Natural Wildlife

This one of the photos that I had taken on my trip to the local duckpond earlier his week. One of the swans came quite close to the side so I thought I could get a close up of just its head. I thought by concentrating on a small area it would an interesting and different composition.

To get narrow field of view I used a focal length of 300mm; the maximum for the lens I was using. I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second. To capture the correct exposure the camera used an aperture of F7.1; this also ensured that enough of the swan was in focus but with the background out of focus. I had to use an ISO of 1250 to enable the use of the narrower aperture.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast but I also turned down the highlights because the white feathers where starting to white-out. I also decreased the colour temperature to make the whites look purer. I also sharpened the photo a small amount to counter the noise that had been generated.

I really enjoyed taking photos at the duckpond, I really like wildlife photography. You have to be very patient, but it pays off because you get fantastic photos of animals in their natural habitats. The weather looks ideal for wildlife photography this weekend so if I get a chance I will be out again taking photos of whatever wildlife I can find.

Mat

Creations

This is another photo from our recent trip to our local Christmas market. Before I explain anything, I should apologise for any inexcusable errors that I may make, as I broke my glasses!

As I previously mentioned, there were a lot of different stalls there which all sold handmade items. One of the stalls I went to exhibited Christmas wreaths made from twigs and dried citrus fruit such as oranges. It also had handmade gifts, such as animal shaped doorstops; this is one example of them. I love how the subject is immediately obvious, and I’ll admit that my first reaction was “aww”!

It was quite dark as it was getting towards late afternoon, so I had to use a relatively slow shutter speed. I could speed it up slightly because I used an aperture of F4.5, as I wanted a relatively shallow depth of field. I wasn’t sure how shallow the depth of field would be, as it was too dark to be able to tell effectively from the depth of field preview option.

I’m pleased with how the image turned out; I like how the spikes that are furthest away from the camera have been blurred. I also like how you can see the reflections of the lights in the eyes of the hedgehog. I got my advent calendar today (I will never grow up!) so I’m all ready for December- ROLL ON CHRISTMAS!!

Bex
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Boating

This photo was taken on the Christmas market that Bex and I visited last week. The Christmas market was situated just beside small quay where there was some canal boats moored to the side. I liked the composition that they had made.

To take this photo I put the camera into aperture priority and selected an aperture of F16, this ensured that everything from the foreground to the background was in sharp focus. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/13^th of a second; I was using image stabilisation at the time so I could take the photo hand held. I didn’t use flash because the background was too far away from the camera so the foreground highlights would have overexposed.

To edit the image I increased the sharpness and cropped the photo down to concentrate the focus onto the two canal boats. Also I wanted to crop out some distractions on the right side of the frame. By increasing the sharpness the photo looks more detailed and has become more striking than before. I didn’t change the exposure because I was happy with how the camera had calculated the exposure.

The weather has been very bad recently so our trip out has been postponed until this weekend. Hopefully if the weather does clear we shall get a chance to take some more photos outdoors. If not I shall look through my computer because I have some other photos lined up that I can upload.

Mat

Reflections

This is another photo that I took on my trip to the duck pond. While I was there I saw a group of ducks swimming around on the lake. I thought that if I focused on just one of them it would create an interesting composition.

One of the ducks was moving towards me and was creating a small wave in front, so I zoomed in the lens to 300mm to crop out the rest of the ducks. I had selected an aperture of 1/500^th of a second to freeze the movement, to get the right exposure the camera selected an aperture of F7.1. I framed the photo so that the duck was in the top right, I did this to create the most interesting composition. As the duck was looking slightly to the left side of the frame, I wanted there to be some space for it to ‘look’ into. I managed to capture the reflection of the duck in the water in the bottom of the frame, I’m glad I did this because it makes the photo look a lot more interesting.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo a little tighter to enhance the effect I was trying to make. I also turned down the highlights because some of the reflections in the water had become overexposed. I didn’t change anything else because the colours had been captured accurately and I liked the overall effect of the photo.

I’ve still got a few more photos that I want to upload, but Bex and I have been planning a wander soon. It depends on the weather, so it may not be for a while, but when we do we will upload the photos for you to see.

Mat

Small Wildlife

I had this morning off so as I didn’t have anything to do I decided to go for a walk to the nature reserve to see what wildlife I could find. I’m glad I went because there was a lot of wildlife about; in particular there were a lot of birds around.

I heard this bird calling from one of the trees and I looked around until I found it hiding on a branch in the middle of the tree. I zoomed in to 300mm on my telephoto lens until I got the composition that I wanted. I was using the camera in shutter priority and I had selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second, and I over exposed by one stop. This gave me an aperture of F7.1 which gave me a large enough depth of field for what I wanted. I didn’t use the flash as I didn’t want to scare the bird away and it wouldn’t have been powerfull enough to reach the bird.

When editing the photo I cropped the photo to enhance the composition and I also adjusted the light levels. By cropping the photo I placed the bird into the top right corner, as the bird was looking down and to the left I feel that it creates a more open composition than before. I increased the overall brightness while bring down the highlights to control the sky. This increases the contrast by quite a bit as well which I think makes the photo a lot more vibrant while keeping the colours faithful.

I enjoyed my morning at the duck pond watching the wildlife around me. When I next get a chance I will definitely go down again to capture some more wildlife in its natural habitat.

Mat

Changing Perspectives

I took this picture recently at a local firework display. I rediscovered it this evening as I was looking for something to upload. I loved the colours in it, but most of all I loved the patterns that were created- giving me the idea to try something different.

It seems rather regular that when someone takes a picture of a firework, it’ll be full of colour, a little hazy but taken using a slow shutter speed to capture all the magic of it. The last point may conform, but I wanted my picture to be a little more unique. I took the average firework photo, and de-saturated it to make it look more  abstract. I then increased the contrast to make it stand out more, and over sharpened the image to create more defined lines.

My post may be a little more Photoshop than photo skills this evening, but I like it and it’s a nice refreshing break from normality! Oh, and I think I’ve dragged out the suspense long enough. The photo I uploaded on the 19th of this month was of a rope light at an outside broadcast. I took the photo using a slow shutter speed to allow me time to move the camera to form a pattern, which was repeated exactly by each LED in the series. I think this should be a more prominent point with photographers; how to turn something ordinary into something that will intrigue.

Bex
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Old Timers

This photo was taken at the Christmas fayre that Bex and I went to. As I said we took a lot of very interesting photos. We both had a great time taking photos of the event, it was Victorian themed so all the stall owners where dressed up in Victorian costumes.

There were two men who walked around the market looking a bit mischievous, so as one of them was looking at the time I decided to take a photo. As I was about to take the photo the second one spotted me and pointed me out, this caused the second man to look up at his watch towards me. I managed to take the photo while he was looking up. I really like the effect that this caused because they were acting naturally so the photo doesn’t look set up.

I was using the camera in aperture priority so that I could control the background blur. And for this photo I selected F5, this gave a large enough depth of field but also it blurred the background so that it was less distracting.  The camera matched this with a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second which was fast enough to freeze the little amount of movement there was. I didn’t used flash as I thought this would spoil the effect I was trying to achieve.

I did very little editing to this photo because I managed to get the exposure correct in the camera. I cropped the photo down a small amount to remove some distracting details in the edges of the frame and also I increased the sharpness of the photo because I felt it could do with a small increase. I’m very impressed with my camera; I haven’t required to make any drastic changes to the exposure of any of the images that I have taken so far.

We both took a lot of interesting photos and I’m sure there will be a few more in the next few days. And maybe if the weather decides to clear up we may get a chance to go out for a short wander; but I can’t see that happening for a while. If the weather doesn’t clear up, we may try some indoor set up shots.

Mat

Crafted

Today Mat and I went to a local Christmas market together - which seemed like a good idea to start with, but got a little annoying after a while (his new camera sounds like it’s on helium!). The word “new” being added by Mat while reading over my shoulder, just to emphasise it a little more!

All joking aside, apart from the incessant camera talk, it was a lovely day full of photographic opportunities. The Christmas market had a Victorian theme, which was great as everyone jumped in whole-heartedly. This meant a lot of fancy dress and led to almost everything being handmade! On one of the stalls, everything had been crafted from wood by the stallholder; this is where I stopped to take this shot!

I used an aperture of F5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/50 so I could get an incredibly shallow depth of field. I used a slow shutter speed as it was starting to get dark but I wanted to avoid using flash.

One effect that I didn’t mean to create was that I focused on the centre object, but this also meant that the far end of the first was in focus. I actually like this effect, even though it was an accident! I really enjoyed myself today; attending this kind of thing is one of my favourite pastimes, as it’s always so varied and you’ll never know what you might find.

Bex
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Path Down A Mountain

I didn’t manage to take any photos on my new camera today, and all the ones I took yesterday where very similar so I was looking through my computer for some inspiration. This photo was taken on one of my holidays to North Wales.

For this photo I put the camera in the landscape mode which boosts the greens and also selects a smaller aperture to enhance the depth of field. Because of the distances involved the specific aperture chosen wouldn’t make much difference, so the camera selected an aperture of F8 coupled with a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second. This shutter speed meant that I could take the photo without a tripod.

To edit the photo I decided to change the light levels and the contrast. By dropping the highlights, the clouds become much more vibrant and look a lot moodier. Also by increasing the contrast the whole photo looks a lot more vibrant and much moodier.  I was trying to create a moody effect when I took the photo so I’m glad that I can create it now after a bit of editing.

Bex and I are planning to go to a Christmas market tomorrow, hopefully getting in the Christmas spirit! Perhaps we’ll buy some gifts for our families as well. Oh, and taking a lot of photos- of course!

Mat

New Begining

I’ve finally got my own camera! Yesterday I purchased a brand new Canon 600D with an 18-55m lens and a Tamron 70-300mm lens. I’ve taken a lot of photos already; earlier today I took some more set up shots. I set up my new camera on a tripod then put some mugs onto an old wooden table using a black sheet as a backdrop.

I used manual mode so that I could have complete control of the camera. I selected an aperture of F18 to ensure that everything was in sharp focus. As there wasn’t much light I had to use a shutter speed of 15 seconds to get the correct exposure; I also used the built in flash for extra light and to gain a more creative effect. I used ISO 200 to help keep the shutter speed to a reasonable length. Also, I had to use the tungsten white balance to counteract the lighting of the room I was shooting in.

I tried to edit the photo but my Photoshop skills aren’t as good as Bex’s so I asked her to edit it as I wanted it to be perfect (this being the first photo from my camera). She decided to straighten the photo as I had taken it on an angle by accident. She also increased the contrast to make the shadows more prominent and sharpened the photo a small amount.

I’m really enjoying using my new camera; I’ve been trying different functions and effects that I haven’t used before. I will be playing about with it for a long time yet! Hopefully I’ll get a chance to photograph some wildlife soon as this is one of the main reasons for buying a telephoto lens.

Mat

A Trip In The Past

Following on from my previous upload, I’ve managed to get away with uploading another photo from the railway trip. Instead of using one of the photos from the railway itself I thought I would upload something different.

While I was there a classic bus with a private tour turned up, they had all got onto the train by this point so only the bus was left. I thought it looked quite solitary and made an interesting composition. To enhance the composition I used an aperture of F16, this gives the maximum depth of field to ensure sharp focus from the front of the frame to the back. Also to make an interesting composition I used the rule of thirds; by placing the bus in the lower right of the frame it makes the composition much more interesting.

When I uploaded the photo onto my computer I cropped the photo down, I did this because I caught the edge of a zebra crossing in the bottom of the photo, by cropping this out it makes the photo look more authentic. Also I converted the photo into black and white; I did this to make the photo look like it came from the same time period as bus.

I won’t be uploading any more photos from my trip to the railway, these two where definitely my favourites. I’m planning on going out for a wander in the next few days so expect some newer photos to be appearing very soon.

Mat

Take A Guess

I thought I’d do something slightly different for my upload today. One of the first things that I always explain is about the subject and where I took the photo. Today I’m leaving you to guess what it is. I took this photo during a recent outside broadcast with Bradley Stoke Radio. We were offered the chance to switch on the Christmas lights and provide the entertainment – and no, it’s not the Christmas lights!

I’m a little limited to what I can write so as not to give you any clues!!! For this reason, I shall skip straight to post-processing. I had to edit this image rather a lot as the quality wasn’t wonderful and the colours didn’t stand out enough. I increased the saturation and contrast; I changed the hue slightly, removed noise and sharpened the whole image.

I will reveal the answer in a news post in a few days time, so keep an eye out! If you’d like to enter my mini competition, then either comment on this post or send an email to dailywandersblog@gmail.com

Good luck!!

Bex

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NOTE: THE ANSWER CAN NOW BE SEEN ON THE POST FROM 25TH NOVEMBER

Days Gone By

I managed to go out for a trip today so I decided to pay a visit to one of the local preserved railways. I’ve been before plenty of times, but it is very enjoyable and creates a lot of very interesting photo opportunities

.

For this photo I wanted to create a different composition by using a different perspective to normal. So instead of taking the photo from the platform I took the photo above the railway on the footbridge. This perspective allows for a lot more to be included in the frame. I focused the camera onto the cab of the engine and by using a narrow aperture of F16 I could have the whole frame in sharp focus. I had to use a higher ISO to normal (ISO 800) to account for the slower shutter speed. This introduced quite a lot of noise into the photo but not a distracting amount.

The only editing that I did to the photo was to increase the saturation; I did this because I felt the camera hadn’t reproduced the colours accurately enough. I didn’t change anything else because the camera had calculated the exposure correctly.

I really enjoyed my day at the railway and I took lots of photos, I’m only going to upload this one as it’s my favourite and the others aren’t up to the same standard. But I’m sure I will be visiting the railway again very soon, and if I do I shall upload some of the photos for you.

Mat

Autumnal Amble

I’m back… sort of. I was feeling a little brighter today so Mat and I went for a walk around the outskirts of town. Towards the beginning of the year, we found this place by accidentally getting on the wrong bus (don’t ask). It may have been cold and late whilst we were anxious to get home, but it was a nice place to wait for the correct bus.

I explained to my family that evening, and they told me how I could get back there. Since then we have visited the same place a few times and different points in the year. It’s amazing how as the year progresses, it changes completely; it seems almost as if you’re visiting somewhere new each time. I think my favourite season of the year to photograph is in autumn; it sounds a little cliché, but the colours of the leaves really do add so much interest!

It’s really odd to see when walking, as one road is completely green then as soon as you turn the corner you are faced with a sea of fire. The vast stretch of pavement is lined by trees each side with benches in between. Around this time of year you completely lose sight of the floor as it gives way to a carpet of colour.

In this photo I used a custom white balance (6000K) to make the colours warmer; I also increased the contrast and sharpness on the camera. I haven’t done any editing after this as I was pleased with the photo and didn’t want to make the colours appear artificial.

This is one of my favourite places to visit, as it doesn’t seem possible that you could ever tire of it. It’s difficult to get to, but really is worth it and I can’t wait until I can go again. There’s also a very nice café near by – coffee please!

Bex

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Mountain View

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had a chance to go out for a wander. So again I looked into my computer’s memory for some photographic inspiration. So I looked through some of my holiday photos from a few years ago.

This was one from a trip to North Wales; I had gone for a walk along a river near mount Snowdon. I didn’t have access to an SLR back then so I used my compact camera. I put the camera into landscape mode which boosts the greens but also selects a narrower aperture to normal.

As this was taken on a compact camera, so I had to make a few adjustments. The main was to change the exposure: I increased both the contrast and the overall brightness. This corrected the camera to make the photo much more balanced. I also increased the colour temperature; this brings some warmth into the photo and makes it look much more vibrant.

I really like some of my old holiday photos; some of them are actually quite good. But most of them have required some sort of editing in one way or another. Bex and I have planned to go out for a short wander tomorrow if we both get some spare time. So hopefully we shall have some photos to share for you.

Mat

Roaring Flames

As I've done quite a few fireworks photos recently, I thought I would carry on the theme but with a bit of a twist. I took this photo during the same evening as the fireworks; they had a bonfire before they set started setting the fireworks off.

So for this photo I wanted the whole frame to be in focus so I used an aperture of F16, but this meant I needed to use a high ISO (ISO 1600). This gave me a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second which was fast enough to capture the roaring flames of the fire. Also as the shutter speed was fast enough I didn’t need to use a tripod or a flash-gun.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down a bit, and I also increased the colour temperature. I increased the colour temperature because I wanted the photo to be very vibrant and the fire to look warm and appealing. I cropped the photo down because there was quite a lot of empty space in front of the fire which was causing a distraction.

I’ve still got a lot of photos from the firework display, there are so many that I like; way too many to be uploaded. So if I upload any more I’ll upload the very best ones for you all.

Mat

The Young At Rest

I was looking through the firework photos and I found a few more that I liked, but I thought I would break the pattern today so I don't completely bore you with fireworks. So as I haven’t got much material at the moment, I thought I should look through my computer and see what inspiration I can find.

While I was looking through some previous holidays from a long time ago, when I stumbled across this one. This was taken before I got really serious with photography so the quality wasn’t perfect. But I had managed to get the composition right. I waited until the lamb was looking next to the camera, as I thought this would create the best effect.

To edit the photo I corrected the white balance by adjusting the colour temperature, and I also decreased the highlight brightness. By correcting the white balance the sheep are now properly white and by adjusting the exposure the highlights have been blown out to much.

I plan on going out for a wander this weekend so I’ll see where that takes me. Bex sends her apologies, unfortunately she has been ill quite recently and so has been unable to do a post. She is getting better and will hopefully be able to carrying on posting towards the end of this week.

Mat

Circular Explosion

As I said yesterday we had taken a lot of photos at the fireworks night, so I looked through for another photo to upload today. I looked towards the end of the display, they were using larger and brighter fireworks and the photos looked astonishing. This one of the best that I took during the evening so I thought I should upload it.

To capture the trace of the whole firework I slowed the shutter down to one second. So as the shutter was open the whole firework was captured. The camera chose an aperture of F3.9 to correctly expose the photo. I really like how the explosion of the firework was caught and the trails of it zooming off in every direction. I also really like the symmetry created by the circular explosion pattern.

I decided against changing anything because I really liked how the photo had been captured. The camera had exposed the image correctly so I didn’t need to change that. And the colours have been replicated so I didn’t need to change the colour temperature either. And I managed to frame the photo to get the best composition as well.

I’m glad I’ve been able to upload these two photos because i really liked both of them and there was no way I could choose between either of them!

Mat

Fireworks

On bonfire night Bex and I went to a fireworks display together. The display was truly fantastic it was very well organised and everyone who attended had an enjoyable time. Bex and I must have taken around 500 photos between us so we had plenty of material to choose from. This is one of my favourite photos that I had taken.

They were firing multiple fireworks at a time so I thought by using a slow shutter speed I could make an interesting effect by blurring the individual fireworks into one big blur. I used the camera in shutter priority so I could have complete control; I selected a shutter speed of ½ of a second. This gave enough time for the light to hit the sensor and for the fireworks to be blurred. The camera chose an aperture of F4 to let the correct amount of light through; the depth of field is irrelevant because the distance was quite large and everything was in one plane.

When editing the photo I decided to change very little, except for: the contrast and the colour temperature. By increasing the contrast the photo becomes a lot more vivid and striking, this is the effect that I was trying to create. Also the camera hadn’t calculated the white balance correctly so I had to increase the colour temperature; this made the photo warmer and corrected the colour of the fireworks.

We both loved the fireworks, and as I said previous took around 500 photos, so we both have quite a few that we can upload. I’ll keep looking through for the best of my photos.

Mat

Starting Fires

I hope you’ve been enjoying yourself over the past week of fireworks and bonfires!! I love this time of year, as there is so much to take photos of- both inside and outside of events.

I took this photo at one of my town’s local events, which I attended to support my grandmother as she had the honour of lighting this year’s bonfire!! After she had lit it, it was left to burn down completely (which was rather nice, as it was freezing!). It was a really interesting subject for a photograph, as the combination of smoke, flames and ashes made for a unique effect at every press of the shutter. I like this photo in particular.

I experimented with exposure times to get different effects; in this picture I used a shutter speed of 1/4000 with an aperture of F8. I used such an incredibly fast shutter speed because I didn’t want the patterns made by the smoke to blur, and there was a lot of light coming from the fire.

I haven’t edited this image as I was pleased with the original. I love how you can see the ash around the outlines of the fire along with the silhouette of the wood. I hope you’ll join me in saying congratulations to my grandmother – she did well!!!

Bex

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Stalls

This is another photo from my holiday, as I still have many to upload and so little time to take new pictures!! I took this photo on the first full day of our holiday when we went shopping.

As described in a previous post, the shopping centre opens out to reveal a long high street with small pathways spiralling off of it. I’ve visited the same place several times, so I’ve been down most of them. The trouble is that they ALL lead to another winding alley, which leads to another and another, and so on.

I walked a little further down the street before turning off this time, and I found two large archways in what seemed to look like a long forgotten part of town. I heard noises so walked in to see what was going on and was faced with the buzz of a traditional market place.

I took this picture using ISO 1600 so that I could get a fast enough shutter speed whilst still being able to use an aperture of F8 to get a deeper depth of field. I didn’t do any editing apart from noise removal, as I wanted to keep the photo as close to the original as possible.

It’s near impossible to find the same streets more than once, but I certainly hope that I’m able to find this one again- I love it!!! Retro sweets anyone?

Bex

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Violent Sky

I managed to go out for a walk today, so I went to my favourite spot in the nature reserve. A lot has been happening recently and I needed some time to relax. It was quite late so the sun was just starting to dip below the tree line. I really liked the effect I had created and I wanted to try and capture it.

To capture the whole scene in sharp focus I decided to use an aperture of F8, as I was quite a distance from the trees the depth of field would be large enough to keep the whole scene in focus. To get the lighting effect that I wanted I decided to metre off the sky, then underexpose by 1/3^rd of a stop. This puts the trees into shadow and turns them into a silhouette; this was the effect that I had seen while sitting around and I was aiming to capture. I framed the photo so to fill half the frame with sky and half with the foreground; this gives a very pleasing composition.

To edit the photo the only thing that I decided to change was the exposure, I increased the contrast and the brightness of the highlights. By increasing both I made the photo look much more dramatic. Also it made the trees go very dark which made the effect even better I think.

I’m so glad that I managed to go for a walk today; it really made a huge difference. It just proves, photography can sort any problem, no matter how big or how major.

Mat

Lit Up Weed

This photo was taken on the wander earlier this week. One of the effects I was trying was with the flash, it was bright daylight but I thought by using the flash I could make the photo look much more dramatic.

So for this close up photo I programmed the flash to be very powerfull because I was using point metering of the stem. By metering off the stem this caused the background to be massively underexposed. This is the precise effect that I was trying to make, with the background being blacked out and the stem being very sharp and bright. As I was using the flash, the camera selected the aperture for me (in this case F8).

When editing the photo I decided to crop the photo to make it more symmetrical, I did this to enhance the composition. I also increased the colour temperature; this makes the photo look a lot warmer is another effect I like to have in my photos. I think the editing I have done has made the photo much better, particularly with the enhanced composition.

Bex and I have decided on our plans for this weekend, we won’t tell you them yet but there will be plenty of new photos to show you when we get back.

Mat

New Ideas

I didn’t get a chance for a walk today so I decided to use one of the photos that I took yesterday. When I wasn’t trying out new techniques I took this close up photo of a group of teasels.

I thought to make the composition more interesting I should try something new; so I took the photo angled upwards. Also I wanted to include some of the other teasels in the frame. I decided to use the flash on this photo because I thought it would light up the inside of the teasel. I wanted the other teasel to be out of focus so I used an aperture of F8, this meant that the whole of the main teasel was in focus but the second was smoothly out of focus.

When editing the photo I decided to make the shadow areas brighter, I hadn’t programmed the flash to be powerfull enough. Also I cropped the photo as to make the teasel more dominant in the frame; I think it makes the overall composition much better as well, having the second teasel in the lower right of the frame. I didn’t change anything else because I really like the effect that I had created.

Bex and I are planning on going for a wander this weekend if the weather is nice. If not we both still have got plenty of photos that we want to show to you.

Mat

Opportunities

Bex and I managed to go out for a wander today. I had a few tricks that I wanted to try out today so this was the perfect opportunity. One of the tricks was a ‘time warp’ effect, so I tried a few times with varying results.

One of the times that I tried it was on a small flower. So for the best effect I put the flower in the centre of the frame and used an aperture of F14. I metered off the flower because it was the key part of the scene. To create the ‘time warp’ effect I put the camera onto a tripod, selected a slow shutter speed (1/10^th of a second) then while the shutter was open I zoomed the lens in. This gives a very different motion blur to normal with the photo appearing stretched towards the edges of the frame. I tried zooming the lens different amounts but I think this one has the best effect.

I didn’t change anything when I put the photo onto the computer because I really liked the effect that I had created. The exposure had been set perfectly by the camera so I didn’t need to change anything in that respect and the colours had been reproduced accurately by the camera.

I’m very pleased with the effect I had managed to produced today; I will try out different techniques in the future to see if I can make a different effect.

Mat

Finer Details

I’ve been dealing with all my work that I’ve had to catch up on after my weekend away, so I haven’t enough spare time to go out on another wander. This serves as an advantage as well as a disadvantage, as I have plenty of photos left to share from my holiday!

I took this particular image the evening we arrived; I had a free day so travelled in the morning. I arrived at around 2pm and sat by the beach with a coffee. At about half past 4 I checked into the hotel. The sun was just beginning to set, and was starting to appear under the band of cloud, bathing everything in an orange haze. This picture was taken from the balcony of my room.

I used a starburst filter in conjunction with a neutral density filter to try to reduce the brightness of the image. This meant that I didn’t lose any detail in the picture, but also added interest to the photo. I love how there are smaller starburst effects along the middle section of the cloud, as well as the main beams from the sun.

I like how once you get past the face value of the picture, you begin to notice minute details such as the smaller starburst effects, and the ripples in the ocean that have been lit up by the sun.

Bex
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Vibrant Skies

I really wanted to take a sunset photo, so this evening I went out with my camera to hunt down the sunset. The weather was perfect for taking sunset photo because there was just the right amount of clouds.

To get the best effect I used a medium aperture (F10), by doing this the whole scene was in sharp focus. 

Also I used point metering and metered off the sky and underexposed by 1/3^rd of a stop. This combined effect puts the foreground into silhouette and makes the sky look really vibrant. I thought the most interesting composition would be if I had the foreground in the bottom of the frame with the sky being the most dominant part.

I thought the photo could do with some editing so I changed the histogram, I made the highlights brighter and increased the contrast, this made the sky even more vibrant. Also I cropped out some of the top of the frame; I did this because the sky was over dominating the photo. With this editing done the photo looks much better now.

I’m glad that I’ve finally got a good sunset photo, hopefully I’ll be able to take some more in the future.

Mat

Country View

I didn’t have a chance to go out today unfortunately. So I was looking through some photos that I had taken on one of the trips Bex and I went on. We had gone for a walk along a country lane, the scenery was amazing and the weather was amazing. Bex and I were taking photo after photo because there were so many photo opportunities.

For this photo I put the camera onto a tripod and used an aperture of F22 (the minimum on the lens I was using). This ensured the depth of field was at its maximum. Also I under exposed the on the camera, I did this to increase the contrast between the sky and the clouds. I was using ISO 100 for maximum detail; because of this the shutter speed the camera chose was ¼ of second. This didn’t matter because I was using a tripod.

When editing the photo, I decided to increase the colour temperature; I did this to make the photo look more vibrant with the greens and oranges being increased. Also I cropped the photo because I wasn’t completely happy with the composition. Cropping out some of the foreground has made the composition much more pleasing I think.

Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance for a photography wander soon. Because we’ve both found many good locations for photography which we would both love to share with you.

Mat

Tree Top

Today instead of going to the nature reserve I ventured out a little further than normal. I found a forest that I’ve been to a few times in the past. There were lots of opportunities for photos the last time I went so I thought I would pay the forest another visit.

Towards the edge of the forest there was a small group of trees. So I thought if I got the composition right the trees could look very interesting. To create the most interesting composition I framed the trees so they were lined up along the bottom. I managed to get plenty of sky into the photo to create more of a moody atmosphere; it was quite a grey day today so I was aiming for a moody effect. As the group of trees was quite far away from the camera the aperture I chose would be irrelevant, so I selected an aperture of F7.1 which gave a shutter speed of 1/25^th of a second. I was using a focal length of 20mm, so the shutter speed was fast enough.

When editing the photo the only things I changed was the saturation and the framing of the photo. I increased the saturation to make the trees look greener as in real life. And to improve the composition I cropped out the right side of the frame, this has greatly improved the composition.

This small forest is brimming with photographic opportunities; this is just one of the many that I spotted in 30 minutes. Hopefully if I get a chance i will go back again and take some more photos for you all to see.

Mat

Misty View

I didn’t have much to do today so I thought I should go out for a wander. I went back to the place I visited earlier this week because there was a few photos that I thought I could improve on.

The first time I took this photo I had chosen quite a large aperture, I wasn’t convinced on the effect that this produced. So when I went back I selected a much smaller aperture: F10. By selecting this aperture the depth of field has been made much larger but the foreground detail isn’t completely in sharp focus; this is the effect that I was aiming for the first time I went out.

I didn’t need to do much editing to the photo, but there was a few details I wanted to change. I changed the brightness because the exposure was a bit too dull for the effect I wanted. Also I increased the saturation because I felt the trees and bushes could do with being a little greener.

I’m glad I went back today to redo this photo because I’m very pleased with the effect I had created. I will probably go back in the near future because there are many more photographic opportunities that are waiting to be taken.

Mat