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

x

Traveled

Today, some friends and I travelled to Bath to visit the Victoria Art Gallery. I’ve never visited that part of the country before, so navigating the winding streets was our main opposition. Presently, the art gallery is home to a photographic exhibition, presenting the works of Roger Mayne; a medium format and 35mm film photographer. I wasn’t allowed to take my Olympus as it came under the bracket of a “professional camera”, so I borrowed Mat’s compact and set off!

We got to the exhibition around 10am, and being that it was mid-week, mid-morning, it was almost like a private showing. This photo isn’t completely original; I had seen this style of composition used by another photographer and decided that I would like to attempt similar.

I really liked the outcome but wanted to make it my own, so edited it in Photoshop. I introduced a vignette to draw attention towards the centre of the shot. I had accidentally under-exposed so increased the brightness in Photoshop, along with the contrast. This is when I spotted that the reflections had captured the frames on the other wall; not deliberate, but I liked it so decided to incorporate it into the image. I have left the labels because I like to be reminded of the name of each photo; after all, naming it is the best bit!

Bex
x

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

Sledging

On Saturday Bex and I went out for another walk in the snow. We decided to  go into town to capture some different scenes buried under the snow. But when we got there we found that a lot of people were already there; most of them on some sort of sledge, or tin-tray if a sledge was un-available! So instead of moving onto another area we decided to stay and take photos of the various people who were sledging down the hill.

I tried experimenting with various techniques; the most successful being the panning technique. For this I put the camera into shutter priority and used a relatively slow shutter speed, in this case 1/125^th of a second, to make the background become blurred. I put the camera into Ai Servo mode so the focus would track the subject as it moved down the hill. I also used the camera with continuous drive mode turned on so I could take multiple shots as they slid past.

When editing the photo I was expecting to do quite a lot of work to the photo. But when I did edit the photo I was happily surprised that I didn’t need to change very much. That being said I did change a few things that I thought required editing: mainly the light levels and the noise/sharpness. I increased the contrast and lowered the shadows to make the light levels more dynamic. I decreased the noise quite a lot because the photo was taken at a high ISO, then after this I increased the sharpness to counteract the loss of detail accompanied with the noise reduction.

We both enjoyed our excursion into the city, we were both surprised how different it looked under the snow though. We both took a lot of photos over the course of the weekend and we should be able to show off the snow even after it all melts away!

Mat

Community Christmas

Among other things, Christmas is a time where a sense of community is most strongly felt in a small town or city. This is normally reinforced by a large variety of events taking place throughout the festive period. I’ve tried to visit quite a few as they always provide great photo opportunities. I took this photo at one of the events I attended.

This particular event attempted to showcase the large diversity of culture that we have in our local area; exhibiting this through traditional cooking on the part of each culture involved. One of the stands that I saw as I walked around was Spanish. I liked how they had a long row of pans at the front, advertising their food. It was intriguing to watch them cooking, as much as it was trying. I decided to try to capture a sense of the rush in my photo. I used an aperture of F11 to encourage a larger depth of field. I had to use a slower shutter speed to accommodate this, so some of the people are blurred through movement, but I think this adds to the effect.

Because light was shining through a coloured gazebo, the photo was hard to edit and a few colours came out looking a little odd. I edited the picture in Photoshop to try to dampen some of the effects. I changed the hue, increased the contrast and sharpened the image to bring up finer details. Considering I was being pushed in a busy crowd and only had one chance to take this picture, I think it turned out well.

Bex

x

Stalls

This is another photo from my holiday, as I still have many to upload and so little time to take new pictures!! I took this photo on the first full day of our holiday when we went shopping.

As described in a previous post, the shopping centre opens out to reveal a long high street with small pathways spiralling off of it. I’ve visited the same place several times, so I’ve been down most of them. The trouble is that they ALL lead to another winding alley, which leads to another and another, and so on.

I walked a little further down the street before turning off this time, and I found two large archways in what seemed to look like a long forgotten part of town. I heard noises so walked in to see what was going on and was faced with the buzz of a traditional market place.

I took this picture using ISO 1600 so that I could get a fast enough shutter speed whilst still being able to use an aperture of F8 to get a deeper depth of field. I didn’t do any editing apart from noise removal, as I wanted to keep the photo as close to the original as possible.

It’s near impossible to find the same streets more than once, but I certainly hope that I’m able to find this one again- I love it!!! Retro sweets anyone?

Bex

x

Roof Top

I still haven’t exhausted all the photos that I had taken from the church. Most of the best photos had been taken from the roof, this being one of them. Instead of taking the photo of the surrounding landscape, I decided to take the photo of the roof itself!

The roof was made up of different sections, and at the joins there were these raised sections. They were all symmetrical and I thought they would make an interesting photo. I used an aperture of F22 to make sure the whole scene was in sharp focus. To create an interesting composition I framed the photo so the join ran through the centre of the frame.

I edited the photo to make sure that it was vertical and I also increased the brightness. With this done, the photo looks much better I think. The ridge runs straight through the centre of the frame and is completely symmetrical.

I’m surprised how many of the photos that I took from the church are good enough for the blog. I would like to think my photography skills are slowly getting better with Bex’s help and a lot of practice.

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
x

Grave Yard

The church that we were visiting also had a small grave yard round the back. While walking through the grave yard, I spotted this row of Grave stones. I like how they lined up and point towards the wall surrounding the church.

I wanted all of the grave stones to be in focus so I used an aperture of around F16, this gave a good depth of field, but also allowing the wall to be put out of focus. I didn’t use the flash because there was plenty of light and it would have spoiled the effect I was aiming for. As I was taking the photo from under a tree, the light had a green tone to it; to combat this I turned down the green to cancel out the extra green.

When editing the photo I decided to turn the green down a bit more, because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result straight from the camera. This had some side effects, so I decide to sharpen the photo I think the end effect has worked out well. I also cropped out the left side of the photo, because I think it improves the composition of the photo.

We both enjoyed visiting the church, we found it very interesting looking inside and out of the church. We plan on making another visit in the future because we didn’t take all the photos that we could have.

Mat 

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

Church Organ

Today, Bex and I managed to visit a local church; an event was on and they had opened up to the general public. We thought there would be some interesting photo opportunities, so we went along to see what it was like.

The church was beautiful inside, the architecture was stunning; the guides inside where very helpful and friendly. I saw the organ set up in the corner with the pews leading towards it; I thought it made an interesting composition with the pews acting as lead in lines towards the organ. I used a focal length of around 30mm, this makes the organ look like it’s along way in the distance, with pews leading in and getting smaller towards it. I had to use the highest ISO the camera has (ISO1600), because I didn’t want to use flash as it would have spoiled the effect. The only downside is the photo became very ‘noisy’.

When I edited the photo, I cropped t down to focus the attention on to the lead in to the organ; I also increased the colour temperature because the sand stone pillars were more orange in real life. As the photo was so noisy, I had to quite aggressively reduce it in photoshop, unfortunately this made the photo less sharp but I think its a good compromise.

The church was very interesting, and I learnt a lot about the architecture from the guides. We plan on going back again soon, because we saw many more photo oportunites, both inside and out of the church.

Mat

The Lone Farrier

This is another photo from my trip to the Earls Barton country fayre. After I had looked round the vintage farm machinery I saw this mobile forge, I thought it would make an interesting candid photo.

I preset the camera; first I calculated the correct exposure using the inbuilt light metre, then I pre-focused the lens so I could take the photo quickly. When the farrier went to work on the horseshoe, he made the composition perfect, so I brought up the camera and took the photo.

As the photo was taken in quite a hurry the exposure I calculated wasn’t spot on, so when I was checking the photo I decreased the brightness, and increased the contrast a bit. This is the main advantage of having my negatives scanned onto a computer; I can edit them and repair any mistakes that I made when taking the photos.

I really enjoy candid photography, and I think I shall do some more when I’m out and about next. I enjoy using film SLRs, I love the grainy effect that the film gives the photos, I think it makes them more interesting. There’s another country fayre that is coming up soon, I’m hoping to give it a visit, if I do I shall be taking my trusty Pentax cameras with me.

Mat

A Trip Out

Today my family and I went to Blaise castle for the day. The weather was amazing, with the sun blazing down. While taking a rest in the shade I saw this statue. I really liked how symmetrical it was with the background bursting out from behind.

I had left the camera in automatic as I was taking a lot of photos and didn’t have much time to change the settings. I think the camera did a very good job with calculating  the exposure. The only thing I would have done was to take the photo with the low key feature. But also I would have liked the white to be a bit brighter.

After taking the photos off of the camera I decided to correct a few details that I wanted to change. I made the shadows darker and increased the brightness; this created the low key effect that I wanted. I also cropped the photo equally on both sides; this improves the symmetry of the statue in the frame while also focussing the attention onto the statue.

I'm enjoying the good weather and hope that it will stay around as I’m planning a few more trips out around the countryside.

Mat

Ongoing Alley

I took this photo on our recent holiday on one of our wanders in the local town. I saw some bollards in a small side alley that Bex and I had ventured down to look for photos.

This time I had my own camera on me- I’ve recently taken on my Dad’s old Pentax ME Super 35mm film SLR camera. When I get the film processed I also order a copy of the photos on a CD, so I can upload my own pictures to the blog.

In this photo I used a telephoto lens (135mm) so that I could get a small depth of field and create an interesting effect. The effect being that the further down the line of bollards, the more out of focus they become. I really like it because it focuses the attention on the first few bollards and then it draws your eyes down the line towards the end.

Another good thing about being able to get my photos on CD is that I can edit them! This time the only editing I did was to crop the photo down a little. I left the exposure unchanged to show how good 35mm film SLRs are in comparison to modern digital cameras. I think that 35mm film SLRs still have a good case against modern cameras but I’ll leave it for you to decide: Film or Digital?

Mat

Vintage

I didn’t have chance to go for a wander today, which worked quite well as I’ve been meaning to upload this picture for a while.

I took this picture as a “messing around” shot, and partly to annoy Mat as he still has a film camera! A friend of mine is learning how to develop film, and on the desk was a tub of empty film canisters. Next to the tub were some strips of negatives, with one hanging over into the tub.

I took this while messing around with depth of field and didn’t mean for it to turn into an arty shot- but I actually really like it! I love how you can see the shadow of the scrap of film on the tub, and how only very few canisters are in focus.

Considering it wasn’t meant to have any artistic qualities, I’m quite pleased with it!! I love “happy accident” shots. Sometimes they are the best kind.

Bex

x

Oh, what's occuring?!

Today’s title sums up our day incredibly well! Today Bex and I went on the Gavin and Stacey tour in Barry Island! It was such an amazing day and we both had a great time. Now down to the post: to mark this day I thought I should upload a photo from the tour.

This photo features the church from the very last episode of Gavin and Stacey, when Dave and Nessa are about to get married and Smithy runs in at the last moment to stop them before it’s too late!

I really like vintage architecture such as churches; why I thought I should upload this photo (along with the Gavin and Stacey link). The church was beautiful, and the gravestones provide some foreground interest and can act as lead-in lines towards the tower of the church.

The photo was taken in a hurry as the tour-guide was rushing off to the next stop, so it required some editing in Photoshop. As the photo wasn’t fantastic I had to make the best out of a bad situation; but I think it was just about good enough to upload.

We really enjoyed going on the tour today, everyone was friendly and talkative, and the tour-guide was very informative. We would highly recommend the tour to any Gavin and Stacey fans out there.

So, what’s occurring?!

 Mat

A chapel from far away

I’m back!!! Sorry I haven’t been around as much this week as I have been previously; I have been incredibly busy with coursework and upcoming exams.

This isn’t a very recent photo (about a month old). This picture is from a holiday in Woolacombe, Devon. There’s a small yet lovely chapel that Bex likes in the area and she decided to show me; I’m glad that she did because it really is beautiful. I borrowed her camera and took quite a few photos, but I think this one came out the best. I changed a few settings in Photoshop as ever, this time I increased the pink tint, I think that this worked really well and looks quite vintage.

I really need to get out and take some more photos, but what of?? I think that I should take some pictures of either macro nature shots, wildlife and animal shots, or industrial and building shots. What to take? You decide.

Mat

Sweet!

For today’s post, I am admitting to the theft of what seems to be Mat’s current catch phrase!

Today was May Day meaning you might have got an extra long weekend. May Day is the time when we like to welcome in the brighter weather, perhaps with music and fairs in your local area. Where I live is no exception, and each year there is a choice of at least 3 events. However, today tradition was thrown out the window; we seemed to be celebrating the rain that has felt somewhat endless over the last 3 weeks.

I have always gone to a local village to celebrate May Day and even though the sun wasn’t shining as it should be, nobody seemed deterred by the need to take shelter in the marquees.

I always find indoor photography more of a challenge, as artificial lighting can sometimes have a different effect to natural light. I took this picture in one of the marquees with a string of lights overhead. I don’t class this picture as a success in the conventional sense- but I like how the colours have become slightly over saturated; I think it gives a more vintage effect.

I love this picture, and I’m pleased that it didn’t need editing and is different to what I might normally post.

I hope you had a lovely extra day off, and have a wonderful May!

Bex

x