Glimpses of the past

The last time we visited the historic dockyard, in 2007, the remains of the Mary Rose were still being sprayed with a fine mist of water soluble wax to preserve the 16th century wood. Through the fog she was a mysterious sight but we knew she’d soon be dried out and open for clearer viewing. That process took many years and she finally welcomed visitors to the new museum, which had been built around her, in 2016, and yet it still took us another seven years to go back!

In keeping with the post-Christmas period of relaxation I decided to travel light for our visit to the Mary Rose Museum, taking just my iPhone along. It felt strangely liberating not to be carrying a ‘proper’ camera, but that wasn’t going to stop me capturing photos of the museum. Shooting almost everything through glass offer some challenges, but that would have been the same whatever equipment I was using.

As well as the ship, the museum is packed with items found in and around the ship when she was brought up from the Solent and it was fascinating to see glimpses of life on King Henry VIII’s ship. Many wooden and bone artefacts survived remarkably well, buried in the mud, but very few iron objects (such as the gun carriage above) made it through the centuries without rusting away.

Several skulls were on display, belonging to particular members of the ship’s crew. From memory I think this one belongs to the cook, Ny Cop, whose engraved wooden bowl appears below, alongside a second bowl belonging to another crew member.

Photos taken 27 December 2023

The best camera...

It’s often said that the best camera is the one you have with you. I almost always tend to have a camera in my bag, but I know for most people the one they have to hand is their smartphone. I recently agreed to teach a short workshop on smartphone photography at St. John’s Church, Duxford, so it only seemed sensible to do visit this lovely church again and do some more practical research on the subject.

I wanted to create a selection of photos I could print and share with my students to show what’s possible with a phone camera. I’ve learnt a lot while preparing for the workshop and, even with my basic iPhone, the camera is capable of much more than I realised before.

To try and tell a story about the church I looked for smaller details to photograph too.

You can always rely on St John’s for beautiful shafts of sunlight.

I made prints of all the photos I’ve shared here, but I made the finally one into an A3 sized print to show what a phone camera is capable of producing.

Photos taken 19 April 2023

Random acts of iPhoneography

As I learn how to make better photos with the camera on my iPhone I’ve been using it more on my travels, figuring out what works best. During February I’ve experimented with all sorts of subjects and I thought I’d share a selection of them on my blog.

My first few images come from a stroll along the River Thames when I was staying overnight in Cookham.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Next came my visit to Bristol and this photo comes from St Mary Redcliffe. I have a mini-tripod which magnetically attaches to the back of my phone, allowing me to capture this low angle and to control the settings better in such a dark building.

Another photo from my Bristol trip - this time one of the plants on the windowsill in the house where I stayed overnight.

A stroll around our village and some beautiful snowdrops by the church.

Naturally I went inside the church - another moment for my little phone tripod to come into its own!

My final photo comes from a long wait on the platform at Twyford Station. As I patiently waited for my train to Paddington to arrive a freight train came thundering through. I quickly opened the Lightroom Mobile app to grab this 1 second exposure of ghostly blur as the yellow engine whizzed past me.

Photos taken February 2023

Travelling light

I’ve recently agreed to run a photography workshop focused on shooting with a smartphone rather than a traditional camera, so when I visited Somerset earlier this month I decided to travel light and begin learning more about the camera I carry in my pocket.

I’d recently watched a video showing how handheld long exposures can be taken on an iPhone using the camera in the Lightroom app so I was eager to try this out around the harbour at Weston-super-Mare. I was frankly astonished at how good it was - the static parts of the view are pin-sharp, while the waves gain drama as they’re blurred during the course of a second long exposure.

Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Elsewhere there were a couple of scenes where I just couldn’t bring myself to remove the colour.

Photos taken 2 February 2023