LISTEN UP! PAY ATTENTION! BLOG ON THE MOVE!

Those who follow my blog will know that I've been refreshing my pro website and integrating functionality into it. With the advent of full blog support from my website provider I have taken the step to fully integrate my blog into the website.

In time I will put a redirect in place but for now I'd love it if you'd update any links you have to http://kevinleightonphotography.com/blog and continue to follow the blog there.

If you follow the ThoughtsAndThingsBlog via Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs then please re-follow me there.

http://kevinleightonphotography.com/blog

EMBRACE THE GRAIN ... AND GO MONO

Thanks to the power of Twitter I found that the Red Bull Hill Chasers event was to be held in Bristol last Saturday. I thought it an excellent opportunity to photograph a night cycling event which was a double first as I had neither photographed a cycling event or a night time sports event before.

My pre-event banter with another local photographer was about which lenses to use and what ISO would be needed. In a naive fashion I said I'd go for 800 ISO and see what happened. I found I was completely unprepared for the sheer speed of the event and despite the lighting I found I was using 3200 ISO to get anywhere near freezing the action. Due to the crowd, I couldn't see the approaching cyclists, so I just had to setup the camera, use continual auto-focus with high-speed continuous shooting, hold the camera out past the crowd line and hit the button. Needless to say 80% of the shots were empty but as for the rest .. well see for yourselves ...

In a twitter discussion  with Maz Hawes from Light And Day Photography I mentioned I was worried about the graininess I'd see when I processed the photos. The response from Maz was 'Embrace The Grain And Go Mono'. You'll see that with some of the shots I've done just that, I hope you enjoy the look, for me it's very different and refreshing.

The full gallery is at http://www.kevinleightonphotography.com/redbullhillchasers

PHOTOBLOG - BACK ON TRACK!

I've been absent from the blogging scene .. again .. for a while. There always seems to be something else going on ... as you will have seen from the last couple of holding posts I've been working on redeveloping my photography website which is now pretty much complete.

That comes as a sigh of relief as it was starting to take over from the job it was supposed to do which is to act as a shop window for my photographs.

I haven't stopped taking photographs while I haven't been blogging, I just haven't had time to package them up and show them.

It's with great pleasure that I present to you the following which was a quick grab with my camera phone. I think it has great atmosphere demonstrates just what a lovely winters evening it was.

I look forward to getting back on track with the blog, the photographs and of course twitter #photochat .

OPEN FOR BUSINESS - THANKYOU AND WELCOME!

I've written over the last few weeks about how I've been working on reauthoring the website and I'm pleased to announce that it's pretty much there - HURRAH!

There will be one or two more tweaks to the galleries and content and there are few new features, events and  shoots in the pipeline but I'm pleased to announce that we're open for business.

My grateful thanks to those who have helped me along the way. During this process I've learned the value of asking for and taking on board independent  feedback, no matter how much you might disagree with it sometimes, and I hope you agree with me that the site is much better for it.

Please have a look around the site and see what's on offer.  I hope you'll take in the galleries and enjoy some of the images while you're there.


So ... to all who helped me - thank you! and to all my visitors past, present and future thank you and welcome!

NEW IMAGES, NEW SHOOTS

As fast as I make improvements to the layout of the Kevin Leighton Photography website my trusted band of advisers give me more to do.

I've read time and time again that it's the reader that should dictate the content, services, layout, etc offered by a website or blog but this is the first time I've managed to put the theory into action.

Every time I think I've got it about right I sit back, smile and say .. 'OK so what about that' to which the response is .. 'well you could do this and you should really do that' ... which in times past I would have found  annoying to say the least but now I'm taking it all on board, and if I say so myself, it's really starting to come together.

New images from the The George At Backwell Summer Garden Party have been uploaded, copy is in draft for my services page and I'm in contact with two bands about the possibility of doing some shoots with them.

It's all coming together .. more soon ..

Refreshed Homepage Slideshow

As the next step in refreshing this website I decided to really try to understand how the slideshow on the homepage works and is implemented. It's not a simple thing to get working properly but I got there in the end and I think the final result from the changes I made is much cleaner.

Gone is the awkward border that didn't dynamically change to adhere to the size of the images and image sizing is now understood and under control. There are new pictures in the slideshow and in time I'll be expanding the breadth of images available.

What's important is to show images that you enjoy seeing and are relevant so in the weeks to come I'll be asking you help to select those which you enjoy seeing the most and I'll add them into the slideshow with a link to the website of one of the participants.

More soon .....

Site Under Reconstruction

I've been posting to my blog for over a year now and my website has been up and running for about 9 months.  What I've noticed in that time is that nothing stays the same. Life, the universe and everything continues to evolve around you and the internet and your visitors expectations are no different.

In the world of web design, content and blogging I think it's important to remember to step back, to take advice and make sure that your design and content is still relevant. You have to remember you're not just designing and writing for yourself. It's the visitors and readers .. your customers, or potential customers .. that you need to bear in mind so I've taken the decision to refresh my pro photography site, to make it simpler and easier to navigate and for you to find photo galleries relevant to your visit.

During this time content may appear or disappear and pages or information may randomly move so I hope you'll bear with me while this process takes place.

For now I believe I have the design I like but let me know what you think via Twitter, send me an email or leave a comment at the bottom of the page.

Galleries have been temporarily removed and content needs to be refreshed but I'm getting there and I'll keep you up-to-date with progress.

I hope you're all having a great January. Back with you again soon.