Glastonbury and Chilkwell Carnival

On Saturday it was the penultimate carnival in the Somerset County 2010 season. Having already attended Bridgwater in the rain and North Petherton, I decided to try something a bit different. I'm not a big people person when it comes to photography, so I tend to avoid them in my photos (perhaps why I concentrate on nature photography). This time though, I made a conscious effort to photograph groups of performers, as well as some individual performers. I didn't go for real closeup portraits, but tried to include them in the context of the carts thmselves. I also photographed some of the walking masqueraders, where the flash was essential, due to the lower light levels, and also some more detail shots.

The carnival itself was a success, with the rain holding off until the end (although people further along the route would have been affected by the weather much more). This season had seen a number of fires on carts, as well as some generator failures and even a model toppling onto one of the performers, but there was none of that at Glastonbury. On a more personal note, the photography also went well, with more shots I was happy enough with to upload, although the rain at the end pretty much ruined the shots of the last few carts. I've decided that flash photography in the rain doesn't work very well.

Photographs in Horner Woods

On Sunday, I made a trip to Horner Woods on Exmoor. My target was to photograph dippers and grey wagtails, although I wasn't expecting much, as I thought there would be too many people about. I was also planning to look for signs of otters on the higher reaches of Horner Water.
As it turned out, it didn't go too badly. I don't often photograph still life, particularly flowers, as I don't feel it is a strong point of mine, but I have been thinking more about photographing wildflowers recently. I was able to experiment a bit while I was there on some forget-me-nots and dog violets (the dog violets didn't quite works), as well as some ferns (I went a bit too far with the selective focus). I also struck lucky as well though and spent about half an hour or more observing and photographing a pair of grey wagtails. It was a little dark to be able to keep the shutter speed high enough, even at a high ISO (I wouldn't want to go higher with the 7D, as it is on its usable limit), but I was able to get some atmospheric photos when they were in the filtered sunlight.


Latest Photography Uploads - Images by Richard Winn

Redbubble Slideshow

Greeting Cards

Greeting cards and 7x5 inch (18x12 cm) prints are now available for purchase direct from the galleries. Even small images, not suitable for the standard A4 prints are now available for print sales and not just personal use downloads.

Avalon Light Photoart specialises in landscapes from Somerset and the English Westcountry as well as wildlife images.