Blues

We survived January!! That may seem a little over dramatized, but I can honestly say that I despise January with a passion (apart from the sales, of course). In my opinion, January is a punishment for having a month of over-eating and constant partying! Now I’ve gotten my rant over with, I’ll continue.

I took this photo while on a wander through town. I stopped in a coffee shop to escape the snow, warm up and look through my photos. I started casting an eye around the café, and spotted a small plant next to me, adorned with lights and ornaments. It seemed interesting, so I tried to mess around a little.

I used quite a slow shutter speed, to compensate using a narrow aperture. I liked the photo, but it seemed a little dull so I decided to edit it using Photoshop. I tried increasing the contrast, to make the image more vibrant but my computer froze then jolted up to almost +80, but surprisingly I really liked it! To try to improve this further, I increased the hue, sharpened the image and decreased the brightness. I then cropped the image to focus attention and used the healing tool to remove small pieces of distracting detail.

I hope you managed to survive the January blues as well; it’s nice to have a secret method to keeping yourself happy through the winter. No prize for guessing that mine is photography!!

Bex
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Local Walk

Bex and I managed to get out for a walk today so we went to one of our favourite spots, our local duck pond. The skies were clear so a lot of birds, including many ducks, had ventured out for a quick paddle. We spent a good few hours taking photos of the various birds that were there.

As we where photographing birds I had my telephoto lens attached to my camera to capture the birds. As I was using a telephoto lens I used the camera in Tv (Shutter priority) mode to ensure that I used a fast enough shutter speed for the focal length I was using. As I was using a focal length of around 150mm and taking the crop factor into account I selected a shutter speed of 1/400^th of a second. This ensured the photo would be sharp and unaffected by camera shake. I didn’t use the flash because I didn’t want to scare off the ducks.

To edit the photo, the only changes I made were to crop down the photo to focus the attention onto the two ducks, and to remove some of the distracting background as it averted attention away from the ducks. I didn’t adjust the exposure because I didn’t want the reflections on the water to become blown.

We both enjoyed our time at the duckpond, the ducks did to with all the bread that was thrown for them! I’m sure you will see some of the photos very soon.

Mat

Coffee Break

Bex and I managed to go out for a wander today, so we decided to go for a walk around our local town. We had been walking for a long time and fortunately we found a nice little coffee shop just in time. So we bought our teas and coffees and gave our legs a rest. While drinking our teas and coffees I noticed that on another table the previous occupants had left their mugs behind as they went to collect their food; the two mugs and the ketchup bottle made a rather interesting composition.

For this photo I used an aperture of F4.5 to capture a small depth of field. I wanted a small depth of field so I could isolate just the two mugs and the ketchup bottle. I didn’t use the flash as I didn’t want to disturb the other people at the coffee shop. As there was a lot of ambient light and I was using a wide aperture the camera chose to use a shutter speed of 1/250^th of a second at ISO 400.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast to give the photo some extra punch and I also cropped the photo. I cropped the photo to remove a lot of the distracting surroundings and to focus the attention onto the two mugs and the ketchup bottle. I didn’t change anything else because I was happy with the effect that I had produced.

I’m glad we had a chance to go out today I managed to take a few good photos, but unfortunately not many as we had some shopping to do at the same time. But the best of the photos I shall upload for you.

Mat

Following the Path

The snow was fun while it lasted, but I don’t miss the cold hands or the constant slipping; I’m glad to be a little warmer! I went for a walk to the local harbour today, as I had some free time and wanted to get some fresh air. Surprisingly, some of the leaves were still on the trees!

As I walked along the harbour, I noticed some lights were left over from Christmas. They were draped along the entire row of trees, and looking at it straight on, it looked like a path. I took the photo in this position, to try and capture this effect. I did try to take the shot at a wider angle to start with, but the surrounding buildings detracted from it. I used an aperture of F5.6 so the lights would become less sharp as they got further away, focusing attention on the foreground.

I adjusted the contrast and hue of the picture in Photoshop to increase vibrancy. I also sharpened the image so each of the leaves could be seen. I’m pleased with this image, although I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t include more of the surroundings.

Bex

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Under Snow

I really enjoyed the snow we had last weekend (as you may be able to tell!). So I thought I should upload one more. On the first walk we went on I took quite a few photos of various pieces of undergrowth. I thought these looked the most creative under the snow.

For this photo I wanted a shallow depth of field so I used the maximum aperture of F5.6 to give the shortest depth of field. I overexposed by one stop to counteract the cameras exposure system. Because of this the camera selected a shutter speed of 1/160^th of a second at ISO 125. I didn’t use the flash as I didn’t want the snow to become over exposed.

To edit the photo I dropped the shadows and increased the contrast. I did this to make the snow stand out even more and give the photo more punch. At the same time I also increased the saturation a small amount to make the foliage look more vivid.

I think I’ve just about exhausted my stock of photos from the snow weekend. The ever changing weather has created some rather interesting photo opportunities so hopefully I will get a chance to go out during the week with my camera to capture some of them.

Mat

Young Sledgers

Now that most of the snow has gone I thought I should upload more photos of snow! I thought the best photo to upload was one from last weekend, when we went into town to see the sledging.

For this photo I wanted to isolate just the two children on the sledge so I use a wide aperture of F5 which limits the depth of field. I coupled this with a shutter speed of 1/640^th of a second to ensure that the action was completely frozen and the two children remained completely sharp. I left the ISO sensitivity in automatic so the camera chose to use ISO 1600 to balance the exposure.

To edit the photo I decreased the contrast and lowered the highlights. I didn’t change anything else because I was happy with the result I had made with the camera. I tried cropping the image down but I preferred the composition I had made when I captured the image. Then after this I converted the photo into JPEG format from RAW to upload.

Hopefully we may get another chance to go out for a walk soon. If we do then be sure there will be lots of new interesting photos to be uploaded.

Mat

Chasing Light

It was a little warmer today; not noticeably, but enough to make rain fall in place of snow. I took my camera out with me but it spent almost the entire day in my bag, as I was afraid of it getting damaged. Around half past five this evening, a family member gave me a lift to the radio studio so I didn’t have to walk! I still had my camera with me and had been looking at the few photos I had taken that morning. I started messing around, as I liked the regularity of the street lamps. The shutter speed was a little too slow, blurring the lights slightly. This gave me the idea to slow the shutter speed further, to create light trails.

I used a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds, and incredibly, I managed to hold it still! It made light trails a little more interesting by taking the photo while we were driving, as it produced two trails; the lower being passing cars, the higher being street lamps. I’ve sharpened this photo as well as increasing the contrast slightly, but I tried to leave everything else.

I love how you can clearly see the road, and if you look carefully, a bridge in the background. I’m especially pleased with the lower light trail; I love the way it tapers off. I didn’t get chance to take many photos on this subject, so had to make the best of the situation I was in. Despite this, I think I managed quite successfully and will have to try this again soon!

Bex
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