THE APPRENTICE
STUNNING SEASCAPES
We pair up Apprentice Adrian with Canon pro photographer Andrew James for a landscape workshop along the Norfolk coast to shoot some of his favourite photo spots
APPRENTICE
NAME: ADRIAN STILLWELL
CAMERA: CANON 5DS, 5D MK III
55 YEAR old Adrian is ex-bomb squad, turned IT Manager. Back in his army days he spent many months clearing mines between Sherringham to Blakeney Point along the Norfolk coast. Having been able to get to know this coastline like the back of his hand he frequently revisits it to shoot (a bit different from what he was doing before!) seascapes and has asked for us to help him improve his Canon photography.
CANON PRO
NAME: ANDREW JAMES
CAMERA: CANON 5D MARK III
WITH MORE than 20 years working on photo magazines, Andrew now runs online photo learning site www.foto-buzz.com as well as tutoring on landscape workshops on the Norfolk coast. His Canon images have won prestigious photographic awards and he’s also a regular contributor for our sister mag, Digital Camera. We met up with him at Wells-next-the-Sea to shoot some of his favourite seaside spots in the area. www.andrewjamesmedia.co.uk
ANDREW’S COMMENT
"I met with Adrian in Wells-nextthe-Sea for sunrise, which isn’t too early in winter at 7am. Even though the weather was forecast to be cloudy we did get a good sunrise. We also chose a day where the tide times worked with us, so we could try some long exposures on the beach blurring the water. The beach huts are the most iconic landmark at Wells, but it was hard to shoot them with the sun rising behind them. I saw these tyre tracks in the sand and thought they’d work as lead-in lines. To get around the tricky lighting, I shot a bracket of exposures to create a high-dynamic-range image full of deep shadow tones in the shaded areas, as well as retaining highlights in the brighter sky and foreground."
TOP GEAR #1
Heavy duty tripod
ANDREW’S PROFESSIONAL tripod of choice is a sturdy Manfrotto XPRO3 055 carbon fibre model. It’s a heavy duty set of sticks that can take a maximum load of 9kg, yet weighs just 2kg. It also has an impressive maximum extension of 170cm for taking photographs at head height. He pairs it with a Manfrotto 496RC2 ball head, which makes it easy to adjust or lock off all axis with a single knob when composing.