Watching Me Watching You

This afternoon I had a chance to go out to take some photos so I went down to the duckpond with my camera and the telephoto lens. The sky was slightly cloudy so the lighting was perfect for taking photos of wildlife. The soft light doesn’t create harsh shadows on the wildlife.

As I was using a telephoto lens I was using the camera in shutter priority and I chose a shutter speed of 1/250^th of a second. I was using a focal length of around 150mm so this shutter speed is fast enough to take out any motion blur. To get a small enough depth of field I used an aperture of F5. And because I was using an aperture of F5 and there was a lot of light I was able to use a low ISO of 250, this keeps the noise levels to a minimum.

To edit the photo I cropped the image down and changed the levels. By cropping the image into a square I was able to create a composition where the swan looks towards the duck; and the duck looks off to the left. I adjusted the levels by increasing the contrast and decreasing the brightness. By increasing the contrast the photo looks more ‘punchy’ and the difference between the white and the black on the swan is much more pronounced.

I really enjoyed going to the duckpond again, it was very tranquil and I had the whole place to myself. Also while taking my photos I had a good chance to relax and de-stress. This just proves that photography is more than just a hobby or a profession, it also a very good relaxation technique.

Mat

Catching Eyes

I had the opportunity to join Bradley Stoke Radio on another outside broadcast this Tuesday. Once we had set up the first thing we switched on was the bubble machine, which really attracted the attention of passers by. I love it too, even if I’m not a young child!

I used F5.6 on my macro lens to get a shallow depth of field. I like how the first fan is out of focus, and only a small part of the second is in focus. I used a fast shutter speed so that the fans wouldn’t be blurred.

I had to edit the picture as it looked dull. I increased the contrast and saturation to make the picture more vibrant. I also sharpened it to make the part that I focused on more obvious.

I love this picture; it grabbed my attention as well as the smaller children! It was a great day as usual- I really enjoyed myself and can’t wait for the next one.

Bex

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Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?

We were blessed with a brief spell of sunshine yesterday, but today was back to stereotypical English weather. It’s been one of those days where I haven’t known what to do with myself, so I grabbed my camera and went for a wander.

It had just stopped raining as I was walking down the gravel path in our local nature reserve. There was a lot of grass either side, and I noticed that droplets had settled on some of the larger blades. I took this picture in macro mode but increased the green on the camera before I took it. I love how the detail of the grass can be seen through some of the droplets. I think this turned out really well.

I must apologise for not posting recently, but as Mat said, I have been having trouble with my internet connection. This is where working as part of a team comes into it’s own. Thankyou Mat!!

Bex
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Midday Fireworks

I’m afraid today’s post is rather abstract. I tagged along at another Bradley Stoke Radio outside broadcast at the weekend. It was a glorious break from the rain, meaning there were a lot of people around and there was an amazing atmosphere!

In terms of scale, this was a rather large outside broadcast so there was a lot going on. One of the things we had was a bubble machine. However; it attracted me as well as younger children (all be it that I was attracted for a more artistic reason!).

Because of the sunshine, you could see rainbows on the bubbles, which I thought might make a good photo. I got my camera as close to the bubble machine as I could to try and get the most bubbles in the picture, and I used a shutter speed of 1/20 to try and make the bubbles blurred, as I was only interested in the rainbow that could be seen through them.

I ended up with this, which I think worked very well. I needed to mess around with the contrast in Photoshop afterwards, but over all I love this picture! It reminds me slightly of the photos you see of car headlights on a motorway. If you fancy taking a look at Bradley Stoke Radio then you can do so HERE.

Bex

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