Branching Pathways

I got out for another photography wander today with Bex. We went into our local town again, and went for a walk around our usual places. We were walking along a path on the way to a cafe that we like when I spotted a few small branches that had fallen onto the path. I thought they made an interesting composition.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6, as this isolated the closet branch from the rest of the scene. I left the camera to select both the shutter speed and the ISO, for this exposure the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/40^th of a second and an ISO of ISO 6400 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo, the only thing I did was to increase the contrast, I was happy with the rest of the photo so I decided to leave it the way it came out of the camera. The composition was as I wanted it to be, and the colours had been replicated accurately so didn’t require any editing. Also the exposure didn’t require any changes except for the increase in contrast.

I’m really glad that both Bex and I had a chance to go out with our cameras today. We haven’t been out with our cameras together for quite a while and I was in need of taking some new photos. So I will have a few new photos to upload to the blog over the next few days.

Mat

Steam Traction

Following on from my most recent post I thought I would upload another photo based on railways. I wanted to use a photo of a railway but with a bit of twist. So I thought I would look back through my computer to one of the many holidays that I’ve been to in Wales. On this particular holiday we paid a visit to one of the preserved railways, I wanted to give this photo a bit of a twist by making it look more vintage, a bit like an old style postcard.

The engine is a manor class loco as used by the Great Western Railway (GWR), just in case any wants to know! I used an aperture of F16 to ensure that as much of the photo is in focus, the camera then selected a shutter speed of a/125^th of a second and ISO 100 to complete the exposure. I composed the photo so that the engine was in the right third of the photo with the rest of the train extending through the photo to the left hand third.

To edit the photo I increased both the saturation and the colour temperature, this gives the photo an older appearance and makes it looks like an old fashioned post card. I like this effect; the photo looks exactly as I wanted it to when I came up with the idea. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with everything else.

I’m very pleased with the effect I created with this photo, I like the character that old photos and old postcards have; and that was what I was trying to replicate with this photo.

Mat

Off To Work

Sorry I haven’t done a blog post recently, things have been going crazy, but are slightly better now and I finally managed to get out for a short photography wander. The weather wasn’t amazing today so I decided to pay a quick visit to our local railway station.

It was quite early in the morning so the station was full of commuters on their way to work. I thought the busy atmosphere would make an interesting composition. I was waiting for one of the commuter trains to leave when I saw the guard making his way down the platform, I thought it would make an interesting composition if I could isolate them as they talked to each other.

To isolate them I used an aperture of F8 to ensure that both of them were in focus but to still make sure that the background was still out of focus. I had to use quite a high ISO to ensure that the shutter speed would be fast enough, as the camera was in aperture priority the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down to focus the attention onto the driver and the guard. I also increased the contrast while lowering the highlights to reduce the effect of the highlights being blown in the sky. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the rest of the photo.

I’m glad I had a chance to go out for a photography wander today, even though the weather wasn’t great I still had a good time and took a few good photos at the station. Hopefully I will have another chance sometime soon to take some more photos.

Mat

Burst Of Colour

I took this photo on one of the trips Bex and I went on to our local town. I was trying to capture a photo of a group of daffodils but they were in direct sunlight which made setting the exposure very difficult. I didn’t get the effect that I wanted so I moved on to a different subject. When looking back through, I came across this photo which didn’t look as bad as I thought when I took it.

I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected to give the best trade off between depth of field and a fast shutter speed. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 for maximum image quality. I didn’t have my flash gun on me during this trip as I couldn’t balance the harsh sunlight. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights. After I did this I started playing with the colour temperature settings, I used the custom setting and selected the yellow leaves which turned them white and turned the background a rather pleasant blue colour! I stopped changing settings after this as I didn’t want to spoil the effect that I had (accidently) made. I really like the modified colours and I think it makes the photo look much better than before.

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon and Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander very soon.

Mat

Burning Lights

I managed to get out on a photography wander tonight, I was in our local town for the afternoon. It started to get late into the evening and the sun and hidden behind the horizon for the night. One of my aims was to capture some of the street lamps after day; as I thought the light would make an interesting composition.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F5.6 selected, as this gives the best combination of narrow depth of field and still allows a moderate shutter speed to be used. I didn’t use the flash as it would spoil the lighting effect that I was aiming for.

 To edit the photo I used the noise reduction tool to try and reduce some of the noise created by the high ISO. I also increased the contrast to give the photo a bit more punch. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy how the colours had been replicated and I like how I had composed the photo.

Hopefully I will get a chance for some more photography at some point soon. As I’m a bit low on photos, and I would like to make the most of the good weather.

Mat

Flying Away

When I was photographing the pigeon I mentioned yesterday, after I captured the photo I wanted it suddenly flew off the branch into the forest behind it. Fortunately I managed to focus onto the bird as it flew off and I got a small series of photos before it was out of sight.

I still had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected. This shutter speed was fast enough to freeze the action and would remove any camera shake created while panning the camera. I didn’t use the flash gun because I didn’t have enough time to remove from my camera bag and attach it to my camera. I over exposed the photo by 1/3^rd of a stop, to combat the lighting.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights to ensure the highlights didn’t become clipped. I also changed the colour tone as I thought the camera had recorded to much green in the photo for my liking. I cropped the photo as I thought the composition wasn’t very balanced, I cropped the photo so the pigeon was in the lower left hand corner of the frame.  

This photo isn’t the best quality wise but I still like it as it shows the pigeon in full flight as it takes off and flies deeper into the wood. Hopefully I’ll get another chance for a wildlife photo shoot soon, as I enjoy the challenge of moving subjects.

Mat

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

On The Move

Looking back through some photos that I’ve taken on previous photography wanders, and I once again came across the series of photos that I took of the squirrel in our local city. The squirrel was jumping around on a search for food, and I managed to capture a photo just as it was changing direction and about to move off again.

I had the camera in shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1/500^th of a second, had an ISO of ISO800 locked in. I was underexposing the photo by 1/3^rd of a photo which meant the camera selected an aperture of F5.6 to complete the exposure.  I didn’t use my flash gun because it was in my camera bag and I didn’t have enough time to attach it to my camera.

I didn’t change anything during the editing stage as I was happy with the overall effect of the photo. The exposure was spot on what I wanted it to be, and the colours had been replicated faithfully. I didn’t crop the photo as I was happy with the composition of the photo.

Bex and I are planning on a photography wander next weekend as we will have some spare time. Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can get outside to capture some summer shots.

Mat

Lost In The Silhouette

I managed to get out for a quick walk this evening with Bex. We went for a short walk around the nature reserve as we didn’t have much time. As we were walking a pigeon suddenly flew out of nowhere nearly hitting me in the head! Fortunately I had my camera out so I quickly spun around and took a series of photos as it flew away from us. Luckily a couple of the photos were in focus, this one was my favourite in terms of composition.

I didn’t have a chance to change any of the settings before I took the photo. Fortunately the camera was in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second selected, so both the movement of the bird and any camera shake were both frozen. I had the ISO locked at ISO800 and the camera selected an aperture of F8 to complete the exposure.

I didn’t edit the photo as I like how it was straight from the camera; I like the underexposed effect of the photo. Also the composition was how I wanted it to be, so I didn’t crop the photo down. The colours in the sky and clouds looked accurate to how they were so I didn’t change either the colour tone or the colour saturation.

I think this is my best spur of the moment photo I’ve taken so far. Although out of all the photos I took only two of them were in correct focus! So I was quite lucky with this photo. But I think it worked out well in the end.

Mat

Look Before You Jump

I found this photo while doing the previous blog post, this photo was taken chronologically first but I preferred the previous photo, which is why I uploaded it first. I had first seen the squirrel scurrying around in this tree. It stopped on a branch and leaned over looking like it was about jump to the ground (which it did after I captured my photos).

I didn’t have much time to capture the image I wanted, so I put the camera into shutter priority and selected a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second. I chose this photo as I knew it would fast enough for all eventualities; it is fast enough to remove almost any movement by the squirrel and it will remove any camera movement even at the lens longest focal length. Fortunately I had enough time to take a short series of photos before the squirrel jumped off the branch onto the ground.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo for a tighter composition around the squirrel because there were quite a few distractions behind the tree. I didn’t change anything else because I was happy with the exposure and the colours had been replicated perfectly.

Hopefully at some time next week Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander. The weather looks to improve so hopefully there will be plenty of new flowers bursting into life in the nature reserve and lots of wildlife hiding and waiting to be found.

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

Feeding Time

This photo was taken the short wander I went on last week. After walking through the nature reserve I made my way towards the duckpond. As he weather was nice there was a large gathering of ducks and other wild birds. Also a few young families were at the side of the pond feeding the ducks with small chunks of bread; which the ducks of course enjoyed, and many came back for more!

I saw one of the ducks making its way to were the other ducks were being fed. As it was on its own I thought it would make an interesting composition with the reflection in the water. To make the most of this composition I used an aperture of F8 to give a large enough depth of field. I didn’t get a chance to put the flash gun on my camera, so I had to overexpose the photo by 1 and 1/3^rd of a stop to get an even exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the highlights, I then sharpened the photo as the photo looked a bit bland. I also cropped the photo because I felt that I had left to much dead space in the front of the photo. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the effect I had created.

Both Bex and I are going through a very busy time at the moment; we will go out on photography wanders whenever we get a chance, but when we can’t we will look through our computers for older photos so we can still keep the blog running for you.

Mat

Watching The World

I took this photo earlier this week while I was out walking with my camera. I was passing through the nature reserve and I saw a bird that had landed on a tree and just appeared to be watching the nearby world.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F6.3 selected. This aperture gives the best compromise of depth of field and still allows an adequate shutter speed to be used. I composed the photo so that I had a branch in front to give some foreground interest, and to also as lead in lines to the bird. I didn’t use the flash gun because the sky was quite cloudy and therefore the light was diffused.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looks. The exposure was spot on and the colours had been replicated perfectly. I liked the composition so I didn’t crop the photo either.

Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go out on a photography wander of some sort this weekend. The weather is looking good, warm and slightly cloudy; perfect photography weather!

Mat

Lone Swan

I didn’t get a chance to go for a photography wander this weekend so I used one of the photos from my previous wander earlier last week. I noticed a swan had made a nest on a small island in the duckpond. I thought it made an interesting composition as it was isolated on its own.

To make the most of the composition I put the camera in manual mode so I could control both the aperture and the shutter speed. I set the aperture at F5.6 and the shutter speed at 1/640^th to freeze the movement. I let the camera choose the ISO, which it calculated to be ISO1000. I also overexposed the photo by one stop.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with the effect straight from the camera. The exposure had been calculated perfectly and the colours had been replicated faithfully. I didn’t crop the photo as I liked how I had composed the photo.

Both Bex and I have a very busy time now because of our school/college work. But we will still go out on photography wanders whenever we can. If we don’t get a chance then we both have a large reserve of photos that we can access on our computers.

Mat

Flying Away

Again this was taken on yesterdays short wildlife photoshoot. I was watching a pigeon in one of the trees next to me, when suddenly it took off and flew away. Within minutes of this happening the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down! I think the pigeon had the right idea flying away. So I quickly stuffed my camera gear back into my camera bag and made off for some shelter.

For this photo I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected and I was overexposing the photo by one stop, to ensure the bird was correctly exposed. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6 and an ISO of 3200 to complete the exposure.  I wasn’t using the flash gun because the sky was cloudy and diffusing the light adequately.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo looked straight from the camera. The exposure was spot on and the colours were replicated just how I wanted them to be. I thought if I tried to edit the photo I would spoil the effect I had created in camera.

I enjoy wildlife photography as it provides a different challenge to normal photography, with the subjects moving randomly and quickly you need to have quick reactions and the foresight to predict where they are likely to move to. I enjoy these challenges, which is why I try and go on as many wildlife photoshoots as I can.

Mat

Hiding Robin

I managed to go out for a short walk while the weather was good today. The weather was changing rapidly throughout the day so I didn’t have a chance to take many photos. Despite the weather there were a lot of birds in the trees. I spotted this colourful bird hiding away in one of the trees; I thought it made an interesting composition sitting on the branch in the tree.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in manual mode, with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second selected and an aperture of F5.6 to focus the attention onto the bird. I wasn’t using my flash gun for this photo as the sky was covered by clouds which diffused the harsh sunlight for a more soft lighting effect. I also changed the colour tone and the colour saturation to make the most of the colours on the bird.

To edit the photo I cropped the photo down to improve the composition, and I boosted the contrast. The photo was looking flat so by increasing the contrast I made the photo look much more dynamic. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how the camera had replicated the colours.

Hopefully I will get a chance to go out for a photography wander at some point this weekend, if not I still have a fair few photos from my recent wildlife photo shoots.

Mat

Taking On Water

This photo was taken on my recent wildlife photo shoot. We eventually made our way to our local duckpond, when we got there a few swans where swimming around the pond. The swan that was closest to me started to drink the water, I thought this made an interesting composition. The swan was in the bright and direct sunlight; this created a complicated exposure. I decided to combat the difficult exposure by using my flash gun.

I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/1000^th of a second locked in. I had such a fast shutter speed selected so that the movement of the dripping water would be frozen. I had the camera set up on my monopod so I didn’t have to worry about any camera shake. I overexposed the flashgun by 3 stops to ensure the most powerfull flash was being emitted. I also overexposed the cameras exposure meter by 1/3^rd of a stop.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast to give the photo extra punch and I also changed the white balance, as I thought the photo looked a bit warm. I cropped the photo in a bit tighter as there was quite a lot of dead space behind the swan. The composition looks a lot better after I cropped the photo; it shifts the focus onto the swan. I didn’t change the light levels as I was happy with how the camera had exposed the photo.

Hopefully Bex and I will get a chance to go for a photography wander at some point this weekend. If the weather stays as good as it has been then this weekend should bring some great photos.

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

Landing

Bex and I managed to go out for a wander today, but we didn’t take out cameras with us. So I decided to upload another photo from last weekend’s wildlife photo shoot. I had paused momentarily when I saw a pigeon flying past me out of the corner of my eye. I turned round as it flew past and brought my camera to my eye and took a series of photos as it landed on a branch in a nearby tree. Unfortunately quite a few of the photos were out of focus or slightly blurry, but this one and a few others were pin sharp.

I had the camera in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second programmed in to remove any camera shake and motion blur. I also had the ISO set at ISO 800 to ensure that a moderate aperture was selected by the camera. I had overexposed by one stop, when I reviewed the photo it looked a bit too bright form my liking; but this was easily eradicated in the editing stage.

To edit the photo the first thing I did was to lower the overall brightness of the photo to combat the overexposing. I also increased the contrast to make the photo look more dynamic. I also cropped the photo as there was quite a lot of dead space surrounding the pigeon; by removing the dead space it focuses the attention onto the main subject.

I’m glad that I got a good photo of the pigeon as it landed. I had quite a few attempts of taking photos of moving birds last weekend but unfortunately most of them were out of focus or blurry; but I think I am slowly getting better at my wildlife photography.

Mat

Hiding Away

This is another of the photos I took last weekend which I really liked. The clouds hadn’t broken when I was taking this photo which made the exposure a lot easier to calculate. I didn’t need to use the flash either as the contrast was a lot less between the highlights and the shadows.

I was once again using the camera in shutter priority to ensure that any movement by the bird was removed. I had selected a shutter speed of 1/640^th which also ensured that any camera shake is also removed. As I previously mentioned I was wasn’t using the flash by this point as the contrast was a lot lower so the flash wasn’t required to brighten the shadow areas. I left the ISO in auto so the camera selected ISO1000 and an aperture of F5.6 to complete the exposure.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and lowered the colour tone and the colour temperature. I did this to ensure to enhance the yellow of the bird’s chest and to dampen the vivid green of the tree branch which distracted the viewer away from the bird itself. I also cropped the photo as there was a lot of dead space surrounding the bird.

I’m not sure on which day but both Bex and I are hoping to be able to go out for a photography wander at some point this weekend. I’m sure that we will upload some of the photos that we take while we’re out and about.

Mat