Worthing Birdman 2011

The text on the Worthing Birdman Website describes it:

"The Birdman is a flight competition for human powered flying machines held each summer in the picturesque seaside town of Worthing on England\'s South Coast.
Many flyers take part to raise money for charities, other design complex machines to aim for the distance prizes. A substantial prize of £10,000 is offered for the furthest flight should a birdman achieve over a 100 metre distance"

The Saturday is reserved for the “Serious Flyers” but with the wind causing a significant swell this year, only two demonstration flights were made before flying was cancelled for the day.

Sunday saw a lower wind speed and so flying started on time with the charity flyers. I say flyers but really they are “jumpers”. Many are in elaborate fancy dress aiming to win a prize by providing the best entertainment. The work that many put into this is fantastic only for them to be wrecked during the jump:

Although the wind was lower than Saturday, it was still strong enough to blow the light (mostly cardboard) creations in the opposite direction of the jumpers so the images are not quite what they could have been.

Following the fun flyers were the serious competitors, measuring wind, aiming to win the £10,000 jackpot. First came Dusan Vuletic all the way from Serbia who managed to stay in the air for 3 seconds, wrecking his purpose made craft in the process.

After Dusan came the remainder of the contenders, mainly in modified hang gliders although the winning flight of the day was Dr Bill Brooks with a flight of 78.4m in his purpose built flying machine.

An event such as The Birdman is made for photography – people doing outrageous things in a picturesque location. The problem we have though is where to shoot it from. The press photographers are placed out on the pier looking back at the flyers with the town beyond. This is ideal except, being on the fishing deck, we are too low. Ideally we would want to get the flyer filling much of the image but still with enough background to put the image into context; Where are they jumping from? is it high? How about the location? From our location we can either shoot a wide image – putting the whole jump into context but loosing the detail of the flyer or crop in tight but loosing all context.

If the aim is national press I know that the most they might use is one image and that single image is not able to convey the jump fully. (As the coverage in the national press proved).

Much is made of the jumpers and the town but I think many thanks should go to the guys in the water keeping the flyers safe:

All in all a great enjoyable event for the town where I live. Good fun and I look forward to next year!

You may see more of my images here..

Limited Edition

I am pleased to announce a new limited edition print/canvas.

Peace over the pier (click to enlarge).

You may also view the image in the shop larger without a watermark here..

The photo was taken on Worthing beach on the morning of the 2nd January.

As with all my art prints, this will be limited to a total run of 25. This means unlike canvases or prints you purchase in stores, you are almost guaranteed that it will be unique among your colleagues. I also guarantee that once 25 versions are sold, that will be all, ever.

Cissbury Ring – A walk above Worthing

So, where better to start my downland walks than 5 minutes from home with a walk up to the Iron Age Hill Fort - Cissbury ring (map location here).

The walk was a nice 1 and a half mile gentle climb up to the fort, taking a few “stock” images along the way, spending about an hour walking around the fort before returning down another path. The weather was really warm and the sky clear but very hazy meaning “view” shots would have muted colours with a lack of definition in the distance which was not really what I was after for my project to show the rolling landscape of sussex.

I was however able to capture the strange, almost desolate feel in the ring itself with this monochrome image.

However, as yet I am not sure how to treat this. The reason being is the land/ring itself is National Trust property but running through it are public footpaths. The national trust have a photography policy which states no commercial photography on it’s land without permission;

The National Trust does not permit photography or filming at its properties for commercial use or for reproduction in any form without prior written permission. These restrictions apply only to photography taken within the grounds of National Trust properties and does not apply to public highways and paths.Photographs taken for private and personal use may not be used in any other context, submitted to any photo libraries or on-line agencies or sold directly to any image buyers. All requests for commercial photography taken for profit at any pay-for-entry property must be channelled through the Broadcast and Media Liaison Office.

I ensured the tripod was positioned on a footpath however, until I check a local OS Map, I cannot be sure that the path was a public footpath or a NT one, there is also the clause above about any “pay for entry” site. There is no payment for entry to the ring. Until I can clarify the position, this reproduction is just for enjoyment;


So, enjoy…..

New personal project



I have been racking my brain to come up with a new personal project over the past few weeks. I now have 2…


Living by the sea, there are so many things to photograph within a few minutes walk of my home but the problem is they have all been photographed before, in so many ways. Of course, my point of view is always going to be different to others, so I hope my “Worthing” project will offer a new and contemporary view of the seafront. The problem is, part of this needs to be completed after sunset and I am not really keen to go to the sites I have marked out alone, in the dark with £xxx.00 of camera kit…

The second project is to apply my knowledge and skill of interior panoramics to the sussex countryside. It’s with this in mind that I went off walking along the river Adur yesterday to test myself and my techniques. Whilst the viewpoint I choose is not exactly inspiring I am now confident in what I have to carry and how to create what I hope will be a fantastic set..

I love Sussex, I think it is a wonderful county with so much tucked away with 90% of it’s population not being aware of anything thats not 100M away from a road. My aim therefore is to capture the wide openness and the outstanding natural beauty of this county.

That said – my test shot did not exactly fall into that category although the scale and detail are without doubt to the standard I am looking for.