Tracks of Time

I didn’t have much to do today, so in an effort to fight the boredom I caught a bus and went to the harbour for a walk. On one side of the harbour is a small café and, next to this, a railway. It’s mostly disused now, only serving tourists on a steam train during the summer. There are no barriers along the tracks so, during the winter, children play on the them; it also means I have chance to take photos!

I had taken several photos on the train tracks, and was beginning to think about leaving when I spotted these notches all the way along. I’m not sure what they are, but I thought that it would make a good photo. I originally took it in colour, but apart from a little redness from the rust, most of it was grey. Because of this, increasing saturation didn’t look right, so I tried turning the image black and white; I was really pleased with the photo in black and white as it adds to the idea of the subject having age.

I increased the contrast in Photoshop and sharpened the image, but decided to leave everything else, as I didn’t want to lose any detail. I love going for walks when I don’t have a lot to do; there’s always an excuse to take a camera!

Bex

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Stormy Horizon

I took this photo on Tuesday when I visited town with Mat; after we stopped for coffee, we walked along the harbour side. The British weather isn’t very reliable at the best of times, but it didn’t seem too bad when we got off of the bus; we were sorely mistaken. Whilst walking along the harbour, the sky began to get darker, and streaks of rain became visible. As photogenic as this was; it’s needless to say that we didn’t stay much longer!!!

I tried to under-expose this shot to capture the full presence of the storm, with all the layers within- I think I managed this incredibly well. For some reason, there appear to be vertical lines stretching throughout the image that I couldn’t edit out. Never the less, I liked the image and chose to upload it regardless. I sharpened the picture in Photoshop, to enhance the prominence of the flags and other details of the ship. I also increased contrast in an attempt to make the clouds more dramatic. Apart from this, I have not edited the image, as I didn’t want to make the lines any worse.

I’m really pleased with this image; I think we were very lucky on two accounts. The first being the picturesque scene, the second being that we made it on the bus before the heavens opened!!

Bex
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Jigsaw

Wow! It’s been a very busy week and a long holiday from the blog. I must apologise for abandoning Daily Wanders in favour of a 9-day respite; I’ve had a week full of exams and have barely found time for coursework, let alone our readers or my camera! Finally, I can breathe a sigh of relief and flop down in front of my laptop as it’s all over (for now anyway). Of course, having the week that I did, I haven’t had time to go for another walk since last weekend. This is both a blessing and a curse, as I have missed my walks but still have plenty of photos to upload.

This is one of the first photos I took but, as usual, it’s one of my favourites!!! It was arranged that we should meet the photography group in the café of a local music venue before parting company. As we left, most people walked straight to the harbour, while Mat and I walked around the city centre. The venue is modern and quite large, but is set back from the busiest part of town on a small street collaged with different buildings. This small back street exhibits the modern venue next to a small, run-down building, which looks somewhat like it’s been abandoned- a sort of 3D jigsaw. On the side of this building was a grate over an air-conditioning unit, which pulled in fresh air from its surroundings. Unfortunately, it had also managed to pull in some leaves, which entwined themselves with the grate.

I tried to take the shot at a low angle with a wide aperture to make it seem more mysterious. I also used low- key gradation to add contrast to my shot and make it darker to suit the mood of the image. I haven’t edited this image at all as I was pleased with the original. I can’t wait to go on another walk with my camera. As a hobby, it’s interesting on more than one scale; as well as paying closer attention to your surroundings, you can also end up in a few strange situations. Well, you do if you’re me!
Bex
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Nature Meets Man-Made

On the short walk I went on yesterday I walked through a small industrial estate, one of the buildings had a disused air-conditioning unit on the side of it. It obviously hadn’t been serviced for a very long time as the unit was very rusty. There had been quite a lot of wind recently and this had blown dead leaves onto the protection mesh and they had become stuck.

The leaves sticking onto the protective mesh I thought showed the contrast that can arise when the natural world meets the made-made world. I thought this contrast made an interesting composition as well. To take the photo I used the camera in program auto mode because as the subject was all in the same plane the actual aperture chosen made very little difference. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/50^th of a second with an aperture of F4.5 and an ISO of 320. I didn’t use flash because I didn’t want the background to be lit up very much.

To edit the photo I only adjusted the colour temperature and the saturation. By increasing both of these I introduced a lot more ‘life’ into the photo and also made the photo look a lot more vivid. I didn’t change the light levels because I was happy with how the camera had exposed the photo, and I didn’t want to spoil the effect.

I enjoyed my wander around my town; I went a different way to normal and found some new interesting areas to take photographs at. I’m sure I will be going back again soon to take some more.

Mat

Industrial

This is one of my favourite photos that I took on my walk around the harbour yesterday. An event was organised to showcase the history of the local area. Train tracks snake around the harbourside, in between the many cranes. In this event train carriages were placed in various locations around the harbour and the cranes and buildings were lit up.

As I walked up the road towards the harbour this view presented itself and I loved it! I used my wide-angle lens to capture it as best I could. I didn’t want to use my tripod, so had to use a wide aperture and the fastest shutter speed possible. On screen, the image didn’t seem to have much detail but I loved the view so tried to recover as much as I could in Photoshop. I don’t often use the shadows and highlights tool, but thought I’d give it a go in the hopes it would help my case; it did!

Apart from lightening shadows, I haven’t edited this photo at all. I love how it’s captured the light shining on the wet pavement and how the wide aperture makes this picture seem endless. I didn’t try to remove any noise, as it is most prominent in the sky but I like the texture that the noise gives it. This is one of my favourite images that I have uploaded, and I’m really pleased with it. I will definitely be using this tool more often!!

Bex

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Watching the World

Perhaps not the world, but certainly a small part of my local area! I took this photo during an early evening walk around the harbour this evening. Although it may feel a little depressing that Christmas Day has passed and the days are incredibly short, I don’t let it get me down!

I went on a trip to my local harbour this afternoon. I took my tripod, my wide-angle lens and my telephoto. I took this particular photo on my wide-angle lens to try to get a larger view of what was across the water. I used a slow shutter speed coupled with a high ISO to enable me to use a narrow aperture (giving me a larger depth of field). I have seen a few photos of busy towns that have tried to convey the passing of time. I took inspiration from these photos and tried to use their results in my image. Each of the shots I saw were dark and focused on lights and signs, so I tried to do this in my photo. To add to the image I incorporated the reflections on the water and used a starburst filter.

To draw more attention to the lights, I edited the image in Photoshop. As a general improvement I sharpened the image and removed noise. I decreased the brightness slightly and increased the contrast by about 50% to lose most of the detail in the shadows.

Overall, I’m pleased with how this image turned out, and I’m pleased how I can see some small features that are similar to my w sources of inspiration, while retaining some originality. If you want to see the kind of images I took my inspiration from, search “night city” on Google.

Bex

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With a Twist

I love old books! This may seem rather out of the blue, but it’s not as uncalled for as you may initially think. Mat and I went into town today, and despite the constant lashings of rain, I took my camera. During the late afternoon, I walked towards a local market that runs all year round. It’s here that the book comment begins to make sense.

The market is unlike others, in which the stalls are actually furnished shops the size of a stall- one of these is a bookshop entitled “Beware of the Leopard”. I love it as it’s the type of shop that’s a muddle and prevents you seeing over the top of each isle; it’s completely floor-to-ceiling with different works. I found a small photography book from 1944; I loved it and have spent the entire evening pouring over it until my head was ready to explode with inspiration. On the way back from the market I walked through a courtyard, which led onto a small church. I took this photo in the courtyard during the brief deficiency of rain.

The photo had little colour in, and was rather uninspiring. I’ve always been told that if colour adds nothing to the photo, then it’s absence is probably a good thing- I ignored this. I increased the contrast in Photoshop to lose detail in the skyscraper behind and to increase the prominence of the clouds. I then sharpened the image to make the noise show up more, adding interest to the sky. While debating over the presence of colour, I accidentally over-saturated it. I decided I liked this so experimented further. I increased the hue to give the picture some warmer tones.

I’m really pleased with the effect of this image; ignore anyone who tells you the fore mentioned rule- they’re wrong. Rules- 0; Becky- 1.

Bex

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Mid-winter Wanders

I went for another walk today; this time towards a local harbour. As I was getting ready to go home I decided to try taking a photo that faced up towards the steps, but it was too busy. I tried to adapt my shot a little by purposely getting some people into the frame. I took the photo on an angle to add a little more interest rather than a straight and rather dull shot.

It was quite a bleak afternoon; clouds lined the whole sky so no detail could be seen. I decided to play up to the empty white background by making the rest of the image moodier. I desaturated the image, but not completely; this meant that you could still see a little blue colour in the clothes. I sharpened the image to emphasise all the imperfections of the worn-away staircase. I also increased the contrast to make the image seem more dramatic.

My camera doesn’t have a live view function, so it was a bit of a guess as to the end result. I like how you can’t see much of the people; it gives the image a little mystery. Overall, I’m pleased with my photo. Sometimes, making the best of a bad situation will give you a good end result.

Bex

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Old Timers

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

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

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

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

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

Mat

A Trip In The Past

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

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

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

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

Mat

Stalls

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

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

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

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

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

Bex

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Trails

I’m back!!! Firstly I must apologise for abandoning the blog, and secondly I should thank Mat for keeping Daily Wanders running smoothly while I have been munching on throat sweets like they were smarties!

Today, I was feeling better and was in need of getting some fresh air. Mat and I have wanted to try taking photos of light trails ever since we first started the blog back in April, but it’s gone dark too late throughout the summer season.

This evening, we walked to a bridge over the motorway, not far from the town. We took Mat’s tripod, my E-500 and several layers to try and capture the action! For this particular shot, I used an exposure time of 20 seconds at ISO100 with an aperture of F18. I tried to take out as much light as possible to allow for a longer exposure time.

When using a slower shutter speed, I was presented with the problem of the white burning out, but needing this time for more vivid reds. To combat this, I tried to take the photo when there was a lot of traffic on one side, but not a lot coming towards us.

Later, I used the remove colour cast tool to correct the yellow tint to the picture; I also increased the contrast to make the colours stand out. I love how you can see a few stars in the sky and reflections on the wet road. I also like how it wasn’t completely dark when we took the pictures, so you can still see some light on the horizon.

Apart from all the thoughts of rain, illness and general melancholy brought about by the thought of winter, it can’t be all bad! At least I can do more shots like this without becoming deprived of sleep. At last- a cheery note to winter!!

Bex

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Going Places

One of my friends and I went for a walk with my camera last week. We’re both into photography, but we’re both a little crazy so there was just as much messing around as there was photography.

One of the places that we walked was around a local college. The building differs slightly in design as you walk around it, making it interesting to look at along side the grounds. Hannah walked out in front as she was looking at the college, so I decided to take a “natural” portrait shot.

I thought the picture looked quite urban and industrial, although the colours had gone slightly off due to selecting the wrong white balance. I tried to correct this, but while editing I decided to try black and white; I think it worked quite well.

The only time I use black and white is when colour doesn’t seem to add anything into the picture. I feel it’s become an expectation to see colour photos, as that is what we are used to. I enjoy breaking the trend!!

Bex

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Looking

I had chance for a short wander today, but I was being a bit of a perfectionist and didn’t think any of my pictures had the “wow factor” that I try to capture normally. As I was editing my pictures in Photoshop to see how I could improve them, I saw this picture flash up on my desktop. To start with, I didn’t think it was much but it had a little potential so I decided to mess around with it.

I love churches for their amazing architecture and towering spires; there’s something quite mysterious about them when in the right conditions. I took this photo on the roof on my local church. When I first walked out of the door, I saw the stunning view and focused on that. If you’re anything like me, curiosity will always get the better of you and this case it did. I began to look at the structures closest to me, instead of the view from it.

At each corner, the structures were hollow with arches all the way around. Pandering to my curiosity, I ducked under the archway to see what it looked like from the inside. I took this picture led down on the church roof with my camera; I looked a little odd but it was worth it. I like to add a sense of mystery to certain pictures and this was one of those; I de-saturated the picture slightly and increased the contrast, creating this more striking image, which emphasises the shadows cast by each gap in the stone.

I think if there are any rules in photography, this should be one of them; ALWAYS make the most of your surroundings. Explore everything from every angle and challenge yourself to capture things in a more abstract way. If people don’t look at you thinking “what on earth…?” while you’re taking the picture, then you’re not being creative enough!!!

Bex

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Angular

I’ve been ill recently, so Mat was left to his own devices- and credit where credit is due, he didn’t break it! I decided to go for a walk around my local area. After about an hour I had walked to a super market. Normally, I wouldn’t bother to stop but I still had a sore throat so went to buy a drink.

As I walked out of the shop, I spotted the pattern of the corrugated steel on the walls. I liked how the rivets broke up the seamless lines. When standing next to it, the steel acts a lead in line to the rivets; it draws your eye right into the picture. In Photoshop, I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to give the effect of under-exposing. It also lost the detail in places, making the photo more abstract.

I think this works well, and can be a widely transferable effect so long as you know when and where to apply it.

Bex
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Prep- fest

This is yet another photo from my festival weekend! I may be over doing it slightly, but there are so many pictures that I want to upload, and this is one of them.

I took this on the Sunday, whilst waiting for the next band to come on stage. I noticed how all of the equipment for each band wasn’t put on the stage until just before they were due. This meant it was left piled up at the entrance for about 10 minutes before each set.

I liked how the tambourine was left on top of one of the drums; it made it look like it had been forgotten. I decided that it might make an interesting shot and I wasn’t disappointed! I took this picture in aperture priority, as I wanted the background to be blurred. I decided to under-expose the shot slightly to enhance the shadows.

I’m really pleased with how this photo turned out; especially as I thought it would be more of a snapshot.

Bex

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Fun of the Fayre

Today was the first day of the local festival that Mat and I are covering. Mat was busy this afternoon, so I was taking photos alone. The festival doesn’t officially open until tomorrow but was open to photographers and members of the press.

 As it was the day before, most people were in the midst of setting up their stalls as I was walking around the festival site. The site itself is divided into sections, with one of those sections being a children’s zone with decorated willow arches and sculptures (as seen in the foreground of the photo). A second attraction in the family friendly zone was the giant slide!

I was trying to capture the overall fun, bright and friendly atmosphere. To do this, I decided to walk to the bottom of the hill so I could capture both the willow arches and the giant slide.

Afterwards, I increased the cyan saturation and the contrast to make the scene brighter and to make the sky more vivid. I also sharpened the image slightly to make the details more prominent. I’m looking forward to the first full day of the festival with Mat tomorrow. An early night for all!

Bex

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Towering

This is another photograph from mine and Mat’s endeavours to the top of the bell tower. I feel as if I may be over playing the weekend’s excursion slightly, but I took a lot of pictures so I have at least a few that I’m proud of and this is one of them! This is one of the last pictures I took while “up on the roof” (if you excuse the musical reference), but one of my most individual.

It got quite sunny as the evening drew in, meaning a lot of pictures I tried to take ended up as silhouettes. In most cases this only made the picture unusable but this is the exception. I noticed how the smaller spires were lined up perfectly, yet the middle spire was much taller while still in line. I liked the effect this had, so decided to try and capture the lines in a photo. Because of the position on the roof, I had to take it on an angle. I actually think it works better being taken at an angle as it created more interest. I had to take the picture into the sun, which caused the foreground to partially blackout, the entire photo to go black and white plus a little lens flare. I used a fast shutter speed to try and capture the clouds, which in monochrome, gives the picture a moody effect.

I didn’t have to do any editing, as I was already pleased with it. I would call this a “happy accident” as due to the restrictions I faced, I was forced to take it in a different way and it turned out better than I imagined. I think the lens flare works incredibly well, and adds to the over all effect.

Bex

Writing On The Wall

I had a free afternoon today, so I decided to go for a photography wander in the centre of my local area. I found a small winding street that stretched past the back of a museum. As I followed the path I noticed that there were messages written on the walls, advertising the museum and some topics it covered inside.

I thought it looked dramatic because of the barbed wire and posts along the top of the wall. I used a wide aperture to blur the words as it got further away. This gave the effect of making the wall look endless. It was a cold and gloomy day, meaning that there was no detail in the background. I didn’t take the picture in black and white, but lost what little colour was in the sky, while the foreground was already monochrome. Before uploading I increased the contrast and sharpness of the image in Photoshop. This made the words stand out more.

I haven’t had a chance to go out for a long walk alone for a few weeks, and it was nice to be able to get into the town centre to do some more industrial photography. I think this picture works incredibly well, displaying the clear messages as intended, yet in a more dramatic way.

Bex

All In A Row

This is (yet) another photo from the country fayre I went to. I found this photo, and fortunately it had an artistic side to it. It shows one of my main interests quite well! I spent quite a long time just walking up and down all the vintage tractors looking at each one individually.

Instead of taking a photo of every tractor I took one of a whole row of them; I thought it might be a bit more arty. I used a narrow aperture (F16) to ensure that most of the scene was in focus. I actually focused on the Fordson Major (the blue tractor for the less knowledgeable), so this ensured that almost all of the tractors are in focus. There was plenty of sunshine about so I didn’t need to worry about the shutter speed.

The only editing I did to the photo was to crop down the top of the frame. I didn’t edit anything else because I was happy with how the photo had been exposed. And the overall effect was spot on what I wanted.

I hope I can find some time to go for a wander with Bex soon, because I’m starting to run out of photos to upload! We’ve got some wanders planned soon, so I’m sure we will have many more interesting photos to upload.

Mat