Paddling Past

I said in a previous post that Bex and I only saw two ducks while we were at the duckpond. After I captured that photo the ducks split off and I followed the male duck until he past some reeds that were protruding above the water level. I thought it made an interesting composition so I took a series of photos and used the one with the best composition to upload for you.

I had the camera in shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second selected so all the movement made by the reeds and the duck were frozen. I was overexposing the photo to compensate for the lighting which corrected the overall exposure. This gave me an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO speed of ISO 400.

The only editing I did was to crop and rotate the orientation of the photo, as i think this vastly improves the composition. The exposure was correct and I didn’t need to overexpose the photo as I had already compensated for the lighting conditions. The colours had been replicated with the right warmth so I didn’t change the colour tone, or the colour temp.

I’m very much looking forward to our next photo shoot. Maybe we should do a still life photos hoot as we haven’t done one for quite a while. I learnt a lot from doing the still life photo shoot with the flowers a few months ago; hopefully I’ll be able to apply that knowledge to improve my next shoot.

Mat

Flying Alone

I was looking through my computer for some inspiration when I found this photo; I had taken during a photography wander early in January. The weather was bright but cloudy so perfect photography weather (even if it wasn’t perfect weather for the photographer!). I saw a bird of prey that was flying overhead so I tried to capture a photo of it against the clouds.

I wanted the contrast to very harsh so I underexposed the camera by 2/3^rd of a stop. I had the camera in servo AF mode so the focus would follow the motion of the bird. When I was happy with the composition I took a series of photos. I had locked the exposure at 1/400^th of a second which was fast enough to freeze the movement of the bird as it was a long distance away.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo into a square format as I think it creates a far stronger composition. And it enforces the isolation of the bird flying on its own. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the end effect.

Hopefully soon Bex and I will get a chance for a photography wander. But it will most likely be at some point next week. I have a lot of photos stored in my computer so I think I shall be reminiscing on some previous photography wanders.

Mat

New Growth

It finally feels that spring is here! We’ve had nothing but glorious sunshine, making for a perfect bank holiday weekend. One of the best things about spring is that all the trees that were once bare are now lush and green again, and all the flowers are springing up to cover the ground once again. I love this time of year as it is full of colour which is great for photography and the bright sunlight always creates interesting exposure challenges.

To celebrate the turning to spring I thought I would upload a photo of a snapshot of spring. To best portray this effect I thought that a spring time flower would create the effect I was looking for. I went for a photography wander in our local nature reserve and the ground was covered with new flowers starting their new growth.

I saw a small group of white flowers caught my eye because there was one of the flowers standing out in front of the others. I liked this composition and how it separates the flower from the others in the same way that spring is separated from the other seasons. For the actual exposure I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6 selected to ensure the background was thrown completely out of focus. I had an ISO of ISO 200 selected for maximum image quality. I also overexposed the photo by one stop. This meant the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/100^th of a second to complete the exposure.

I didn’t edit the photo because I really liked the effect that I had created in the camera. The exposure was spot on for the lighting conditions and the colours had been calculated incredibly accurately. I also liked the composition I had created so I didn’t crop the photo down.

I’m glad that Bex and I managed to get out for a photography wander today. Most of my photos where of birds again, so expect lots more wildlife photos over the next few days.

Mat

Pink Rose

I was looking through some of my previous photo shoots, when I remembered about this photo. I wanted to upload it at the time but I must have forgotten about it. It’s very similar to one I have already uploaded but with a different lighting technique.

For this photo I had the camera in manual mode with a flash gun set up underneath the flower. I had the flash gun underneath as I wanted the flower to be lit from the bottom left corner of the frame. I set the aperture at F6.3 as this gave me the depth of field I wanted. I had already locked the ISO at 100 for maximum image quality. I then selected a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds to complete the exposure.

The only editing I did to the photo was to increase the contrast and to lower the highlights slightly as the whites were just starting to become clipped. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the overall effect.

I should be going out for a wildlife photo shoot this Saturday if the weather is good enough for photography. Otherwise I’m sure I will find plenty more photos in my computer.

Mat

Wall Climbing

Again this is a photo from the weekend before last. The park we had our lunch in was surrounded by a short wall. Ivy was growing all over the wall; it looks like it climbs its way up the wall from the ground. I wanted to capture the effect of how the ivy grows up the wall.

To capture the effect I composed the photo so the ivy was in the lower right hand third of the frame, and I left plenty of space in the top left third. I did this to give the impression that the Ivy is growing up the wall. As the whole scene was in the same plane I selected an aperture of F5.6 and I locked the ISO in at 100, this gave a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second.

I didn’t edit the photo because I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The exposure was perfect and the colours had been replicated exactly how I wanted them to. Crucially I didn’t need to crop the photo because the composition was exactly how I wanted it to be.

I really like how the ivy appears to be climbing along the wall. I still have a few more photos that I can upload from our trip into town, but hopefully, Bex and I will be going into town again tomorrow. If I take my camera and capture something interesting, I’ll upload for you to see.

Mat

Standing Tall

Mat and I went for a walk through a small town on the outskirts of the city yesterday. He didn’t take his camera as just wanted to go for a walk, but I couldn’t be parted as ever!!

During one part of the walk, Mat sat down on a bench with a coffee (in –5 degrees!), while I chose to continue walking. I found a small clearing, just off the path, so decided to see what was there. I walked into the clearing to find a small shaded area, surrounded by trees- almost impossible to find if you weren’t looking. Small patches of light broke through the cover of the branches, providing thin beams that shone pointed to the centre. I tried to focus on one burst of light, taking the photo up the trunk of the tree to give an idea of scale. I used an aperture of F8, as I wanted the tree to be in focus, while making the background slightly blurred.

I increased the contrast in Photoshop, while slightly decreasing the brightness to make the image appear more dramatic. I decreased the saturation slightly, as I had changed the hue to make the green tones more prominent, and didn’t want this to be obvious when looking at the image. I’m pleased with this image, but regret not using low-key mode, as it could’ve made the image seem more dramatic without having to sacrifice details, as with post-processing.

Bex

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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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Flowing

I managed to get down to the duckpond yesterday so I took a few photos while I was there. During the time I was there, a few swans were paddling around the duck pond. One of them made its way towards me so I took a few photos as it passed me.

I was using the camera in shutter priority and I selected a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second. I underexposed by 2/3rds of a stop, this meant the camera chose an aperture of F8 and an ISO of 100. I composed the photo so that the swan was in the top right corner of the frame looking down to the bottom left corner. I like this composition because it looks balanced, with the swan moving from corner to corner.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo slightly, just to remove some other birds I had caught in corner of the frame. I didn’t change anything else as I didn’t want to spoil the effect I had created. The photo didn’t need sharpening because it was taken on ISO 100, the colours had been replicated perfectly and the exposure was spot on.

I’m glad I managed to get out yesterday because I was starting to get low on photos to upload. I hope we get another chance for a wander, as there are still a few ideas that I want to try out in the nature reserve.

Mat

Experiments

First of all, I shall lay to rest your shock of being able to read a new blog post while still in daylight! (If you’re British, that is). This evening, Mat and I are going to a concert!! We didn’t want to have a night off from Daily Wanders, so decided to prepare a post before leaving.

This is a photo from a recent walk through my local area. Mat was experimenting with flashguns again so I decided to abandon him, although I didn’t completely abandon the concept of experimenting with light. I tried to take a photo of a curled up leaf, but decided it looked dull and was lost in the background. I used flash in conjunction with point metering, in order to lose some of the background. I ended up taking around 10 photos in order to get the desired effect; each one varying in flash intensity, and the amount I over/under exposed the image. This is taken at F5.6 at a shutter speed of 1/160 at ISO 100.

Some of the photo seemed a little over exposed where it caught more of the flash. In order to correct this, I darkened the shadows in Photoshop. I sharpened the image to pick up final details of the leaf. Another twig stemmed from the branch, which I tried to remove by using flash. However, this left a large black space at the bottom of the photo. I cropped it to make it seem more symmetrical. I love experimenting with photos in this way; it’s part of the fun and makes the end result much more satisfying.

Bex

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Shining Through

I know I’ve uploaded some very similar photos recently; but I really liked a lot of the photos and couldn’t decide which to upload so I decided to upload all of them! This photo was taken on the return journey; we had paused for a short break to just watch the world go by. We were just leaving when I saw how the light was catching the leaves on the side of the hedge. I really liked how the bramble branch has been picked out by the light, and how the light shines through the leaves.

To make the most of this composition I used a medium aperture of F8, this gives a large enough depth of field without showing too much of the background. I preselected an ISO of 400 to enable the use of a fast enough shutter speed. I didn’t use the flash on this photo as it would have over powered the natural light and destroyed the effect I was aiming to capture.

I didn’t change anything during the editing stage as I was happy with how I had captured the image. The camera had calculated the exposure perfectly so I didn’t change any of the light levels. Also the colours had been replicated perfectly so I left them as they were.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go out for a walk again this weekend, if not then I’m sure I’ll be able to find some photos in my computer’s hard drive. Maybe I’ll look through some of our previous photography wanders.

Mat

Looking Through The Gaps

This photo was taken on my weekend walk. I walked past a small bush, but it had gap in the foliage which I thought could make an interesting composition. To create this composition I took the photo through this gap in the foliage.

I had the camera in aperture priority and I selected an aperture of F5.6, to reduce the depth of field. I also preselected the ISO sensitivity at ISO 400, which meant a fast enough shutter speed is enabled and the quality is also retained. I managed to use a shutter speed of 1/50^th of a second which was fast enough so I could hand hold the camera.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the shadows; I did this to make the photo more dynamic as it looked a bit flat before. I didn’t change the colour tone or the saturation as i was happy with how the colours had been replicated.

I’m glad I got a chance to go for a photography wander, I keep trying out different techniques and I think my skills are slowly getting better over time. I’ll keep practicing as I’ve still got a long way to go.

Mat

Burgundy Leaves

I managed to get out for a photography wander this weekend, so once again I brought my trusty flash gun with me. I also took my tripod with me to hold the flashgun so I could use some off camera flash.

I spotted some dead leaves hanging from a tree that amazingly hadn’t fallen off despite all the wind we’ve been having! So I set up the flash gun on the tripod to the right and slightly behind the camera. I set the camera to fire the flash remotely; I took a few test shots and decided that the best effect was created without any flash exposure compensation. I had the camera in aperture priority and I preselected an aperture of F5.6 to ensure the depth field was short but the leaf was still sharp. The camera paired this with a shutter speed of 1/60^th of a second.

Editing the photo I decided to increase the contrast and boost the shadows, I did this to make the photo look more dynamic and to make the photo look less flat. I also reduced the colour tone, by doing this the reds become boosted and enhance the burgundy colours of the dead leaves. I didn’t change the composition else because I was happy with how I had framed the photo.

Overall I’m very happy with this photo, I like how I had framed the image and I really like the effect I had created with the flash gun. Hopefully I will get another chance to go on a photography wander at some point this week.

Mat

Netted

Bex and I decided to pre-prepare a blog post for today. This photo was taken on yesterdays trip. In the park we had stopped in; there was a small climbing frame made from rope. I thought that if I took the photo at an odd angle then I could create an interesting composition.

For this photo I used my telephoto lens to create a very short depth of field. I pointed the camera up towards the sky to get the composition that I wanted. I used the camera in aperture priority to keep the depth of field to the minimum. As it was sunny day I pre-selected an ISO of 100. The camera matched this with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second; this was fast enough to account for the focal length.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and then I decreased the shadows. I did this to make the photo more dynamic. I didn’t crop the photo, as I was happy with the composition. I like the effect I created after editing the photo.

As this post was created yesterday we will tell you how Focus On Imaging went in tomorrows post. But I’m sure it will be a very enjoyable and informative event.

Mat

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

Flying High

I managed to get out for a walk today, so I went down to our local duck pond. I’ve recently purchased a Manfrotto monopod and though this would be the best way to try it out. When I got down to the duckpond I attached it to my camera and took all my photos with it on.

This photo was a bit of a happy accident; I was panning with the camera set in shutter priority and a shutter speed of 1/2000^th of a second programmed. I was following the bird and because of the metering I was using, (centre waited) the exposure was under-exposed. But because of this the bird becomes silhouetted against the cloudy backdrop.

To edit the photo, I boosted the contrast and lowered the highlights. I lowered the highlights so the clouds become more prominent. By increasing the contrast the silhouette effect becomes more dramatic. I didn’t crop the photo as I liked how the bird is surrounded by clouds and sky; I also like how the bird is flying across the frame.

The monopod came in very handy with all the photos, it effectively removed the camera shake from hand holding the camera. This enables the use of slightly slower shutter speed (1-2 stops), which is very helpful when there isn’t much light around. I will definitely be using my new monopod on future photography wanders.

Mat

Choppy

I had a free day today so I took a trip to the local harbour for a walk as, for the first time this year, we’ve had some sunshine!!! I decided to go for a boat ride; unfortunately, the sun disappeared and the waves were a little on the large side to say the least. I took my camera with me as usual, along with both my wide angle, and telephoto lens.

As we were on our way out, I tried to capture the ocean spray, so used a shutter speed of 1/800 with an aperture of F7. I increased the contrast in Photoshop, which made the colours less realistic. I decided to play on this, so increased the hue to get a more purple tint as opposed to the original blue-green tinge. I then increased the sharpness to emphasise the droplets of water.

I’m pleased with how the different tones of colour have resulted in two distinctly separate shades of blue. I tried to make the best out of a situation that wasn’t ideal, and I think it worked quite well – often the way! The idea for this photo comes from the theme of movement, emailed to us by Ken. Thanks Ken; I hope you like it!!

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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Snow Problem

Perhaps I should apologise for the awful pun of a title now! But that’s not the only thing I should be apologising for; the last month has been awash with exams and coursework, and the blog has been pushed onto Mat for most of this month. Thankfully, I reached the deadline today so things should start to be a little more regular now.

In my area, most of the snow has melted and things are starting to return to normality. Most people are a bit sick of the sight of it, but I’m one of those that simply regress to the mentality of a 5 year old and carry on! On the first day that the snow arrived on my doorstep, I took my camera out on an all-day adventure. This is one of the first I took, and okay, it may be a little stereotypical painted Christmas card, but I can’t wait almost a year to upload it! I spotted this photo by chance, as I needed to mail a letter on my way out.

I used an aperture of F4, as I wanted quite a shallow depth of field. I boosted the highlights in Photoshop as I had under-exposed a little; this was intentional as it’s hard to control highlight clipping in the snow, and under-exposing eliminates this. Apart from sharpening the image, I haven’t done anything further to the image as I was pleased the original.

Bex
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Snowy Grass

While out on our walk in the snow we passed a patch of tall grass. In this I saw a single piece that was separated from the rest and I thought the composition looked interesting.

To portray the composition faithfully, I took a few test shots that I was pleased with so I adjusted the angle I took the photo until I was completely happy with the composition. I wanted the background to be blurred so I used the maximum aperture which gives a minimal depth of field. In the test shots the colours looked very flat on the grass so I used the built in flash to illuminate and provide some contrast.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and changed the white balance; after this I cropped the image down into a portrait format. I increased the contrast because the photo looked a bit flat before. I changed the format to portrait because it focuses the attention onto just the piece of grass, effectively removing the distracting surroundings. And finally I converted the photo from RAW format to JPEG format so I can upload it to the blog.

I’ve enjoyed the snow very much this year. This is the heaviest snow that I can remember; I’ve had plenty of snowball fights over the past few days! Hopefully there is more snow to come because I spotted a few more photo opportunities and plenty of opportunities for a snowball fight!

Mat

Flying Away

I managed to go out for a walk with my camera today. So I decided to walk around my town and see what I could find. I was walking towards our town centre and there was a large group of black birds circling above me, which gave me an idea for an interesting composition.

My idea I had was to capture the birds as they circled past one of the lamp posts. To capture the exposure I set the camera into AI Servo Focus (Continuous AF), selected the centre AF point which is more sensitive and set the camera to continuous drive mode. I panned the camera following the birds in the viewfinder until I saw the composition I wanted through the viewfinder when I took 4-5 photos. I made sure to take multiple exposures to ensure I had the composition that I wanted.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights. This stops the highlights from becoming blown and also the photo looked a bit flat before so this makes the photo look more dynamic. I also cropped out some rubbish that had become caught on the top of the lamp post. I had accidently captured the photo on an angle; I tried adjusting this to become vertical, but I put it back because I preferred the composition.

Bex apologises for not uploading a post recently, but this week is her exam week and she has been very busy with her revision so she left me in charge of the blog for this week. She has told me that she has a lot of interesting photos that she took over the weekend as well to show you. I’m sure that you will enjoy them.

Mat