The Night School - Information/News Thread

MWHCVT

MWHCVT

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It's time to introduce The Night School (TNS) to the good people of TP, TNS is not just me, it is also Darrell a.k.a Thedodo and what are we doing? while read on a little and you'll find out ;)

The Night School is the pair of us working to pass on our combined knowledge of night time photography, a lot of people pack there cameras up and head on home when it get's dark, this is just when we start to come to life..

So what can you expect from us, while the main thing we will be doing as TNS is to offer workshops across the country bringing our knowledge to you, we currently offer workshops for Light Trails, Wire Wool, Light Painting and Firework Photography, though over time we will also bring out new workshops in various different night time pursuits, we will also be searching out some of the stars of the genre from time to time to tell their stories as well as news stories relating to night time photography...We have some other plans but we'll be telling you all about in due course :)

We also really want to know what you'd like to see from us so if you'd like a workshop in your area please let us know and if we will endeavor to accommodate your requests

Be sure to ask us any questions you have and we'll be here to answer them for you...below I will also build up a FAQ section.

Finally if your on Facebook or Twitter please like or follows using the links in my signature to keep up to date with everything that we are up to including some great adventures

Matt
 
I've been waiting you tell this story for a while :) I didn't want to abuse the forum before making myself official on here...

Joining the Space Race

Last night The Night School joined the space race and what a race it was..over on our facebook page we asked our fans what type of photo that they would like to see us post that evening. This is where the fun starts, one of our wonderful fans quickly suggested that we photography the ISS that was passing over the UK that evening a few times, for those that don't know the ISS is the International Space Station..now not being the type of people that like to let our fans down we quickly began to do some research as to what time the space station was set to pass and where in the sky we were going to see it..

Having gathered our data we were good, the sky stayed clear our only worry was making a mistake and pointing the cameras in the wrong direction, with cameras and confidence we set of to what would make a nice location to photograph the wonder that is the ISS as it raced at 17,000 miles an hour across the night sky...

So we started the evening at Chesterton Windmill, in Warwickshire it is just off the historic Roman Road of The Fosse Way, we set up and we waited for the arrival of the space station, I'd synced my phone time with the talking clock earlier that day, and the five minute alarm sounded, we were ready but were we going to be a success?


ISS OVER CHESTERTON WINDMILL by mwhcvt, on Flickr

Well it looks like I got my planning and direction just about spot on for this first pass of the evening, but now the real fun would start and this is where we joined the space race...

As we said earlier the ISS travels at around 17,000 miles an hour now my car is not quite that fast and there's no police in space so I had to obey the law...we planned to travel from the windmill to another regional landmark to get the second pass of the ISS of the evening..Our Destination was Broadway Tower, in the Cotswolds..by road this is a trip of 40 miles and the sat nav would suggest a time of an hour to get there by the time we had packed away at the windmill and were in the car and ready to set off, we had an hour and ten minutes to the next pass, this didn't leave a lot of time spare to get to the next location and be set up...

We are on the road and making great time as it late so there is not much traffic on the road, but most of the way will be minor A and B roads so not a lot of over taking space, and GRRR almost right away we are stuck behind a massive lorry...the space race is on and we are loosing, but then the road opens out and we are passed the lorry and getting back on track...will we make it, the space station is traveling about 16,950 miles faster than us

Well we are now driving up the massive hill that the Tower is located on...waiting for our ears to pop and I'm also hoping it will be a little warmer the last time I headed up there at night I had to fight snow drifts that were over my head and I'm not exactly short at close to 6ft..thankfully there is no snow and it's nice and warm at a heady 12 degree Celsius, but had we missed the show????

No is the answer the 5 minute warning siren I had set up on my phone was yet to sound, we were there all that was left was to set up the camera and be ready for the pass

So were we set up in time did we win the race or did the space station cross the finish line first

Well we're pleased to announce The Night School won


ISS Pass Broadway Tower by The-dodo, on Flickr


158/365 (889) by mwhcvt, on Flickr

It was a lot of fun and we'd recommend if you've not done it before chasing the ISS can be truly exhilarating :D
 
Currently looking at some interesting locations for light painting workshops, these include wire wool, colour gelling with both flash and torches, light painting with various different tools including orbs, domes, ribbons of lights, light graffiti/drawing...and using these techniques in harmony to form images...planning photos...planning shoots and shoot safety as an added free bonus weather permitting we will run a 1 hour star trails workshop at the end of each light painting workshop

Looking at locations in:
Warwickshire
Norfolk
Lake District
Devon/Cornwall

We estimate prices for the above areas to be between £55-75/person prices will be firmed shortly as well as dates/exact locations positions on workshops strictly limited to 8 people between 2 experienced tutors

If your interested in attending a workshop please express your interest below...expression of interest not a binding commitment :)

Matt
 
Hi
Might be interested when a Lake District one comes up but that would be dependent on when I'm up there holidaying. Hopefully it could maybe tie in with my plans. Also depends on whether it's North or South District. Are there any plans for a workshop in Lancashire?
Thanks
John
 
Lake district? why not do the normal shots the row of pine tree's, the jetty, the stone with the pattern cut in 2 and add other things like wirewool and light painting etc?
 
Johnytuono said:
Hi
Might be interested when a Lake District one comes up but that would be dependent on when I'm up there holidaying. Hopefully it could maybe tie in with my plans. Also depends on whether it's North or South District. Are there any plans for a workshop in Lancashire?
Thanks
John
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We plan on offering workshops across the country so I'm sure at some point we will be offering a Lancashire workshop..I hope that we will be finalizing some dates and locations for these initial workshops withing the next week :thumbs:

Little John said:
Lake district? why not do the normal shots the row of pine tree's, the jetty, the stone with the pattern cut in 2 and add other things like wirewool and light painting etc?
Click to expand...

As far as the Lake District Workshop is concerned it is the plan to shoot at a tradition lakes location, but to bring our twist to it in the form of the light painting that we do :thumbs:
 
MWHCVT said:
Devon/Cornwall
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You know my feelings about this one - you need to get your arse down here for a recce trip - the spare room is available any time (other than this weekend when its got Swimbo's friend Emma in it :lol:) and Darrell can fit on the sofa (unless you two fancy sharing a double ;) )
 
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Warwickshire is my nearest and so is be more interested in that location. Depends very much on if it falls on a week night or weekend. Might struggle making it on a school night, it's a two hour trip for me and I'm quite lazy :p
 
sjc1919 said:
Anything around north Derbyshire area I am there, could even tie in the Lakes with a few days away too :)
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sjc1919 said:
Can also do Devon or Cornwall if I conveniently plan to visit my sister and family :)
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Thank you for the interest, should be getting some dates fixed this week to be able to be a bit more accurate with our plans

big soft moose said:
You know my feelings about this one - you need to get your arse down here for a recce trip - the spare room is available any time (other than this weekend when its got Swimbo's friend Emma in it :lol:) and Darrell can fit on the sofa (unless you two fancy sharing a double ;) )
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Will be trying to get down in the next couple of months :D to have a good look around :D

benc98 said:
Warwickshire is my nearest and so is be more interested in that location. Depends very much on if it falls on a week night or weekend. Might struggle making it on a school night, it's a two hour trip for me and I'm quite lazy :p
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Most of the light painting workshops will run on weekends as we appreciate that is normally when people are available :thumbs:
 
I'd be interested in any workshops around the midlands or northern Warwickshire. I'd be even more interested if you were able to tie in a workshop with one of those meteor showers that happen once in a blue moon!
 
faddius said:
I'd be interested in any workshops around the midlands or northern Warwickshire. I'd be even more interested if you were able to tie in a workshop with one of those meteor showers that happen once in a blue moon!
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We're more than happy to try and set up meteor workshops that include light painting if the cloud doesn't play ball :thumbs: so I'll check out some dates :thumbs:
 
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