Bank Holiday 1

The first of 4 scheduled blog posts to celebrate the double bank holiday weekend. All taken at lunch break thursday.

ISO800, 105mm, 1/500s, f/7.1, -2/3ev, noise reduction

A Trio of Dandelions

The seasonal favourite for April with so many photographers, the humble dandelion.

Three shots taken yesterday in an attempt to capture it in different ways.

ISO400, 105mm, f/11, 1/200s, -1ev, levels, noise reduction, desaturate yellow

Two images layered of the same frame, just two different focal planes

ISO400, 105mm, f.5.6, 1/200s, +2/3ev (purposefully over exposed)

My favourite of the trio. ISO320, 105mm, f/7.1, 1/200s, -2/3ev. Desaturated, noise reduction.

Pick 'n' Mix

Starting this week with an odd selection of left over images of possibly the most diverse collection of subjects that even I have posted before. They're an acquired taste I must admit, but hopefully something of interest ..

ISO100, 275mm, 1/6400s, f/5.6, -1ev, levels, colour balance (reduce yellow), desaturate blue

Sunlight refracted through ice crystals in a cirrus cloud. The pure beauty of this is way above the abilities of me and my camera to capture, so much of the subtle colours have been lost. I often don't post up things like this, considering it a failure to capture how something looked, but maybe it's possible to look at the image and let your imagination make up for it's short-falls.

You can always rely on great light inside an old church it seems. This time inside St John the Baptist church in the fabulously history rich Colerne. The village has a long history dating back to hill fort remains from many year BC, it was mentioned in the Domesday book (11th century) and the church houses fragments of an 8th century Saxon stone cross. The church itself dates from 1190, with many medieval features still remaining, including a large array of well preserved gargoyles and carved faces. The bell tower holds 8 bells dating from 1652 and a single handed clock from 1685, one of only a handful of hour-hand only in England, but unfortunately not very photogenic since the clock face was restored in 2008.

Flowers at Lacock abbey walled garden.

Channel mixer, vignette, added noise, added texture, colour balance, reverse curves (lower contrast), dodge/burn and generally just trashed it to look like an old photo.

A bit of fun with an old car parked up at the suitably ye-olde looking Reybridge.

Wedding shoot went brilliantly on saturday, glorious weather, lots of happy people and no disasters. The staged studio lights were a complete hit, working really well technically and bringing out everyones inner celebrity, with a queue forming for the best part of an hour. Was great fun and got some really nice photos, bride and groom were happy, so another successful event in the bag.

Just one more lesson learned this time... when you're photographing the bride arriving and everyone else is making their way into the venue, make sure you don't get locked out!!

A midweek macro clear-out..

With the hope of restoring a bit more variety into the mix, here are 3 macro shots from the last few days. (None from today as I had a dentist lunch-break challenge).

ISO100, 105mm, 1/800s, f/4, -2/3ev

Not all butterfly shots have to be blazing with colours.

ISO160, 105mm, 1/200s, f/4

7 Spot ladybird on a bluebell.

ISO400, 105mm, 1/640s, f/4, -1/3ev, cropped, saturation

Thistle & Bee, taken at Lacock over the weekend. Pretty happy with this one, nice and clean, a good bee, a good pose, a good flower and the lawn colour background really makes it pop. Some more light or a catchlight on the eye would have been nice, but it's somewhere handy.

Studio Lights

Shot a bunch of test shots with my new studio lights this evening, just to make sure they don't have any nasty habits before they get their first serious trial at the weekend. Was good fun, and the lights were solid. Shot this dead head cowboy with just a single softbox to one side, nice and simple, then cloned out the tripod he was balancing on in PS.

Then a quick shoot with Paula and her new dark hair, which despite the addition of a bounced fill light off the ceiling, stayed dark.

Lunchbreak photofest..

ISO400, 105mm, 1/200s, f/7.1, -2/3ev, noise reduction, cropped

Today's lunch-break photo session was far from a challenge, so has been temporarily re-named. Although there is an unhealthy amount of macro flora and fauna on show, so maybe the challenges will be to get some variety back on the blog this week!

The first damselfly of the year in this shot. Certainly seems early and is the first I've seen despite walks along the local river and canal over the weekend. Always a welcome splash of colour on my blog anyway.

Friday clearance..

A clear out of the last weeks left-overs to add a little fun and colour..

Church jug

ISO1600, 27mm, 1/25s, f/4.5

Selective levels, selective transparent lightening blur, noise reduction

Moody natural lighting (an ever present commodity in churches it seems) side lights a great old religious vessel. Not a photo that will ever dazzle, but more of a still life study in light, shade, texture, detail and tone.

Finally received my studio lights yesterday too after Royal Mail lost the first set and THT Trading (Amazon) took four weeks to send a replacement. Not best pleased, but the item seems decent enough, I will set about trying them out this week and see what I can come up with...

Photograph-y Hell..

Stuck at my desk with the Sun shining on the world outside. Photograph-y hell.

ISO500, 20mm, 1/30s, f/2.8, -1.1/3ev

Selective: levels, curves, blurring, cloning, spot removal, noise reduction, colour balance

Vale of Pewsey

ISO100, 16mm, f/14, 1/50s, circular polariser, -1/3ev

Selective curves, dodge/burn, 2 raw exposures combined

The Kennett and Avon canal meandering across Wiltshire, cutting a peaceful and pleasant path through the Pewsey Vale on a sunny spring day.

Friday flurry..

Another sunny lunch-break, another quick blog update..

ISO400, 105mm, 1/400s, f/4, -2/3ev, noise reduction

Spider macro against a nice clean background.

ISO125, 105mm, 1/160s, f/3.2, -2/3ev

The first bluebells are firing into colour in the local woods. Brace yourself for more photos of these beauties over the coming weeks!

ISO100, 105mm, 1/500s, f/4, -2/3ev, cropped, highlight recovery

A Brimstone Butterfly taking a breather on the woodland floor. It's wings turned out to be the perfect reflector and were extraordinarily bright, but rather luckily, could still be recovered while processing the RAW file.

Two bees or not two bees..

ISO200, 400mm, 1/1600s, f/5.6, cropped, levels, saturation

Another swift lunch-break challenge today, lots of bees and dandelions, so they were the target of choice today, with the aim of capturing one in flight. I'm counting today as a failure, since I'm not pleased with either shot, both having poor depth of field/focussing, but as always it was very nice to get out in the Sun anyway.

ISO200, 400mm, 1/1250s, f/5.6, cropped, levels, saturation

Lunchbreak challenge..

Fantastic sunny day today. Full speed on the bicycle to a local wildlife reserve and church to broaden my lunch-break horizons. Saw a few other photo opportunities on the new route which will provide suitable hunting grounds for future challenges, but settled on this one of today.

A peacock butterfly poised atop suitably photogenic twisting flowers, under dappled sunlight, against a shaded background.

Usually butterflies are too busy and full of energy mid way through a sunny day for the macro lens, but this one didn't seem too bothered by me.

ISO100, 105mm, 1/320s, f/3.5, -2/3ev

Not just for Christmas..

Pretty bleak out there today and no camera with me, so here's one I prepared earlier.

Taken yesterday through foreground leaves and branches to create a muted, hazy natural vignette. Not much choice in the matter since the Robin was at the centre of a spring flowering bush, but always good to be able to turn a potential negative into a positive.

With good weather predicted from tomorrow onwards we'll see what I can find tomorrow..

ISO400, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, -1ev

Noise reduction, cropped, colour balance (to balance out the green light bounced and filtered via surrounding foliage)

Lunchbreak challenge..

Another overcast sky, perfect for a rolling landscape, but being constrained to push-bike range it was into another local patch of greenery looking for some macro detail again. Slightly more successful this time in that I actually got to blog pretty much what I was looking for, unlike last week. Nice subdued cloud filtered shading and great natural textures, but with colours that I just couldn't bring myself to turn black and white. Darkened fairly significantly in photoshop using levels to pop those textures.

ISO1000, 330mm, 1/640s, f/5.6, -2/3ev

Levels, noise reduction

Lunchbreak Challenge - FAILED!!

With gloomy skies and bleak lighting I was in search of something with contrast and texture that I could convert into a black and white photo .. something a little different. However, my three best opportunities for a decent snap were: a bright red bull-finch, some red, black and yellow gold finches or this swathe of flowers. So, my apologies, but for todays lunch-break challenge it's yet more colours ..

ISO400, 235mm, 1/500s, f/5, -1/3ev

Cropped, noise reduction, curves, transparent blurred lighten layer

Reversal

A blood red Sun falls from the sky silhouetting an old oak and a distant pylon.

Originally consigned to the scrap pile because of the power lines, but I've just about managed to convince myself it adds interest - a contrast of mankinds thirst for energy and it's love of nature. Nice colours anyway! In fact the Sun was far redder in reality, but hard to re-create that without making the image look too false.

ISO100, 400mm, 1/100s, f/6.3

Colour adjustment, saturation, graduated levels

More bugs

Two more lunch-break challenge bugs, a tortoiseshell butterfly against to perfectly blue sky and another humble 7 spot ladybird on the same tree, but taken with the 105mm macro lens. The direct sunlight may be harsh, but it definitely pops the colours out!

Above - ISO100, 400mm, 1/1250s, f/5.6, -2/3ev - cropped (branch on left side of frame)

In hindsight I should have upped the aperture and sacrificed some of that shutter speed for depth of field, but that's why I keep practicing. Also a shame that this was taken between two foreground branches, so I couldn't expand the space around the butterfly to the left .. it's still a little cramped to me, but nice colours and detail anyway!

ISO100, 105mm, 1/320s, f/8, -2/3ev

I think with the change in weather due for the rest of the week, my lunch-break challenges might become quite a bit more challenging.. but we'll see.

Lunchbreak Challenge

With spring well and truly blazing I seem to have become addicted to bringing my camera in every day at the moment. Yesterday was another lunchtime wander close to work and it was beautiful weather, a warm Sun, cool breeze and an explosion of insects and butterflies battling for territories and the first blooms.

Two shots I deemed blog worthy, both taken with the big zoom. Top is a Bombyliidae or bee-fly mid flight.. and yes it was quite a tricky shot to bag!

ISO100, 350mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, -2/3ev - straight from camera

The second photo is my first - and no doubt, not the last - butterfly photo of the year. A Tortoiseshell sipping the amber nectar in the Sun. Simple, but always stunning.

ISO100, 400mm, 1/640s, f/5.6, -2/3ev - cropped

Lost

A once loved bear, who looks like they've been off on an adventure, now sits waiting for their owner to pass by again. Nice textures for black and white too!

ISO100, 190mm, 1/250s, f/5.6, -1/3ev

Desaturated, levels, curves, dodge & burn, cropped

Lunchbreak challenge..

Another day, another challenge. Lots of ladybirds around at the moment and a scattering of early flowers combined to good effect and with a nice simple background too. Light is a little flat, but try as I might I failed to control either the subject or the clouds.

ISO1600, 105mm, 1/100s, f/8, -1/3ev

Noise reduction, cropped, curves

Two other shots taken recently of ladybirds.. just to turn it into a mini-montage...

Three 7 spot ladybirds having a meeting.

Primed for take-off. Not technically great, but shows the transparency of the wings nicely.

Lunchbreak Challenge

Another lunch break challenge to find some spring flowers. I had my eye on some stunning crocuses the last couple of days, but today they had lost some of their vividness, so I had to wander elsewhere to find this blossom instead.

ISO160, 105mm, 1/160s, f/3.5, -1ev, straight from camera

Lunchbreak challenge

Been bringing the camera into work the last few days. Wandering out at lunch is pretty limited by range and time, but it's nice to get outside while spring is creeping in. Saw a Red Kite circling above today which is quite rare for this area still, but this was the best shot of a pair of crows in a freshly ploughed field. Nice simple composition and crows always have good character I think.

ISO100, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6. Straight from camera.

Cut and dye..

A rare appearance of a MWT portrait shot today, to celebrate the radical transformation of Paula's hair being about 50cm shorter and 99% redder! Taken using low natural light and diffused flash bounced off the ceiling.

ISO1600 (to add texture), 16mm, 1/50s, f/4, -1 2/3ev, -2ev flash exposure compensation

Desaturated, colour balance (green tint), levels, dodge/burn

I couldn't help but take this shot of hair dye and a rusty razor we had hanging around from decorating. I like it a lot.

ISO1600, 105mm, 1/200s, f/8

noise reduction, colour balance (correction), sharpened, cloned out a couple of specks of dust

New Forest Wildlife Center

Taken last weekend at the New Forest Wildlife Park, okay so it's kind of cheating, but nice to see them close up once in a while. If anything its good practice for the real thing, especially after a few weeks of too much moving & decorating and no where near enough photography!

ISO1600, 320mm, 1/250s, f/5.6. -2/3ev. Straight from camera.

ISO1600, 375mm, 1/160s, f/5.6,-2/3ev. Straight from camera.

My 2011 Challenge Checklist

Right, this year is going to be the year I finally get around to doing some of the photo techniques I always wanted to try out. Besides continuing my efforts to get a decent Kingfisher photo this year, here is my check-list:

- Star trails

- Light trail cityscape

- Daylight long exposures using my newly purchased 8 stop ND filter (a bargain off eBay for £6!)

- Possibly some motion shots whilst riding my motorcycle

All hopefully with an added twist to them if I can.

.. and with any luck lots of travel pics from my trip to France-Spain-Morocco-Portugal in September! We also have a few more weddings to do this year following on from the success of last years wedding - which reminds me I need to blog some of those! Also a family portrait request which should be fun and challenging and possibly a local hotel website to design & photograph for.. turning into a bit of a mini-sideline career it seems!

Off to the New Forest Wildlife Centre this weekend, so with any luck I should well and truly get my shutter finger back working again for the year ahead..

Call waiting..

An old dial phone enjoys its retirement at Blunsdon Railway station.

Safely locked behind closed doors, unfortunately I couldn't stage it into a more dynamic scene, with maybe the receiver and a few coins on the shelf. Still some nice details though.

ISO200, 24mm, 1/40s, f/5, -1ev

curves, added noise, desaturated, transparent lightening blur

Happy snap

Frozen lock keepers cottage.

A bit of a picture postcard pic today I'm afraid, reminds me of the kind of photo you put together in a 500 piece jigsaw, but with being so busy lately it's from the leftovers of a few weeks back.

ISO100, 23mm, 1/40s, f/11, circular polariser

colour balance

Sleigh ride home

A father pulls his daughter homeward on a sleigh in the snow. Wasn't going to post this, but with some processing and a square crop it's grown on me, with a couple of things I really like about it.

ISO400, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, +2/3ev

Noise reduction, cropped, desaturated, added a transparent highlight blur vignette

Just another..

Just one last post from my last batch of photos, I wasn't going to blog it but have finally decided to grant it a showing thanks to it's wintery ethereal qualities.

ISO640, 35mm, 1/50s, f/11.

Levels, curves, desaturated blue channel, noise reduction.