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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Chasing Light

It was a little warmer today; not noticeably, but enough to make rain fall in place of snow. I took my camera out with me but it spent almost the entire day in my bag, as I was afraid of it getting damaged. Around half past five this evening, a family member gave me a lift to the radio studio so I didn’t have to walk! I still had my camera with me and had been looking at the few photos I had taken that morning. I started messing around, as I liked the regularity of the street lamps. The shutter speed was a little too slow, blurring the lights slightly. This gave me the idea to slow the shutter speed further, to create light trails.

I used a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds, and incredibly, I managed to hold it still! It made light trails a little more interesting by taking the photo while we were driving, as it produced two trails; the lower being passing cars, the higher being street lamps. I’ve sharpened this photo as well as increasing the contrast slightly, but I tried to leave everything else.

I love how you can clearly see the road, and if you look carefully, a bridge in the background. I’m especially pleased with the lower light trail; I love the way it tapers off. I didn’t get chance to take many photos on this subject, so had to make the best of the situation I was in. Despite this, I think I managed quite successfully and will have to try this again soon!

Bex
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Opportunities

Sometimes in photography (although not as often as I’d like), luck plays more of a part than the actual skill of being able to compose a good photograph. One example of these little gems of luck is the weather you get- this is a very good example in my opinion!

I was walking home, and happened to have my camera in my bag. It was around 5pm, and was almost dark as it is in winter. I have to walk along a bridge in order to get home, and as I was walking across the bridge I spotted this beautiful piece of scenery. I grabbed my camera and tried to capture it as best as I could by changing a few settings. The photo still doesn’t do it justice (but it comes pretty close!).

Amazingly, I haven’t edited this picture at all. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should, but after spending time looking at the image, I decided against it, as I liked the minute details that make this image so unique. I love the warm glow behind the trees that loses the detail of them, along with the small accents of cloud mixed into the amazing colours. I’ll admit that I took a detour when I saw this; to the hill in the local nature reserve- the view was stunning! I love sunsets- with or without photography equipment.

Bex

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Changing Perspectives

I took this picture recently at a local firework display. I rediscovered it this evening as I was looking for something to upload. I loved the colours in it, but most of all I loved the patterns that were created- giving me the idea to try something different.

It seems rather regular that when someone takes a picture of a firework, it’ll be full of colour, a little hazy but taken using a slow shutter speed to capture all the magic of it. The last point may conform, but I wanted my picture to be a little more unique. I took the average firework photo, and de-saturated it to make it look more  abstract. I then increased the contrast to make it stand out more, and over sharpened the image to create more defined lines.

My post may be a little more Photoshop than photo skills this evening, but I like it and it’s a nice refreshing break from normality! Oh, and I think I’ve dragged out the suspense long enough. The photo I uploaded on the 19th of this month was of a rope light at an outside broadcast. I took the photo using a slow shutter speed to allow me time to move the camera to form a pattern, which was repeated exactly by each LED in the series. I think this should be a more prominent point with photographers; how to turn something ordinary into something that will intrigue.

Bex
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Take A Guess

I thought I’d do something slightly different for my upload today. One of the first things that I always explain is about the subject and where I took the photo. Today I’m leaving you to guess what it is. I took this photo during a recent outside broadcast with Bradley Stoke Radio. We were offered the chance to switch on the Christmas lights and provide the entertainment – and no, it’s not the Christmas lights!

I’m a little limited to what I can write so as not to give you any clues!!! For this reason, I shall skip straight to post-processing. I had to edit this image rather a lot as the quality wasn’t wonderful and the colours didn’t stand out enough. I increased the saturation and contrast; I changed the hue slightly, removed noise and sharpened the whole image.

I will reveal the answer in a news post in a few days time, so keep an eye out! If you’d like to enter my mini competition, then either comment on this post or send an email to dailywandersblog@gmail.com

Good luck!!

Bex

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NOTE: THE ANSWER CAN NOW BE SEEN ON THE POST FROM 25TH NOVEMBER

Roaring Flames

As I've done quite a few fireworks photos recently, I thought I would carry on the theme but with a bit of a twist. I took this photo during the same evening as the fireworks; they had a bonfire before they set started setting the fireworks off.

So for this photo I wanted the whole frame to be in focus so I used an aperture of F16, but this meant I needed to use a high ISO (ISO 1600). This gave me a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second which was fast enough to capture the roaring flames of the fire. Also as the shutter speed was fast enough I didn’t need to use a tripod or a flash-gun.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down a bit, and I also increased the colour temperature. I increased the colour temperature because I wanted the photo to be very vibrant and the fire to look warm and appealing. I cropped the photo down because there was quite a lot of empty space in front of the fire which was causing a distraction.

I’ve still got a lot of photos from the firework display, there are so many that I like; way too many to be uploaded. So if I upload any more I’ll upload the very best ones for you all.

Mat

Starting Fires

I hope you’ve been enjoying yourself over the past week of fireworks and bonfires!! I love this time of year, as there is so much to take photos of- both inside and outside of events.

I took this photo at one of my town’s local events, which I attended to support my grandmother as she had the honour of lighting this year’s bonfire!! After she had lit it, it was left to burn down completely (which was rather nice, as it was freezing!). It was a really interesting subject for a photograph, as the combination of smoke, flames and ashes made for a unique effect at every press of the shutter. I like this photo in particular.

I experimented with exposure times to get different effects; in this picture I used a shutter speed of 1/4000 with an aperture of F8. I used such an incredibly fast shutter speed because I didn’t want the patterns made by the smoke to blur, and there was a lot of light coming from the fire.

I haven’t edited this image as I was pleased with the original. I love how you can see the ash around the outlines of the fire along with the silhouette of the wood. I hope you’ll join me in saying congratulations to my grandmother – she did well!!!

Bex

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Vibrant Skies

I really wanted to take a sunset photo, so this evening I went out with my camera to hunt down the sunset. The weather was perfect for taking sunset photo because there was just the right amount of clouds.

To get the best effect I used a medium aperture (F10), by doing this the whole scene was in sharp focus. 

Also I used point metering and metered off the sky and underexposed by 1/3^rd of a stop. This combined effect puts the foreground into silhouette and makes the sky look really vibrant. I thought the most interesting composition would be if I had the foreground in the bottom of the frame with the sky being the most dominant part.

I thought the photo could do with some editing so I changed the histogram, I made the highlights brighter and increased the contrast, this made the sky even more vibrant. Also I cropped out some of the top of the frame; I did this because the sky was over dominating the photo. With this editing done the photo looks much better now.

I’m glad that I’ve finally got a good sunset photo, hopefully I’ll be able to take some more in the future.

Mat