Crawling Ivy

This photo was taken just after the photo I previously uploaded. After taking the photo of the ivy from the side, I noticed that there was ivy growing up the next tree as well. I liked the contrast that the bright green ivy made against the bark of the tree. To make the most of the composition I tried to keep the depth of field as small as possible.

To keep the depth of field small I used an aperture of F6.3 as this gave me the depth of field I required. The camera paired this with a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second and an ISO of 1600. I also had to alter the colour tone to compensate for the bright green from the leaves of the ivy. I didn’t use the flash as I was close to the leaves and I didn’t want them to white out and become clipped.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down and removed one of the leaves as I thought it was a distraction and made the photo look more confusing. I also decreased the colour tone a bit more as I thought there wasn’t enough red in the photo. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the rest of the photo had come out. The exposure was exactly how I wanted it to be so I decided not to change it.

I’m quite pleased with both of the photos, but I think this one is my favourite out of the two. Hopefully I will get a chance to upload some more photos from our wander in town.

Mat

Tree Growth

I took this photo on the most recent wander that Bex and I went on in our local town. We were walking down a long path that was surrounded by trees on both sides. On one of the trees there had some ivy growing up the side. I liked the composition it created against the background.

To enhance the composition I used the widest aperture that I could, which was F5.6, the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/80^th of a second and with an ISO of ISO 3200. I decided against using my flashgun as there was enough light making its way through the trees. I had to compensate against the amount of green by lowering the colour tone and bringing more red into the photo. I composed the photo so the tree took up the left half of the frame with the ivy in the centre of the photo.

To edit the photo I further decreased the colour tone to balance the colours. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the rest of the photo looked. The composition was how I wanted it to be and the exposure was spot on.

Both Bex and I have been very busy recently, but we will be going out and taking photos as often as we can.

Mat

Importance

Today’s image will not please those who visit our blog for artistic merits or photographic tips, but it is a place that I hold dear. This is a photo of the local nature reserve- the site of at least 90% of the images on this blog. In a way, I am uploading this to prove a point.

I am incredibly lucky to live in such close proximity to this, but you don’t have to live somewhere busy, interesting or unusual to undertake photography. I live in a small town on the outskirts of a city. Apart from this nature reserve, there is a lake and a small shopping centre of no more than 15 shops. The most important skill in photography is being able to look around you and see the potential for different photographs; you don’t have to go to somewhere new every time as nothing stands still.

I was recently given a column in our local newspaper, in which I talk about a photo and it’s background; much like on this blog. Through this, I met a young woman who loves photography but didn’t know how to take it further as we have such a small town. The only advice you can give someone is to make the most of it; seize every opportunity, appear at all the events you can possibly manage, and never go anywhere without your camera!!

I could continue to tell you how I have manipulated this image, but the technical and artistic decisions do not belong it today’s post, and I apologise to those who may be disappointed. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to keep at it.

Bex

x 

Contradiction

Yesterday, I said that I don’t like having too many distractions from the subject of the photograph. However, that’s not completely true- it depends on the context. In this case, I decided not to crop the background flowers or to use flash to remove the background leaves. I believe I was right to do this as it adds more interest, and sets the scene of the entire photo. I like that there are 3 flowers across the frame as it provides an element of continuity and repetitiveness.

I hadn’t cleaned my lens so there were particles of dust that created a lens flare effect; I really like this, so didn’t use a lens hood or edit this out. I have edited this photo slightly, but only because I like high contrast images; more than what camera is capable of producing. I increased the brightness of the image as it was slightly under exposed. I also increased the contrast. I then increased the saturation to make the image more vibrant, and the hue to make the flowers more purple. Finally, I sharpened the image to show finer details in the image.

I’m pleased with the final image; it’s generally a good idea to follow rules, but if you do this all the time it can lead to a lack of variety in your images.

Bex

x

Cut out

This is another photo from my “mediocre meander” a few days ago. Unlike most of the other photos, this one, although a lucky shot, was quite successful. I liked the pattern of the fungus on the branch, so tried to capture this. I underexposed the image and used flash, in order to only show a finite section of the plant. I may have planned the outcome but I don’t have live view, so this was the part that was potluck.

I was lucky enough to achieve the effect I wanted within one shot. I was happy with the composition of the photo, but thought that the background was too distracting in the original image. To reduce this, I edited the image using Photoshop. I increased the contrast and reduced the brightness, which removed some of the background details.

I removed some of the more distracting leftovers from this process using the healing tool. I chose to leave some background detail in because I didn’t want the image to be too precise; to me, Photoshop is a tool in which you can edit images so they stay natural, or edit them to make them stand out. When editing images to “enhance reality”, I feel that removing too many details makes it look fake. Finally, I increased the saturation to make the pinks and greens more vibrant, then sharpened the image,

I love under exposing with flash to cut out the background; it’s such a simple way to create a dramatic technique that focuses attention on the foreground. I discovered this by accident, but it has become one of the main techniques that I employ; a great reason why experimentation in photography is so vital!

Bex

x

Guessing

The courtyard of my college is often used as storage for anything old, broken or no longer in use. As such, this is often the best place to find photographs. Today, I found… well, I’m not really sure!

While eating lunch in the courtyard, I noticed a sizeable box with wheels in the middle, and cogs either end. I’m still not sure of its purpose, but I can only presume that it is a discarded piece of art, as it doesn’t seem to resemble anything.

I underexposed this image as the light was strong and I wanted to create dramatic shadows. This picture has been significantly edited in Photoshop. I darkened the highlights and lightened the shadows to create a subtle solarising effect. I then increased the contrast and added noise to make the image seem more aged. Finally, I sharpened the image. I find abstract photos interesting, as it doesn’t matter how many questions you manage to answer, there are always more to be asked.

Bex
x

Missing Inspiration

The problem with trying to take photos when you are lacking inspiration is that you end up forcing it, meaning you are much less likely of getting a “wow” photo, and most will be mediocre at best. I was having a day of no inspiration today, but desperately needed new photos.

I took about 80 photos, but most were duplicates and very few useable. When looking through them, I found a photo of this plant; it was quite over exposed, which I tried to repair in Photoshop.

I used the exposure tool to darken the highlights. I then reduced the brightness of the overall image, then increased the contrast. I tried to increase the saturation, but it didn’t look right. I changed the hue, trying to make it more natural, but gave up and started to mess around, making the image look strange. I increased the hue almost completely, but decided that it made the image look a lot more interesting!!!

Editing the photo like this reminded me of the effect given by a photogram (when you place objects on photographic paper and expose to get the outline, and sometimes the texture, of the object). I like the small amount of foreground that can be seen at the top. Photoshop is an amazing tool; perhaps designed to enhance photos, but it has the potential to make an ordinary photo interesting.

Bex

x

Branching Pathways

I got out for another photography wander today with Bex. We went into our local town again, and went for a walk around our usual places. We were walking along a path on the way to a cafe that we like when I spotted a few small branches that had fallen onto the path. I thought they made an interesting composition.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6, as this isolated the closet branch from the rest of the scene. I left the camera to select both the shutter speed and the ISO, for this exposure the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/40^th of a second and an ISO of ISO 6400 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo, the only thing I did was to increase the contrast, I was happy with the rest of the photo so I decided to leave it the way it came out of the camera. The composition was as I wanted it to be, and the colours had been replicated accurately so didn’t require any editing. Also the exposure didn’t require any changes except for the increase in contrast.

I’m really glad that both Bex and I had a chance to go out with our cameras today. We haven’t been out with our cameras together for quite a while and I was in need of taking some new photos. So I will have a few new photos to upload to the blog over the next few days.

Mat

Delicate

I love this time of year, because the yellow flower of the dandelion has gone, and the seeds are left behind. Their seeds are very good for many things- wishes, telling the time, and of course, photography!

This is another photo I took on my photography wander a few days ago. I’m amazed that I managed to take this photo; it’s incredibly hard to hold a D-SLR with one hand!!! However, I’m pleased with the result, especially how sharp it is!! This is one of those amazing photos that you feel wasn’t successful, but looks great on a laptop screen!

I haven’t edited this image, as I was really pleased (but surprised) at the result. I also tried to blow the seeds away, but I’m not convinced with these images. I shall edit them and see.

Bex

x

Triumph

Since I took up photography as a hobby, I have seen many close up shots of insects, and have wanted to achieve this myself. I have been lucky with a few shots, such as a dragonfly. However, my biggest challenge was trying to capture a butterfly, as I almost never see them.

I took my camera with me a few days ago, and went for a mini photography wander on my way home that evening. The nature reserve was incredibly quiet, which surprised me, as the weather was glorious! I spotted a butterfly after I had been in the nature reserve for only a few minutes, which annoyed me, as I didn’t have my telephoto lens with me. The butterfly settled on one leaf, so I carefully climbed into the bush, as I was determined not to miss the opportunity! I managed to get incredibly close, and took at least 10, I was determined that I would not be disappointed when I got home!

To enhance the image, I darkened the highlights where I had slightly over exposed. I then increased the contrast, and decreased the brightness slightly. Finally, I cropped the image, to make the butterfly more central. I also sharpened the image, to make the individual hairs and the eye of the butterfly more prominent.

I called this photo triumph, as I feel that two years of patience and climbing through nettles has paid off! I’m incredibly pleased with this image; I finally achieved what I wanted, and I’m over the moon with the result!

Bex

x

Steam Traction

Following on from my most recent post I thought I would upload another photo based on railways. I wanted to use a photo of a railway but with a bit of twist. So I thought I would look back through my computer to one of the many holidays that I’ve been to in Wales. On this particular holiday we paid a visit to one of the preserved railways, I wanted to give this photo a bit of a twist by making it look more vintage, a bit like an old style postcard.

The engine is a manor class loco as used by the Great Western Railway (GWR), just in case any wants to know! I used an aperture of F16 to ensure that as much of the photo is in focus, the camera then selected a shutter speed of a/125^th of a second and ISO 100 to complete the exposure. I composed the photo so that the engine was in the right third of the photo with the rest of the train extending through the photo to the left hand third.

To edit the photo I increased both the saturation and the colour temperature, this gives the photo an older appearance and makes it looks like an old fashioned post card. I like this effect; the photo looks exactly as I wanted it to when I came up with the idea. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with everything else.

I’m very pleased with the effect I created with this photo, I like the character that old photos and old postcards have; and that was what I was trying to replicate with this photo.

Mat

Off To Work

Sorry I haven’t done a blog post recently, things have been going crazy, but are slightly better now and I finally managed to get out for a short photography wander. The weather wasn’t amazing today so I decided to pay a quick visit to our local railway station.

It was quite early in the morning so the station was full of commuters on their way to work. I thought the busy atmosphere would make an interesting composition. I was waiting for one of the commuter trains to leave when I saw the guard making his way down the platform, I thought it would make an interesting composition if I could isolate them as they talked to each other.

To isolate them I used an aperture of F8 to ensure that both of them were in focus but to still make sure that the background was still out of focus. I had to use quite a high ISO to ensure that the shutter speed would be fast enough, as the camera was in aperture priority the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down to focus the attention onto the driver and the guard. I also increased the contrast while lowering the highlights to reduce the effect of the highlights being blown in the sky. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the rest of the photo.

I’m glad I had a chance to go out for a photography wander today, even though the weather wasn’t great I still had a good time and took a few good photos at the station. Hopefully I will have another chance sometime soon to take some more photos.

Mat

Sweeping

I find that some types of photography are easier than others; for example, I feel that macro shots are my strong point- however, when it comes to landscape photography, my skills leave a lot to be desired. I have seen images in magazines of sculpted fields, with ridges running down one side and trees that seemed to have been placed as props for that specific photograph. Until now, I very foolishly assumed that these images had been the victim of a very heavy-handed approach to Photoshop, and that in fact, you would never find these sweeping landscapes with rolling clouds and perfectly placed shrubs- I was wrong.

I visited a photography exhibition on the second floor of a university, situated opposite a country park. The intention of the visit was to inspire my own work, but the visit ended with me at the window with my trusty Olympus in hand! While in one of the rooms, I noticed ridges in the ground that I had never seen from the road, with these idyllically placed trees. It is rare that I have such a chance, so made the most of it and took the photo from a range of angles. While doing so, 3 deer appeared almost from thin air. I only had my wide-angle lens with me, but this appeared to be a blessing in disguise as it made me think more carefully about composition.

I achieved the effect that I was looking for, but it was a gloomy day, and the image felt washed out. I darkened the shadows to make the tones of the clouds more prominent, then increased the contrast and decreased the brightness of the whole image. I decided that I preferred almost completely de-saturating the image, as it gave the effect of an old photo. To play on this idea further, I over-sharpened the picture, and added noise. I’m pleased to have finally taken a decent landscape shot! Practice really does make perfect.

Bex

x

A Hands-on Approach

Throughout the second day of the festival, the local zoo brought all manner of creepy and crawly to show the crowds.

I was talking to one of the organisers of the zoo, and she showed me a few different creatures- needless to say I avoided the spiders!! One of the things she showed me was this mantis. She was very obliging, and even took it out of the box for me to take a photo. The insect itself was a stunning yellow colour, a similar shade to that of a pineapple. However, this didn’t come across well in the photograph, as the lighting was wrong and the camera struggled.

When editing, I was trying to find an amount of saturation that complimented both the skin tone, and the colour of the mantis. I tried reducing the saturation, but decided I liked the photo almost completely de-saturated. I say almost, because I like to have some colour left, which gives the grey tones a tint. Having done this, I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to remove any remaining details in the background (having used flash). I have also sharpened the image, more as a habit.

This is one of the images I am most pleased with from festival weekend, as it was a nice break from a more journalistic style of photography, as well as a nice break from the sun!!

Bex

x

High Flyer

This is a photo from the main day of the festival. Bradley Stoke Radio was given the role of overseeing the main arena, which saw a Taekwondo display, a tag rugby match, and the fore-mentioned falconry display.

As part of the finale of the Taekwondo display, the instructor jumped of four students, and split a piece of wood on the other side. I used my wide-angle lens and continuous drive mode, as I didn’t want to miss my shot. I managed to get a few, but this image was my favourite.

I cropped the photo, as I had used a wide angle, and the background distracted attention from the focus of the photo. I also increased the contrast and sharpened the image.

The community festival is one of the biggest events on the town calendar, and is a great way to see local groups.

Bex

x

Champions

As I previously said, last weekend saw the town’s annual festival. On the Sunday, a “bed race” took place on a small circuit around part of the town. This event was one of the hardest times to be a photographer, as I spent 20 minutes sprinting behind each of the “beds”. I use air quotes, as the rules were that you had to make you own bed to enter. I don’t mean putting on pillowcases, but wood nails!!

The beds ranged from a flat board with wheels, wooden longs tied together, and this… it looks suspiciously like a laundry cart. A team from the local Hilton hotel branch competed, and managed to win, pushing the “bed” around the course in an impressive 13 minutes and hardly broke a sweat. I ran the course with them, so can definitely vouch for it being no mean feat!!!

Along the course, there were 5 stations, which held different tasks, such as apple bobbing and cracker eating. This team had just gone past the apple bobbing station, which explains the apple hanging out of one of the team members’ mouth.

I chose to use this photo, as I liked that I managed to get an “action shot”. It was tiring, but brilliant fun, and I can’t wait till next year!!!

Bex

x

Burst Of Colour

I took this photo on one of the trips Bex and I went on to our local town. I was trying to capture a photo of a group of daffodils but they were in direct sunlight which made setting the exposure very difficult. I didn’t get the effect that I wanted so I moved on to a different subject. When looking back through, I came across this photo which didn’t look as bad as I thought when I took it.

I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected to give the best trade off between depth of field and a fast shutter speed. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 for maximum image quality. I didn’t have my flash gun on me during this trip as I couldn’t balance the harsh sunlight. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights. After I did this I started playing with the colour temperature settings, I used the custom setting and selected the yellow leaves which turned them white and turned the background a rather pleasant blue colour! I stopped changing settings after this as I didn’t want to spoil the effect that I had (accidently) made. I really like the modified colours and I think it makes the photo look much better than before.

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon and Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander very soon.

Mat

Light In The Mist

I took this on my recent photography wander, it was late at night and there were a lot of lights on. It had just started to rain and the powerfull lights were lighting up the misty rain. I really like the effect that this created.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected. This ensured that the whole light was in sharp focus but the background was blurred out of focus. I didn’t use the flash because it would cause the housing of the light to white out and would ruin the composition. I had left the camera with the ISO in auto so the camera selected an ISO 12800. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/60^th of a second to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo the first thing I did was to use the noise reduction tool to attempt to reduce the noise created by using the high ISO. I then cropped the photo down to focus the attention onto the light itself, and to remove some distractions in the foreground. I didn’t edit the colours as I was happy with how they had been reproduced by the camera.

I like this photo now that I’ve done some editing to it. The composition looks much better after cropping the noise reduction has made the photo more pleasing to the eye. I very much look forward to the next photography wander that Bex and I go on.

Mat

Onlooking

I have been looking at a lot of black and white photographers recently, which has inspired a lot of my work. You may have noticed that a few of my images recently have had hints of grey scale, if not fully black and white such as today’s upload. First of all, let me promise that this will be my final falconry image for the next few days!

After the final demonstration had finished, the owner of the birds came over to talk to everyone on the BSR stand, and bought this gorgeous creature with him, as it was the last bird used in the display. It was incredibly well behaved, and stayed perched on the man’s arm for the entirety of the conversation, keeping his owner in sight. As the bird seemed settled, I decided to seize my chance, and take a close up photo. I used my kit lens, as I was too close to use a telephoto. I tried to take the photo from below the bird, in order to convey power.

The top half of the background remains unchanged apart from being turned black and white, but the bottom half of the background was a funfair, which I removed using a combination of the magic wand selection tool, cut, smudge and the pencil to remove finer remains of the background. It took me quite a long time, but it was worth it. It was made much easier by the fact that the sky went from blue to white at the bottom. Having removed the background, I turned the image black and white, then increased the contrast and brightness to make the bird more striking. I’m incredibly pleased with the final image; I think greyscale suited the subject well, and made it more prominent against the background.

Bex

x

An Obvious Name for a Hawk

This is Dave. There’s not really much more you can add to that sentence because it’s quite an odd name for a hawk, but according to the owner of the falconry stand “everyone needs a mate named Dave”.

When not taking part in displays, the birds were placed on platforms, behind a small fence, next to the arena. One of the calmest birds was Dave, and was easy to photograph, as the trainer managed to get him to look at me. I was using a telephoto lens, as I wanted the wider aperture for a more shallow depth of field. I tried to under expose, as the camera metered off of the black feathers and over exposed the image. I placed the bird to one side of the frame, as I didn’t want background on each side. By doing this it places the beak in the centre, making the image more striking.

Once again, I selected the background in Photoshop using the magnetic lasso. This time, I reduced the brightness, contrast and saturation to make the image seem more washed out. I then selected the hawk separately, and reduced the highlights, increased the contrast and sharpened the selection, in order to make the separation between each of the feathers more prominent.

I have perhaps one more falconry image I would like to upload, then I’ll move onto another topic!!

Bex

x

Peanut

After such a long wait, festival fever has come and gone, and we are back to mundane Monday. Each year, our town has a 3-day festival on the playing fields. The first day consists of a child’s picnic and treasure hunt, the second sees the field lined with stalls and entertainment, the final day featuring a range of sporting events, such as cricket and football.

I feel that before writing about my photo, I should first introduce the subject. This is Peanut, a 2-year-old eagle owl, no taller than 7 inches. A complete poser, and possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever photographed! I met peanut while covering a falconry display in the main arena. I was taking photos from inside the arena, so I probably should have foreseen meeting someone new!! While taking part in the display, Peanut decided it was time for a well-earned rest, and landed no more than 2 feet away from me! I used my telephoto lens as this was what I already had on the camera, but it worked well as I could get closer, and blur the background more.

Later, having packed up and made the mistake of sitting down, I decided to review my photos. I had forgotten what a lucky shot I had gotten, so this image bought a smile to my face. I used the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop to select Peanut, then inverted the selection in order to work with the background. I tried reducing the brightness, but it made the image look fake, as the white balance was different. Instead, I decided to de-saturate the background, which I thought worked well. I then increased the contrast and darkened the highlights of the entire image. Finally, I increased the hue and saturation to make Peanut stand out more against the grey background.

I managed to capture this shot more by luck than skill, but I am really pleased with both the composition and the final image. I love festival weekend; I can’t believe it’s over already! Expect some more falconry photos over the coming days.

Bex

x

Burning Lights

I managed to get out on a photography wander tonight, I was in our local town for the afternoon. It started to get late into the evening and the sun and hidden behind the horizon for the night. One of my aims was to capture some of the street lamps after day; as I thought the light would make an interesting composition.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6 selected, as this gives the best combination of narrow depth of field and still allows a moderate shutter speed to be used. I didn’t use the flash as it would spoil the lighting effect that I was aiming for.

 To edit the photo I used the noise reduction tool to try and reduce some of the noise created by the high ISO. I also increased the contrast to give the photo a bit more punch. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy how the colours had been replicated and I like how I had composed the photo.

Hopefully I will get a chance for some more photography at some point soon. As I’m a bit low on photos, and I would like to make the most of the good weather.

Mat

Tropical

First of all, I should apologise for the shocking lack of grammar displayed in yesterday’s post. It’s been a very long week full of exams, and the blog has suffered (as evidenced by my lack of posts).

This is another photo taken at the lake. The lake is split into several sections, split by small roads. This section of the lake was lined with trees, down each side. I positioned myself at the end of one row, and decided to hold the camera on an angle, in order to create a more prominent “tunnel” effect with the branches. I achieved the effect that I wanted to, but the original photo looked dull and under-saturated. To fix this, I edited the image in Photoshop.

Initially, I took the contrast to what I thought looked acceptable and adjusted the brightness to match. However, I decreased the brightness slightly more than intended, but decided I liked the effect of dark shadows, so increased the contrast to make this more prominent. I then increased the saturation. I prefer to over-saturate, then work backwards. Having done this, decided that I like the bright blues of the sky and yellow tones of the trees. I also adjusted the hue, as I wanted to give more of an impact.

I decided to name my image “Tropical”, as it reminds me of the kind of thing that you might find on the side of a juice bottle, and the bright colours against the shadows make the image striking. Considering that the image was uninteresting before, I’m incredibly pleased. I shall apologise for any grammatical errors now, but hopefully I’m more literate this evening!

Bex

x

Glisten

The great benefit of meeting like-minded people is that you can share ideas and tips. I met another photographer at a local event I covered. I was told about a lake on the outskirts of the town, that I didn’t know about. I visited the lake this afternoon, as the weather was stunning and I wanted to see if it lived up to what I was told; to which is exceeded expectations.

I took this photo as I noticed that another photo I had taken of ducks swimming seemed to have a glistening effect around the waves. I tried to focus solely on this, as the waves lapped against the bank. I used a shutter speed of 1/250 as I wanted the waves to be sharp. I managed to capture the glisten of the water, but the photo seemed uninteresting apart from this, so I decided to use Photoshop.

I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness, in an attempt to make the pattern of the waves more prominent. The colour of the water was dull, so I tried to change this by changing the hue. As I was doing so, I slipped and dragged the slider too far, make the water bright yellow. I liked the effect, but not the colour, so experimented with the hue and saturation till I found this red-purple colour. I then sharpened the image to pick out the individual gleams, and patterns of the waves.

I like the idea of this abstract photograph; I enjoyed taking something simple and using this merely as a base. I plan to take a trip to town tomorrow, as there is a small festival on the harbour side. If not, you may see some of the other things I have up my sleeve.

Bex

x

Flying Away

When I was photographing the pigeon I mentioned yesterday, after I captured the photo I wanted it suddenly flew off the branch into the forest behind it. Fortunately I managed to focus onto the bird as it flew off and I got a small series of photos before it was out of sight.

I still had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected. This shutter speed was fast enough to freeze the action and would remove any camera shake created while panning the camera. I didn’t use the flash gun because I didn’t have enough time to remove from my camera bag and attach it to my camera. I over exposed the photo by 1/3^rd of a stop, to combat the lighting.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights to ensure the highlights didn’t become clipped. I also changed the colour tone as I thought the camera had recorded to much green in the photo for my liking. I cropped the photo as I thought the composition wasn’t very balanced, I cropped the photo so the pigeon was in the lower left hand corner of the frame.  

This photo isn’t the best quality wise but I still like it as it shows the pigeon in full flight as it takes off and flies deeper into the wood. Hopefully I’ll get another chance for a wildlife photo shoot soon, as I enjoy the challenge of moving subjects.

Mat

Perched And Waiting

Both Bex and I managed to get out for a short while today, so we decided to go for a quick walk around the local nature reserve. While we were on our way into the forest I spotted a bird flying towards a tree, it slowed and landed on a branch about 25 feet in front of me! I fortunately had my telephoto lens on my camera so I cropped in on the pigeon to get the best composition.

As I cropped in I noticed the bird had a small twig in its beak, it was carrying into another tree nearby to create a nest. I focussed the camera onto the head of the pigeon and I kept the bird in the centre of the frame because I thought this would give the best composition. I didn’t use the flash as it was still in my camera bag and I didn’t know how long I had until the pigeon would fly off again.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights, to make sure the white patch didn’t become clipped. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the photo looked straight from the camera. The colours had been replicated perfectly and the composition looked spot on how I wanted it.

I’m glad we got a chance to go out for a photography wander, the weather was amazing and it was nice to go for a walk in the bright sunshine. Hopefully the weather will last for a while longer!

Mat

Paddling Past

I said in a previous post that Bex and I only saw two ducks while we were at the duckpond. After I captured that photo the ducks split off and I followed the male duck until he past some reeds that were protruding above the water level. I thought it made an interesting composition so I took a series of photos and used the one with the best composition to upload for you.

I had the camera in shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second selected so all the movement made by the reeds and the duck were frozen. I was overexposing the photo to compensate for the lighting which corrected the overall exposure. This gave me an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO speed of ISO 400.

The only editing I did was to crop and rotate the orientation of the photo, as i think this vastly improves the composition. The exposure was correct and I didn’t need to overexpose the photo as I had already compensated for the lighting conditions. The colours had been replicated with the right warmth so I didn’t change the colour tone, or the colour temp.

I’m very much looking forward to our next photo shoot. Maybe we should do a still life photos hoot as we haven’t done one for quite a while. I learnt a lot from doing the still life photo shoot with the flowers a few months ago; hopefully I’ll be able to apply that knowledge to improve my next shoot.

Mat

Nesting

This photo I took while I was on my photography wander with Bex. We were just leaving when I spotted a swan that was nesting on a little island in the pond. It had chosen a very good place for a nest as it was very sheltered.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in manual mode again, and I selected a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second and an aperture of F11. I chose this shutter speed as it was fast enough to freeze any movement and also fast enough to remove any camera shake as I was using my monopod to help keep the camera steady. I left the ISO in auto and the camera chose ISO 1600 to complete the exposure. I didn’t use my flash gun as the sky was rather cloudy at the time and therefore diffused the sunlight.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down and also changed the orientation. I did this to focus the attention onto the swan, and I prefer the vertical composition. I also increased the contrast and the sharpness. I did this to give the photo some extra punch and to clear up some ‘fuzziness’ that the high ISO had created.

Hopefully soon we will get a chance to go on a photography wander. As the weather is really starting to improve again. So we should be able to catch some wildlife in the brilliant summer sun.

Mat

Swimming Pair

We managed to get out for a short walk today, so both of us decided to go down to the duckpond to take some photos of the wildlife. We were surprised when we got there, because most of the birds had flown off and the pond was nearly empty! The only wildlife we saw was this pair of ducks swimming around.

I thought the pair made an interesting composition, just swimming around. To make the most of the composition I had the camera in manual mode and I selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second and an aperture of F9. I chose these so the shutter was fast enough to freeze the movement and the depth of field was large enough to keep both ducks in sharp focus. The camera selected an ISO of ISO800 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights as the water was becoming to a bit too bright. I also cropped the photo down as to improve the composition and to focus the attention onto the two ducks as they swam around on their own.

I’m glad we had a chance to get out today, but a bit of a pity that almost all of the wildlife had disappeared for the day! Hopefully we will have some better luck the next time we are at the duckpond.

Mat

On The Move

Looking back through some photos that I’ve taken on previous photography wanders, and I once again came across the series of photos that I took of the squirrel in our local city. The squirrel was jumping around on a search for food, and I managed to capture a photo just as it was changing direction and about to move off again.

I had the camera in shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second, had an ISO of ISO800 locked in. I was underexposing the photo by 1/3^rd of a photo which meant the camera selected an aperture of F5.6 to complete the exposure.  I didn’t use my flash gun because it was in my camera bag and I didn’t have enough time to attach it to my camera.

I didn’t change anything during the editing stage as I was happy with the overall effect of the photo. The exposure was spot on what I wanted it to be, and the colours had been replicated faithfully. I didn’t crop the photo as I was happy with the composition of the photo.

Bex and I are planning on a photography wander next weekend as we will have some spare time. Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can get outside to capture some summer shots.

Mat

Tangled

I decided to take my camera with me this afternoon, as I wanted to go for a walk through the nature reserve. I didn’t take many photos, as I wasn’t in a very photographic mood, but did take a few- such as this.

I noticed on one of the trees that the edges of the leaves had started to go red, making them look more eye catching. I decided to focus on the leaves falling away from the main branch, as they looked as if they had become tangled around it.

I liked the photo but decided to edit it as I had left the camera’s white balance on auto and it had chosen the wrong one. To compensate, I changed the hue something slightly bluer, as most of the image had gone red. I then decreased the saturation, as I didn’t want bright colours to detract from the composition. I increased the contrast while decreasing the brightness, as I wanted to give the image more impact. However, I didn’t increase the contrast by much, as I didn’t want the image to be as striking as I would normally prefer. I also sharpened the image to highlight details on the branch and leaves.

Bex

x

Hiding

I should apologise for my complete disappearance over the last 8 days; I have been in the midst of exam season, so the blog has taken a backseat. Nevertheless, I am back!

I took this photo yesterday evening, using my phone. The straps of my bag broke, and while still on the search for a new one, have not been able to carry my equipment. Mobile phones has become commonplace, and is a useful tool if you spot a photo that is unlikely to be repeatable- such as this.

It was getting late and the sunset didn’t look as it normally would, because of the clouds. Because of this, I decided to walk up the hill in the nature reserve to try and get some clear photos. My phone has the ability to meter from any point (done by pressing the object you would like to expose for), making it a useful tool for silhouetting parts of the image. I touched the middle cloud, in order to make the foreground of the town a silhouette.

I have sharpened the image in Photoshop as the image quality is obviously not going to be that of a DSLR. I also increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to make the clouds appear more dramatic. I also increased the saturation, as I wanted the change from blue to orange in the sunset more prominent. I’m really pleased with the final image, despite being from a phone. I called the image hiding, because I decided that this is what it looked like the sun was doing; a familiar story fro Britain!

Bex

x

Lost In The Silhouette

I managed to get out for a quick walk this evening with Bex. We went for a short walk around the nature reserve as we didn’t have much time. As we were walking a pigeon suddenly flew out of nowhere nearly hitting me in the head! Fortunately I had my camera out so I quickly spun around and took a series of photos as it flew away from us. Luckily a couple of the photos were in focus, this one was my favourite in terms of composition.

I didn’t have a chance to change any of the settings before I took the photo. Fortunately the camera was in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second selected, so both the movement of the bird and any camera shake were both frozen. I had the ISO locked at ISO800 and the camera selected an aperture of F8 to complete the exposure.

I didn’t edit the photo as I like how it was straight from the camera; I like the underexposed effect of the photo. Also the composition was how I wanted it to be, so I didn’t crop the photo down. The colours in the sky and clouds looked accurate to how they were so I didn’t change either the colour tone or the colour saturation.

I think this is my best spur of the moment photo I’ve taken so far. Although out of all the photos I took only two of them were in correct focus! So I was quite lucky with this photo. But I think it worked out well in the end.

Mat

Look Before You Jump

I found this photo while doing the previous blog post, this photo was taken chronologically first but I preferred the previous photo, which is why I uploaded it first. I had first seen the squirrel scurrying around in this tree. It stopped on a branch and leaned over looking like it was about jump to the ground (which it did after I captured my photos).

I didn’t have much time to capture the image I wanted, so I put the camera into shutter priority and selected a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second. I chose this photo as I knew it would fast enough for all eventualities; it is fast enough to remove almost any movement by the squirrel and it will remove any camera movement even at the lens longest focal length. Fortunately I had enough time to take a short series of photos before the squirrel jumped off the branch onto the ground.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo for a tighter composition around the squirrel because there were quite a few distractions behind the tree. I didn’t change anything else because I was happy with the exposure and the colours had been replicated perfectly.

Hopefully at some time next week Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander. The weather looks to improve so hopefully there will be plenty of new flowers bursting into life in the nature reserve and lots of wildlife hiding and waiting to be found.

Mat

Food Lookout

I took this photo earlier this year on the trip that Bex and I went on to our local town. I remember this trip because of the very friendly squirrel I found. It obviously liked the attention of the camera, because while I was taking some photos of the squirrel it didn’t move very often. So I managed to get a good set of photos while I was there.

This is one of my favourites because I managed to capture the squirrel just before it ran off, so it was looking towards a scrap off food behind a wall so I couldn’t follow for more photos. I really like the pose I captured the squirrel in just before he ran it ran off.

To capture the image I had the camera in shutter priority so I had complete control of the necessary settings. I then set the shutter speed to 1/500^th of a second, this was fast enough so that any movement made by the squirrel would be frozen and any camera shake would be removed. I didn’t have my flash gun with me during the photography wander, but it wasn’t required because the sky was partially cloudy which caused the light to be diffused perfectly. I overexposed the photo by 1 and 1/3^rd of a stop to compensate for the brighter background.

To edit the photo I cropped the image down to focus the attention onto the squirrel. I also boosted the contrast to give the photo a little extra vividness. I was experimenting with the colour tone and the saturation; I tried increasing the colour tone while decreasing the saturation. Which increased the reds while decreasing all other colours, because the squirrel is predominantly grey this creates a stronger contrast and makes the squirrel stand out more from the background, particularly as the squirrel is standing on a small patch of green foliage which jumps out from the background.

I’m very impressed with how the image looks after I edited it; it looks very different from how it came out of the camera. I think the photo looks a lot better after I edited it, the composition looks a lot better and the lack of colour I think makes the squirrel stand out from the background a lot more than before.

Mat

Flying Alone

I was looking through my computer for some inspiration when I found this photo; I had taken during a photography wander early in January. The weather was bright but cloudy so perfect photography weather (even if it wasn’t perfect weather for the photographer!). I saw a bird of prey that was flying overhead so I tried to capture a photo of it against the clouds.

I wanted the contrast to very harsh so I underexposed the camera by 2/3^rd of a stop. I had the camera in servo AF mode so the focus would follow the motion of the bird. When I was happy with the composition I took a series of photos. I had locked the exposure at 1/400^th of a second which was fast enough to freeze the movement of the bird as it was a long distance away.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo into a square format as I think it creates a far stronger composition. And it enforces the isolation of the bird flying on its own. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the end effect.

Hopefully soon Bex and I will get a chance for a photography wander. But it will most likely be at some point next week. I have a lot of photos stored in my computer so I think I shall be reminiscing on some previous photography wanders.

Mat

Feeding Time

This photo was taken the short wander I went on last week. After walking through the nature reserve I made my way towards the duckpond. As he weather was nice there was a large gathering of ducks and other wild birds. Also a few young families were at the side of the pond feeding the ducks with small chunks of bread; which the ducks of course enjoyed, and many came back for more!

I saw one of the ducks making its way to were the other ducks were being fed. As it was on its own I thought it would make an interesting composition with the reflection in the water. To make the most of this composition I used an aperture of F8 to give a large enough depth of field. I didn’t get a chance to put the flash gun on my camera, so I had to overexpose the photo by 1 and 1/3^rd of a stop to get an even exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights, I then sharpened the photo as the photo looked a bit bland. I also cropped the photo because I felt that I had left to much dead space in the front of the photo. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the effect I had created.

Both Bex and I are going through a very busy time at the moment; we will go out on photography wanders whenever we get a chance, but when we can’t we will look through our computers for older photos so we can still keep the blog running for you.

Mat

Resting Bird

Bex and I managed to get out this weekend in the wonderful weather but we decided to have a day off from photography and to enjoy and relax in the weather. So I will be using a photo from one of my wildlife photography wanders. I remember taking this photo because the sun was beaming down which made the metering a challenge. As I really enjoy a challenge I was determined to capture this photo!

For this photo I had the camera in shutter priority to ensure that the shutter speed was fast enough to remove any movement that the bird made. Because of the direct lighting conditions I overexposed the photo to ensure that the exposure was even across the photo. I had left the camera in Auto ISO because the light was constantly changing. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and in ISO of ISO320 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I had to change the light levels quite a lot to combat the harsh exposure. I lowered the highlight while increasing the shadows. I also lowered the overall exposure to recover the highlight details. I didn’t change the colour temperature or the colour tone as I was happy with how the colours had been replicated by the camera.

I hope the weather holds because now that we’re off out photography break; I would love to capture some summer photos before the weather makes another turn for the worse!

Mat

Watching The World

I took this photo earlier this week while I was out walking with my camera. I was passing through the nature reserve and I saw a bird that had landed on a tree and just appeared to be watching the nearby world.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F6.3 selected. This aperture gives the best compromise of depth of field and still allows an adequate shutter speed to be used. I composed the photo so that I had a branch in front to give some foreground interest, and to also as lead in lines to the bird. I didn’t use the flash gun because the sky was quite cloudy and therefore the light was diffused.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looks. The exposure was spot on and the colours had been replicated perfectly. I liked the composition so I didn’t crop the photo either.

Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go out on a photography wander of some sort this weekend. The weather is looking good, warm and slightly cloudy; perfect photography weather!

Mat

Paddling

This photo I took on one of my recent trips to our local duckpond, it was very busy with a lot of ducks and swans on the lake. Even though it was very busy I did see one duck that was paddling around on its own. I thought it made an interesting composition paddling around with the small waves flowing away from it.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F11 selected to give a large depth of field. I had the ISO set at ISO1600 to ensure that the shutter speed selected would be fast enough to remove any camera shake or motion blur. I didn’t need to use the flash gun as the clouds were diffusing the natural light.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looks straight from the camera. The exposure was spot on and the colours had been replicated perfectly. I didn’t crop the photo as I was also happy with the composition.

I’m looking forward to this weekend as it should be very good for photography. If this weekend goes well then I’m sure we will both have plenty of photos to upload for you over the next few weeks.

Mat

Five Colours

From today’s image, you can tell why I was excused from blogging last night!!! I went to a McFly concert at a local music venue (unfortunately, not in the capacity of a photographer!). Of course, I did take a camera, but only a compact.

During some parts of the concert, the audience were encouraged to participate, to which they happily obliged. This is the subject of my photo. As I was using a compact camera, I was unable to choose many settings myself. I chose an ISO of 1600 in order to get the fastest shutter speed possible. The camera chose an aperture of F2.8 at 1/60^th.

Using such a high ISO meant the image quality wasn’t as good, so I decided to edit it. I increased the contrast, decreased the brightness and increased the saturation to make the image more vibrant, and to show the difference of tones between the crowd and the lights on the stage. I had an amazing time at the gig last night, and look forward to sharing more photos with you in due course.

Bex

x

Flowering

The weather has been rather miserable recently but I did manage to get out for a short walk today. Unfortunately a lot of the early spring growth has been killed because of the wet and cold conditions; also a lot of trees have been damaged due to the high winds. While on my walk I found a small patch of flowers that looked like it was the middle of summer, the rain and the cold hadn’t affected them at all!

I wanted a moderate depth of field so I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected. This made the depth of field deep enough to show the detail in the flowers, but shallow enough to blur the background and the foreground. I didn’t use the flash as I didn’t want to blow the highlights.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The composition was how I wanted it to be and both the exposure and the colour replication were spot on.

This weekend will be a very good weekend for photography, Bex and I have planned a trip out on Saturday. We will tell you more information about it nearer the time and I’m sure we will upload some photos after we get back.

Mat

Lone Swan

I didn’t get a chance to go for a photography wander this weekend so I used one of the photos from my previous wander earlier last week. I noticed a swan had made a nest on a small island in the duckpond. I thought it made an interesting composition as it was isolated on its own.

To make the most of the composition I put the camera in manual mode so I could control both the aperture and the shutter speed. I set the aperture at F5.6 and the shutter speed at 1/640^th to freeze the movement. I let the camera choose the ISO, which it calculated to be ISO1000. I also overexposed the photo by one stop.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with the effect straight from the camera. The exposure had been calculated perfectly and the colours had been replicated faithfully. I didn’t crop the photo as I liked how I had composed the photo.

Both Bex and I have a very busy time now because of our school/college work. But we will still go out on photography wanders whenever we can. If we don’t get a chance then we both have a large reserve of photos that we can access on our computers.

Mat

Movement

As promised, today’s image features the street art in the town centre. There are steps down to the jetty of the water taxi. Water runs down these steps and is lit up by lights behind the waterfall in the evening.

I took this photo after my meal with my family, as it was dark by that point so I knew the lights would be on. There are small lights following the walkway, which light up the edges of the streams of water. I used this to my advantage, and took the photo from an angle, to make the highlights more prominent. I used a shutter speed of 1/20, with an aperture of F22, as I wanted to blur the water, but needed to underexpose slightly.

I was surprised with the success of the photo, and decided that I didn’t need to edit the image. My usual practice would be to sharpen the photo, but I had boosted the sharpness in camera, and felt no need to. This week should run much more smoothly, and you’ll see more of me. Hopefully, that’s a good thing!

Bex

x

Well Rounded

I should apologise to you, having not contributed to the blog at all this week. The best part of working in a team is that the pressure to keep things running is taken away when there is a busy week ahead.

Finally, I had time to spare, so decided to go on a much needed photography wander. I had planned to go out for a meal with my family, so incorporated my photography wander into this. I caught a bus to the town centre in the late afternoon, and spent some time photographing nature, rush hour, and the harbour. After my meal, I then photographed a sculpture; you’ll get to see this tomorrow.

I took macro filters with me, just in case, and I’m glad I did! I found a group of small, perfectly round flowers and decided to try and capture detail in these. I managed it successfully, but decided to edit my image in Photoshop, to improve them beyond the capabilities of my camera. I increased brightness and contrast, increased saturation and sharpened the image. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out. I’ve missed my photography; especially the blog!!!

Bex

x