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

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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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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In A Rush

Bex and I didn’t have anything planned during today so we went down to the harbour in our local city. It was quite late by the time we got there. So I thought instead of trying to get a sharp image, I’ll make the most of the conditions and use a slower shutter speed to blur the movement of passing cars.

We were walking alongside a busy road which gave me the idea of blurring the movement of a passing car. So for this photo I slowed the shutter speed of 1/30^th of a second this means that the background will be blurred but the car will still be relatively sharp. As it was dark I used the widest aperture of F4.5 which gave a shallow depth of field.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and the brightness. I did this because I thought the photo could do with a bit more ‘punch’. I also de-saturated the photo because I thought the photo had a bit of a colour cast to it.

Overall I am impressed with this photo, and I really like how the lights of the car have become refracted through the lens to make the patterns on the image. I’m glad I didn’t change much in the image because I like the overall effect that I created.

Mat

Industrial

This is one of my favourite photos that I took on my walk around the harbour yesterday. An event was organised to showcase the history of the local area. Train tracks snake around the harbourside, in between the many cranes. In this event train carriages were placed in various locations around the harbour and the cranes and buildings were lit up.

As I walked up the road towards the harbour this view presented itself and I loved it! I used my wide-angle lens to capture it as best I could. I didn’t want to use my tripod, so had to use a wide aperture and the fastest shutter speed possible. On screen, the image didn’t seem to have much detail but I loved the view so tried to recover as much as I could in Photoshop. I don’t often use the shadows and highlights tool, but thought I’d give it a go in the hopes it would help my case; it did!

Apart from lightening shadows, I haven’t edited this photo at all. I love how it’s captured the light shining on the wet pavement and how the wide aperture makes this picture seem endless. I didn’t try to remove any noise, as it is most prominent in the sky but I like the texture that the noise gives it. This is one of my favourite images that I have uploaded, and I’m really pleased with it. I will definitely be using this tool more often!!

Bex

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Watching the World

Perhaps not the world, but certainly a small part of my local area! I took this photo during an early evening walk around the harbour this evening. Although it may feel a little depressing that Christmas Day has passed and the days are incredibly short, I don’t let it get me down!

I went on a trip to my local harbour this afternoon. I took my tripod, my wide-angle lens and my telephoto. I took this particular photo on my wide-angle lens to try to get a larger view of what was across the water. I used a slow shutter speed coupled with a high ISO to enable me to use a narrow aperture (giving me a larger depth of field). I have seen a few photos of busy towns that have tried to convey the passing of time. I took inspiration from these photos and tried to use their results in my image. Each of the shots I saw were dark and focused on lights and signs, so I tried to do this in my photo. To add to the image I incorporated the reflections on the water and used a starburst filter.

To draw more attention to the lights, I edited the image in Photoshop. As a general improvement I sharpened the image and removed noise. I decreased the brightness slightly and increased the contrast by about 50% to lose most of the detail in the shadows.

Overall, I’m pleased with how this image turned out, and I’m pleased how I can see some small features that are similar to my w sources of inspiration, while retaining some originality. If you want to see the kind of images I took my inspiration from, search “night city” on Google.

Bex

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Following the Path

This is another picture from my walk that I went on a few days ago. As I mentioned previously, I went for a walk to my local harbour. When I first walked towards the harbour I noticed a rocky outcrop, which happened to look like a winding path. At the top of this path, a man was walking around. He started to walk back towards the path shaped rocks, so I grabbed my camera and tried to set up the shot as best I could before he moved.

The shot was a little under exposed as I had used a really narrow aperture and had forgotten to take off exposure compensation. When reviewing the image, I actually liked that it was under exposed as it accentuated the shadows and made the clouds look moodier. Apart from sharpening the image slightly, I haven’t edited it at all.

I like how the path seems to lead you to the horizon, but the man who seems to be looking for the start of the path, or perhaps following the trail distracts your attention. I like how his motives are mysterious; you have to look at the image closely to make up your own mind. I’m really pleased with my snapshot!

Bex

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Contradictory

You may recall that during my post on the 5^th August (“Indeed”), I uploaded a picture of a sign next to some graffiti. In this post, I mentioned that the pictures I took of the artwork itself were more like snapshots-which I thought they were… until I found this picture!

I saw this graffiti by chance as I was walking past the wall on my way to a local art gallery on the edge of the harbour. I noticed this out of the corner of my eye. Wondering what it was, I stopped to take a look. I walked over to the other side of the road to get a view of the artwork in full.

I had to use a wide-angle lens at a 45mm focal length. I used a small aperture to get a large depth of field so none of the scene was out of focus. Later in Photoshop, I increased the contrast while decreasing the brightness, and then increased the saturation.

If you hadn’t previously guessed, I’m firmly on the side of artwork when it comes to the “art or graffiti” argument. I love this; I think it’s amazing how every time you look you spot another detail that you missed before.

Bex

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Window to Where?

As I have previously mentioned, I have taken enough photos during my week away to enable Mat to have twice that! Despite fears of boring you, I wanted to show you yet another of my holiday snaps!!

The weather was lovely for the entirety of my holiday- one day in particular. On this especially sunny day I decided to go a beach just over the other side of the harbour. It took a 5-minute ride on a chain ferry (mainly used for cars) to get across.

As I was waiting for the ferry to make it’s crossing, I decided to take some pictures. As I looked out of the window I saw this scene and decided that it might make for an interesting picture. I took a photo without the window frame at first but decided it looked more original with the it included. It makes it seem more surreal, more quirky, which I think is what attracts me to this picture.

Mat says hello, he’s missing the blog already! I do hope I’m not going to completely bore you in the days to come as you still have a few left of my continuous posting!

Bex

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1000 Words

I’m afraid that when you’re a photographer, going on holiday doesn’t mean you leave your job at home! With this fact in mind, I managed to take somewhere in the region of 500 photos each day.

I took this photo on my last full day in the seaside town. I had been incredibly busy over the week so decided to have a relaxing day close to my base for the week. I stayed out for the day- walking through the high street, looking in the local museum and even painting a pot! It was late evening by the time I was walking back to the house so it was beginning to get dark.

I noticed a pile of fishing nets that had been left from the day’s work. They were rusty and looked like they’d been forgotten. I decided to take a picture, focusing on the pattern of the netting. Later in the evening, I increased both the brightness and the contrast then reduced the noise, as I had to use an incredibly high ISO.

I find this shot really interesting, as it’s a snapshot of daily life. A picture tells a thousand words, and this picture is no exception.

Bex

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Culturally Curious

After my weekend away from the blog I have a backlog of photos to upload. This is another picture from the harbour festival.

In one of the town squares was a small market selling mostly food. Most food and drinks were unique to each stall, making for an interesting walk (and a very nice lunch!). I find that foods from other cultures are quite colourful, which makes it easy to find good shots.

I walked past a Greek stand selling olives amongst other pickled vegetables. I thought it looked intriguing so tried to take a picture. I decided to take it at a shallower angle to make it more interesting. I also used quite a short aperture so only the front few bowls were in focus.

I took a lot of pictures of the stalls in the market but this is definitely one of my favourites.

Bex

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Harbour-side Seating

I’ve finished my busy weekend; I’m back with plenty of new pictures (and only marginally exhausted!). I took this picture at Bristol’s harbour festival this weekend. It had been a hot day, with temperatures reaching 24 degrees. The festival was incredibly busy which meant it was difficult to find anywhere to sit.

I needed to cross a bridge over the canal as I was leaving. I stopped in the middle to watch the world go by when I spotted this. Every space on the wall of the canal was taken up, stretching right down to a second bridge. It was really strange to see, there were so many people that I couldn’t get the whole length of the wall into my shot; it makes it look like the line doesn’t end.

I love this picture- I think it sums up the festival perfectly. I’ve really enjoyed my weekend; it was nice to finally have some sunshine! I hope it stays like this for a while to come!

Bex

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Early Morning Mist

I know I said I was hoping for some brighter weather, which I happily received today, so that I could take some more sunny pictures. However, I found this picture on my laptop from a recent holiday.

The weather hadn’t been the best, with a thick patch of fog every morning. I saw the fog settling on the hills during a walk around the harbour. It was early so it hadn’t disappeared yet.

I saw a team of people rowing past, and thought it would make an interesting photo. When I got home I adjusted the contrast to make it look more dramatic.

I love the drama in this photo, but I will make the most of the sunshine soon! On the bright side, it's not yet another macro shot...

Bex

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