Writing On The Wall

I had a free afternoon today, so I decided to go for a photography wander in the centre of my local area. I found a small winding street that stretched past the back of a museum. As I followed the path I noticed that there were messages written on the walls, advertising the museum and some topics it covered inside.

I thought it looked dramatic because of the barbed wire and posts along the top of the wall. I used a wide aperture to blur the words as it got further away. This gave the effect of making the wall look endless. It was a cold and gloomy day, meaning that there was no detail in the background. I didn’t take the picture in black and white, but lost what little colour was in the sky, while the foreground was already monochrome. Before uploading I increased the contrast and sharpness of the image in Photoshop. This made the words stand out more.

I haven’t had a chance to go out for a long walk alone for a few weeks, and it was nice to be able to get into the town centre to do some more industrial photography. I think this picture works incredibly well, displaying the clear messages as intended, yet in a more dramatic way.

Bex

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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All In A Row

This is (yet) another photo from the country fayre I went to. I found this photo, and fortunately it had an artistic side to it. It shows one of my main interests quite well! I spent quite a long time just walking up and down all the vintage tractors looking at each one individually.

Instead of taking a photo of every tractor I took one of a whole row of them; I thought it might be a bit more arty. I used a narrow aperture (F16) to ensure that most of the scene was in focus. I actually focused on the Fordson Major (the blue tractor for the less knowledgeable), so this ensured that almost all of the tractors are in focus. There was plenty of sunshine about so I didn’t need to worry about the shutter speed.

The only editing I did to the photo was to crop down the top of the frame. I didn’t edit anything else because I was happy with how the photo had been exposed. And the overall effect was spot on what I wanted.

I hope I can find some time to go for a wander with Bex soon, because I’m starting to run out of photos to upload! We’ve got some wanders planned soon, so I’m sure we will have many more interesting photos to upload.

Mat

Monkey Business

Monkey Business

I was fortunate enough to visit a monkey sanctuary over the weekend, so as usual my camera came with me! One of my favourite attractions was the lemur walk. To get into this enclosure, you have to walk through two gates. Afterwards, you are in what seems to be an abandoned forest with a small shed in the middle.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and upon first glance I couldn’t see anything. After waiting a few minutes I spotted a group of three lemurs walking up the path towards me. It was an amazing sight; they seemed so calm and relaxed in the presence of humans.

Two of the lemurs walked past me, jumped through the fence into the area with the small shed and started to eat. What really caught my eye was the symmetry in the picture. Both the lemurs’ tails were curled in the same way, exactly opposite of each other. Later, I increased the saturation and sharpened the image in Photoshop to make the black, white and red detailing on the lemurs more prominent.

I could’ve happily stayed in the lemur walk all day! It felt great to be able to get so close to the animals; they seemed so cheeky and I really enjoyed watching them play. I can’t wait to go on my next wander.

Bex
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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

Steam Traction

Last weekend while I was away, I went to the Earls Barton country fayre. While I was there I had decided to take my new camera out (Pentax P-30), I also decided to try out a new type of film: Kodak 200 colour plus.

While walking around there was a display of steam traction engines. I am very interested in vintage haulage and farming machinery, so I’m always the first around the traction engines, tractors and classic lorries. I’m amazed that I used just one film cartridge!

This traction engine was the first that I saw and I just thought it looked amazing! The bright red paint finish was very striking and eye-catching. When I saw the light on the front I could see an interesting photo opportunity forming. So I crouched down and used a large aperture to limit the depth of field. The P-30 has a depth of field preview so I could test to see if I could get the desired effect. I liked the effect I could see in the viewfinder, so I took the photo. When I got the film developed I could see the depth of field was spot on. I really like the effect of having just the light in sharp focus; it creates a really interesting composition.

I didn’t edit the photo because I like showing what film SLR’s are still capable of; I will always think they are as capable as brand new DSLRs like Bex’s Olympus. I took plenty of photos at the fayre and hopefully I shall be able to upload a few more. The new type of film works very well with quite a fine grain but I think Fujifilm just beats it (But with a small increase in price).

Mat

Falls

Bex and I didn’t get a chance to do any set-up shots today, but we did have some spare time while we were out. We had gone to the local nature reserve and just stopped to have some lunch. Afterwards we started to wander back home, when we past this small waterfall.

I’ve seen many photos of waterfalls with the water being blurred as it falls. I really like the effect of these photos and I wanted to have an attempt myself. So I put the camera into shutter priority, and slowed it right down to around 1/30^th of a second. At this speed the water becomes blurred but the surroundings are still very sharp.

While editing the photo I increased the brightness in the shadows, I did this because I thought the shadows looked quite dull and needed some light. I also cropped the photo; I decided to do this because I had included too much of the dam in the photo. Overall I am very pleased with the editing to this photo.

I’m glad that Bex and I had a chance to go out together. Hopefully soon we shall get a chance to do some set up shots.

Mat