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

Through the Trees

Once again I’m uploading another photo from the wildlife photo shoot I went on during the weekend. For this photo I was trying to capture the bird up against the blue sky, but when I took the photo the meter had metered for the sky and the whole photo was underexposed. When I came back to look at this photo I actually liked the effect that this created.

I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected, and ISO 400 locked in. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/200^th of a second for this photo. I wasn’t using the flash as I wanted to expose for both the foreground and the background (although this turned out to be impossible).

When looking back at this photo I actually really liked the underexposed effect. So to enhance the effect I increased the contrast and lowered the shadows until the bird and the foreground turned into a silhouette. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how everything else looked.

Hopefully I will have more happy-accidents with my photos! Because they generally work out to be very interesting photos!

Mat

Flying Off

I managed to get out for the wildlife photo shoot yesterday; I went through the nature reserve down to the duckpond. I managed to catch a lot of the local birds in the forest, and when I got down to the duckpond it was full of swans and ducks and moorhens.

There was a male mallard duck that was chasing a female mallard duck, the female mallard decided to fly off and I just managed to capture the male mallard chasing after her. I was already in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th selected. I had left the camera in auto ISO, which the camera selected at ISO800. I wasn’t using the flash at this point as I needed to take a lot of photos in a series.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours where exactly as I wanted them to be. Faithfully reproducing the bright colours of both the male and female mallard ducks. The exposure was also calculated exactly how I wanted it to be.

I’m glad I got a chance to go out on a wildlife photography wander, I tried out some of the flash gun ideas I’ve been meaning to try out for quite some time. I shall upload the best of the photos that I took over the next few days.

Mat

Field Walk

I was once again looking through my computer when I found this photo from one of the many walks that Bex and I have been on. We were walking along a country walk when I saw this view across the field opposite us. I instantly liked the composition that the fence and tree created.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority and selected an aperture of F11. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 to make sure the quality was as good as it could be. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/60^th to match; this was fast enough because I was using a focal length of 40mm. I made sure that the photo was taken vertically because the fence posts would have made this very obvious otherwise.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours had been reproduced perfectly and the exposure was exactly how I wanted it to be. I liked the composition so I didn’t crop the photo down.

I’m very much looking forward to the wildlife photo-shoot tomorrow. I’ve got all my camera gear ready and waiting, I’ll let you know how it goes, and I’m sure I’ll upload some photos to show you.

Mat

Wall Climber

This photo was taken on yesterdays photography wander. We had stopped for a short break opposite a wall; I noticed the plant growing up the wall and thought it made an interesting composition.

As most of the photo would be in one plain I chose an aperture of F9. This gives an adequate depth of field and allows the use of faster shutter speeds. I also selected an ISO of ISO 100 for maximum quality. The camera coupled these with a shutter speed of 1/30^th; I was using image stabilization so this shutter speed would still be fast enough. I boosted the colour saturation to make the greens look more vibrant.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the camera had exposed the image. The colours had been reproduced exactly as I wanted them to be so I didn’t change them. I was also happy with the composition so I didn’t crop the image either.

I enjoyed our photography wander yesterday, hopefully we will get a chance again in the week. According to the weather forecast the weather should get better during the week! So hopefully we might get some more bright and colourful photos in the week.

Mat

Thinking Bird

I managed to get out for a short wander today with Bex; we decided to go out around our local area. We didn’t have very much time so I didn’t take many photos; most of today’s photos were of birds. A particular bird had landed on a small wall around ten feet away from where I was sitting. It stood still for a lengthy amount of time. So I had plenty of time to compose the photo and to take the shot.

For this photo I had the camera in shutter priority and a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second, this was adequate to freeze the movement of the bird and to allow for camera shake. I also preset the ISO to 400 to ensure that a moderate aperture was chosen by the camera. The camera selected an aperture of F8. As the bird was looking to my left I decided to keep the bird in the right hand side of frame, as this creates a pleasing composition; I like how the bird looks like it is thinking while perched on the wall.

To edit the photo I lowered the overall brightness as the photo had become over-exposed. I also increased the shadows so that the exposure was even throughout the whole photo. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the camera had reproduced the colours.

I’m glad that Bex and I got a chance to go out for a photography wander today. The weather was really good with bright clear skies; they created some tough exposures but the extra challenge was good fun.

Mat

Lone Leaf

I took quite a few photos in town one the trip that Bex and I went on. This was one of my favourite photos from the trip. A leaf was being carried around the park on the wind when it got caught on the branch of a hedge.

I liked the composition that it created as it hung from the branch. To make the most of this composition I used a moderate aperture of F9, this gives a short depth of field to have the background out of focus but the leaf and its surroundings still sharply in focus. I had the ISO in auto, so the camera selected ISO 320 and a shutter speed of 1/60^th to complete the exposure. I boosted the saturation in camera to give the colours a boost.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and colour tone. I did this to make the colours look even more vibrant. The greens on the leaves look very fresh with the higher colour tone. Increasing the contrast also makes the photo look much more vibrant and gives the photo an increased vibrancy.

Bex and I have planned to go out for a photography wander tomorrow; unfortunately the weather hasn’t been too good recently so hopefully it will improve enough to allow us to go out with our cameras. If we do get the chance we will upload the photos we take to show you.

Mat

Wall Climbing

Again this is a photo from the weekend before last. The park we had our lunch in was surrounded by a short wall. Ivy was growing all over the wall; it looks like it climbs its way up the wall from the ground. I wanted to capture the effect of how the ivy grows up the wall.

To capture the effect I composed the photo so the ivy was in the lower right hand third of the frame, and I left plenty of space in the top left third. I did this to give the impression that the Ivy is growing up the wall. As the whole scene was in the same plane I selected an aperture of F5.6 and I locked the ISO in at 100, this gave a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second.

I didn’t edit the photo because I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The exposure was perfect and the colours had been replicated exactly how I wanted them to. Crucially I didn’t need to crop the photo because the composition was exactly how I wanted it to be.

I really like how the ivy appears to be climbing along the wall. I still have a few more photos that I can upload from our trip into town, but hopefully, Bex and I will be going into town again tomorrow. If I take my camera and capture something interesting, I’ll upload for you to see.

Mat

Branched

I didn’t have a chance to take any photos this weekend unfortunately. That was Bex’s job this weekend! So I used a photo that I had taken last weekend, when we were walking around the centre of town.

For this photo I had the camera in aperture priority and as I was close to the subject I used a relatively large aperture (F8) to ensure that everything I wanted was in focus. I left the camera to choose the shutter speed and the ISO speed, which it chose to be 1/80^th of a second and ISO 125. I had the white balance set into auto because I was using RAW format so I could adjust the white balance afterwards if it required changing.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and the sharpness slightly. I also increased the amount of green while lowering the colour balance. I did this to make the photo look more punchy and give the photo some vibrancy.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go for a photography wander at some point this week. But if not I still have lots of photos that I can upload, and Bex took some fantastic photos yesterday which I’m sure she would love to upload for you.

Mat

Dedicated Follower Of Fasion

As promised, for the next day or two, Daily Wanders is to turn into the hub for all that is on trend this season! Today, I did the photography for a day of fashion shows being held at the local shopping centre. The shows were approximately an hour long, with a mixture of children and adults, but the children definitely stole the show!

At the end of each show, the models were invited onto the stage individually, before a finale. One of the favourite models of the day was a young girl called Faye. She was one of the last to walk down the runway, so I managed to get a photo that I was really happy with. I used a flashgun at the event, as I wanted to highlight each model, and not have to worry about a possible lack of light. I used a guide number of 16, coupled with an aperture of F11, as I wanted a dark background to focus attention on Faye. It didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, because I couldn’t go under 1/160th, and didn’t want the depth of field to be any deeper.

I was a little disappointed with the original image, so decided to try to edit it. I decreased the highlights, decreased the brightness and increased the contrast. Finally, I sharpened the image. Having been a little disappointed with the original image, I was pleased with the difference editing it had made. Today was hugely enjoyable, if a little stressful due to technical issues! Keep checking Daily Wanders over the next few days for all the latest trends!

Bex
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Frosted

I was looking through some photos this evening, as I wanted to add to the wall of photos that I created previously. While looking for some pictures to add, I stumbled across this image and decided to edit it to see what happened.

I took this photo while on an early morning walk through the local nature reserve, trying to get some good photos in the fog. As it happened, there was no fog and the early morning was wasted, as there wasn’t a lot to take photos of until it was light as the wildlife had the right idea and didn’t venture out until later!!!

Where it was still dark, the camera struggled to get the correct white balance, meaning the image was almost bright blue. I corrected this using Photoshop. I increased the contrast and reduced the brightness slightly. I then almost completely desaturated the image, and decreased the hue to make the blue more prominent. I then sharpened the whole image, in order to draw attention to the formation of the ice crystals.

I love looking through old photos, as you never know what gems you might find!

Bex
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City Squirrel

As planned Bex and I went for a trip into town today; the weather while we were there was amazing! It was bright sunshine and small clouds spread around the sky. The weather was great for us but more of a challenge to the photography, with the direct sunlight casting harsh shadows over everything that was out of shade. With this challenge in mind we set out with our cameras in hand.

There were a few trees growing in a corner of a small open area in the centre of town; in and around these trees a few squirrels were running and jumping around. Fortunately they were in the shade so the light had been diffused nicely. As the squirrels were moving about so quickly it was quite had to focus on them, so when one of them paused for a few seconds, I quickly focussed in and took the photo. I had preset the camera in shutter priority and selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second, this was adequate to freeze the motion and to remove and camera shake. I framed the photo so the squirrel was in the right hand side of the frame, looking into the left side of the frame.

To edit the photo I had to lower the brightness down as the photo was overexposed, fortunately as I had taken the photo in RAW format this didn’t degrade the image quality. After that I cropped the photo down to remove some distractions, and to focus the attention onto the squirrel. I decreased the colour tone and increased the saturation to make the colours look more vivid and to make the photo as a whole look punchier.

We both enjoyed our trip into town today, both of us took a large amount of photos which should keep the blog running for quite a while! It was good fun trying to take photos of the squirrels as they darted around, I always enjoy the challenge of wildlife photography.

Mat

Outing

I managed to get out for a short time today, so I thought I would go back our local railway station. While I was there a small group of friends were waiting to get on their train to Weston-Super-Mare. They were very happy and chatting to each other. I had my telephoto lens on my camera so I managed to take a photo without them noticing.

I had the camera set into manual mode so I could decide which shutter speed and aperture to use. For this photo I had the shutter speed set at 1/500^th and the aperture set at F11. Using this aperture ensured the depth of field was large enough to keep the whole group in focus. I had left the ISO to automatic and the camera selected ISO 6400 which introduced a lot of noise.

To edit this photo the first thing I did was to reduce the noise, after I increased the contrast to make the photo look punchier. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the result I had made. The colours had been reproduced accurately in the camera and didn’t require any changes.

I enjoyed my short stay at the railway station, if I get another chance soon I would like to go back as I have a few ideas that I want to try out. Otherwise, a trip down to the duckpond would also be beneficial as I have some ideas I would like to try out with my flash gun.

Mat

Birthday Blogging

Today, Daily Wanders has reached a milestone. A year ago today, I spent two hours staring at a computer screen, trying to figure out what to write, how to write it, how to use the software and just how an earth we would manage to keep this going. That, and the title of our blog, of course!

Today, Mat and I had a mini birthday party; and what is a birthday party without a cake and candles (cut finely as we had a few people to thank!). It seems strange, that a year ago I was wondering how we’d manage these daily uploads, yet now, it feels strange if I don’t sit down to write a post in the evenings; something I find very enjoyable and quite relaxing!!

This past year has been incredibly busy, with a huge itinerary that we seem to have packed in (who knows where?). Examples of this being Brisfest (21st-23rd September), a few holidays, visits to relatives, a balloon fiesta, a harbour festival, open days, church visits and many wanders through the town centre, villages and the harbour to name a few. It seems that whatever we have been through and wherever we have gone this past year, the blog has followed. It’s been great to have something to focus on, something that pushes you to get out of bed at 5am because the fog is photogenic (even if you are sleep-deprived!) and a means of access to things I otherwise wouldn’t have been lucky enough to have been involved in.

I have been asked by more than a few people what the future for Daily Wanders entails, and if it’s anything like the last year, then I perhaps should’ve told them that I don’t have a clue! However, we will definitely continue to post every day. For those more technically minded, this post may disappoint you somewhat, but I do hope it gives you an insight into the past year from our perspective, and that you will join us in saying happy birthday, and thank you to everyone who has supported us so far.

Mat and Bex
(written by Bex)

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Standing Tall

Mat and I went for a walk through a small town on the outskirts of the city yesterday. He didn’t take his camera as just wanted to go for a walk, but I couldn’t be parted as ever!!

During one part of the walk, Mat sat down on a bench with a coffee (in –5 degrees!), while I chose to continue walking. I found a small clearing, just off the path, so decided to see what was there. I walked into the clearing to find a small shaded area, surrounded by trees- almost impossible to find if you weren’t looking. Small patches of light broke through the cover of the branches, providing thin beams that shone pointed to the centre. I tried to focus on one burst of light, taking the photo up the trunk of the tree to give an idea of scale. I used an aperture of F8, as I wanted the tree to be in focus, while making the background slightly blurred.

I increased the contrast in Photoshop, while slightly decreasing the brightness to make the image appear more dramatic. I decreased the saturation slightly, as I had changed the hue to make the green tones more prominent, and didn’t want this to be obvious when looking at the image. I’m pleased with this image, but regret not using low-key mode, as it could’ve made the image seem more dramatic without having to sacrifice details, as with post-processing.

Bex

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Bright Horizons

Mat and I went for a walk today. Having had other things to do in the morning, we didn’t leave until late afternoon so didn’t make our way back until the sun started to set.

There is a field, near to where Mat and I live. In this field, a pond has been built, with a small fence to keep dogs from destroying the habitat, and seating inside the fenced area. On the way back, we decided to stop for a rest so sat down next to pond. I looked behind, and could see the sun setting behind the trees. I loved the pattern of the pink clouds in the sky, and the bright stripes of colour. I decided to include a tree in the foreground, as I thought the image would look uninteresting, as there would be no foreground without this. However, I decided to keep it to one side, as I wanted the focus to stay primarily on the background.

I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness in Photoshop, to make sure that all of the foreground detail was lost. I also decreased the hue and increased saturation to make the pink tones appear more prominent. I also sharpened the image slightly, to emphasise the individual branches of each tree and to pick out the individual clouds.

Bex

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Top Field

I was once again looking through some photos that I had taken a while ago on a photography wander. I saw this one and thought it had some good potential so I had a look at it to see what I could do with it.

When taking the photo I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F11 selected. The camera matched this with a shutter speed of 1/160^th of a second with ISO 100. I boosted the colour saturation and the contrast in camera to give the photo more punch.

This photo needed quite a lot of editing; the first thing I did was to crop the photo down so that the attention is focussed onto the correct area. I then increased the contrast and the colour saturation further to make the photo look really dynamic!

I like how this photo has come out and I think the editing has made the photo look much better than before. Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photo graphy wander at some point during the Easter holiday.

Mat

Glowing

Eventually, there will come a point when you get fed up of seeing concert photos- but hopefully, not yet. Any fans of The Script will realise that the blog title refers to a song by The Script; for other readers, feel free to either listen to the song in question, or disregard the previous statement and assume that I’m referring to the lighting.

This photo was taken during one of the last songs of the concert (excluding the encore), which was started slow, explaining the smoky atmosphere. The singer was walking round the stage, but at this point wasn’t singing. Being a compact, I couldn’t change many settings, but did have control over the white balance. I selected flash, as I didn’t want to lose the bright blue. I did use flash in this photo, as I wanted to deliberately under expose; the only way to do this was to trick the camera. This didn’t affect the image, as what I wanted to focus on wasn’t in range of flash.

I have edited this photo in Photoshop. I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to make sure that all of the people in this shot were completely silhouetted against the blue lights. I also sharpened the image to make the edges of the starburst more prominent.

The starburst wasn’t intentional, but appeared in one of my other photos so I tried to achieve the same effect when taking this image. I’m really pleased with this photo; it’s probably one of my favourite shots of the evening.

Bex

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The Man Who Can't Be Moved

As mentioned yesterday, last night Mat and I went to a concert. If you’re a fan you’ve probably read the title, and by now realised who we saw; but, for the benefit of non-fans, we went to see The Script!! They are definitely one of my favourite bands, whereas Mat was there a little more as company (even if he did admit he enjoyed it!).

D-SLRs aren’t allowed into the concert venue as they are deemed to be professional, so I took my compact with me. I had to use digital zoom to take this photo, so I shall apologise for the image quality now. It came across that the band were enjoying themselves just as much as the crowd, which made for some amazing photos!!! Around half way through the evening, they duetted with the audience on one of their most well known songs; the lead singer pointed to the audience when he wanted them to sing. I managed to capture this just as the video wall lined up with the singer.

Due the lacking quality, I edited the image in Photoshop. I sharpened it and increased the contrast, followed by decreasing the brightness and hue. Finally, I increased the saturation and removed the noise. I’m really pleased with this photo; as it was standing only and incredibly dark, it was almost impossible to get any sharp photos- let alone while trying to use maximum zoom.

One small pearl of wisdom I should pass on is learnt through experience; COLDS AND CONCERTS DO NOT MIX- EVER. My friends seem happy at the moment; it may have something to do with the involuntary ban on anything vocal… oops!

Bex

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Experiments

First of all, I shall lay to rest your shock of being able to read a new blog post while still in daylight! (If you’re British, that is). This evening, Mat and I are going to a concert!! We didn’t want to have a night off from Daily Wanders, so decided to prepare a post before leaving.

This is a photo from a recent walk through my local area. Mat was experimenting with flashguns again so I decided to abandon him, although I didn’t completely abandon the concept of experimenting with light. I tried to take a photo of a curled up leaf, but decided it looked dull and was lost in the background. I used flash in conjunction with point metering, in order to lose some of the background. I ended up taking around 10 photos in order to get the desired effect; each one varying in flash intensity, and the amount I over/under exposed the image. This is taken at F5.6 at a shutter speed of 1/160 at ISO 100.

Some of the photo seemed a little over exposed where it caught more of the flash. In order to correct this, I darkened the shadows in Photoshop. I sharpened the image to pick up final details of the leaf. Another twig stemmed from the branch, which I tried to remove by using flash. However, this left a large black space at the bottom of the photo. I cropped it to make it seem more symmetrical. I love experimenting with photos in this way; it’s part of the fun and makes the end result much more satisfying.

Bex

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