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April 2017

Photographers Resource

ISSN 2399-6706

Issue No: 159


Blackthorn Blossom

Summer time and the weather is freezing! Typical UK weather we all love to talk about. Spring is here, we've just entered British Summer Time (BST) and the weather has sunshine tinged with cold. Hopefully over the coming month and the Easter Weekend we will have loads of sunshine, merriment and lots of Easter Eggs for the children. There are loads of activities going on up and down the country for you to enjoy and photograph.
April  Diary
Wildlife Photography In April
Your First Visit
World Pinhole Photography Day is on the 30th and is a modern day activity encouraging photographers to have a go and experiment using an old technique which is believed to have originated in the 1850's. In 1890 a pinhole photograph 'An Old Farmstead' won the first award at the annual exhibition of the Photographic Society. A pinhole camera is basically a device which has a very small hole in it, opposite the recording material, and as light travels through the hole it exposes the image onto the recording material whether that be paper or on today's digital cards. We have a whole section on Pinhole Photography, which covers the technology as well as how to adapt your existing camera to get the same effect, or have some fun by making your own, out of a 'Pringle tube '. There is also a gallery of a series of images we took of Stanton Drew Stone Circle in Somerset, using a Nikon digital camera with an adaptor.
Staying with photography and history. If you want to step back in time and visit photography of the past, then you could pop along to the The Hardman House and Photographers Studio in Rodney Street, Liverpool. Here the terraced house has been preserved in the 1950's and is on display how it was when the Hardman family lived there. It is now in the hands of the National Trust and available for us all to see.

It is a fascinating insight into how photography studios worked in the first halve of the 20th century.

On first sight it looks like any ordinary terraced house in a residential street of Liverpool. It was the home and business of renowned portrait and landscape photographer, Edward Chambre Hardman and his wife, Margaret. Inside it is a like a 'tardis' and across its many rooms you have the studio, where the photos of paying clients were taken, there is an onsite darkroom where they developed all their own photos, as well as the finishing room where staff would put the final touches and in some cases hand colour the photos ready for the client.

There are also exhibition rooms with photos they took of the local area in their time, as well as photographs in a number of rooms of both their work and play/holiday time.

The Dark Room at The Hardman House and Photographers Studio, Liverpool 

The Finishing Room at The Hardman House and Photographers Studio, Liverpool 

As well as Britain's Heritage and the many places we have on this island to represent that and therefore loads of opportunities to photograph it. My other passion, photography wise, is flower and Garden Photography. I love the intense colours produced by the flora and fauna of our countryside, the close ups and opportunities to use macro photography and in most cases like buildings the subject doesn't move at the last minute. Obviously outside you cannot always guarantee it won't move, just a sudden breeze will move the head one way or there other, but most times you can overcome this. Whether you're visiting a typical English village during the summer, or your favourite woodland, the local park or even your own garden will have something to inspire. If like me you're not up on your flora/fauna as far as  identification goes then we do have a Guide to Common Wild Flowers in the UK as well as Where to Photograph UK Wild Plants to find links to other resources on this website that will help you to identify places to find them. See also our Gardens section for more information.

A Cotswold Cottage

Red Kites,  once nearly driven to extinction, these birds are now a more common site across the UK. When driving about the countryside, especially where we live in the Cotswolds, there are many trips when you will see an odd one either soaring above the roadside verges looking for pray. Occasionally you may even spot one taking a breather on an overhead cable or post on the edge of a field.

As well as information on Red Kites,   we also have a Red Kite Gallery which carries many more images of these magnificent birds. These close up images were captured when we visited Gigrin Farm, a Red Kite Feeding Station, in Powys. Here at 3pm each afternoon during the summer months, March to October, hundreds of Red Kites come in to feed each day. They have both general hides and specialist photographic ones available around the feeding area, so you can get up close and personal with those flying in. Take a look at our Girgrin Farm Gallery to see some of what we captured on our visit.

As long as the April Showers don't get in the way there are many opportunities to get out and about and lots to see and photograph within the English Countryside.

Take a look at our diary pages for more events than you can possibly manage to see, across all interests and photographic opportunities. Don't forget the wildlife calendar to help you spot what wildlife is abundant this month. On top of that throughout this whole resource there are lots of ideas for places to visit, explore and photograph.

Red Kites and Red Kite Gallery


We are continuing to upgrade this website

It is taking us some time, but in the background we are continuing to move from a Microsoft based website to something much newer and more flexible, run on our Apple systems. Our Windows computer is often difficult to start and should it fail, before the new system is live, we will allow a gap of a month or two to occur rather than waste time setting up outdated systems as a temporary measure. So if we go missing for a while please check back regularly as we will be back.


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