Buy art, support a charity

June 18, 2012 by Dave | Leave a comment

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all keeping well. The last few months have been a busy time for me, with lots of smaller projects going on and a lot of time spent…. riding my bike!

As many of you may well be aware (those that follow me on twitter or facebook especially) I have decided to undertake a charity bike ride. The ride itself will take place at the end of August and will be done over 3 days. In that time, myself and my team mate will cycle from Pembroke in South Wales to Gt Yarmouth in Suffolk. A distance of 380miles. And we’ll be doing it on fixed gear bikes. That means one gear, no freewheel, no coasting. Ever. (If you can’t get your head around this, next time you’re on a bike, choose a fairly hard gear and cycle for 1 mile without stopping your pedalling. We’ll do that for 380miles!) From what we can find, it’s not been done before on fixed gear bikes so we’ll have the dubious distinction of being the first idiots to try.

We’re riding for two causes – I am support the Oxford Multiple Sclerosis Research unit at Oxford University and Chris, my team mate, is supporting the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Charitable Fund. If you wish to donate, please feel free by visiting my page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/davenewton

So what has this got to do with photography? We’ll, it’s quite simple really. Asking people for sponsorship money is tough these days. Many people feel like they are just giving money away when they sponsor a charity event, so to ensure you get something out of it too, I’ll give you something in return. Instead of sponsoring me through the link above, buy one of my limited edition prints and I will donate 50% of the profits to the charity fund. That way, you get a signed, limited edition print and the charity gets a good boost of money – everyone wins!

Limited Editions are priced at £100 and are unmounted 24x16inch giclée prints on Pearl paper with a white border for you to mount and frame. Mounted and framed correctly, the colours are guaranteed for 100 years. Each edition is limited to 50 prints.

Get in touch to buy your limited edition print.

You’ll find images to select from in several places on the site:
Latest Images

Selected limited editions

Visions of Kenya limited editions

To give you some ideas, here’s a handful of images that you could choose from……

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Posted in Photos

Kenyan Limited Editions

May 22, 2012 by Dave | Leave a comment

As many of you will know, earlier this year I took a whistlestop tour of the Masai Mara as part of my role as a SanDisk Extreme Team member. While there, I met up with two fellow members, Jonathan and Angie Scott and we spent our time scouring the Mara for some of the more interesting inhabitants. Many of these images have found their way into usage by SanDisk for various promotional activities, however some of them I am now offering up as Limited Edition prints.

In addition to this, what many of you may not know is that I have signed up to take part in a charity endurance cycling event. I’m not a natural cyclist, though have recently become more involved in it as part of my general exercise routine, so endurance cycling is something that presents a bit of a challenge. And the event is not just an ordinary endurance ride. On 31st August I’ll be getting on my bike in Blackheath, London and riding 240miles to Brussels in Belgium over the following 24hrs. Apart from the ferry crossing and the 10minute rest stops every 35-ish miles, it will be a continuous ride. And to make it even more challenging, I will be riding a fixed gear bike. In other words I’ll have only one gear and no option to not pedal – if the wheel is turning, so are the pedals! The organisers tell me it’s never been done before on a fixie. Apparently I’m mad. In an attempt to keep myself a little saner, I’ll be rider with two friends, also on fixed gear bikes.

The aim of this ride is to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis research unit at Oxford University. MS is a debilitating illness that affects a large number of people in the western world – since undertaking this, it’s amazing how many people have told me either they have MS or a family member suffers with it.

Anyway, what has this got to do with prints from Kenya? well, the plan is simple. My Limited Edition 24x16inch prints, signed and numbered, sell for £100 each. For any limited edition print (either from the Kenyan set or from any other image I have) sold between now and the ride (31st August 2012) I will donate 50% of the profits to the MS research unit. It’s a great chance for you to get some limited edition artwork and support a charitable cause at the same time!

Take a look at the Kenyan Limited Editions and drop me a line to order yours.

Posted in News

Packing for the Masai Mara

January 29, 2012 by Dave | Leave a comment

Just putting the last touches to packing for the Mara trip, so thought I’d make a quick timelapse to show how I’m planning on getting all the camera kit into a bag and onto a plane. The bag is a ThinkTank Photo Airport International V2, which is airline carry-on and has wheels to save my back!

The video lists the kit going in. Ancillary kit – flash, audio recording, tripod etc will be going in the hold.

I’ll be wearing a photo vest as well, just in case I have to take some of this out of the bag and carry it as a personal item ;-)

Flight leaves at 0600 tomorrow morning from LHR from where I’ll fly to Zurich. Transfer in Zurich to fly to Nairobi where I will spend the night. Tuesday morning I fly down to the Mara.

To keep up with the updates, either follow my facebook page: www.facebook.com/davidnewtonphoto or the SanDisk Extreme Team page at www.facebook.com/SanDiskExtremeTeam

Posted in News

I have a new Facebook page for my photography!

January 26, 2012 by Dave | Leave a comment

Hi everyone, just a short update today to let you all know about my new Facebook page. Instead of having everything running through my personal profile, I’ve created a specific page that you can LIKE! While there will still be some cross-posting between the two the aim is that in future all photo related info, including pictures and trip reports, will be posted on the David Newton Photography – Photopositive page. So, if you’ve not been there yet, please head on over and ‘Like’ my page :-)

In other news, the next round of updates will be concerning my trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya….next week! I’m heading there for SanDisk to document a safari trip they are running with some competition winners. So, expect as many of the big 5 as I can get, and some behind the scenes stuff showing how the trip progresses. I will be updating the FB page (above) and this will be picked up and shared on the SanDisk Extreme Team FB page as well. So there will be no excuse for you to miss any of it!

Posted in News

The Red Arrows

August 22, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

I had a post all setup ready for today, but given the news over the weekend that the Red Arrows lost one of their pilots in a crash I thought I’d be a little more topical. The other post can wait for later in the week!

I’ve been fortunate to see the Red Arrows display on quite a few occasions, most recently the weekend before last (14th August) at the Bristol Balloon fiesta. Every time I’ve been amazed at their skill and precision and to think that something went wrong with one of their planes causing a former frontline pilot to lose his life in an air display is very saddening. Since there have been no real details about the crash and it’s causes yet, there is nothing more to say that would be anything but speculation. And that helps no-one.

My condolences go out to his family and team mates.

For now, here’s one image from the Bristol Fiesta, taken overlooking the Clifton suspension bridge as the Red Arrows began their display.

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Wedding photography?

August 11, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

Those of you that know me, or that have read the about me page on this site, will know that I don’t shoot weddings. There have been a lot of reasons given over the years as to why I don’t shoot weddings and I feel the truth is a mash-up of many of them. That said, I have in the past turned up to friend’s weddings with a camera to grab a few snaps for them on the day.

The other week I had the chance to do this again. The other half and I were invited to the wedding of good friends Juliette and Craig at the Hartsfield Manor hotel in Surrey. Naturally, I took a camera (OK, if you want to be pedantic I took two cameras and four lenses…) and once the ceremony was over I set about taking some pictures which you can see below.

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Posted in Photos Tagged , , |

Picture of the day: Cornwall – tonic for the soul

June 14, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

I spent last week on holiday in Cornwall with a group of friends. Being a holiday and not a photo trip, my time for pictures was limited, but I manged to squeeze a few hours here and there to get out with the camera. And I’ve convinced my self I’ll be heading back there at least twice more this year, but as a photo trip rather than holiday.

The first picture from Cornwall is a reprise of an image I took last year. It was almost the same spot, just a little more exposed on the cliff edge. Sadly, at the point of sunset itself, the sky was heavily overcast in front of the sun meaning only a few rays poking through. Just after the sun had set though, the clouds had moved on and were now providing some interest and depth to the sky over Lands End. And, as is often the case after the sun has gone down, the rims of the clouds were lit with beautiful red light. Sadly the sea thrift was already past its very best so there was less vibrant pink for the foreground, instead I had to make do with the remains of what was around. Equally, because the sun had set there was no light on the cliffs at Lands End. However, all that said, I’m still fairly happy with the result. It would have been nice to have some more light in the image, but sometimes you just have to work with what’s there!

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Blue Tit fledglings in the garden

June 1, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

Sometimes fortune smiles on you and photo ops fall into your lap. When you’re talking about blue tit fledglings, this is in fact almost literal!

Last week my neighbour knocked on the door to let me know that the blue tits they had nesting in the nest box had fledged and the three chicks had made their way into my garden. He was really just warning me to keep an eye out for them and make sure that I didn’t accidentally tread on one or something equally unpleasant.

Sure enough, I looked into the garden and there they were – three beautiful little chicks and mum and dad going bonkers all around the garden taking seed from our feeder and collecting spiders and flies from trees, bushes, plants and under the eaves of the shed.

I sat and watched them and since they were flying around quite happily near my I decided to go and get the camera. I started off with a few stills and then switched to video to try and capture some of the feeding as one or both parents collected food for their young charges. I intermittently switched back to stills as well just to make sure I had some nice shots.

It seemed like a perfect chance to try out the new EF2x Mark III Extender, a full report of which can be found over on the EOS Network site blog. Since they were very tame, I was able to get quite close as well – though while I wanted to get in and do some macro, the welfare of the animal should ALWAYS come first and I instead stayed a few metres back with the 300mm and 2x.

Once I’d got a good range of shots of the chicks and feeding, I set about the parents a little more. They’ve been feeding in our garden over the last few months – it seems they prefer the sunflower hearts to anything else, so we’ve been working our way through kilos of the stuff.

Because the feeder is in use, I decided a bit of flash might be helpful not just in freezing them, but also in trying to get some nicer lighting than nature was providing. I setup to lights, one for the birds on the feeder, and one for the background. In fact, for the feeder shots in the sequence, there is no natural light at all, just flash. If you want to know more about the lighting setup, keep an eye on the EOS Network blog where I’ll write a bit more about it in the next few days.

For now though, here’s a selection of the images from the day.

Have you had any fledglings drop in recently? If so, did you get out and take some pictures or shoot any video?

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Photopositive website chosen as a showcase site by Photocrati

May 26, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

Great news! This website has been chosen by Photocrati, the makers of the template I use to build the site, galleries and blog, as one of 15 website to be a showcase of what can be done with the Photocrati wordpress platform.

To go along with the showcase I wrote a testimonial about using Photocrati and why I like it as a platform. And no, they were not paying me to say that, it really is that good!

If you’re looking for a new platform to build and design your website, go take a look at the Photocrati offering – if I can make it work, then I’m pretty sure most anybody can… and being part of WordPress means there are a million and one (possible exaggeration as I’ve not counted them!) plugins you can use to add extra functionality you might want.

Posted in News Tagged , |

What’s *NOT* missing?!

May 19, 2011 by Dave | Leave a comment

Badger, Meles melesBadger, Meles meles

For the regular blog readers here, you’ll have seen the last post all about the curious case of the missing badgers. Well, guess what? I found them!

Graham, Calum and myself went back to the badger sett last night. Well, Graham and Calum got there early while I got stuck in traffic and arrived a bit late. However, the badgers are getting braver and more the regular feeding means they are very comfortable around their turf and happy to be photographed.

Instead of going for the more risky area, we stayed in the most common sighting area and I put up a couple of lights to provide some illumination to the scene. In the case of these two images, it was a silver reflective brolly camera right and a Lastolite Ezybox camera left. Being dark, even with a torch on the photo area, AF was out, so I had to rely on manual focus. In fact, this wasn’t a problem as the EOS-1D Mark IV has a very good viewfinder.

These two images were both taken with an EF500mm f/4L IS USM lens as we didn’t want to disturb the badgers and so kept a little distance away. The lights were triggered with the ever reliable Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5 radio transmitters and with the use of the AC3 Zone Controller I was able to adjust the flash powers quickly and easily from my camera position.

These shots aren’t perfect, but they are the first time I’ve photographed wild badgers so I’m pretty happy with them…they certainly provide a base from which to develop and improve. I’ve just got to wait my next invite to the badger sett now :-)

Have you ever photographed badgers? If so, how did you get on?

 

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