Merry Christmas!

It's alive!! 

Excuses for not blogging in non-waffling list form:

Italy photo processing

Wedding Photo processing

Running

Building a workshop/studio

Learning how to bee a beekeeper

Christmas

blah blah blah

I've actually been out and about with the camera quite a bit, but just not processing enough at the moment.  Finding it much harder to get motivation to process these days for some reason .. even though my process flow had been much reduced throughout 2016.

No doubts that my new years resolution is for a better balance .. less going out taking photos and more processing the ones I have already taken!

135mm prime lens has been working out great lately, I used it a lot more in the last wedding and hope to do a bunch more non-wedding portrait photography with it in 2017.

As for 2017 .. I have trips to the Lake District and Cuba lined up .. but I think I'm going to try and be a lot more planned and structured next year too .. which I'm hoping will get me out and about a lot more to photograph some of the stuff I just keeping forgetting or missing out on.

Hope everyone has a great 2017

Inspirational video - https://youtu.be/_uIuegc7rvQ

New Forest

 

A few shots from an autumn trip to the New Forest a couple of weekends ago.  Nothing I'm happy with photographically, it was dreary weather and not much rutting going on, but thought I'd post something since I haven't posted much lately ... or this whole year!?

 

On the excuses front; - I'm back to running quite a bit, although missed out on a London Marathon place for 2017 (again), my self-build workshop is now well underway .. which may even double as a space to do some still life studio photography eventually .. and I now have a beehive, so have been spending quite a bit of time figuring out how to make those little bees happy.

 

With any luck I will get my Italy tour photos processed this month, since I have a wedding at the end of the month that will consume all my spare time for a good while.

 

 

High ISO, teleconvertor, drab lighting, boring surroundings, but a handsome stag and the pose is ok .. :o)

We did a pretty darn good job of being stealthy and not disturbing the deer, an unfortunate side effect of the Autumnwatch effect flooding the forest with wannabe photographers - like me, but demonstrating much less care.  This guy however did sense us and stopped to check us out momentarily.  I didn't feel like we interrupted their behaviour and they barely reacted to us, so I hope we were deer friendly low impact visitors.

Little Barn Owl

Down the local farm chopping firewood for the winter and this little guy pops out to see who is making all the noise!  One of the same pair I've been photographing for a couple of years, but first time I've caught one of them lingering in their medieval barn slot windows.

 

Unfortunately they are east facing, so are in shade in the evening, but what a cracking owl!  Those eyes! 

 

Just to clarify - this is a Little Owl in a barn, not a Little Barn Owl!

 

 



Gone Owling

 

 

With the dodgy weather and rain disrupting night hunting, I had a wander out on Thursday to see if I could spot any Barn owls out in daylight hours.  Luckily there are two nesting about a mile away from home which I spotted hunting in a field that was reasonably accessible.  Unfortunately there was no late burst of sunshine to light them up, but I did get a few high ISO, 400mm photos of them in the overcast light. 

 

We had a lovely burst of sunlight Friday evening, but no sign of the owls anywhere.  Unfortunately, although I have time to waste at the moment, I have injured my foot, so my fledgling owl shooting project is already put on hold - hopefully for just a couple of days - until I can sneak around again.

 

 

 

Thailand - Environmental

 

Photos from our wanderings on the motorcycles we hired in Chiang Mai, after taking an overnight train from Bangkok.  Much of the north is at higher altitude, is cooler and less humid than the south, full of jungle valleys and beautifully winding roads.  From the farmland and paddy fields, to the night bizarres, street food stalls and vibrantly lit evenings, it was a fantastic tour. 

 

From the far north, near the recently opened up Myanmar (Burma) border, to the amazing Laos border, to Phayao lake - flooded 70 odd years ago for irrigation, submerging a 15th century temple (!?), to the flower markets of Chiang Mai and then down to the islands of the Gulf of Thailand.  Hopefully the photos below give glimpses of the memories I collected along the way.



Farmland in the north west of Thailand with irrigation gullies and corrugated shelters
ISO100, 160mm, f/14, 1/125s, -0.6ev

Reflected temples and food stalls in Mae Hong Son, NW Thailand
ISO1600, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/30s, -1ev, noise reduction

Unloading flowers at Chiang Mai flower market
ISO2000, 200mm, f/5, 1/160s, -0.6ev, noise reduction

Thatched huts near Pai at Sunset
ISO320, 16mm, f/14, composite of bracketed images, cropped

Water buffalo with customary White Vented Myna birds on board
ISO100, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, -0.6ev

Sunset overlooking the border village of Phu Chi Fa in the mountains near Laos
ISO100, 32mm, f/8, 30s, camera resting on our balcony (where "balcony" describes a rickety old overhanging ledge with creaking wooden railings)

Sunset fisherwoman in a canoe on Phayao lake
ISO100, 120mm, f/4.5, 1/400s, +0.3ev, cropped

Suitably tropical looking pontoon on Koh Wai island
ISO100, 35mm, f/11, 1/200s, -0.6ev, cropped

Thailand - People

 

One of the things I love about travelling is the bustling markets, vibrant stalls and fascinating repair shops to be found, wonderfully free of the shackles of health & safety or conformism.

 

I'm certainly not a regular of candid portraits (besides wedding photography), but I did try hard on the Thailand trip to push myself in this direction a little more.  Thai people were certainly more willing to agree to be photographed than in Morocco, certainly without asking for payment/compensation, which was handy and less disheartening.

 

Top photo - probably one of my favourite of the tour - mending electric motors in a small alcove filled with useful trinkets and hand tools.  I got in nice and close to shoot through the foreground gadgets, took a handful of shots and left with a reciprocated smile, a thank you and a wai.

 

2nd row left - Mountain girl with puppy - taken in a remote mountain village on the Laos boarder, full of traders and visitors to the regional Miss Hill Tribe contest.  I have shots of that which may make it into a "rejects" post, but this was my favourite of the day, taken in a quieter part of the village.

 

2nd row right and 3rd row - stall owners in Chiang Mai's Chinese new year celebration market, full of all kinds of delicacies, most complete with legs, wings, beaks or shells .. but (mostly) very delicious and we ate as much as we physically could.

 

2nd from bottom - a craft shop, in the back streets of Bangkok.  This guy was a bit shy (jaded?) and I had to settle for a back shot, but the lighting and variety of nik-naks are great.  The un-intentional placement of my reflection in the mirror top right really elevates it for me (didn't even notice it at the time until I was processing it).

 

Bottom shot - trying to capture the wider vibe of a street flower market. I had popped out to photograph the scooter rider with the tablet, with the market in the background, then noticed the senior gent pulling a hand cart up the road, so waited for him to join the scene.  Unfortunately I didn't compensate for the lens distortion that I've inherited while using my 16-35mm on the 5D3 (full frame) and the correction took him a bit close to the edge of the frame, however I still love the framing of all the mini-scenes in one shot, all the details and elements that make it up.  Shade from stalls out of shot on the left made a vignette looking shadow on one side, so I've tried to balance that up .. it perhaps looks a little odd, but believe me an apparent one sided vignette looks stranger.

 

 

ISO2500, 27mm, f/2.8, 1/40s, -0.7ev

ISO4000, 27mm, f/4, 1/40s, +0.7ev

ISO2500, 23mm, f/9, 1/40s

ISO640, 18mm, f/6.3, 1/30s

A day in the garden

 

 

Too hot to run, move furniture or do much DIY .. time for a chilled out day spent in the garden with the 105mm macro lens.  The goal: to produce a montage to summarise the summer colours.  No butterflies or anything from the pond, but still pretty colourful.

 

 

Thailand - Temples

 

Ok .. so to say that these Thailand photos are a little over due is like saying it took a while to build the Taj Mahal!  .. but here they are anyway, at least the first batch.

 

Taken from all around Thailand during our 4 week tour of Bangkok, northern Thailand and a couple of the islands in the south east.  Thankfully none from Tiger Temple - I love Tigers, which is the reason why we didn't go there.

 

More Thailand photos to come soon ..

 

As far as actually using my camera lately, things have been a little sparse still, thanks to DIY, garden projects etc etc .. blah blah blah .. usual excuses.  It is hopefully approaching a period of a bit more balance and I can get back into the groove of going out some more, processing and blogging a bunch more shots.  I have a few from a trip to Savernake in May to process, as well as a couple of snaps from Cornwall to do too, which will hopefully get done soon .. or at least before I go on the next bike tour to the Alps for another three and a half weeks.

 

 

Lake District - Jan 2016

 

Photographs from Januarys trip to the Lake District.  Pretty chilly conditions and icy roads curtailed a fair bit of our plans, combined with the damage done by the flooding, but a brilliant time, as always.

 

Top shot is from three quarters of the way up Blencathra, before we headed up and into the clouds.  Proper cold and with drifting snow up to thigh deep, it was a serious expedition!

 

The other shots are all snaps taken around the Keswick area, quite happy to be snow-bound in such a lovely area.





Blencathra in the snow
ISO100, 16mm, f/8, 1/320s, +0.3ev, panoramic of several exposures



Windblown snow catches the Sunlight on a distant ridgeline
ISO100, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/1000s



Classic Robin in the snow Christmas card material!
ISO5000, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, +0.7ev



Macro Icicle
ISO125, 105mm, f/2.8, 1/125s, +1ev, cropped

Merry New Year! .. Oxford

 

Merry New Year any blog roamers, Google image stumblers and the odd follower!

It's 2016 and another fresh year to strive for better and brighter things. 

New years resolution - take more photos .. blah blah blah, I say it every year, lets see if it comes true this year!

 

Starting off with a rainy wander around Oxford at the weekend.  Not really conducive to great photos, but I confess to being fairly desperate to poke my shutter button as much as I could get away with, just to make sure I could remember how to press it!

 

I did get (finally) a 100mm filter holder and 82mm adaptor ring for Christmas, so no more hand holding my ND grad filters!  Hopefully I will put these to good use in the Lake District next week.    

 

Trinity college - Oxford University (or part of anyway)
ISO160, 16mm, f/4, 1/30s, -0.7ev, levels & crop
Bit of an awkward crop, but I didn't shoot wide enough to crop square unfortunately. 
Rainy skies taken advantage of.

Christchurch - Oxford University
ISO1600, 16mm, f/2.8, 1/40s, -1ev, selective levels & curves, noise reduction
Favourite shot of the trip, took quite a while for a gap in the flurry of visiting tourists.

 

Some snaps from the rest of the exploration: 

Stained glass window of St Michael slaying the dragon, obviously not afraid to trespass on Georges usual patch.  Stunning work (the window, not my photography).  Plenty of Lightroom lens correction to get this straight and level.

A carved winged skull memorial on the wall of Oxford cathedral, usually carved to remind the living of our mortality and that our time on Earth is fleeting.  Occasionally portrayed as a flying hourglass.

The bottom two are just door arch carvings outside the Bodliean Library.  I just liked their brilliantly captured expressions and the diffuse light on them late in the day was pretty flattering too.

 



Sky-land

Finally processing my Thailand photos now that it's dark in the evenings and working in the garden has halted for Christmas.  Not quite ready to start posting them up, so this is just a shot taken out of the window of the hopper plane from Bangkok on our way to Koh Chang.  An evening flight through rising storm cells (the photo doesn't portray just how big these formations were) .. always good for some exciting turbulence, but obviously made it safely.

Off to London next weekend to watch the new Star Wars movie in 3D IMAX which should be pretty cool.  Will be taking the camera with me, so hopefully won't get any grief taking it in with me .. although I might try and find some near by secure storage just in case.

Not a huge amount of time off at Christmas, but hopefully I'll get out and about at some point, whether or not my shutter sees any action, we will see..

Then in about a month I'll be back up to the Lake District again, so hopefully the flooding there has eased by then and we can help the local economy by buying lots of food and beer after a long walk in the fells!

ISO100, 26mm, f/9, 1/250s, -0.3ev, levels, cropped

Steaming 41st

Two photos from a birthday treat trip to Swanage coinciding with the annual steam gala, with several Pullman carriages hauled up and down from Swanage to Corfe Castle throughout the day.
Since they came complete with bar carriages, this hit quite a few of my favourite pastimes - steam engineering, drinking, music (of which it was mostly rocky) and being by the sea .. mix in a couple of good friends and a jolly spiffing time was had by all.

Top shot - loving the pitted texture of the mechanical parts, as if carved from granite, with the wispy steam swirling around in such a great way I couldn't help but crop right in on the details (cropping out more of the wheel - which was good too, but sacrifices must be made).

The second shot is obviously a lot more picture postcard .. feel free to print out and post to your grandpa.

I guess it's worth noting that the distinct lack of me sneaking out of work to photograph passing steam trains has been somewhat halted this year, since one of them overshot a red light early in the season and they had their license to run on the local tracks removed.  I'd like to moan about health and safety ruining the fun, but that's pretty serious on the main line between Bristol - Bath - London!  I just hope they get it back for 2016 ...

Steam driven engineering
ISO160, 160mm, f/5, 1/160s, -0.7ev, cropped square, over-sharpened, levels

Steam locomotive at Corfe Castle November 2015
ISO100, 35mm, f5.6, 1/100s, cropped, levels, curves, saturation adjustments (green down)

Sunbeams over Borrowdale

 

The colour of the heather during our walks in the Lake District in September was amazing, but shot of the day for this particular walk went to the beams of sunlight looking southward toward the southern fells.  Patchy cloud always helps a lot with grand landscapes to give depth and contrast during the day (not at sunset etc).  Happy with the composition and the leading lines heading way off back into the far distant valley clouds .. the haze, cloud and sunbeams providing plenty of natural special effects.  Happy memories of a fantastic walk in the hills for me too!





ISO400, 35mm, f/13, 1/320s, -0.7ev, curves & levels

Wall of Death!

 

Cancelled plans tonight .. as I was going to stray out to Avebury on a star trial - slash - Orionid meteor shower - slash - light painting photography venture, but alas Avebury is in England and that means cloudy weather unfortunately.

 

I did however have a great weekend away at the Swanage Steam Gala at the weekend, combining my hobbies of steam loco photography, drinking, listening to some great local rock tribute bands and just being at the sea side!  Happy days.  Photos will follow .. shortly(ish)...

 

For now .. a shot taken a few weeks back at an old wall-of-death show .. always impressive, with the roaring motors, hot engine smells and shaking walls .. obviously impossible to capture in a photo, but I like the amount of blur on the performers and the combination of young, old, cameras and phones in the crowd.  Listen to this video, whilst looking at my photo and sniffing an oily rag to enhance the experience! 

 

 

ISO4000, 16mm, f/4, 1/40s, -0.3ev, noise reduction, colour balanced (auto WB)

Lacock Abbey Cloisters

 

Living right next to Lacock Abbey and with it being the home of negative film photography as we know it - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lacock/visitor-information/article-1355821041895/

... it's not a surprise that it was one of the first places I took my old Canon 350D + 17-85mm lens, back in the day.  I recall being frustrated at not being able to get enough of the cloisters in the frame and vowed to go back when I had the necessary kit..  so, about 8 years on, now armed with a full frame body and 16-35mm it's about as wide as it gets without getting all fishy eyed.  Not exactly perfect either at high ISO (no tripod) and aspect ratio correction done in post-processing ... maybe when I get a tilt-shift lens I'll go back again ..

 

I'd like to say I planned the shot to be taken on a quiet day, not many tourists, ideal time of day with the Sun just in the right spot to cast it's rays in the right angles, but honesty is apparently a virtue and it was by happy co-incidence .. and about 10 minutes waiting around for a break in the flow of Harry Potter fans passing by to grab this.  I took a few variants, but for me the direct Sunlight through the window really gives the image a boost.

 

A little dismayed that I was too old, big and ugly to join in with the Wizard School event apparently (maybe if they'd had Hagrid school...), I moved on, content with making it look deserted on such a busy day.

 

 

 

ISO3200, 16mm, f/8, 1/250s, -1ev, noise reduction, aspect ratio correction, levels, curves

Great Dorset Steam Rally 2015

 

Some black and white photos from this years GDSR a few weeks back.

I've photographed this very photogenic and diverse event quite a few times and it's very easy to either go trigger happy or get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff going on, so this year I tried to focus on people, rather than shiny (or rusty) machines and have a go at sticking to my new 135mm prime lens instead of the usual 16-35 & 100-400 juggling act I usually perform.  Plus we were with friends this year, so I just snapped along the way, rather than cherry picking my wanderings from a photographers point of view. 

 

Top shot is probably my favourite, two .. very experienced .. gents, carving on a steam powered lathe.  Great characters, amazing craftsmanship .. along with some selective angling for sunlight on the sawdust (lathe-dust?), composition and a clean (crowd free) background.

 

Second shot is of man and machine in harmony: tweaking, feeding, watering, tweaking again .. engineered to last centuries chugging along, this one cutting stone blocks with a giant reciprocating saw blade and water pump for cooling (hence the mud).  Almost a clean background, but lots of interest in the frame anyway.

 

Third image is maybe my joint favourite and token female subject, since it really is 80% male dominated outside the craft tents and show horses (old fashioned stereotyping is part of that generation I guess).  Always a sucker for hands with a history of hard work, with the corn sculpture giving interest & story and even the texture of the table top adds texture..  a nice image.

 

Last up is a night shot of the engines powering the steam fair, along with the many onlookers.  A bit of a snap shot, but it's reasonably clean, for such a busy image, with interesting shadows and pools of light and detail.  It completes the mini collection of shots nicely anyway.

 

 

ISO100, 135mm, f/2.5, 1/1250s, -0.3ev, levels & curves

ISO100, 135mm, f/2.5, 1/1250s, -0.3ev, levels & curves

ISO100, 135mm, f/2.5, 1/250s, -0.3ev, levels & curves

ISO12800, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, dodge & burn, noise reduction