“The Rt. Hon. Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport opened the sixth Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show to the sounds of Indiana Jones played by a scout band, and watched in awe as The Royal Marines abseiled down the side of the NEC dressed in outdoor gear such as diving flippers and rucksacks - setting the scene for an action-packed event.”
That's what the press release said. Five of our readers won tickets for this even in a prize draw. We heard there were going to be cameras and things to play with and a couple of talks by top landscape photographer so we asked ThinkCamera member Drew Rawcliffe to go along and see what he thought. Oh and interview Colin too. Here's his report.
This show covers such a wide range of activities; stunt bikes, rock climbing, canoeing, scuba diving, microlites, the ICC European Bouldering Championships, and various displays from Sat Nav systems, OS mapping, tents, to the many clothing and equipment manufacturers and stores.
While waiting for the team to demonstrate the biking stunts, I came across this trike - trikkeuk.com
It's a cross between a push bike and an exercise bike. You lean from side to side to propel it forwards, rather than having to push with your foot like a traditional scooter. Not a very practical mode of transport but the manufacturers bill it as a 'health club on wheels' - 10mins on this is supposed to let you off an hour in the gym! There is also a version with skis, for those wanting to take it to the wintry slopes. Looks like the next big craze to take over on the Christmas wanted list.
On to the lads from '7Stanes' who are professional stunt riders. What can I say, but wow. I have never seen a bike hopped from the floor to a table 4ft high without the use of a ramp. Then the lads went on to do various tricks - going down a ramp doing a 'wheelie', jumping off the table, spinning the bikes around on the front wheels and also various bunny hops.
I moved on to the various climbing walls, lead by the Royal Marines, who where climbing to the ceiling of the Hall. For those souls brave enough to have a go, the chance was there.
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As part of this event, England were hosting the ICC European Bouldering Championships, held in the UK for the first time. The competitors - ladies day when I visited - have various walls to climb, they are given a start and finish point and a time limit to complete these very demanding challenges. On completing one section, they then move on to the next section.
In the sailing area a scuba diving tank had been set up for people to try.
It looked a bit cold for me - and anyway I didn't have a housing for my camera. Also the canoeing section had a tank set up for a canoeing competition on Sunday. The tank had a slalom course on it with competitors having to work though the various gates, including touching a hanging ball with their canoe. Also to be completed was a under water roll. In this area were lots of stands with everything for canoeing, scuba diving and sailing.
One interesting item, was a roof rack that pulls sideways, to allow you to load your canoe, while your feet are on the ground. Then you lift and push the rack back onto the roof, so simple and safe to use.
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The Scouts were hosting a climbing up milk crates competition. Groups of 4 people had to build a tower as high as possible within 10mins. The tower had to consist of 3 columns of crates. The group I watched managed to get to 13 completed layers, before going, going, gone.
You certainly need to know your friends very well before completing this challenge.
The equipment stands were displaying a vast array of both clothing and equipment. Everything from socks to the thickest overcoats for use in the Artic. As for backpacks, little drinks packs to the full packs for hiking around the world, were on display. Whether you could have lifted some of these full backpacks and still managed to walk, is a totally different question.
I've never seen such a large and varied number of tents assembled under one roof. Little one man tents, that can withstand the harshest winds to the huge family tents, that would take hours to peg out. I particular liked the tent the www.millets.co.uk where showing. It collapsed down to the size of a large 'reflector'. Take it out of its case, throw it up into the air and it arrives down, fully assembled. Maybe you wouldn't do that in the wilds of the Lake district, as you might be running after it for a while. If it's anything like as hard to get back into the bag as a normal reflector is on breezy day then you might struggle a bit.
One of the challenges that I had set myself visiting this show, was to obtain a pair of gloves that still allowed me to use the camera, whilst wearing them. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Visiting the various large manufacturers to try on their offerings, had me looking at the various 'fleece' style gloves. Most of which are great for the intended purpose, but no good for using with a camera. You feel that you may let the camera slip. Just on the point of walking away without any gloves, I happened to walk though a sailing shop. I back tracked a little as my eyes caught a display of gloves designed for the sailing.
These gloves are a mixture of fabrics, thin synthetics and elastic material to provide a close fit, with a 'grippy' palm. They also have the thumb and first finger tip removed, which is ideal for use with a camera. I must admit there is a couple of other versions available, with all finger tips removed and also without finger tips removed. These gloves are designed for pulling ropes without slipping at sea, so are ideal. See www.roostersailing.com for the product list.
For me the highlight of the show was the chance to meet Colin
He gave a couple of talks each day. I caught up with him on Friday.
The majority of Colin's 'big' Landscapes are still produced on either Fuji617 or the Hassalblad XPAN cameras. Both these cameras provide the 3:1 ratio that fits so well into Panoramic photographs. They also provide the right amount of compression and depth of field that provides these 'big' prints with their dramatic views. Colin told me he will continue using this style of camera for this format until a truly digital panoramic camera is produced. Viewing the slideshow, all of the panoramas are all very simple in composition, yet powerful. All can read from left to right which works well for Western viewers who tend to read pictures as thought they were words.
Colin also talked about how he uses colours and shapes to provide a 'graphic' image. Working within the rules of composition he looks for patterns within the landscape, which provides the detail that provides the striking image. If the light is soft and diffused then this is not ideal for taking 'big' panoramics so Colin will concentrate on looking for the fine detail within.
For example, a striking single red stone in the middle of a grey stone wall is the starting point for a graphic image. This alone is not sufficient to provide that 'wow' factor so he might make use of leading lines that draw your eyes though the image. He advises photographers to experiment with shutter speeds and also with ISO settings. Maybe a higher ISO will produce a more creative image then one shot using the more normal ISO. Take time to think about what the graphic is saying.
Talking with Colin after the presentations it becomes clear that he has a great love for 'big' landscapes. He will spend time climbing mountains, especially in his beloved Scotland, year after year in order to capture that one special moment. It's all about being in the right place at the right time of year to achieve this. Even so, this has to be repeated the following year - maybe because of the lack of snow or a storm came in.
Colin and his team are now working on a new website that will be fully up and running later in 2007. To produce this all of his work is being carefully scanned - 6x6, 6x8, 6x9, 6x17 and Xpan.
As you can imagine this has taken a great deal of time. These images will be available on line for viewing and also to buy. The website also links to his school of photography which runs short courses thought out the year. Many of these are held in Scotland. Also in September 07, there is a course going out to Bhutan to photograph this amazing county.
Colin is now using the
Canon 1Ds Mark 2
full frame camera and is anticipating the Mark 3 later in the year. As you'd expect he uses a variety of lenses from super wide to telephoto for picking out details. This camera has also produced a few 'big' panoramic's by stitching a up to 10 images together to achieve the finished image. However, this only works on rare occasions as the light can change so fast to spoil the overall image, by the time the last photograph has been taken. For digital processing Colin uses an Apple Mac and
Aperture
. This enables a high degree of control over images and enables many to be processed at once.
Colin has a passion for the countryside that he captures for the world to see, showing the beauty of this world to those viewing his photographs.
