Stephen Spraggon's photostream

The last few weeks have been quite fun, although photographically quite mixed. It all started off with a trip up the road to visit Glastonbury. A pretty boring sunrise ensued as I trudged up Wearyall Hill. Thankfully I saw three other photographers there: Mark Lakeman, Gary (Milster) and Paul Forgham. A boring morning became interesting as we chatted, Paul moaned about the crap sunrise (hehe!) and we walked aimlessly up the wrong side of a rhine.

The next morning mist was again forecast so I decided to make a trip to Colmer's Hill near Bridport. The morning was much more colourful, although still thin on the mist front. Again, Mark and Gary made it up from Devon and we spent a while walking the hillside and venturing into what was dubbed the golf course, where I took this shot.

Fast forward another week or two (I can't remember exactly) and six of us tried to photograph this spot again, only to be greeted by fog overload. All we could see was 360 degrees of greyness, accompanied by the odd bleat of a lamb. Still, it was good to meet Lloyd Cosway and Esen Tunar for the first time!

WORKSHOPS
I now have details of some upcoming small group workshops on my website. The first one is coming up on Saturday 24th August on the Quantock Hills. We'll be visiting while the heather is out so the aim to capture colour and explore the weird and wonderful landscape of the area. For full details please visit www.spraggonphotography.co.uk/workshops

This picture has been sat on my desktop for the past 4 months. I've revisited it many times and I'm attracted to parts of it but it feels incomplete, probably because of the lack of light in the bottom half of the picture.

I found this viewpoint of Snowdonia on my last evening there in November last year and this was the only significant break in the clouds I saw for 4 days. The light was really cool and had a blue/purple tinge as per the picture. The forest of Betws-y-Coed was also alive with the last colours of autumn - yellows, browns and muted greens.

I'm posting this here really to get feedback. What do you think of it? Is it a complete picture or a work in progress?

Somerset's Willow Man has been on my mind as a photographic subject for a while. A few years ago it stood proudly in a field on its own with only a few cows for company. Skip forward to today and it now has a housing estate and a big Morrisons warehouse for neighbours.

My first thought was "oh no, that's the end of any chance of photographing that" but after time I mulled it over. After a couple of recees I found that a couple of angles still worked and thought a star trail image would be suitably snazzy. The light pollution from the nearby houses and warehouse actually worked as backlighting, creating that yellowy glow at the bottom of the frame. The green uplighting on the man is from the white street lights around him. And with a bit of careful positioning I managed to avoid lens flare and intruding buildings/pylons/other junk. I was lucky with the weather too; this was made in a 2 hour window of clear sky just before another wave of rain moved in from the west.

Workshops
You may remember from my last image I mentioned I would be running a couple of workshops for free. Thanks to all of you who got in touch. I announced details of them this morning and all of the places went by 6:00pm. Sorry if you didn't get there in time. This is the start of an ongoing programme though so I will be announcing some affordably priced workshops at various locations later this year. Please see my website for details.

As always, thanks for your comments and support.

Find me on Facebook | Twitter | www.spraggonphotography.co.uk

Happy New Year everyone. Sorry it's slightly late... and I didn't even wish you Merry Christmas!

After being absolutely fed up with the weather over the Christmas I dashed down to Dartmoor on New Year's Day to photograph Rippon Tor. I needed a fix of rocks and light to keep me going. Typically, I got there and the pretty clouds overhead disappeared nearly as soon as the sun came up. Those clouds on the horizon in the picture were fleeting so I made the most of them.

News
If you see Country Walking magazine (Feb 13) turn to page 34 to see a nice double page spread of one of my pictures from the Lake District. There's also a smaller picture a couple of pages later.

I'm giving a talk to Sydenham Camera Club in Bridgwater on 13th February. I had an enjoyable evening giving a talk to Taunton Camera Club in November and it was good to see some familiar faces there. I've got a couple of further talks lined up later this year in Bradford Abbas and Kingswood. Full details at www.spraggonphotography.co.uk/about/.

Workshops
Soon I will be starting a programme of workshops in Somerset. As this is a new venture for me I will be offering some sessions in small groups of 2-3 for free. If anyone is interested in finding out more or would like to know when I announce the details please email me: steve@spraggonphotography.co.uk

Thanks for all your comments in 2012. I hope 2013 is going to be a good year.

Find me on Facebook | Twitter | www.spraggonphotography.co.uk

Llanddwyn Island is one of the most interesting places I've visited. It's a quiet little island that sticks out of the west coast of Anglesey. The old lighthouse is sited beautifully with the sea in the background and then the Llyn Peninsula with its mountains on the horizon. A small break in the cloud cover allowed the setting sun to light the sky, making it turn a subdued pink.

In other news
I recently completed a commission to photograph Somerset landscapes for VisitBritain, the results of which can now be seen online at www.visitbritainimages.com/en/pages/updates-page.html. I will be talking about this project with BBC Somerset on the radio this Thursday (6/12/12) shortly after 11:00am.

Find me on Facebook | Twitter | www.spraggonphotography.co.uk