Busy Bee

I managed to go out for a walk earlier today before the rain started. When the rain was away the weather was actually very nice. I went down to our local duckpond to catch some wildlife shots.

While I was down I saw a bee flying around some flowers, I followed it until it had landed on a flower. Luckily for me it had gone onto the flower itself and created an amazing photo opportunity. The camera was already in exposure bracketing and in aperture priority. So I used an aperture of F8 to ensure that the whole flower was in sharp focus. This photo came out the best of the three that I had taken.

When editing the photo I didn’t change the actual exposure because the camera got it spot on. The only change I made was to crop the photo to enhance the composition; I cropped the photo so the flower was in the top left of the frame.

I’m glad I managed to get out for a walk today; it was really nice to get out into the fresh air. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to go out soon.

Mat

Monkey Business

Monkey Business

I was fortunate enough to visit a monkey sanctuary over the weekend, so as usual my camera came with me! One of my favourite attractions was the lemur walk. To get into this enclosure, you have to walk through two gates. Afterwards, you are in what seems to be an abandoned forest with a small shed in the middle.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and upon first glance I couldn’t see anything. After waiting a few minutes I spotted a group of three lemurs walking up the path towards me. It was an amazing sight; they seemed so calm and relaxed in the presence of humans.

Two of the lemurs walked past me, jumped through the fence into the area with the small shed and started to eat. What really caught my eye was the symmetry in the picture. Both the lemurs’ tails were curled in the same way, exactly opposite of each other. Later, I increased the saturation and sharpened the image in Photoshop to make the black, white and red detailing on the lemurs more prominent.

I could’ve happily stayed in the lemur walk all day! It felt great to be able to get so close to the animals; they seemed so cheeky and I really enjoyed watching them play. I can’t wait to go on my next wander.

Bex
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The Lone Farrier

This is another photo from my trip to the Earls Barton country fayre. After I had looked round the vintage farm machinery I saw this mobile forge, I thought it would make an interesting candid photo.

I preset the camera; first I calculated the correct exposure using the inbuilt light metre, then I pre-focused the lens so I could take the photo quickly. When the farrier went to work on the horseshoe, he made the composition perfect, so I brought up the camera and took the photo.

As the photo was taken in quite a hurry the exposure I calculated wasn’t spot on, so when I was checking the photo I decreased the brightness, and increased the contrast a bit. This is the main advantage of having my negatives scanned onto a computer; I can edit them and repair any mistakes that I made when taking the photos.

I really enjoy candid photography, and I think I shall do some more when I’m out and about next. I enjoy using film SLRs, I love the grainy effect that the film gives the photos, I think it makes them more interesting. There’s another country fayre that is coming up soon, I’m hoping to give it a visit, if I do I shall be taking my trusty Pentax cameras with me.

Mat

Thistle While You Wait

I took this photo a few weeks ago while doing a bit of train spotting, (one of my many hobbies). A train had just past and I was waiting for the next one, it must have been delayed because it took a very long time. So in between the two trains I took some more photos to fill the time.

I had spotted a group of weeds which looked very interesting, so I thought I should make a photo out of them. I decided that the photo would look best with a shallow depth of field. I thought that the angle I chose gave the best composition, with just the grass in the background. When I took the photo, I boosted the greens in the camera to give more emphasis to the weed. 

When I put the photo I decided that it didn’t require any editing, I was very impressed with how it looked straight from the camera. I was tempted to increase the saturation, but decided against it because I had already boosted the greens and I liked the effect that it gave.

The holiday is rapidly drawing to a close, I have thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait for next years. The weather has been amazing, presenting many photographic opportunities; I’ve made the most out of as many as I can and I hope you all have as well.

Mat

Seaside Takeaway

Because of the fantastic weather we’ve been having Bex and I decided to go on a trip to Weston-super-mare. We caught the train down for the day, walking around the beach and pier soaking up the sunshine.

We had just finished our lunch, and I was taking some photos of the statue when I noticed that a young boy had left his chips on the side. There were hundreds of seagulls flying around impersonating vultures, waiting for their prey below (this being an odd chip left behind). When they saw a box full of chips they all dived down to steal the leftovers!

I thought I couldn't miss this opportunity. Fortunately the camera was already in continuous drive mode, so I simply selected a fast shutter speed and took as many photos as I could before the buffer filled up! I ended up with around 15 photos looking very similar. After looking through them I decided that this was the best. It clearly shows the seagulls fighting each other for the food and flying off after they had got some.

The photos had been taken in a hurry so they needed some editing in Photoshop. I cropped the photo to remove the over-fussy background. The photo was slightly over-exposed so I darkened the highlights to try and gain some detail back into the white areas.

I think the photo looks a lot better after being edited; it brings back all the good memories from the trip- a very enjoyable day. I hope that we can go back again soon, if we do then I’m sure there will be many more photos for us to upload.

Bex is currently on holiday; she is having a great time and wishes you all well. She also says that she’s missing you and the blog already! As she is away I have been left in charge of the blog for the next week. I will carry on as normal with a different and (hopefully) interesting upload every day!

Mat

Hanging Flower

While on a recent walk with Bex I noticed this flower, it had rained earlier in the day and the flower had drooped under the weight of the rain. I really liked the colours on the flower and how the background contrasted against the colours of the flower.

The macro lens was attached to the front of Bex’s Olympus, I got close to the flower using a moderately large aperture (F5.6) to make the background blurred. Putting the background out of focus makes the flower look more prominent in the photo. Also, I placed the flower towards the right hand side of the frame; doing this makes the photo more asymmetric and adds a little more interest.

I liked how the original photo looked, so I didn’t change much in the editing stage; I cropped the photo a bit and increased the saturation a small amount.

I really like the effect of having the flower to the right hand side of the frame. I think the increased saturation gives the picture a warmer feel.

The weather seems to be looking better already, so hopefully it will stay like this for the foreseeable future.

Mat

Stormy Horizon

I’m missing my holiday already, so I thought that I should upload a photo from it. This image is from one of the long walks that Bex and I went on the Saturday; the weather had been changing rapidly all day. The constantly changing weather presented some great photos, but also caused some problems while taking them; (as the camera isn’t water proof)!

The clouds had just started to break apart after a short spell of rain. I thought the clouds looked very dramatic, so would make an interesting photo. I tried to do something slightly different so I tried to get some of the ground in the photo as well. I really like how well the photo has worked, with the tree in the corner giving some perspective and ‘size’ to the composition.

I thought that the photo could be improved slightly through the use of Photoshop. I adjusted the histogram to crop out the shadows, losing all detail and turning them into silhouettes. I also increased the brightness of the highlights to increase the contrast and make the clouds look more violent.

I think the edited photo looks a lot better now than it did straight from the camera. I really like how the silhouette of the tree stands out against the sky. We both have plenty of material from our holiday to keep the blog running for quite a while now, but it won’t stop us going out for our photography wanders! I hope everyone who is on their summer break is having as good a time as we are!

Mat

Man's Best Friend

Today was the last day of our holiday; I really didn’t want it to end. Tomorrow is back to normal so I shall upload a photo from the holiday to try and keep the memory alive in my imagination as long as possible.

Today’s photo is of my crazy dog! Bex was playing a game of fetch with him in a field. He was waiting for Bex to throw his favourite toy and he was holding his front paw up (which for anybody with a Springer Spaniel will know is they’re stereotypical pose).

Bex had left me with her D-SLR; it already had a telephoto lens on it which is great for taking pictures of my dog (he doesn't stop!). I crouched down so that I could take the photo at his eye level for a better perspective; I also chose a fast shutter speed of 1/800^th of a second so I could freeze him as he ran with the water droplets flying off him.

I like this photo; it really catches the spirit of him waiting. I didn’t edit the photo because I didn't want to change how he looked; the photo captured every detail of him correctly.

I’m really going to miss my holiday away with Bex, but never the less it's back to reality. We took a lot of photos while we were away, so expect many more photos in the next few weeks of what we got up to while on holiday! I hope you really enjoy our holiday photos and seeing what we got up to.

Mat

Better late than never!

I must first apologise for my lateness of the post, but as mentioned previously today is my birthday, meaning I’ve been busy all day. The second thing I should apologise for is the fact that I dug out an old picture from my laptop, but I’m not going to.

Today was a milestone birthday for me, and I feel that if there is any time for reflection then that time should come today.

This picture of two dragon flies on a plant was taken at the Eden Project during a holiday to Cornwall. I loved how the water droplets were captured. This was before I became obsessed with cameras, just a shot. I took this picture with a regular compact camera, and I can honestly say that this is the first image I took and was proud of.

This picture really was what sparked my passion for photography, so although I didn’t have time for a new picture, I think it fits in rather well today. Again, apologies for the late post! Now, goodnight!

Bex

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