News

I was lucky enough to be a winner of the Artistic Interpretation category of the 2011 photo competition, so am now on the look out for winning shots for this year.

The photo can be see on the Keepers Blog

Some of my images are being used on other websites and have been Tweeted by the BBC so I am getting my name out in the big wide world.

One of my butterfly images was selected for the 2011 exhibition. No medals or other awards but it is a step on the ladder.

Royal Photographic Society - a useful resource for photographers of all abilities.

Another article in Local Rider.

Various photos are on this link GDRC Final

I have just written an article for this riding club as my daughter is a member. Their recent qualification for the Endurance national finals was on a very rainy misty day so the photos aren't overly good.

The butterflies are out and about again so I have been hunting once more, some are on Redbubble - please take a look.

BBC Spring Watch have made one of my images on Flickr a favourite so it shows on the Spring Watch website. It is the Pink Catkin and can be seen in my Flowers and Trees gallery.

Crawley Camera Club competition review.

Published in Surrey Life

Having just completed the Open University course T189 Digital photography: creating and sharing better images; I am full of enthusiasm. (http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01T189)

Prior to the course I was of the point and shoot brigade and more often than not captured images with feet or other bits missing or out of focus. I bought DSLR as I like taking jumping horses, (my daughter was show jumping at the time) so a useful skill would be catching the horse over the fence rather than before or after, and of course getting the exposure correct and the horizon straight.




As a seasoned OU student I decide to try their course and it has proofed very useful, I learnt about exposure, composition, aperture and shutter speed settings. Now I shoot in RAW and aperture priority or manual mode most of the time. Finally managed an image of my daughters pony with full detail and correct exposure.

Another new found skill has been macro/close-up photography using my newly purchased 55 - 250mm lens on my old Canon 350D body. Wide aperture and long focal length to obtain a shallow depth of field has meant some amazing (by my standards) images of butterflies and bees.



My passion is now wildlife as well as the horses and I am learning more all the time.



With my newly acquired skills I decided to try my hand at freelance photography! What a fool, it is highly competitive out in the big wide world and as yet I do not have sufficient skills to compete with the professionals and other would be freelance photographers.

Horse and Hound liked my images but politely said that one was not current enough and the other showed a rider with no safety hat on (couldn’t publish as they need to set an example to ordinary riders.)

Oh well I shall continue to take photographs with a view to improving and maybe in time some will be good enough to be published. I don’t need a job as I am retired but it would fund a new lens or camera if I were successful.

The journey has been interesting, entertaining, informative and frustrating, but very worthwhile.

I can thoroughly recommend photography as a time consuming but enjoyable hobby.


Gill Langridge