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

Happy St Georges Day!

 

Happy St Georges Day!

 

Just happened to snap a pic of a St George and the Dragon statue recently,

so suitably topical shot today.

 

Had great weather in France last week, got a few nice sunset beach shots to process and post up here at some point soon...

 

 



Sun at last!

 

Some Sunshine at last!!!!  A Wren and Pheasant celebrate the change in the weather below!

(while a Fawn peaks through the hedgerow)

 

The last image - Wren catching fresh water shrimps.

 

Finally some nice weather on the horizon ... right .. I'm off to France!  See what I can find to photograph there....

 

 

Butterfly Newborns

 

Stunning colours & patterns of new-born Emperor butterflies emerging from their cocoons

and drying their wings in a local hatchery.

The local butterfly farm is always a popular spot for photographers trying out new kit, as it provides a very target rich environment, all condensed into a nice small heated space
(handy on a brutally cold day).
I took a lot of photos, mostly as practice using my camera again, but I'm not a big fan of taking photos this way.  However this array of form, colour and composition ticks quite a few boxes and had to be posted! 
 

Space Chickens

 

Happy Easter everyone! 

I always like to concentrate on the true origins of a festival,

so here is my homage to the age old story of the space chickens bringing life to the corners of the universe and starting the legacy of gifting chocolate eggs to each other.

 

 

Moss drops

 

I bypassed the need to get down and do some macro without getting wet knees by spotting this cluster of moss on the top of a wall.  Substituting bugs on flowers for raindrops on moss. 

I always loved the way this moss grabs a drop of water like a strongman lifting an Atlas stone. 

Not to mention just being so damned photogenic.  With a rendered white garage wall as a backdrop, I minimised aperture for a clean image focussing on the colour, composition and form.

 

 

105mm Macro Lens, f/2.8, ISO100, 1/200s 

Snow Birds

 

I have a pet hate of weather forecasters describing cold or rainy conditions as miserable.  I love the rain and the variety of British weather, however, that's not going to stop me rolling it out as an excuse for not posting in two weeks.  This year I find myself wishing for some lighter nights, warmer weather and the odd opportunity to get down with my macro lens without getting covered in mud!  Maybe this is the beginning of my transition into middle aged photographer!?!

 

Anyway, I seemed to be stacking up a range of bird photos I am undecided about blogging.  Partly due to their reliance on the snow to elevate them, despite poor light and weak backgrounds etc.  So here they are as part of a snow-bird post.

 

The first is a common Robin, usually on a snowy tree stump is good enough for me, but the messy background is a big issue here.  Unfortunately I had my teleconverter mounted at the time, so f/8 was my minimum aperture, so the background wasn't as blurred as it could have been.

 

Second is a slightly less common Fieldfare, only visiting the UK over the winter.  Shooting into a bright sky meant I had to ramp up exposure compensation and ended up getting fairly close before its instinct to flee overrode its curiosity of me creeping towards it. 

 

The last two are Reed Buntings and probably the better photographs from a technical and composition point of view, even if they were at high ISO, +1ev compensation and the teleconverter mounted.

 

 

 

Mother

 

Spending a lot of time in the garden as the weather is improving (gradually).

Not much to photograph yet, since it resembles a building site, but this spider on the fence

persuaded me to dust off the camera for a few minutes ..

 

 

ISO100, 105mm, f/16, 1/2s, tripod, cable release, mirror lockup

Mechanical

 

Two photographs from the Iceland national museum in Reykjavik.  Took lots of tourist snaps on the visit, it is a great museum to visit, but took these two as blog friendly shots.

The second is more for its retro interest for other photographers.

 

 

Iceland pt.5 - Allsorts

 

More individual shots from the Iceland tour..

 

Humpback whale blowing water vapour into the morning Sun. 
An amazing couple of hours in Husavik bay, seeing a lot of Humpbacks, Minke and three massive Blue whales. 

 

 

A fumerol venting sulphurous gas through the Earths crust.  Taken using a tripod, soft edge ND grad and ND8 filter at f/22 to get a bit of blur into the steam and balance the sky "in camera".

Wild textures in a wild landscape. 
The wild colours in an Icelandic landscape can dominate the viewers attention, so I chose mono to amplify the focus on the shapes, textures and forms.
 

Sunset near Grenivik.  Taken at 00:26am and the Sun is still up behind the clouds!
Taken from a bayside hostel with proper cookers and even an outdoor hot tub!  Luxury.
Tripod, high aperture and 5second exposure to saturate those glorious colours and smooth out the water.
Two exposures composited - one for the sky and one for foreground.

 

Gannet flying alongside the ferry on the way north.  The only other wildlife en route was Puffins and Dolphins.
Dolphin spotting being a favourite game from our cabin bunks.

 

Grjotagja cave, underneath a rift in the surface thermal springs fill the pools with steaming water.
Used for bathing before local eruptions drove the temperature back up again.

 

Taken in a wide expansive valley known for its horses with a towering wall of mountains to the north.
Iceland bans importing livestock to preserve its native breeds.  These stocky horses are the only breed to be
found on the island and are a fairly common sight in the lowlands and plains.

 

 

 

 

The trans-Atlantic rift between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
Moving apart about an inch per year may not sound much, but the wooden paths they built a few years ago where closed
because they'd been pulled apart and fallen into the rift!?  A lot of Icelandic construction is influenced by the knowledge that they will inevitably have to rebuild it in a couple of years. 

 

 

A long exposure of a part of Gullfoss.  Tripod, f/22, ND8 filter = 1/2s.  Plenty when the flow of water is so torrential!

 

 

A Redwing collecting food for its young, with a backdrop of the ever present blue Lupin that covers swathes of Iceland.
They breed in Iceland and some migrate to the UK in the autumn/winter.  Having made the trip in a big ferry over a number of days I can only be extremely impressed.

 

Flood plains at the mouth of a glacial valley in the south, where bridges are washed away so often we crossed several temporary ones that looked like the military had just put them up!
I knew exactly what I was going to do when I took this shot.  The landscape and contrasts were so dynamic I had to stop (which isn't always easy with narrow roads, raised up on banks to avoid snow in the winter).

 



Iceland pt.4 - More Panoramas

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Some more composite panorama images from my trip to Iceland last June.  From the top..

 

1. An Icelandic church - like many there, built on farmland for the farm workers.  Even today we found the rural communities to be very religious and churches still feature a large role in peoples lives.  Christianity took over from the pagan practice of worshipping Norse gods around 1000AD, putting an end to eating horsemeat and the laws allowing parents to kill any unwanted offspring!

 



2. Another fantastic stretch of road, this one in the north, near Akureyri.  There are plenty more roads that I want to ride down in the world, but if there are any more scenic and varied than Icelands route 1, I will be astounded.

 

3.  The wonderful Seljalandsfoss waterfall.  A break in the clouds at 10pm allowing the Sun to light up the scene against a suitably moody sky.  Our tent can be seen in the distant bottom left, not a bad spot at all - with at least 5 waterfalls descending over the plateau, which used to be the coastline in the not too distant past!  Something that is very alien to a south west Englander, where erosion is doing the opposite.

 

4.  A geographers paradise, rivers, hills, snow capped mountains, lava fields, lush green flood plains and our road ahead cutting through the lava.  A bit dreary to be considered good photography, but I love the drama and adventure of the varied landscape and I'm always a sucker for a nice twisty road winding it's way into the distance.

 

5.  The famous Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall), part of the "golden circle" tourist route in the west, near Reykjavik.  It is the most powerful waterfall in Europe and (as with all of Icelands large waterfalls) an amazing experience to visit.