Hidden

I managed to go out again today, instead of going to the lake I went in the opposite direction, down by the canal. I like it down by the canal, sometime if a boat goes past while I’m out then I stop to chat to them, they’re all very friendly and we can be talking for ages.

Running alongside the canal is a hedge; it is always full of life with plenty of flowers and wildlife hiding inside. This time there wasn’t much wildlife but there were plenty of flowers.  This group caught my eye as I was walking past; I thought the composition was spot on. I used an aperture of F8 to ensure the depth of field was large enough and the sharpness was crisp.

When I uploaded the photo onto my computer I decided against changing anything, because I really like the effect of the photo. With the branch in the foreground and the other trees blurred in the background.

I’m glad that I’m back now; Bex and I are meeting up tomorrow, hopefully if the weather is nice and we get a chance, we may go out for a photography wander. If not, I’ve still got a few photos from today that I could upload.

Mat

Flying Birds

I managed to get out today so I went for a walk to the local lake. It’s always very peaceful there so if I’ve got a lot going on I like to go for walk around it to relax. I’m glad I managed to get out as it really helped me to relax, and the photography was really good fun as well.

While I was at the lake, there was a lot of birds flying around I thought they would make an interesting photo if I got the composition right. I used an aperture of F10 this gave me a good depth of field and meant I could use a shutter speed fast enough to freeze what was happening. I also underexposed the exposure slightly to make a moodier atmosphere.

I didn’t edit the photo because I really like the overall atmosphere of the photo, with the birds flying away and having the trees in the background. Also with the underexposure the atmsopherre is very moody which is exactly what I wanted.

I hope I get a chance to go out again tomorrow, there are a couple other places that I want to go walk to. If not then I still have many more photos form today that I could upload.

Mat

Tiny Leaves

Bex and I managed to get out for a walk today as planned. So we walked around our local area as we didn’t have much time. We walk the same area quite a lot but take different photo each time, as we see something different each time.

While walking there was an open area of grass that was surrounded by a hedge. I liked the area as there was a lot of photo opportunities, I thought that I should do some macro photography in this area. So I put the camera into aperture priority to give the smallest depth of field possible and I moved as close as I could to the leaves. By moving in close and using a large aperture the depth of field was only a few centimetres. I like this effect because very little of the leaf is in focus with the background blurred completely out of focus.

I rotated the photo so it was in the correct orientation and I cropped it down slightly to improve the composition. I also increased the colour temperature because I like having a little extra ‘warmth’ to my photos. I didn’t change anything else because I like how the photo was exposed and the colour recreation was perfect.

I’m away for the weekend, hopefully I shall have a chance to take some photos. If not then I’m sure Bex will be able to do a great job of supplying some amazing photos for you.

Mat

A Walk Through The Woods

During one of my breaks today I managed to go out for a short walk. It was nice to get out into the calm brisk air. I followed the gravel path for around 30 minutes, taking photos as I went.

There weren’t any clouds in the sky and the sun was beaming down on me as I walked. As I walked down the path a great photo opportunity sprang out at me. The scenery to the sides of the path almost made a mirror image of each other, along with the sun being nearly central in the frame. This made an interesting composition that I really liked. I used a small aperture to give the greatest depth of field and I had my tripod with me to steady the camera on so I could use ISO 100.

When I put the photo on to the computer I turned down the highlights by a small amount while increasing the shadow areas to make the detail more visible. I only made subtle changes because I tried to keep the atmosphere of the photo the same as when I took the photo.

Bex and I have planned to go out tomorrow for a walk together. I’m quite looking forward to it as I have many more photos in mind.

Mat

Luminous

I must apologise for leaving Mat to his own devices for the past few days; I've been snowed under with work!! I had a free afternoon today so I decided to mess around with the filters again. There’s been torrential rain all day, so I was confined to whatever I could find around my house.

I used a +1 and a +2 close up filter in conjunction with an 8-point starburst filter. Using these close up filters meant I could get a lot closer to the top of the lamp (whilst standing on a chair…!) without struggling to focus. The 8-point starburst filter adds more mystery around the lamp, instead of using a 4-point filter, which would give the conventional cross effect.

I boosted the contrast and increased the sharpness to make the starburst effect more prominent. I did this on the camera before taking the shot, so I didn’t need to do any editing afterwards. I wasn’t sure how much use the filters would be, but I thought they’d be good as a bit of fun. I’m quite impressed at some of the shots that I have got with them!

Bex

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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

Old Barn

To make a change away from all the festival photos that we’ve been showing I thought I would upload a photo that I took a while ago. This one is from one of our holidays away together, when we had gone for one of short wanders.

We had walked down a country road for a short while when we past a small farm yard. The land owner saw us walking along the road with our cameras and we got talking, after a while he let us take some photos around his yard. When I saw this old cow shed, the composition was perfect so I had to take a photo. I thought it would look interesting if I took it in sepia. To improve the composition I used a small aperture (F11), by doing this it means that the whole scene is in focus. I also underexposed the photo to introduce a moodier atmosphere.

While editing the photo I decided leave the photo exactly as it was. I think the photo came out just right. The composition is exactly how I wanted it and the sepia effect suites the scene perfectly.

I haven’t uploaded any black and white/sepia photos for a while. The next time I’m out I think I shall sneak in some black and white photos. I really love the effect of black and white photography, and I shall do some more when I next get a chance.

Mat