Merry New Year - 2014

Merry new year to everyone and anyone who stumbles across this post!

Best wishes for a smooth & straight (but amazing) road to the horizon of 2014.

.... and yes, my new years resolution is to take more photos and blog more often! (again) 



ISO100, 16mm, f/7.1, 1/250s, -0.6ev, circ plrsr

US Tour 4 - Grand Panoramas

Three more images from the US tour, this time Panoramic format composites of the Grand Canyon.
We toured all around it, but all these are from the south rim, when we had quite a lot of mist, cloud and heavy showers passing through .. a relatively rare event.  It was all sunny by the time we got to the north rim and the vistas were just not as dynamic.

Really like the lower two, but the huge 2nd pan is definitely my favourite with the sunlight casting all kinds of interesting light in and around the vast landscape, from shadow to light rays to touches of highlights on the right, it "reads" really well. 

The third was taken with the advantage of being able to stay until Sunset, once most of the tour buses had headed off.  The storms that had closed parts of the National Park earlier (wandering desert cliff-tops isn't healthy in a thunder storm), had drifted away to the north east horizon, providing a fantastic backdrop sky to the glowing canyon walls, which were all the more warm tinted thanks to the cloud of hair spray and diesel fumes that linger over Los Angeles to the west.  I also love the hazy light in the left of shot too, which retained a lot of natural light and detail - often you would have needed to lighten this artificially, but I guess the grazing Sunlight must have been being diffused off of the clouds and cliff face.  Buckets of texture, detail, depth, colour and contrast make it another favourite, even without any real focal point.



Composite of 5 images at ISO100, 16mm, f/11, 1/80s, -0.6ev  

Composite of 12 images at ISO100, 32mm, f/9, 1/50s, cir plrsr, highlights reduced in Lightroom 

Composite of 4 images at ISO400, 35mm, f/10, 1/80s, -0.6ev, circ plrsr

Homage to Ansel Adams

 

A few more shots from the US tour while I'm decorating and doing the whole Christmas thing.  Hardly had a chance to play with my 5D3 since I got it, thankfully these US photos were already processed for the most part and ready to post.  The top three are a humble attempt at a salute to Ansel Adams or more like a mutual sharing of the awe that Yosemite national park afflicted both of us, a truly stunning place that I could easily spend a lifetime photographing. 

 

The 4th and 5th are from the Grand Canyon national park, usually it's a sacrilege to remove the amazing colours, but I think these two particular shots benefit from the removal of the distraction of colour.  Note that I have more canyon shots to follow that will be complete with magnificent colour, they will appear at some point soon. 

 

 

 

ISO200, 35mm, f/9, 1/320s, -0.7ev, circ polariser (whoops, not sure why not ISO100) Cropped. 
Yosemite National Park, for once some midday Sun wasn't a terrible thing, casting shadows on the mountain face and highlighting the textures

ISO100, 35mm, f/7.1, 1/160s, -0.7ev, cropped
Morning Sun rays radiate through the rising mist and trees in a fleeting display of natures subtle beauty.  Spotted while driving into Yosemite Valley, I had just barely enough time to pull the car over, run 100m back down the road, take the photo and then it was gone.  Perhaps Usain Bolt might have managed a nicer shot, but I was happy with it.

ISO320, 130mm, f/8, 1/250s, -0.7ev
Not particularly my favourite shot, but a nice reminder of Ansels use of the rising moon in several of his images.  The original, taken at Mammoth Lakes, had crazy colours so vivid it was hard to keep from turning it black and white, to avoid the wrath of the many members of the Photoshop inquisition incorrectly murmuring "hhmmph, too much saturation".  Fortunately I like it's simple composition in mono anyway.

ISO100, 16mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, -0.7ev, circ plrsr
 An Eagle soars over a cloudy Grand Canyon, hopefully happy in its realisation that its living the dream!
The grazing sunlight, epic horizon-scape and passing model all make for a very imagination provoking image, for me anyway, but then I always dreamt of flying as a kid.   It was immediately tempting to break out the max-zoom with these guys drifting past, but it was so hard to capture the magic of such a vast environment with limited background, so I much preferred this than any of my 400mm captures. 



ISO100, 200mm, f/71, 1/500s, -0.7ev
Flipping the previous caption on its head, sometimes the best way of capturing an element of such a complex and huge landscape is with a zoom.  So swapping the usual 16mm for some zoom, I took this shot at close to sunset.  I'm always attracted to this style of shot in the UK, but usually with rolling hills, gates, trees and tractors, turns out the Grand Canyon is slightly different than Wiltshire ... and almost as beautiful!   ;o)



Canon 5D III First Impressions

Bit of a wordy post to give first impressions on my upgrade from 50D to 5D mark III.  I actually got a chance to wander with it and take a few photos yesterday, so I thought I'd hold off on more US photos for now and jump to some all new ones .. even if they are kind of experimental, to test the features and how it likes working with my lenses.  (Photos posted full size)

For the most part, as it turns out, my lenses seem to have breathed a sigh of relief!  No longer restricted by the apparent limitations of my trusty old 50D, the difference is pretty amazing, my 16-35mm II definitely feels a lot more at home.  Super wide is now properly super wide and 35mm just looks ... like a 35mm lens should, really looking forwards to using it on this camera.  16mm gets quite a bit of fisheye distortion and chromatic aberration in the corners, but Lightroom seems to do a pretty good job of countering it using its profiled lens corrections.  (See the tree photo for a wide open 16mm shot with high contrast edges and corner detail).  

The 100-400mm has obviously lost a significant chunk of zoom (full frame sensor vs 50D's smaller sensor with 1.6x "zoom"), but the images look so much better and seems to have alleviated the niggles that I believe plagued its relationship with the 50D (fringing and ugly bokeh).  I'll need to use it a bunch more to confirm though. 

One un-expected bonus is that auto-focus now works with my tele-convertor attached!  I think it only uses the live-view style contrast based (?) focussing, rather than the normal auto-focussing system, but it seems to get somewhere close pretty quickly, which is really handy. 

Physically the body feels very similar in size, almost exactly the same as the 50D, maybe a touch heavier, but the first major difference is the power switch has strayed over to the top left, from the bottom right, which will take a while to get used to.  I'm not even sure I like this either, as instead of being under my right thumb I now have to move my left hand off the camera to turn on/off - irritating if I want to turn off to change lenses in  a hurry etc.    The rest of the controls are fine, a few more buttons to learn, back button focusing sorted, loving the configurable buttons, zooming on images using the back screen is totally different and is also going to take a while to get used to, but like some of the measures they're added to stop settings getting knocked, with locks and more protection against eg. accidentally scrolling the dioptre adjustment or mode dial.  The depth of field preview button is in a great position too, after five years I never did get used to finding that button smoothly on the 50D, but sits happily straight under my ring finger on the 5D3, happy days.

The 100% viewfinder is a luxury I knew I'd love, (no going back now!),  spoilt.  So clear, bright and I finally have a battery indicator in the viewfinder!  (stupid little thing that I always wanted for weddings).  All those auto focus points to choose from too!  Brilliant.  I set the M-Fn button to swap focusing modes and have been playing a bit, seems to work great, but I really need to learn which mode to use when after relying for so long on single spot weighted focussing.  Demonstrated in the photo of the swans, I had been trying out the zone focussing on cyclists riding past (camera focuses on the nearest spot in whichever zone you have active), which worked brilliantly on the cyclists, but when some swans swam through a patch of light in the river it (correctly and very accurately)focused on the wing rather than the eye.  Doh!  I ended up doing this a couple of times, with a Blue Jay in a tree (focused on the branches) and a squirrel while crouched (focussed on the leaves in front), so its something I really have to get used to switching to for isolated subjects.

High ISO is .. interesting.  I haven't been blown away by its high ISO noise handling so far and it seemed a little keen to ramp up the ISO into the thousands a bit too readily I thought, but I probably just need to get used to it though.  See the streetlight at night photo for an example of ISO4000 image with no noise reduction.  Just happy to trust that it is a lot better the 50D was, but a little disappointed that I'll probably still have to de-noise wedding photos taken above ISO100.

Anyway.. I have to go for now .. more to come soon (along with some more US photos at some point!?)

ISO4000, 35mm, f/28, 1/30s, -2.7ev - example of high ISO noise (no noise reduction)

ISO100, 16mm, f/6.3, 1/100s, -1ev, lens correction (Adobe Lightroom)

ISO100, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, -1.7ev  Example of 100-400mm lens sharpness and bokeh/smoothness

ISO320, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, -0.3ev, Example of when not to use zone auto-focus (was playing with different modes and it focussed on wing instead of eye).  Very nice auto-exposure, bokeh and background water though  ... and auto-focus on the wing is very good too - shame about the rookie photographer! 

US Tour 2 - More Mono!

Three more of my favourite shots from the US tour and yet more photographs that I deemed more suited to the black and white persuasion.   Not for any weird colour reasons or to make up for a lack in other areas, but just because they all have great light, shadow, texture and details.

More evidence that when travel shooting you just need to wander too..  who would have thought that off all the tourist traps, scenic viewpoints and wonders of the world that we saw, that my favourite photo so far is of an old chair!

Any way .. quick word of apology on my lack of posting, official excuse is we are totally renovating the whole house, all in one go, while living in a very badly insulated conservatory - which tends to focus attention on getting decorated and back into the warmth of civilised living.

There is hope however!  I may well have accidentally spent some of our home improvement money on a sexy new Canon 5D mark III DSLR!!!!!   Happy Christmas to me!  I now have officially absolutely no excuse not to produce great quality images (that I get to shrink down to about 1MP to post on blogger!?), but hey it's pretty much my dream camera and now I own it - visions of He-Man style holding camera aloft while shouting "I have the power"!   Now all I need is a green Tiger and my life goals are complete.  ;o)

Grand Canyon Crow
ISO100, 29mm, f/11, 1/50s, -0.6ev
Nice diffuse cloudy lighting, for once a flat landscape is a bonus!

Cabin chair and stove
ISO800, 16mm, f/8, 1/5s, -1ev, levels, curves, dodge, burn
Love this shot, very happy.  Took loads of frames handheld, just to make sure I had one sharp.



VW Auto Repair Shack
ISO100, 18mm, f/10, 1/60s, -1ev, levels, curves, dodge, burn
Always up for taking these kind of images, lots of interest and detail with a nice mystery - what sights did the VW see before it found its end in the middle of no-where.

US Tour 1 - Old cars

Ok, time to get this blog back on the road! 
Excuses:  holiday, time, decorating, work etc etc
Enough of that.. time to get some of my USA tour photos up and posted! 

These three old car shots were taken at various stages of our road trip down SW Route 66, then around Utah, Arizona and California.  Very photogenic and just up my photographic street - pun intended.  Some cloudy skies making for some interesting backgrounds and subtle lighting.  Far too tempting for me to play in photoshop with this type of photograph, I've given each a fairly thorough treatment of curves, levels, vignetting and sharpening. 

More to follow soon...

ISO100, 16mm, f/9, 1/60s, -1.3ev, photoshopped

ISO160, 16mm, f/10, 1/30s, -1ev, photoshopped

ISO100, 16mm, f/7.1, 1/100s, -0.6ev, photoshopped

Marks Wasted Money

After several years of lying back on my existing photography kit, I finally splashed out on a couple of minor purchases!  First off is a pair of Yongnuo RF-603 wireless triggers - poor mans pocket wizards.  These should kill two birds with one stone for me, being both wireless shutter release - handy for setting up kingfisher setups without having to conceal myself within cable distance of the camera, but also wireless flash triggers too - although they aren't TTL, I know they'll be really handy.  Will at some point, if they work out as decent as most reviews rate them, buy a couple more so I can do both at once (trigger shutter and flash) or with multiple strobes once I pick up a 2nd speedlite.  Time will tell how much use they get, but initial impressions are good, especially for the price.

 

 

Second purchase was on a copy of Lightroom 5 to sort out my RAW processing issues.  I have been switching between a bunch of free and low cost RAW convertors (and Photoshop CS3 Camera RAW Plug-in) for a while now, with my favourites being Scarab Darkroom and RawShooter Essentials, but never really been completely happy with them.  Not to mention that I have been conscious that their lack of features has driven me to compromise how I run my workflow, I have been looking at getting a copy for a while.  With Adobe switching future products to a subscription model and me being a bit of a cynic when it comes to this kind of "progress", I went ahead and wasted some cash on an old fashioned boxed copy.

 

 

The three photos posted here have been processed entirely in Lightroom, with no Photoshoppery.  It'll take a while to get going on the more advanced features, but most features seem nice and intuitive.  I especially like the quality of the built in luminance noise reduction, I haven't compared to my old friend Neat Image yet, but it would definitely be handy for de-noising masses of high ISO photos - like the wedding I'm due to shoot in a couple of weeks.

 

Whether I splash out on a new body with better high ISO performance while I'm in the USA next month - I haven't decided yet, we will have to see ...

Rain Pigeon
ISO1600, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, -0.6ev

Tree Portrait
ISO200, 24mm, f/10, 1/30s, -1.6ev

Jurassic coast storm
ISO100, 16mm, f/10, 1/125s, -1.3ev



Hanging around

 

Not much luck for me over the last few days of project KFC.  Luck seems a fairly big factor while I'm still learning habits, timings and favourite fishing spots of this local pair.

 

Meanwhile - it's just nice to be wasting some time, out and about enjoying a British summer again.  Just like this Grasshopper, topping up his under-chin tan I guess or just taking a different view of the world.  Bright but muted sunlight providing some very handy lighting - very nice after what seems like an age of frequently noise reducing lots of ISO1600 photos.



Hanging Grasshopper
ISO100, 105mm, f/6.3, 1/320s, -0.6ev

KFC

Shot of the local Kingfisher flying head-on toward the camera, wings tucked into their high-speed aerodynamic tuck position.  Knowing he was heading back through this choke point made it fairly easy to just focus trap it as it came through.

 

Two stylised Kestrel shots I picked up on the way back to the car with the photogenic old telegraph poles.  Unfortunately the strip of river gets shaded in the last part of the day, so very little chance of photographing a Kingfisher once the shade gets too dark for my 50D at ISO1600.  No spotting of the local Barn Owl during this part of the day yet, but maybe with the rainy weather due it might be more likely.  We will see  ...





Kingfisher in flight
ISO1600, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/800s, -1.3ev, noise reduction, cropped

Twilight Kestrel on old telegraph pole
ISO320, 285mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, +0.3ev, levels, curves

Sunset Kestrel
ISO1000, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, +1.3ev, noise reduction, levels, curves

Notes from the riverbank

Just a quick note to mention that I have just discovered the B&H Youtube channel, which is great and has a lot of really interesting content to watch.  I'm not advertising the store, don't think I've ever ordered from them, but the channel is worth mentioning:

https://www.youtube.com/user/BHPhotoVideoProAudio

Project KFC is going well, some more shots which I will post soon - including some nice Buzzard and Kestrel photos too.  Unfortunately seen a Sparrow Hawk along the river too, which isn't ideal since they predate Kingfishers, so at the very least it will make the little fellows a bit more nervous. 

I did however great very lucky and spotted the resident Otter!!  It swam right below me against the near-side bank of the river, so I couldn't get a shot, but amazing to see one so local.  Only time will tell how lucky I was or whether they are active a lot around that stretch of river.

While I'm rambling, I just wanted to point out that the "Kingfisher calling" shot, wasn't me disturbing the bird - as it might be easy to think, I was quite a way off and he was quite happy to sit on the log and have a wash before he sauntered off.  The last thing I want to be doing while I try and figure out where they're fishing is scare them off.

Starting to get a good idea of which direction they are coming in from and where they like to fish etc.  So hopefully I can start setting up properly and see what I can get.  Worst case I get to chill out sat by a beautiful river for a few hours, so as long as I'm not disturbing the birds, it's all good really... especially if I get to see the Otter again!

Gone Fishin'



 

Project KFC is well and truly off with a pop this year after being postponed for so long. 

First day at a new stretch of river in search of Kingfishers and not only do I spot at least one pair, plus at least one flying through, I get a half decent shot too. Result!

 

Been an interesting few days on the local wildlife photography front, with sightings of baby Badgers, Barn Owls and now a river full of Kingfishers and reliable reports of Otter sightings too! 

 

See how much time I get to waste over the next few weeks..

 



Kingfisher calling
ISO1600, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/1250s, -0.6ev, noise reduction, crop

ISO1600, 105mm, f/6.3, 1/640s, -1.3ev, noise reduction, crop

Golden Ringed Dragonfly eating a Bee
ISO100, 350mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, -1ev



Sunlit Summer Blackbird
ISO200, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/2000s, -1.3ev, cropped

Wild and Wonderful

 

Nice weather is currently a double edged event, it enables me to get on with some DIY and landscaping the garden and even when I get a chance to wander out taking photos I have to pay in guilt for the chores that I put aside to indulge in my wasted time.

 

Having said that, I am off to the coast again in a minute, so just a swift post  - again more guilt, since I haven't posted on here in a couple of weeks .. again!?

 

 

 

Cormorant
ISO320, 560mm, f/8, 1/1000s, noise reduction 



Lavender Bee
ISO100, 105mm, f/5, 1/160s

Moorhen Chicks
ISO1600, 400mm, f/5.6, -0.6ev, noise reduction

Thats no moon .. it's a Super-Moon!

 

Two photos of the weekends Super Moon, the first of it rising just after Sunset over the sea, the second taken later from the tent doorway (went to the Dorset coast for the weekend).

As if watching the Moon rise over the sea from the comfort of our tent, perched on a cliff, wasn't mesmerising enough, the 400mm + teleconvertor combo doubles as a half decent telescope, especially combined with 10x live-view zoom.  Fascinating to pick out details and watch the shimmer of the atmosphere.

 

More holiday photos to follow of course ...

 

 

Life in the Sun

ISO500, 560mm, 1/800s, f/8, -0.6ev, noise reduction
A baby Robin catches bugs from a fallen branch.  A very willing subject which actually hopped past me,
way too close for my big zoom + tele-convertor to focus on.

ISO400, 105mm, 1/125s, f/5, -1ev, noise reduction, cropped
Another willing model who sat posing, curling its tail and swaying back and forth.  I liked this shot since the shadow cast across its head avoids the usual glare off their reflective eyes and increases contrast on the main focus.
I could take photos of damselflies all day long, but a pub lunch was calling and my belly eventually won the decision to move on.

ISO400, 560mm, 1/500s, f/8, -1ev, noise reduction
 A Four Spotted Chaser basks in the intense Sunlight.  For such a warm day it was nice to have yet another subject happy to sit around while I shuffled around to get an angle with a clean background.  Usually insects on hot days have unbounded energy and leads to tricky chases and missed opportunities, sometimes (when you struggle to get out of bed early) you just have to rely on a bit of luck and co-operation.

Uninspired

 

Well, turns out the events I visited over the weekend, although enjoyable were not particularly inspiring to my shutter finger unfortunately.  I think it was a mixture of things not being as photogenic and having photographed them many times before.  The local festival has lost its main sponsor since they were bought out by a foreign company and it all seemed worryingly lacking.

 

As it turns out, I ended up doing a familiar style shot of Gloucester Cloisters - there are many like it, but this one is mine .. I did at least try and add a kind of mirror image effect between the window and aisle.  Even the 16-35mm wasn't wide enough to grab this in one shot on my APSC sensor, so this is a composite of 5 portrait shots with a bit of straightening, noise reduction and cropping.

 

 

ISO1600, 16mm, f/9, 1/13mm, -1.6ev, composite, noise reduction, cropped

Bovine Sunset



 

Have been running lately, despite my lack of natural running ability, managed to run a charity 5k race last weekend.  It has however, been many kinds of torture!  Not just the physical and mental challenge, but my training path takes me through countryside, often at Sunset, surrounding me with photogenic views without my camera (a photographers curse).  I have to confess that,

as if running out of choice isn't crazy enough, I have actually considered options to allow me to run carrying my camera, but until my fitness greatly improves I am just channelling it into motivation to get out with my camera on my rest days.

 

Hazy dandelions, distant church spires and silhouetted Swallows, but this was my favourite.  A rim lit happy dairy cow, grazing on the farm I used to work on was I was young.

 

Off to Gloucester Tall Ships festival tomorrow, then local Folk festival for the rest of the weekend.. weather looks handy.. full moon too .. see what I can snap along the way..

 

Have a great bank holiday weekend!



 





ISO640, 275mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, -1ev, noise reduction

Black and white weather

 

It's rainy and dark outside as I post this, definitely black and white weather!

A bit of a filler post today to tide things over a little ..  the first is a macro shot of a coin I picked up at a car boot sale purely because of the rather cool St George on the reverse.  As it turns out, it was minted to celebrate the Festival of Britain, the celebration of the end of austerity after World War 2.  I wonder if they'll mint a coin sometime soon to mark the end of this era of triple recession and price amplification!

 

The second is from the weekend, a gloomy, windy beach shot of a stormy sea and valiant kite surfer battling it.  I took quite a few of them floating several meters into the air, but liked this one most for it's gloomy mist and clean composition, with the rain and mist giving it that ethereal feel.

 

Might be back soon with some mini project shots, codename .. RAIN!

 

 

Little Brown Jobs

 

Two photos of similar subjects and taken with similar camera settings, but with different merits.

 

The top sparrow is nice and sharp, with diffuse light and good depth of field, however the branch is fairly ugly and lets face it, even though it is striking a catalogue pose, is a little boring. 

 

The second Wren photo is a lot more dynamic and interesting, both in the pose, background, reflection and activity - with a fresh water shrimp in its beak.  However, sharpness is lacking and the lack of separation between the main subject and the busy background makes it a bit confusing to look at.

 

Did you know...  even Wrens haven't avoided religious persecution!  The Wren was sacred to the druids and their god of thunder, Taranis.  Having a Wrens nest in your house provided protection from lightning and killing one or steal an egg made you more prone to being struck!

As is often the case Christianity, wanting to stamp out the old Celtic traditions, branded the bird treacherous, saying it betrayed St Stephens location when he was trying to hide from persuers, who crucified and stoned him.  They created a festival for people to go out and hunt Wrens and stone them in revenge.  Not much forgive and forget going on then!

 



ISO100, 390mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, -1ev

ISO125, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, -1ev, cropped



Mono-France

 

Two more black and white converted photos from France.  The top one is Bayeux cathedral and the lower is shot at sunset on Gold beach near Arromaches, turned into black and white as the colours were so surreal they look fake! 

 

Have a great bank holiday .. see you on the other side ..

 

ISO100, 16mm, f/8, 1/100s, -1ev, circular polariser, desaturated

ISO100, 16mm, f/16, 1/4s, -2/3ev, circ polariser, tripod, mirror lockup, cable release, curves, desaturated

Normandy

Sun setting behind a bunker at Gold Beach, Normandy

Gold Beach was one of the British landing sites on D-day in World War 2, just along the coast from Omaha beach portrayed in Saving Private Ryan.  Although they took significant casualties, thankfully the British managed to land their tanks onto the beach and the RAF had accurately bombed the German defences, no doubt making a big difference.  Many defensive ruins still remain along the coast, the top photo is a beach front bunker, the second are some blocks of the British artificial harbour constructed opposite Arromanches, codename Mulberry.  Designed to avoid the need to capture the heavily defended ports, the huge blocks were floated across the channel, before being formed into a massive temporary port to unload troops and supplies.  Note:  the block in this shot, although huge, are some of the smaller support blocks!  Amazing engineering. 

We camped right next to the beach at Arromanches and took advantage of the summery weather to photograph a Sunset.  Thankfully a very peaceful place to be these days and cameras are the only things shooting. 

The bottom two shots were taken, with the utmost respect, at the American cemetery at Colleville.  Always a very emotional place to visit, my second visit and no less inspiring and thought provoking.  Pristine white marble headstones stretch to the horizon to, hopefully, help future generations realise how luck they are.

ISO100, 16mm, f/16, 1/13s, bracketed composite, tripod, shutter lockup, cable release, circ polariser  

Blocks of the Mulberry Harbour, Arromanches.
Great texture, pattern, interesting sky and diffuse Sun was begging for a mono conversion

Grave of an unknown soldier (of which there are many) at the American cemetery, Colleville-Sur-Mer