelling experience, very easy to as well. Coupled in with some photographic inspiration, we came up with some interesting shots. My favourite shot (left) came about through him randomly throwing his scarf up between shots.

Educated Thugz are currently working on two music video productions with my friends over at E23TV, a new Manchester based media production company.

This week had been fairly quiet since Monday evening’s football at Curzon Ashton, so I borrowed a friend to pose for some photos. Thankfully, being picked up at 6.45am didn’t faze him in the slightest… which is more than can be said for myself! But we all must make sacrifices for our art hey?

Anyway, gave me a chance to dust off the Pocket Wizards and experiment a little more in the field (woods, actually) with manual off camera flash. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet.. but everything was set up and good to go with no messing!

The image was lit with 2 lights, one shoot through brolly high, to camera left. The second a bare flash fired in from camera right to provide a little fill in the shadows.

Not a bad mornings work for me!