A Short Pause

I did manage to get out for a short walk today, I didn’t have very long so I just went round my local area. I didn’t see much as I was walking but just as I was about to turn back for home this small bird landed on a tree in front of me, it didn’t stay very long but I managed to capture a few photos of it.

I knew I didn’t have long so I quickly put the camera in shutter priority and selected 1/800^th of a second, this eliminated all forms of camera shake and subject movement. Fortunately the camera was already in continuous drive mode so I took a short series of photos to ensure I caught a photo that I liked.

To edit the photo I decreased the contrast and increased the shadows. I did this because I wasn’t completely happy with how the camera calculated the exposure. I also changed the white balance to make the sky look more blue. I didn’t crop the photo as I was happy with how I had composed the photo.

I’m glad I got a chance for a short walk today, I hope I get a chance to go for a longer one this weekend.

Mat

Resting

I know I’ve done a lot of wildlife posts recently but I couldn’t decide which photos to upload, so I decided to upload all of them. In the centre of the duckpond is a small island; a lot of the birds decide to build their nests on this island. While I was at the duckpond, two of the mallard ducks were resting just outside their nest on the island. I thought that how they were standing made an interesting composition.

To capture this photo I decided to use the camera in aperture priority so I had the choice over the depth of field. I selected an aperture of F8 because it gave me the depth of field that I wanted. To enable the use of a fast enough shutter speed I had to boost the ISO to ISO800. This meant that some loss of image quality would happen; as I was shooting in RAW I could recover this detail in the editing stage. I had the camera in continuous drive mode to capture a series of photos; when looking back I decided this was the best one.

To edit the photo the first thing I did was to reduce the noise and sharpen the image. Then I cropped the photo slightly as I wanted a slightly different composition to how I had taken the photo. I also increased the brightness because I felt the photo was a little bit dull. I didn’t change anything else, as I was happy with the overall effect of the photo.

I think I have about used up all the photos I took at the duckpond, hopefully this weekend Bex and I might get a chance to go out for a photography wander.

Mat

Aged

I planned to take a trip into the town centre today but I’m quite easily distracted, and soon found that I had strayed quite far off the beaten track! I found a small architectural salvage yard just off of the bus route which I had visited only once before, and couldn’t remember where it was. Having spotted it on the off chance, I decided to stop and have a look around.

The owners take in anything they find, which makes it an amazing place to visit, as there’s always something different! Today, I found a Kodak Brownie among other things. There is a passageway to the entrance; at the front of the passage is a metal archway, and after this point, not a square foot of space is left clear on the walls. This candelabra caught my attention as it wasn’t in the best condition but was still bright. I decided to focus on one branch, as the crowded walls either side distracted attention from this. I used an aperture of F8 in order that the branch was in focus and most eye-catching, while still having context by having the ability to see the background.

It was a really cloudy day, so I struggled to get the correct exposure. Due to this, I had to brighten the image in Photoshop, as well as increase contrast. I also increased the saturation, in order to emphasise the striking colour. I love visiting the architectural salvage; it’s interesting because there’s always something that catches your eye!

Bex

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Landing

I managed to go out for a short walk today, so I thought I could go down to the duckpond to take some more photos. As the monopod was such a success I took it with me for this trip as well. I enjoyed taking the photos of the birds flying last time; so I thought I would try this again but with the extra experience from last time.

Fortunately I caught the photo that I was attempting to capture. I used the camera in shutter priority again with a shutter speed of 1/2000^th of a second. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO of 500, I underexposed the cameras metering by 2/3^rd of a stop to compensate for the amount of white in the centre of the frame. I composed the photo so that the landing bird was in the centre of the frame so the main focus is on the bird.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the shadows. I did this to create more depth to the photo. I also de-saturated the photo to correct a slight colour cast. I didn’t crop the photo because I was happy with the original composition.

I’m glad I got a chance to go for a walk again today. The monopod is really proving itself very useful. Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go for a joint photography wander soon.

Mat

Angry Ducks

Following on from my recent posts I thought I should upload another photo from my walk down to the duckpond. I was watching a small group of ducks, and a few of the male mallards were fighting over the female mallard. I wanted to capture a photo of this but as they moved around I struggled to get a photo quick enough.

To capture the photo I used the camera in shutter priority and chose a shutter speed of 1/1000^th to ensure that all movement was frozen. I left the camera in automatic ISO selection. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and ISO 800 to complete the exposure. I framed the photo so there was an even spread across the frame.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and the shadows. I did this to balance out the exposure. I also used the noise reduction to decrease the amount of noise in the photo. I didn’t change the composition as I was pleased with how balanced the frame appeared. I didn’t change the saturation or colour tone either, because I was happy with how the colours had been represented.

I’m quite pleased with this photo but I think I still need more practice to capture the moment I wanted. Perhaps the next I go down to the ducpond I will get a chance to.

Mat

A Refreshing Drink

There were a lot of swans at the duckpond, when I went for my walk last week. Some of them made some interesting compositions which I decided to photograph. One of my favourites is when the swans lean down to drink the water; I really wanted to catch the water as it dripped off their mouths.

To capture the movement of the water I needed a fast shutter speed, I decided to use 1/400^th of a second as I thought this would be fast enough. I was using my monopod so I didn’t have to worry about camera shake. The camera selected an aperture of F 5.6 and an ISO of 250 to complete the exposure. I didn’t use the flash in case it scared the swans off. I composed the photo so the swan was in the right hand side of the frame.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was pleased with the effect that I had created. I didn’t crop the photo because I like how I had framed it. The exposure was spot on and didn’t require any adjustments either.

Hopefully the weather will cheer up again soon, and if it does I will defiantly be out with my camera once again!

Mat

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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