U/W photos featured in the Hammersmith and Fulham Chronical

Charing Cross Sports Club announces latest U/W Portrait Photography Photoshoot

Photoshoot date: Sunday 30th January 2011

Only 16 places available - so book early - don't miss out 
Charing Cross Sports Club, Aspenlea Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8LH.


See the CCSC website for more info www.ccsclub.co.uk/underwater-portraits.html

Visit........

For more information about Underwater Portraits

Or........

a place on the next Underwater Portrait Photoshoot

Frosty Fingers

Frost had laid her icy fingers through Butter Wood in Hampshire.  But by mid morning most of the ice had melted away - except for the puddles.  Frozen, melted and re-frozen several times over the past few days, the puddles had become fragile thin layers of water and ice, where swirls and bubbles interlaced with sticks and seeds and dead leaves...

Our walk took us along the Basingstoke Canal, originally built in the 1790's as a major commercial route to link London and Guildford with Southampton . We discovered the Greywell Tunnel into which the Basingstoke Canal disappeared. The tunnel had been  built as a shortcut for canal boats to reduce their journey by 6 miles cross-country.

In 1932, the 1125 meter long tunnel partially collapsed  preventing canal boats from navigating the waterway and the canal fell into disrepair. Canoeists could still get through the tunnel until another collapse in the 1950's  completely blocked it and created one of the best roosting places for bats in Europe. Like a cave, it's temperature hovers around 10 degrees throughout the year and never freezes inside, it's always damp and being gated at both entrances - is undisturbed - ideal conditions for bats.

The canal immediately down stream of the tunnel is gorgeous, filled with clear spring water and a forest of  water plants.  It's an area of outstanding natural beauty and a haven for wildlife.  A stretch of water I really must return to with my underwater camera and photograph a series of split level images....

We are now taking bookings for the next Underwater Portrait Session

Where: Charing Cross Sports Club, Aspenlea Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8LH.

When:  Sunday morning, 30th January 2011.      BOOK NOW

Having your photograph taken underwater is great fun and a unique experience. The portraits made during the session are very unusual and stunning. Thinking about and planning what you are going to wear for the photo shoot is also part of the fun.  It could be a stunning floaty dress or  a Karate-gi, a suit or your badminton kit....

The portraits are made in an underwater photographic studio, in the shallow end of a warm swimming pool.   It's great fun and you only need to hold your breath and duck your head underwater for a few seconds at a time. 

After the shoot, the images are processed to optimise the colour, contrast, sharpness etc. before being uploaded onto a password protected website. Here you will be able to see the photographs from your underwater photography session and purchase prints and other items.

I will be using a blue background as seen in the picture of Gui above

Attending the portrait session costs thirty pounds per person

But be quick - there are only 16 places available....

To learn more, including tips on how to prepare for the photography session, what to wear etc. visit FUN AQUA

BOOK A PLACE

A Boxing Day hill walk

With all the hustle and bustle of cooking Christmas dinner over, I decided that early boxing day morning was going to be set aside for a walk over the Malvern Hills. The weather on my phone looked promising, with a clear sky all night predicted and a cold, dry morning. The Midlands were still steeped in several inches of snow and I'd checked the moon tables and knew there would be a half moon still in sky at sun rise.

For Christmas and new year I stayed with my family in Worcester, it's only a few miles drive from Malvern, and I left well before first light.   I did wonder how far I would be able to take my car before being stopped by snow as the smaller roads on the hills had not been gritted. My car crawled round a sharp right turn and up the steep, ice covered road leading to the Clock Tower car park in north Malvern.  I couldn't get into the car park because of snow so parked in the street.




I began climbing the hills and night turned into dawn.  Looking west towards south Wales, the landscape was a wonderful patchwork quilt of snow and hedges.

Fog quickly covered the flood plains, towns and villages below, drifting like cotton wool sheets above the landscape and softening the light, distant hill tops pocked through the clouds.  The colours were so soft and subtle with light reflecting off the white snow and fog covering the rising sun.

 The Malvern Hills are an eight mile ridge of rounded summits that contain some of the oldest rocks in Britain, wooded on some slopes, grassy on others, the ridge runs from north to south. The highest point being Worcestershire Beacon at 1400ft aprox (425m). To the west lies the County of Hereford and to the east lies the flood plain of the River Severn.

From the top of the highest hill, Worcestershire Beacon, looking towards south Wales.

Looking East at the fog layer above the flood plains

Descending the north side of Worcestershire Beacon on the way back to the car, the fog began to lift and the gathering clouds threatened rain.

Between Table Hill and North Hill