Revisited Photos..

Today ill start with a big tip..

Don't ever throw pictures away (delete)!

Your hard drives are getting full and so you go through and delete images.. noooo!

It's time to buy a new hard drive.

You might not like an image today, but in time you may view it, with different eyes and fancy having a play around.

The following 2 images are from the hard drive and at the time i was not too keen on them.

The Cat was a Big Hit on Flickr, i also printed this image off and gave it to the owners of the feline. They were thrilled!

The second image is my Grandmother.

An image is a moment in time which is special for the viewer, this image is not going to win any awards, but too me.... it means the world...

Justins Clio Sport.

A  mate owns a Renault Clio Sport and wanted some pictures taking.

On a freezing Sunday morning,

Parked up on Lytham front and took some shots. 

The 2 images below are HDR. 

But have been processed differently, as I processed them in layers building up the scene. Personally I feel that they are too much and so i will be stepping back from the HDR technique for a little while to try out other views. 

Xav and Corinne Shoot.

Good friends of mine Xav and Corinne wanted some pictures taking of themselves. 

Corinne is a singer/song writer. Her personal site is here and goes under the name Vanessa René

" and so want a promo pic, where as Xav loves his bike and so wanted one with his beloved triumph bike...

The Bike picture, i was trying again with the flash at sunset theme i like. This has worked better then the car one i have previously done. 

Once again the TTL mode is letting me down. It has made me bite the bullet and im saving for some pocket wizard flash syncs. With syncs you can be so much more creative too, rather then just placing the flashes where they can see one another.

Here are my 2 favourite images from the day.

A new Buzzword for you "Vert-o-rama"

I have seen many photographers now adding albums and calling photos vertorama's.

What is a vertorama? Well simply it's a panorama but vertically. Makes sense now..

for the following images i wanted to play with HDR more.

HDR explained:

"High dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo.  This opens up a whole new set of lighting possibilities which one might have previously avoided"

I set the camera to 9 exposures, of different shutter speeds to achieve the full tonal range of a subject.

Took these images into Photomatix software, then a colour balance and tweak in Photoshop. 

But for a Vert you need to do this for all the sections of the photo and then blend together.

The following images are all 9 exposures but into 3 sections, (top-mid-bottom),

So that works out at 27 pictures per each one!

First time Using Flash at Sunset

I have seen in many different places where i want to take a picture of something while the sun is setting. 

Previously i normally get a silhouette of your subject... 

Well a pop of flash is then required.

So now you have a nice background and your subject all looking good.

Well, I had this shoot for the first time last night, and used the car as the subject.

I took my flash off camera, fired by Nikon's TTL infra-red mode.

The effects are lovely but the TTL mode was driving me nuts, as they have to be in line of sight. So would fire it felt like whenever they wanted.

The flashes were direct light and faced from different angles until I was happy.

Once again this is something im really liking at the moment and so will be Blogging more of this style as and when.

Arm Wrestling.

Last night i went round to a very good mate of mine's in Manchester. After a few beers the camera came out and so we had a mess around.

Here are a couple of images - the making of the idea, and the finished image…

Assisting on a Spinx Photography shoot.

Last week i was kindly asked by Aimee Spinx, to help out and assist on a shoot she had to do for her uni work. 

A big key for me is there are no egos present, idea’s get thrown about and the work site is a fun and buzzing experience, which puts the models at ease and it shows through in their work.

Be sure to check out the finished pieces on Aimee’s

website Here are a few of my visions of the day…

50's Style shoot.

There are many shoots out there of pin up girls, from different eras. 

I really fancied giving it ago.

Kelly has got the largest wardrobe of clothes known to man. So had a rummage around to see what she could find.

She found the out fit in the shoot, which we thought was a 50's style. We looked online for hair styles from that period.  

With Kelly being a hair and beauty expert she did all her own makeup and hair for this shoot.

I have just bought a second, off camera flash. This was the first shoot where I had used another light source. 

It was mainly a flash on a tripod, through an umbrella to soften the light.

I thought the light brought a cool and new edge to my work and am really interested into pushing this idea further.

Magic Cards.

I have seen many pictures with playing cards recently and so wanted to try it out. Naturally with my own spin.

The idea of this shot is simple, set up the camera onto the timer.. I then flick the cards and "Click"..... job done...

Why do things always seem so much easier on paper!

What actually happened, was that I wanted a pop of flash, to sharpen it up. Im sure I can, but I couldn't seem to fire off multiple exposures and flash each time. So what ended up was I would set the camera up, take one shot, reset the cards and keep going.

To get the timing right was a nightmare, either to fast or too slow and so I needed to think of something else.

I managed to catch a shot where a couple of cards are coming out of my hand. It lacked that impact from having lots of cards. So what I came up with was, the idea - I would stand behind the camera and throw the cards in-front, whilst pressing the shutter and use photoshop to merge these layers together.

Here is the final shot, plus a shot of the cards being thrown.

<img src="Magical image" alt="Magic trick playing cards thrown lee ramsden"> 

Tower to Tower bike ride.

I previously mentioned how i was networking on the internet with photographers,

Well I have been chatting with a

Paul Brown

, who's work is simple stunning!

Paul said soon he will be in town, Great!

He then went on to why he would be visiting Blackpool,

Paul was taking part in the Eiffel Tower to Blackpool Tower charity bike ride.

(Yes, push bikes!)

Here is an image of Paul back in Blackpool,  Well done!

and then we hit the bar.......

The Big Blackpool Photo Shoot.

Through the world of facebook, i have made quite a few contacts locally,

I was chatting to a make up artist who was doing some work on an organised shoot, she told me to contact the guy running the show.

I gave Greg the photographer (his Flickr) who's idea this was a shout, to see what was going on,

He studies photography at Blackpool university, he and a group from the university are going to have a play in Blackpool. He managed to book the pier and Blackpool's world famous Tower ball room. Greg liked my documentary style of work and so I would document the event, which I love doing.

It really was a fun day, I love meeting new people and was great to talk to all the photographers, who were studying photography, about their course.

I made some good contacts and some new work is in the pipeline.

First Model Shoot.

This is my First time at going out and doing some posed model shots,

The weather was great, dry and sunny.

If too sunny you will find your model squinting, then if turn round they will be in a huge shadow and so takes abit of playing.

I wasn't very good at making the model pose a certain way, and so I let her do her thing. Move around and ill take pictures, with the brilliance of digital you can view your images instantly, and see what poses work and which dont. So then you can see your favourites and push that look further.

Here are a couple of the day, 

Car Shoot with Dom.

Through a friend, i have met a photographer called Dominic,

He has some fantastic ideas and some very well exicuted work.

We decided to hook up and have a play with our cameras, he has a love for car photography and so i cleaned up the car. It was interesting to see how he views things.

i always find it interesting to talk to the educated photographers.  As i am self taught, its nice to see how they tick. 

This was a fun day, the fish eye'd picture was taken right on Preston North End's football ground. We turned up and asked the girl on reception, that we are students and for a project, can we shoot a car there. 

This is something i think can be used time and time again.

Here are a couple of shots from the day.

<img src="Circles at Deepdale.jpeg" alt=" Circles Audi Quattro S3 RS3 S-line sline 2 litre limited edition Lee Ramsden www.leeramsden.com Preston football club deepdale">

Waiting for the Weather is worth the wait!

For the weather shots, i wait for the conditions to turn what i feel is right for me.

I know roughly what time the sun will set and so I check each evening to see if the sky looks interesting.

Before going out to shoot, if the conditions are right, a recce is a must. As you only have a small window of time and fumbling around in the dark makes it easy to lose equipment.

Ok - now you know what and where you want to be... starts the waiting game....

This evening the skies were all red and looked really interesting and so off out i went.

Here are a couple of the evening.

New Stitching Software.

I have been toying with the idea of doing huge panorama's for awhile now,

i know photoshop can do this, but there are many 3rd party software hosts which do this better and faster then what Photoshop can do.

After much reading internet reviews, forums and seeing the final products i chose

PTGui Pro

it is by far the cheapest and does a fantastic job.

I am wanting to use these techniques on some landscapes, but i was itching to give it a go. So here are a couple of inside the house,

the top image is a 360 degree view, also is the lower but it has been twisted.

A bit of Fun with my New House Mate

 Im in a house share with a good friend of mine from school called Chirs.

Chris was looking though his facebook and complaining that he would like some new pictures.

He doesn't like the posed portrait type, but wanted something fun.

One evening he came home from work and we set out with the camera. Not to sure what really we wanted to achieve. Whilst walking out we stumbled along this place, it was superb and full of Graffiti.

We made it look like Chris was doing the painting and some pictures of this set, I have turned old photos I own into what looks like sprayed on paint.

Keeping your eyes open.

With taking pictures more often and trying to come up with ideas, you find that you end up looking all the time at different places. On a walk with the family, on the bus to work... or this time down the motorway, in the car.

On the way out of Blackpool on the M55, I kept noticing a church on the right side surrounded by fields. 

I was seeing it, thinking one day ill get it, one day.. And so that day came,

I knew roughly where the church was, but had no local knowledge of the tiny little villages nearby. So with the trusty sat-nav (an hours drive) I managed to find the Church, in a place called Great Plumpton.

Here are my 2 Favourites.

Evil Mirror.

So one afternoon im bored while my house mate is at work, I got the camera out and had a play.

Not sure where I came up with the idea, but I do have a lot of dark ideas floating around deep inside the grey matter.

Here I have included the second picture so you can see where I was before I blended me into the picture.

And for all you sharp eyed people, there is a very obvious mistake in the picture.... Note to self... more attention needed next time, while taking a reflection picture..... Doh!

A dfferent View.

Here is an interesting view, I have seen many different pictures where an object comes out of the picture, be-it a car driving out of the shot, or I have seen many of skiers coming out at the viewer.

I have this picture, and thought id give it a try.

Let me know what you think?

First Car shoot

Well the weather today was gorgeous and so i took a drive out to Beacon Fell, it is a dense woodland with big hills, which is superb drive.

I drove all the way there and couldn't find anything, that could inspire me this day, so i took a set of photo's of the car instend.

Here is my fave of the day.