Tour Blog - Panoramics

Without realising it at the time I appear to have become partial to sweeping panoramic images on my motorcycle tour to Morocco in sept/oct. Before leaving I had set quite high expectations of the photos I would try and take while I was away, but very early on I seemed to loose all track of any plans and immersed myself in the absolute luxury of timeless freedom.

I love photography so much it usually impacts on holidays a lot, but to my surprise, I was so caught up in the adventure that I was content to let the adventure dictate the photography and not the other way around. I think the only photography induced stress was seeing so many shots in Morocco and just not having the time and patience to stop, take helmet & gloves off, get camera out and take the photo on my DSLR.

As for security - the dodgiest place was probably the UK! Morocco certainly felt very safe. I did get some sand in the focussing rings of my lenses etc, but nothing too concerning or unexpected.

The volcanoes of the Auvergne, France

Misty valleys in the Pyrenees

Windmills at Consuegra, Spain

I'd like to be able to say we carefully planned our visit to coincide with the full-moon rise and sunset, but it was just pure luck. Not only did we get to live for a while measuring time and direction from the Sun, we got to see a complete cycle of the moon, which was full when we rode south through Spain and was back full again on the way back up northwards.

The Spanish side of the Pyrenees

Roman aqueduct at Segovia, Spain

Andalucian sunset

Terraced fields in southern Spain

Sunset at Azrou, Morocco

Moroccan streets come alive at night with children, families and food, while Egrets fly in to their roosts as a call to prayer echoes out from the mosque.

The entrance to Todra Gorge, green strips of vegetation and farmland cling to the rivers

The top end of Todra Gorge, women work the fields in a beautiful landscape that I struggled to capture. If there was one place I'd have loved to stay for a sunrise it was here.

My motorcycle parked up for lunch on the Tiz n Tichka pass through the Atlas mountains

The barren land between the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert

The ancient kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou

Essouira harbour under a sea fog, large sardine boats left and blue shark fishing boats right

Zambujeira Do Mar, Portugal on the way back north

25 de Avril bridge at sunset, Lisbon

The incredible Vasco de Gama bridge, Lisbon

Have a good weekend everyone. Will start posting some more tour photos next week!

More randomness..

ISO100, 100mm, f/11, 1/400s, -1ev, straightened & cropped

Sunset dogwalker on Pendine Sands (of land speed record fame)

ISO1600, 17mm, f/5.6, 1/2500s, -1.6ev

cropped, levels, selective curves, saturation, noise reduction

Steam locomotive Tangmere plods through autumn countryside, pushed by a diesel engine (I guess they had a problem). Composition is okay considering I wanted the autumn colours in there, but the sky was pretty ugly, the Sun recently clouded over and my settings aren't exactly optimised.

Report card: C- Must try harder next time!

Backlit Hoverfly

ISO100, 105mm, 1/400s, f/2.8, -2ev, levels, cropped

A hover fly doing what it does best in a beam of autumn Sun.

They always look great with the Sun glowing through their body and giving them a silver lining, but I also liked how the streaks of Sunlight in the background turned out and the glistening raindrops on the leaves give it a nice ethereal backdrop. Light levels were just about spot on to use near perfect settings too, with low ISO still giving a nice speed to avoid camera shake and blur the wings nicely, while keeping to f/2.8 to optimise the bokeh and dialling the exposure compensation right down to capture those highlights.

Faerie Ring

Out picking mushrooms sunday and was lucky enough to find a hidden patch of 20+ Fly Ageric mushrooms! Certainly the most I've ever seen in one patch. Used by many ancient tribes for its hallucinogenic properties and possibly even by the vikings as a fear inhibitor. Although it might have spiced dinner up significantly, we just stuck to photographing them.

Seasonal Quad

A quad of sunlit, autumn leaves. Taken with the aim of capturing the same subject in a variety of shots and combining them to form a condensed, colourful snapshot of autumn woodland.

Home

It's been a long while since I've posted here, since I headed out on my trip to Morocco over two months ago now. Plenty of photos taken (although not as many as there might have been) which I'm still in the middle of processing, so rather than put the blog on hold any longer here are a couple of shots from the weekend...

ISO1600, 320mm, 1/400s, f/5.6, +1ev, noise reduction, levels

Grey squirrel cramming in as many berries as possible before the cold arrives.

ISO200, 105mm, 1/250s, f/4.5, -1.6ev, flash+diffuser, tripod, cable release

Possibly the last macro flower/bee shot of the year before winter arrives.

Everything must go!

The trip to Bournemouth Air Festival didn't quite go to plan, so no shots of Spitfires or the Red Arrows as a nine. RIP Flt Lt Jon Egging. With my tour to Europe and North Africa only a week away I'll be trying to keep my camera kit charged, ship-shape and empty of shots. My folder of discarded shots has been stacking up a little lately and as I've not been too active posting (and probably won't be the whole time away) I thought I'd just post them all up...

The Watchers

ISO100, 16mm, 1/25s, f/8, -1ev, de-saturated, levels, curves, dodge/burn

Wedding #5

A selection of shots from my last wedding a couple of weekends ago..

Simplicity

ISO1000, 105mm, 1/200s, f/4, -2ev, noise reduction

7 Spot Ladybird on a reed, with rain drop

ISO100, 105mm, 1/640s, f/4, -1.6ev, transparent lighten blur

Sunlit window-ledge flower

Off to Bournemouth Air Festival this weekend, always up for budget friendly free events!

Local birds

ISO1250, 560mm (400mm + 1.4x teleconverter), 1/1000s, f/8, -1ev

Noise reduction, cropped

A family of Grey Wagtails feeding in a town centre stream

ISO1600, 400mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, -1ev, noise reduction, cropped

A new born Moorhen waves its "wings" for attention.

ISO400, 380mm, 1/2000s, f/5.6, +2/3ev, noise reduction

A chorus-line of finches.

Note: high shutter speed is because I was photographing them flying on and off of the lines, but decided upon a static shot in the end instead.

Playtime

A toy train steams out of Bristol.

I'm absolutely not a fan at all of false tilt-shift photos, but I found it vaguely amusing so have decided to share it anyway. It was originally part of an extreme wide Bristol panorama that I didn't deem worthy...

Hometown Tornado

ISO1600, 35mm, 1/800, f/8, -2/3ev

noise reduction, dodge/burn, selective curves, desaturated

Probably the best kind of Tornado to have sweep through your home town, todays lunchbreak challenge finally left the macro lens packed away in the bag for once.

Just past her 3rd anniversary since being constructed in 2008, she spent today ferrying passengers between London and Bristol as The Cathedrals Express to help pay off her construction bill of £3million.

Chippenham station isn't without interest either. It is a grade II listed building, with much of it still dating back to the 1850's when it was a major station, being just one stop away from the Swindon Great Western Railway works.

Old photo of Chippenham rail yard (uncredited):

Things have been somewhat downgraded these days, but it did win the prestigious Station Excellence Award in 2005.

Green fly

ISO1600, 105mm, f/3.2, 1/160s, -1ev, noise reduction

Simplicity, a clean colourful background and a sharp point of focus make for my next blog worthy photo.

Off to Bristol (br-iz-ol) this afternoon, so with a little luck, a bit of spare time and the weather playing ball you might just get something a little different next post!