Rusted

This is another photo from my trip to the architectural salvage yard a few days ago. As I mentioned previously, a few metres past the entrance, no patch of wall is left uncovered. This photo was taken of another object along the wall.

There is no rhyme to what is placed there; it seems to be anything that the owner likes the look of. On my way out, I stopped to admire everything that lined the wall, and spotted a group of cogs. I decided to focus on one cog as I wanted to capture all of the details that can only be seen close up. I only focused on part of the single cog to add interest to the photo, as it makes it seem a little abstract.

I had to under-expose the photo slightly to get a fast enough shutter speed to keep it sharp; I corrected this in Photoshop. I increased the brightness and contrast to make the image more vibrant. I then decreased the saturation almost completely, as I wanted to push forward the idea of age, while not completely losing the colour of rust. I’m really pleased with this image; it took a little longer to edit than normal as I was being fussy, but it was definitely worth it!

Bex

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Past Holidays

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance a chance to go out for a walk today so I looked through my computer for an image to upload. I usually find the photos from my holidays in Wales to be good for inspiration. I found this photo which really struck me with the well balanced composition.

I used the camera in the landscape setting and the camera selected an aperture of F8.5 for a deep depth of field and a shutter speed of 1/140^th of a second to complete the exposure. I turned off the flash because it would make no difference to the photo.

To edit the photo I cropped out the bottom as there was nothing of interest. I also increased the contrast to give the photo more ‘punch’ and vibrancy. I didn’t change anything else because I was happy with the effect I had created.

Unfortunately Bex hasn’t been having much luck with her laptop recently; she is hoping to get it fixed very soon. She has told me that she has a lot of photos prepared for you, and that she has missed doing the blog recently. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go out for a walk later in the week, to capture more photos to upload for you.

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

Funnels

Earlier today I went for a walk down to the canal, I haven’t been for quite a while so I thought I should go see what the canal looks like in the winter. The weather was more like the summer than a winter wonderland, but I still took some interesting photos.

I walked for much longer than I normally would and I arrived at a small mariner with plenty of moorings for the boats and a few workshops alongside the canal. As there where quite a few boats moored up I thought they would make an interesting composition. I just wanted to focus on the air inlet and the exhaust funnel on one of the canal boats. To do this I used my telephoto zoom lens at around 130mm and with an aperture of F4.5; this ensured that the depth of field was very small. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/180^th of a second; this is fast enough for the focal length in use and removed the camera shake.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the brightness a bit. I did this because the camera had slightly overexposed the photo. I also sharpened the photo because some of the details weren’t as sharp as I would have liked them to be. I didn’t crop the photo because I really like the composition that I had created.

I took quite a few photos at the canal today; this had to be my favourite one. If I find another one that I like then I shall upload it for you; otherwise I shall go out on a wander for some inspiration.

Mat

Shadows

I finally had chance to go for a walk today, and as usual I took my camera with me! This is probably my favourite image of the day, and perhaps isn’t quite as edited as you might expect at first glance.

Towards the end of my walk around the local nature reserve it was starting to get dark and was beginning to cloud over. I found some strange looking flowers, and decided to take a photo of them up the stem to make them seem bigger in the image. However, the camera metering got a little confused and for some strange reason, it came out black and white!

Although I hadn’t intended to take an image in black and white, I liked it and how it made the clouds look more ominous. To try to make this effect more dramatic, I increased the contrast in Photoshop. I increased it to the point that you couldn’t see the stems of the plants to add mystery. I also decreased the brightness slightly. The combination of this made the clouds look much moodier and added a general sense of ambiguity to the entire image.

I’m really pleased with how this image turned out; it just goes to prove that sometimes the camera knows best; even when it doesn’t have a clue what to do!

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

One Last

I took this picture on my walk yesterday; it was one of the first shots I took on our walk and it’s one of the pictures I mentioned yesterday that I was especially pleased with.

It had been raining that afternoon, so raindrops were still on all the plants around the town. As I was walking past a hedgerow, I noticed a few leaves that had almost broken away from the branches due to the excess rain. I loved how some rain has stayed on the leaf, giving the effect of a lens. I focused on this leaf in particular, using an aperture of F4.5 to blur the edges of the leaf to make the picture seem more surreal. I used low key gradation to make the photo seem more dramatic and emphasise the contrast in the image.

I didn’t have to do any editing, as I was pleased with the original photograph. I love how you can see the veins of the leaf through the water droplets; it seems to add to the mystery of the image. I am going on holiday tomorrow, so I shall leave you in the capable hands of Mat for the weekend. Au revoir!!

Bex

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Trails

I’m back!!! Firstly I must apologise for abandoning the blog, and secondly I should thank Mat for keeping Daily Wanders running smoothly while I have been munching on throat sweets like they were smarties!

Today, I was feeling better and was in need of getting some fresh air. Mat and I have wanted to try taking photos of light trails ever since we first started the blog back in April, but it’s gone dark too late throughout the summer season.

This evening, we walked to a bridge over the motorway, not far from the town. We took Mat’s tripod, my E-500 and several layers to try and capture the action! For this particular shot, I used an exposure time of 20 seconds at ISO100 with an aperture of F18. I tried to take out as much light as possible to allow for a longer exposure time.

When using a slower shutter speed, I was presented with the problem of the white burning out, but needing this time for more vivid reds. To combat this, I tried to take the photo when there was a lot of traffic on one side, but not a lot coming towards us.

Later, I used the remove colour cast tool to correct the yellow tint to the picture; I also increased the contrast to make the colours stand out. I love how you can see a few stars in the sky and reflections on the wet road. I also like how it wasn’t completely dark when we took the pictures, so you can still see some light on the horizon.

Apart from all the thoughts of rain, illness and general melancholy brought about by the thought of winter, it can’t be all bad! At least I can do more shots like this without becoming deprived of sleep. At last- a cheery note to winter!!

Bex

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Vintage Return

As promised Bex and I went on a photography wander today. We didn’t go very far but we found many interesting compositions. This photo I spotted about half way through the walk, we had walked out of town and into the countryside and where about to turn round to return back.

I saw this tree half way along a hedge between two fields. I haven’t taken any photos in black and white for a long time so I thought that I should take the photo in black and white with a sepia digital filter. As I was a long distance from the subject the aperture that I chose would make very little difference to the depth of field so I left the camera in Program Auto. I did preset the ISO to 100 to ensure that there was plenty of detail to the shadows.

When editing the photo I decided to crop the photo down and alter the histogram. I cropped the photo to enhance the composition: by using the rule of thirds I moved the tree into the top left of the frame. By altering the histogram I lowered the highlights and the shadows, I think this made the exposure look more vintage which was the effect I was aiming for.

I’m glad that we got out for a photography wander, because I was starting to get a bit low on photographic material. I’ve now got a good stock of photos for all of you to enjoy.

Mat

Corners

Bex and I have been incredibly busy recently, and we haven’t had a chance to go out. So unfortunately I’ve started to run out of photos to upload. I managed to find this one while looking through my computer.

This photo was taken during our visit to the church earlier this year. It’s one of the many photos I wanted to upload but didn’t have a chance to. I took the photo at the top of the church tower; I had an idea about an alternative landscape photo. I thought if I included some of the floor, the tower, the sky and some of the surrounding landscape it would make an interesting composition. To make the best of the composition I used a small aperture of F16 so that the whole scene will be in sharp focus, and I used the tower to focus on. I used a low ISO to ensure that there would be lots of detail in all areas of the photo.

When I was editing the photo I decided to crop the photo down and straighten it a bit. By cropping the photo down the composition has been enhanced considerably. I didn’t change anything to do with the exposure because I really like how the photo was taken in the photo. I didn’t need to sharpen the photo because the ISO I had chosen was suitably low to control the noise.

Bex and I are planning a photography wander tomorrow, so we should have plenty of new photos to upload for you.

Mat

Angular

I’ve been ill recently, so Mat was left to his own devices- and credit where credit is due, he didn’t break it! I decided to go for a walk around my local area. After about an hour I had walked to a super market. Normally, I wouldn’t bother to stop but I still had a sore throat so went to buy a drink.

As I walked out of the shop, I spotted the pattern of the corrugated steel on the walls. I liked how the rivets broke up the seamless lines. When standing next to it, the steel acts a lead in line to the rivets; it draws your eye right into the picture. In Photoshop, I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness to give the effect of under-exposing. It also lost the detail in places, making the photo more abstract.

I think this works well, and can be a widely transferable effect so long as you know when and where to apply it.

Bex
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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

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

Tired Out Tiger

The festival weekend was a lot of fun for everyone involved, for the people who stayed both days it was a very long weekend. Towards the end of the second day people were starting to get tired, and more people were sitting down to rest.

There was a short period of bright sunshine towards the end of the second day and I found myself using the flash gun a lot. I used the flash gun on this photo because I wanted the detail to be clear in all the shadow areas. Also I used a wide aperture to limit the depth of field to just the person lying down. I used point metering on his face to make sure that the exposure was correct, and didn't white out.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and increased the shadows, to correct the exposure and make it more pleasing on the eye. I didn't change anything else because I liked how the photo was exposed. I didn't crop the photo because I like how it was composed.

Bex and I didn't get a chance to go out this weekend; so as we have still got lots of photos from the festival to upload for you.

Mat

Light Effects

This is another photo from our trip to the festival last weekend. We had gone into a tent which was playing extremely loud music and had very creative light patterns being beamed onto the roof of the tent. The music wasn’t completely to my taste but the light patterns were very interesting to watch.

As we were inside there was very little light so I had to use a high ISO, also as the light levels were changing so quickly and randomly the light metre in the camera was getting very confused. To resolve this I put the camera into manual mode and set the aperture at F5.6 and adjusted the shutter speed until it got as close to the correct exposure as possible, then I would release the shutter. This gave really interesting effects, with the light patterns being blurred and crossing each other, but with the people being in relatively sharp focuses.

When it came to editing the photo I decided to increase the contrast and the brightness, but I also decreased the saturation to make the white look more pure. I didn’t crop the photo because I really liked how the photo was framed, because you can see the people in the foreground raving to the music and staring at the changing lights.

I really hope Bex and I get a chance to do some more event photography, it was so much fun and we had a great time.

Mat

Dramatic Red

I wasn’t able to go for a photography wander today so I looked through my computer for some more inspiration. I was looking through the photos from a fairly recent trip to the local duck pond, and I stumbled across this photo of some lovely red flowers.

This was one of the first photos that I had taken on the walk, we had just started arrived at the duck ponds and where looking around for photo opportunities. We walked round a corner and this red flower ‘jumped’ out at me. It was late evening and the sun was creating some very dramatic light effects. The light was focused directly onto the flower with the surroundings in shadow; I really liked this effect as it creates a very moody atmosphere. As it was quite late I had to take the photo with the aperture wide open (F4), which created a shallow depth of field. Also I had to use quite a high ISO to counteract the low light levels; this unfortunately added quite a lot of noise into the photo.

When editing the photo I reduced the overall noise and sharpened the photo. I also increased the brightness, I did this to emphasise the mood created by the lighting. Overall the photo has come out very pleasing I think.

Bex and I have planned to go out tomorrow, so hopefully we shall have some new material to upload for you very soon.

Mat

Aisles

Once a year in my local area, there is an “Open Doors Day”. This is when local places of interest let the public access all areas for a single day. Among other places, Mat and I decided to go to a church on the outskirts of town. It’s well known for the bell tower, which is what was open!

I walked up to the roof of the bell tower with my camera; the views were stunning but looked more like snapshots than photography. When reviewing my photos in the evening, I saw this picture. It was taken just before I went up to the roof. I was waiting for my turn, so decided to go for a wander through the main building. As I got to one end of the church, I turned and saw the archways. I noticed how the pews acted as lead in lines, as well as pillars.

I had to wait for 10 minutes to get a shot without any people at the back of it. I had to use a high ISO in order to avoid using flash. This meant that I needed to edit my picture in the evening. I increased the contrast and saturation to make the picture seem brighter without losing the colour. Afterwards, I used the noise removal tool to make the picture look clearer.

I’m really pleased with it; it was definitely worth the wait! I think it’s one of those pictures that you don’t realise it’s potential until you’ve see it on a larger screen.

Bex
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A Church With A View

The church we visited yesterday had a tower that was also open to the public. Bex and I thought the rooftop would have some interesting photo opportunities so we climbed the stairs to the top (All 133 of them!). But when we got to the top, it was more than worth it!

In each corner of the tower there was a small spire, I thought if I took a photo peering through the gaps it would make an interesting composition. I used a narrow aperture so that both sides will be in focus. Also I waited for the clouds to move into a more interesting position to improve the composition.

Afterwards I straightened the photo, and increased the colour temperature. I increased the colour temperature to recreate the colours of the sand stone. I needed to straighten the photo, because I hadn’t quite taken the photo completely vertically.

We both took plenty of photos yesterday, so we still have plenty of picture to upload over the coming week.

Mat

Watching Waves

I haven’t been able to go for a walk recently as I have had a lot going on. This is another picture from my visit to the monkey sanctuary. I took this picture on the way back from the sanctuary. On our route, there was a ferry crossing, with a small sandy area either side of the water.

As I was waiting to board, I discovered that an old-fashioned chain ferry covered the crossing. The chains had been rusted after several years use; along with the railings that had been exposed to the sea. It was getting late and the clouds were starting to roll in, which made the entire scene look quite dramatic. I decided to play up to this by under exposing slightly. Amazingly, I didn’t have to do any editing to this picture as I liked it as it was.

I love finding odd photos through boredom. I try to keep an eye out wherever I go, just in case I spot something!

Bex
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Caught

I went out for a walk today as I had some spare time. So I went down to the canal, because the weather was perfect for photo taking. It had just stopped raining and the clouds had started to part. The sun was streaming through the clouds perfectly.

I know the canal was the main feature of the walk but this photo just cropped up in the corner of my eye. The dandelion had just floated past in front of me, and had become caught temporarily on another dandelion. I had to react quite quickly, so I put the camera into auto and left it to decide the specific exposure. I had just enough time to compose the photo before the wind took the dandelion with it.

Because the photo was taken in a hurry the exposure the camera chose wasn't perfect, so I decided to change the brightness and the saturation. I increased the brightness to compensate for the camera choosing the wrong exposure. I also decreased the saturation because I like the effect that it gave the photo; by giving it a more mysterious mood to the photo which I really like.

I’m glad I got a chance to go out after the rain today, I find it’s always the best time to go out to take photos. I find this because the weather changes very rapidly, and the clouds are always very white and diffuse the light perfectly.

Mat