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Sunday 29 April 2012

Spring Sail Now On! Part 2

We left our TGO mag two day photo-shoot on the knife-edged arete of Striding Edge, (part 1) trying to avoid causing a major incident to our fellow scramblers, tripping over my light stand or impaling themselves on my 'brolly.

The weather gods had been caught napping so we enjoyed an unseasonably warm and sunny day for March but obviously we would not get lucky twice. Day two turned out grey and of course windless, since we would be sailing.

Friday 27 April 2012

Spring Sail Now On! Part 1.

Sailing is one of my interests. So is walking. I like mountains and I like water. That's why I live in the Lake District. I grew up next to the sea and one of my earliest memories is riding out a storm in my father's home-built dinghy at age 5 or so.

Friday 20 April 2012

It's that Rohantime of year!

Todays Blog entry choice was simple - those nice folks over at the Rohan shop in Ambleside called me up and asked for an interview; Yeah, yeah, happens to me all the time (not)! 
Thanks Paul (Russell), it was nice of you to think of me.

I've been interviewed for outdoor and photo mags before but sometimes the things that I have said have been mangled out of recognition lost in translation so it was good to see my comments published word-for-word because I believe in the points I made, which I will repeat here. To read the full interview (and view my photos too of course) go to http://rohantime.com/27213/microview-dave-willis/

Thursday 19 April 2012

What's in the bag?


Everyone want’s to know about gear. It’s human nature. We all pretend we’re not really interested and we all say things like “camera’s don’t take photos, photographers do” but really we all want a peek into our fellow photographers kit bag, just to see if they got a secret weapon. Well, OK, let’s take a look at what I use…

Friday 6 April 2012

A clean slate

This weeks RLA isn't really an assignment as such, it relates to one of my photography workshops that I run on an "ad hoc" basis here in the Lake District. But it gives me a chance to write about the process that I go through when trying to teach newbies about the complex and many-layered subject of photography.

I have a method that I've developed over the years that I've been teaching, both on location workshops and through my work as the visiting lecturer in photography at Kendal College. It breaks down the basic principles into bite-sized chunks. On the one side you have the problem of operating the camera controls, easy enough once you understand what apertures, shutters speeds and the rest actually do. And on the other side you have the creative principles and vision needed to create great photographs. And that's the bit I'm going to talk about here.