Police Visit

My daughter attends nursery at Barley Fields school in Ingleby Barwick and came home informing me that there was going to be a helicopter at nursery! " A helicopter at your nursery " I asked her suspiciously. Then mummy pointed out that the police helicopter was going to be landing in the school field so the kids could meet the crew and have a close look at it. Now I was interested and since it had been arranged by one of the teachers at her nursery Emma and I were invited along to see it too. 

Here It is coming into land. It was really windy and the pilot did a great job of manoeuvring it into position. The downdraft from the rotors was immense and I was actually leaned forward against the railings to stop myself being blown over.

Touch down. I like the way the four rotor blades came to a rest in that position pure luck. You can see how windy it was by the way the trees are bent over in the background.

Here's a shot of the crew much to the delight of the female teachers and mums!

This is what £5,000,000 of helicopter looks like from the back. Its was a slightly higher spec than your average family saloon, no electric windows though and sunroofs are out of the question due to health and safety reasons ;-)

Here's a shot of the kids ( and women ) enjoying a talk with the crew. Notice how even £5m worth of helicopter still has a windscreen wiper!  

The crew received an emergency call over the radio and had to make an early exit. Their destination was St James Cook hospital. I asked the pilot how long it will take them to get there and his was reply was two minutes. With that they jumped in we all moved back to a safe distance and got to watch them take off. Even though their visit was cut short they promised the kids they would come back in about 20 minutes once they had assisted in the emergency. It's not every day you get to see a helicopter land in your school field, let alone twice in one day. So I think the crew deserve a big thank you for taking time out to do this. I'm sure this will be one of those occasion's the kids will always remember.

We have recently photographed a wedding at Wynyard Hall and I'm in the middle of editing the photos so expect a blog on that to follow shortly. Stay tuned, Ken.

Back To Infinty

Well with all this nice weather and my new lens it would have been rude not to pop out for a little shoot again. The Infinty Bridge area was once again the location of choice, purely as it only takes 5mins to get there once the baby sitter has taken over!

© Ken Hills Photography

f2.8 1/125th iso 800 +1ev lens 70-200mm 2.8 @ 85mm

Since we only had an hour or so I decided to shoot natural light only. The light was at its magical hour so by the time It would have taken to set up and shoot using flash the daylight would have all but disappeared. ( There was one image shot using flash more on this later ). I love the bokeh in this image, this lens is awesome!

© Ken Hills Photography

F2.8 1/250th iso1600 +1ev lens 70-200 2.8 @75mm

This is a wider angle of a similar shot. As you can see the light is perfect. I tried a few shots with Emma sitting in the center of the stairs looking back to the camera but the direction of light was causing a shadow from the peak of her hat. Not much of a shadow but I always strive for nice light in the eyes, as its the eyes that make a portrait.

© Ken Hills Photography

f2.8 1/400 iso1600 lens 70-200 f.28 @ 102mm

Moving on up to the top of the stair case I was able to have Emma look back at the camera without causing a shadow in her eyes since up there it was flooded with open light. Once again shooting wide open at f2.8 the background falls nicely out of focus making Emma really stand out.

© Ken Hills Photography

f2.8 1/500th iso3200 +2ev lens 70-200 f2.8 @200mm

With an empty bridge and nice light I just had to try a walking action shot. As you can see from the image data the daylight was already fading and I had to resort to iso3200 to keep my shutter speed high enough to maintain a sharp photo whilst Emma was walking towards me. Especially since I was racked out at 200mm and some considerable distance from Emma. However shooting at 2.8 combined with the lens fully zoomed to 200mm creates that tremendous blur in the background.

© Ken Hills Photography

F2.8 1/250th iso1600 manual flash, lens 70-200 f2.8 @135mm

Yes as mentioned earlier my flash gun made one appearance :-) the first image in this post was taken at 6.45pm and this one at 7.15pm! Look at how the actual daylight has diminished in half an hour! I said we had to work quick ;-)  flash was imperative in this situation. I just love how this lens renders the blue lights into circles at f2.8 and combined with the bridge support to the left of Emma creates a nice frame around her.

We have a busy schedule coming up with a wedding pre shoot next week for a lovely couple, and then we will be shooting their big day at Wynyard Hall next month. Really look forward to producing some amazing photos for them.

Keep stopping by I'm sure I'll manage to squeeze in some more shoots in the meantime. Bye for now. Ken.

Evening Shoot

Here are a couple of test shots with my new lens the 70-200mm f2.8 IS mkII, which is THE wedding/portrait lens to have. They were taken next to the Infintity bridge. We didn't have long and it was getting dark too.

f2.8  1/250th  iso320 @200mm

Luckily I managed to persuade Emma to do a couple of poses for me. This was taken on the steps with me being stood down at the railings on the rivers edge.

f2.8  1/250th  iso400 @200mm

Just look at how blurred the background is @2.8 200mm. I love it! Emma just pops out of the scene. I cant wait to put this lens to work on our upcoming weddings and portrait sessions. Keep stopping by for more examples when we get the chance for another shoot.