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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Flying Away

Again this was taken on yesterdays short wildlife photoshoot. I was watching a pigeon in one of the trees next to me, when suddenly it took off and flew away. Within minutes of this happening the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down! I think the pigeon had the right idea flying away. So I quickly stuffed my camera gear back into my camera bag and made off for some shelter.

For this photo I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected and I was overexposing the photo by one stop, to ensure the bird was correctly exposed. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO of 3200 to complete the exposure.  I wasn’t using the flash gun because the sky was cloudy and diffusing the light adequately.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looked straight from the camera. The exposure was spot on and the colours were replicated just how I wanted them to be. I thought if I tried to edit the photo I would spoil the effect I had created in camera.

I enjoy wildlife photography as it provides a different challenge to normal photography, with the subjects moving randomly and quickly you need to have quick reactions and the foresight to predict where they are likely to move to. I enjoy these challenges, which is why I try and go on as many wildlife photoshoots as I can.

Mat

Hiding Robin

I managed to go out for a short walk while the weather was good today. The weather was changing rapidly throughout the day so I didn’t have a chance to take many photos. Despite the weather there were a lot of birds in the trees. I spotted this colourful bird hiding away in one of the trees; I thought it made an interesting composition sitting on the branch in the tree.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in manual mode, with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected and an aperture of F5.6 to focus the attention onto the bird. I wasn’t using my flash gun for this photo as the sky was covered by clouds which diffused the harsh sunlight for a more soft lighting effect. I also changed the colour tone and the colour saturation to make the most of the colours on the bird.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down to improve the composition, and I boosted the contrast. The photo was looking flat so by increasing the contrast I made the photo look much more dynamic. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the camera had replicated the colours.

Hopefully I will get a chance to go out for a photography wander at some point this weekend, if not I still have a fair few photos from my recent wildlife photo shoots.

Mat

Taking On Water

This photo was taken on my recent wildlife photo shoot. We eventually made our way to our local duckpond, when we got there a few swans where swimming around the pond. The swan that was closest to me started to drink the water, I thought this made an interesting composition. The swan was in the bright and direct sunlight; this created a complicated exposure. I decided to combat the difficult exposure by using my flash gun.

I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/1000^th of a second locked in. I had such a fast shutter speed selected so that the movement of the dripping water would be frozen. I had the camera set up on my monopod so I didn’t have to worry about any camera shake. I overexposed the flashgun by 3 stops to ensure the most powerfull flash was being emitted. I also overexposed the cameras exposure meter by 1/3^rd of a stop.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast to give the photo extra punch and I also changed the white balance, as I thought the photo looked a bit warm. I cropped the photo in a bit tighter as there was quite a lot of dead space behind the swan. The composition looks a lot better after I cropped the photo; it shifts the focus onto the swan. I didn’t change the light levels as I was happy with how the camera had exposed the photo.

Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander at some point this weekend. If the weather stays as good as it has been then this weekend should bring some great photos.

Mat

New Growth

It finally feels that spring is here! We’ve had nothing but glorious sunshine, making for a perfect bank holiday weekend. One of the best things about spring is that all the trees that were once bare are now lush and green again, and all the flowers are springing up to cover the ground once again. I love this time of year as it is full of colour which is great for photography and the bright sunlight always creates interesting exposure challenges.

To celebrate the turning to spring I thought I would upload a photo of a snapshot of spring. To best portray this effect I thought that a spring time flower would create the effect I was looking for. I went for a photography wander in our local nature reserve and the ground was covered with new flowers starting their new growth.

I saw a small group of white flowers caught my eye because there was one of the flowers standing out in front of the others. I liked this composition and how it separates the flower from the others in the same way that spring is separated from the other seasons. For the actual exposure I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6 selected to ensure the background was thrown completely out of focus. I had an ISO of ISO 200 selected for maximum image quality. I also overexposed the photo by one stop. This meant the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/100^th of a second to complete the exposure.

I didn’t edit the photo because I really liked the effect that I had created in the camera. The exposure was spot on for the lighting conditions and the colours had been calculated incredibly accurately. I also liked the composition I had created so I didn’t crop the photo down.

I’m glad that Bex and I managed to get out for a photography wander today. Most of my photos where of birds again, so expect lots more wildlife photos over the next few days.

Mat

Landing

Bex and I managed to go out for a wander today, but we didn’t take out cameras with us. So I decided to upload another photo from last weekend’s wildlife photo shoot. I had paused momentarily when I saw a pigeon flying past me out of the corner of my eye. I turned round as it flew past and brought my camera to my eye and took a series of photos as it landed on a branch in a nearby tree. Unfortunately quite a few of the photos were out of focus or slightly blurry, but this one and a few others were pin sharp.

I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second programmed in to remove any camera shake and motion blur. I also had the ISO set at ISO 800 to ensure that a moderate aperture was selected by the camera. I had overexposed by one stop, when I reviewed the photo it looked a bit too bright form my liking; but this was easily eradicated in the editing stage.

To edit the photo the first thing I did was to lower the overall brightness of the photo to combat the overexposing. I also increased the contrast to make the photo look more dynamic. I also cropped the photo as there was quite a lot of dead space surrounding the pigeon; by removing the dead space it focuses the attention onto the main subject.

I’m glad that I got a good photo of the pigeon as it landed. I had quite a few attempts of taking photos of moving birds last weekend but unfortunately most of them were out of focus or blurry; but I think I am slowly getting better at my wildlife photography.

Mat

Rustic Retreat

This is another photo that I took on my walk home in the sunshine a few days ago. Having previously photographed the buds that looked like flowers, I then noticed that at the bottom of another tree, some leaves had been caught between the branches. I liked the way that the stem of the leaves had been caught between the broken twigs, giving the overall image the effect of “being left behind.”

I tried to under expose the image, as I wanted to emphasise the shadows of the cracks in the branch and the dark specks on the leaves. I didn’t use flash to do this, as I wanted the background to be visible. I was disappointed with the effects of under exposing alone, so decided to edit the image in Photoshop. I decreased the brightness and increased the contrast to make the shadows more striking. I decreased the saturation slightly, as I wanted the photo to look washed out. Finally, I sharpened the image to pick out finer details.

I love stumbling across new things to photograph. I’ve been photographing for so long, I subconsciously look for photographic opportunities everywhere I go. Is that a good thing?

Bex

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Hiding Away

This is another of the photos I took last weekend which I really liked. The clouds hadn’t broken when I was taking this photo which made the exposure a lot easier to calculate. I didn’t need to use the flash either as the contrast was a lot less between the highlights and the shadows.

I was once again using the camera in shutter priority to ensure that any movement by the bird was removed. I had selected a shutter speed of 1/640^th which also ensured that any camera shake is also removed. As I previously mentioned I was wasn’t using the flash by this point as the contrast was a lot lower so the flash wasn’t required to brighten the shadow areas. I left the ISO in auto so the camera selected ISO1000 and an aperture of F5.6 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the colour tone and the colour temperature. I did this to ensure to enhance the yellow of the bird’s chest and to dampen the vivid green of the tree branch which distracted the viewer away from the bird itself. I also cropped the photo as there was a lot of dead space surrounding the bird.

I’m not sure on which day but both Bex and I are hoping to be able to go out for a photography wander at some point this weekend. I’m sure that we will upload some of the photos that we take while we’re out and about.

Mat

Swan In The Sun

I took this photo on the recent wildlife photo shoot. I was quite impressed with how this photo came out, it is defiantly one of my favourite photos from the day. The sun was beaming down which made some very interesting exposure problems. The best way I thought to combat the exposure difficulties was by using my flash gun. I thought by using the flash gun it would help to lighten the shadow areas and to even the exposure.

I was using the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second selected. I had also locked in an ISO of ISO400. As I was using the flash gun the camera selected an aperture of F13. I programmed the flash gun to over expose by three stops; so that it would give out the largest amount of power for the exposure. As I was using a shutter speed faster than the flash-sync’ speed of the camera I had to use the flash n the high speed sync’ mode. This mode sends out a rapid sequence of flashes so that at least one of the flashes happens while the shutter is open. The only downside of using the high speed sync’ function is that it uses the entire charge of the flash gun; so that only one photo can be taken at a time!

To edit the photo I increased the brightness a bit and lowered the highlights to ensure the highlights didn’t become clipped. I also cropped out some reeds that I had accidently included into the frame. After this I changed the white balance for a more accurate colour selection. I changed the white balance as the photo looked a bit too cool for my liking. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the rest of the photo.

I very much enjoyed my wildlife photography trip, I’m very pleased with the photos that I took. Hopefully both Bex and I will get a chance for some more photography this weekend.

Mat

Illusion

I walked home for a change today, as the weather consisted of glorious sunshine, with a slight breeze to cool the air; in my opinion, the perfect weather! I was about five minutes away from my house and without my camera when I spotted this “flower”, so rushed home and returned with camera at the ready.

I use quotation marks, because in actual fact, it is not a flower, but a bud with leaves at the stem. I liked the way that you have to look closely to see that it isn’t a flower. I was lucky to have spotted this, as I went back the next day to find the leaves open.

I tried to under expose the image as I didn’t want a background, and didn’t have any black card to hand. I used flash to pick out the foreground, with an aperture of F22 to reduce the amount of light, and to make sure that the whole plant was in focus. Also, I used a shutter speed of 1/160, as I was using on camera flash, and this is the sync speed. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the plant had small white hairs along the stem. I sharpened the image in Photoshop to show this, but haven’t done anything else, as I was pleased with the original.

Bex