The Nags Head

The Nags Head.

I’ve walked pass this children’s playground quite a lot, and have yet to see any kids playing on it. Admittedly, it’s not quite the weather yet, but still! I don’t really understand it to be honest – its pretty rubbish. It’s just got one of the sprung-loaded-seesaw-things and a slide – and thats it! If I was a kid I wouldn’t waste my time on it! So today I thought I’d give it a go and see if I could get some interesting shots.

In the end I chose this one with the horses head in the foreground, with the slide slightly out of focus in the background.  I liked the original shot as I’d managed to slightly capture the clouds reflection in the horses head, but also kept the foreground detail pretty sharp. Once again, the post-production is provided by iPhoto. I simply turned it into a black and white image, and increased the contrast and played with the levels slightly. Then to give it a bit of quirkiness I added the rotation and cropped out some of the disinteresting background. Another quick blog post today I’m afraid – as I am about to embark on 300 miles journey down south to see family and friends for the weekend, and I want to be down there before midnight! This weekend should be challenging, as I’ll only have the iPad to blog with, so my posts might be short over the weekend and not much post-prod on the shots – but hopefully the content will be as equally as erm… good!

On a quick side note – I’ve downloaded Lightroom and Photoshop Elements Trial software today – so hopefully next week I’ll get the chance to try out the new software – I’ll probably blog my thoughts on both pieces of software – and yes I know still owe a blog post on my Mac! Next week – Promise!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Jake,

Scaffold By Night

Scaffold By Night.

The manflu seems to have passed, now just choked with a cold. As such I didn’t want to leave the house for tonight’s shot, but I was lacking in enthusiasm for Still-Life today, so I went out and explored the building site which is literally over the road from me. It wasn’t the most interesting sky, but there was still a bit of colour breaking through the clouds. So by squeezing my lens through the security fence I was able to get todays shot unobstructed.

I liked the shot as the silhouette of the scaffolding was nice and sharp against the sky, and also there was some background interest with the trees and break in the clouds. The setting used today were, f/7.1, 1/15 sec, ISO-6400

Again, no progress with Lightroom vs Elements on the Mac yet, so this was edited using iPhoto – probably not the best it could be, but I’m reluctant to wait for 15 mins for my laptop to turn on, and then another 20 while Photoshop loads! I’m having far too much fun with my iMac anyway! So for this I just played around with the saturation, contrast and levels, and cropped the image to remove some of the distractions at the side of the shot.

Overall, not my best shot or blog post – but given I still feel pretty rotten, today is just one of those days I’m glad to have got through! Hopefully tomorrow brings more inspiration!

Thanks for reading!

Jake

iPost Office

iPost Office.

It’s a wonder you can’t do everything on the internet yet. And to be honest, I’m disappointed my new iMac doesn’t so some of these remedial tasks for me. I mean, surely there’s an App for Passport Renewal? Well – apparently not. Today, despite not being 100% I had to walk back to the High Street to get my passport renewal forms checked by the Post Office. As always, I went with camera in tow to make sure I got the daily shot. Our High Street is particularly nice actually. The majority of shops are all independent shops – there is a Co-op and Lloyds Pharmacy, and that’s it! There’s a nice butcher, a fish-monger, several bakers – but as yet, I am still to discover the Candlestick maker.

So, the shot. Well, as it was the main reason for my trip outdoors, I thought it may as well be the main subject of my photo for the day. As you can see from the sharpness of the shadows, it’s been another sunny day, so getting the shot was particularly easy today. The setting used today were f/7.1, 1/320 sec, ISO-100.

The actual challenge would be get it looking nicer using my new toy. I haven’t yet decided if I am going to down the Photoshop Elements or Lightroom path on my new iMac – I still have my old laptop with Photoshop (I’m not daft enough to pay for a new version of Photoshop – yet!), but I thought I’d see what the in-built tools on the iMac are like, so todays shot was edited using iPhoto. It’s surprisingly sophisticated – you can play with all the usual settings that I normally do adjust (levels, contrast, saturation etc…) and there are even options for cropping, rotating etc.. and even (to my relief) a Black and White filter. While you are restricted to the levels of adjustment, it’s still pretty useful for quick touching up of images.

That being said, I’m still not used to moving everything around in iPhoto. From what I’ve seen it’s not like a normal image viewing app – you can’t just save an image to a directory and then it appears – I need to manually add it to an “event” to be able to view it.. but these are just my initial playings.. I’m sure I’ll eventually get the hang of it!

I might do another post later on my findings so far with the iMac, and share a few more hints and tips that I’ve discovered, in case any one has recently switched over from a PC to a Mac.

As ever, thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Jake.

Morning Raindrops

Morning Raindrops.

A break from the pattern today. Two colour photos in a row! I was actually able to get todays shot before 9am, which is also a first I think!
Another morning of glorious sunshine today, and I noticed the raindrops were just sitting on the washing line (that I hadn’t put away since “Chasing the Wind“) and they were just catching the morning sunshine. So before I started work I waded in out into our soaked garden and captured a few shots. It also reminded me if we ever get a long enough dry spell I MUST cut that grass!!

I chose this shot as I like how I’ve got multiple reflections in the drops, and also I like the nice bright colours of the blue sky, cream walls and the red roof tiles. They make a nice contrast for the morning shot. The only real difficult I had was trying to focus on the washing line as it blew in the breeze! The settings for this shot were f/13, 1/100 sec, ISO-100. Really easy is such fantastic light. Once I got it in Photoshop, I only tweaked the levels slightly – there was no need to mess with the colour as they were perfect anyway. All that was remaining was to crop the shot slightly.

I’d have liked to get in closer with a macro lens to get this shot, but I was stuck with the 8cm focussing distance on my 18-55mm lens. I am now beginning to find the limits of my equipment – much to the frustration of my wife, who already thinks I’m planning spend too much on my photography (and she’s probably right). So my current shopping list now includes a 50mm prime lens, then either a macro lens or a macro reversing ring, as well as a tripod, some ND and Polarizing filters – oh and not forgetting the remote control and lens cases as well. I think I need a second job! My birthday isn’t until October, so that’s a long wait!! I’ll try scouring eBay for some bargains in the meantime!

As always, thanks for taking the time to have a read.

Jake.

Please (B)olt the Gat(e)

Please (B)olt the Gate(e)

More colour today. Hurrah! We were out for a nice Sunday lunch today, and this gate and grass area was just outside the restaurant. I’d actually planned the gate to part of a wider shot as we walked to the restaurant, however when we came out and car had parked exactly where I wanted to capture the shot. As I walked through the gate looking for inspiration I noticed on the other side was this dilapidated sign ‘Please olt the Gat’. I liked the detail within the shot so I chose this to try and capture the rust and the spider webs either side of the sign.

It was a pretty overcast sky, so I knew I didn’t want to incorporate much of that in my shot, and I also wanted the focus to be drawn to the gate, and not the brightly coloured bushes in the background. So using a relatively high aperture, I was able to blur the background and ensure focus is kept on the gate. The settings I used for this shot were; f/7.1, 1/125 sec, ISO-640. I was quite please how crisp the final shot was actually, so it didn’t take too much work in Photoshop, just tweaking the levels and exposure (again) before rotating the shot to square it up a little before cropping.

Simple, yet effective. I like it. Hope you do to.

Thanks for reading.

Jake.

Watching the Horizon

Watching the Horizon.

I love the sea. I’m not sure if that has come across in my other posts, but I am fascinated by it. I find the watching the waves hypnotic, whilst the sounds are so relaxing. I don’t mind if it’s the calmest day and the waves are gently lapping on the sand, or if it’s the middle of a storm and they’re crashing against the rocks. I could literally sit on that bench for hours – in all types of weather. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up in central England – and couldn’t have been further from the sea – I always loved family holidays to the coast, and now I’m less than five minutes away, that love has yet to dwindle.

All that being said, it is due to rain this evening so I wanted to get out at lunch and take todays photo so I don’t have to risk my camera in the torrential downpour later. So that’s why I’ve posted this a bit earlier today.

The shot itself was a relatively straight forward one – just needed to adjust the aperture to ensure the background remained sharp, and try to compose the shot so there was some distinction between the bench and the sea. The settings for this shot were; f/7.1, 1/400 sec, ISO-160. As it’s a bit of an overcast day, the colours were a little washed out. So I decided to add a bit of drama into the shot by turning it black and white and giving it a bit of punch.

So when I got it opened up in Photoshop, I played with the usual settings to get the image up to standard (Levels, exposure and vibrance). Then instead of applying a black and white filter, I applied a Channel Mixer instead. That gave me a lot more control over the contrast in the colours. The problem I had was that I wanted to darken the clouds without darkening the rest of the image – so after selecting the sky, I created another exposure layer for just the sky and ramped up the contrast. I think did the same for the grass in the foreground, to except this time I increased the exposure slightly to brighten the grass. To keep the bench nice and dark and to keep it the focus of the image, I think applied a mask to the bench to remove the brightness that had been added by the increase in exposure. Et Volia – a pic that I’m rather proud of. Some good techniques used in Photoshop that I don’t use too often, and I like the overall composition and sharpness of the image. I really like the horizon is so crystal clear – it’s as though someone has drawn a line with a marker pen to split the sea and the sky.

The last few shots have been good fun – I’ve really enjoyed getting out and using my camera, and also playing a bit more in Photoshop. Hope you’ve enjoyed my posts too!

Thanks.

Jake.

Fading Light

Fading Light.

Tonight I had the opportunity to get outside and practice my night photography. The wife was nipping out for an hr or so, so I got dropped off at the local beach and started snapping away. There wasn’t much of a moon to provide any lighting tonight, but I was still keen to see what I could capture with a longer exposure time. I am still sans tripod (going to order is next week I think) I had to make do with balancing on top of a concrete bench. That gave me the stability, as long as I was gripping the camera as tightly at possible to avoid any camera shake.

At first I was struggling to focus on the bridge – as it was so dark the autofocus couldn’t pick it up, so I was focussing manually by trial and error with reasonable results. It wasn’t until my wife returned to pick me up that I was able to use the car headlights to light up the bridge so I could focus correctly. Todays shot is one that was taken while the headlights were still on. Unfortunately for the shot I took without the headlights I’d set the ISO to 3200, which was really too high, and the image is really noisy. So for todays shot I’m plumed for this. I actually quite like the effect the car lights have given the bridge – even thought its slightly over-exposed. I do love light bouncing off the clouds, and also that I’ve managed to capture the stars through the break in the clouds. The settings for todays shot were; f/8, 25-sec exposure, IS-3200.

With hindsight, I’d have turned up a bit earlier (with a tripod) while it was still light to get the focusing correct – then it would have given me more time to play with the camera settings, and I’d have definitely used a lower ISO. But I guess that’s what this entire project is about – making mistakes and learning from them. I’ll definitely be retrying this shot (or one similar) when my tripod arrives.

Didn’t want to do too much in Photoshop today, so just the usual levels, contrast and exposure settings were slightly tweaked, and also slightly cropped the image down to bring the bridge away from the centre of the image. So overall, very happy – learnt more tonight in an hr or so that I have done for a while so a productive night I’d say!

Thanks for reading everyone.

Jake

Tick Follows Tock..

Tick Follows Tock.

Today I wanted to get out, further than I would normally venture to get my photo. The local coastline is perfect for inspiration when it eludes me at home. High tide is a magnificent time to be at the beach. I could sit and watch the waves crash in forever. If todays title is confusing anyone, it’s a line from one of my all time favourite adverts for Guinness. I’d recommend anyone take a look – its brilliant. Here’s a YouTube link > Guinness Surfer Ad. Hopefully after watching you’ll see why I chose the title.

As usual, my challenge today was lighting. As I can only get out towards the end of the day I’m often struggling to get enough light. Today I needed to use a slow enough shutter speed to brighten the image, but also a quick enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the wave. I wanted to keep a pretty sharp background, so a high aperture was out, so in the end I used f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO-100. Once I’d got the setup it was just a case of waiting for that big splash and avoiding the waves as they ran up the beach. Fortunately I managed to get a few shots before I thought I’d chanced my luck too long and escaped without getting wet.

Once I was home and opened up my shots in Photoshop it was just a case of playing with the levels, contrast and gamma before applying a black and white filter then a slight sepia tint to warm up the image. Overall, pretty happy with the shot. I like how I’ve managed to freeze the wave and also that I’ve kept the houses in the background sharp and in focus. By increasing the contrast I’ve also managed to bring out the detail in the clouds too. If you look closely you can just about see the horse’s breaking through the waves (Hint: don’t look too closely!)

Thanks for reading!

Jake.

In Search of Spring

In Search of Spring.

Rumour has it, we’ve now entered Spring. For the UK that inevitably means snow and cold weather. Until that happens I’m happy to stay under the pretence of Winter – especially if we continue to get days like this. I thought today I would go out in the search of getting a flash of colour that would indicate that Spring is here. Unfortunately I think we’re still a week or two away as there wasn’t any sign that the local woodland was beginning to stir.

That being said, there are still corners of the woods that I’m still stumbling across meaning its still a good source of photos. Todays shot is one that I literally stumbled on. Hidden amoungst all the undergrowth I managed to find this log covered in moss just capturing the last of the days light.

As usual the difficulty was getting the focus correct from not being able to get down and use the view finder. I was relying on focusing in Live View, which I think I’ve just about managed today. I like the colours, and the sea of the white from the snow drops in the background. Also the lens flare from the sun coming through the trees gives a nice effect too. The settings for todays shot were; f/8, 1/25sec, ISO-100.

Again, not too much in Photoshop, apart from the usual. I tried a few different compositions by cropping the image, but in the end decided I preferred the composition as I’d captured it in the camera.

Nothing else to really add today – just the obligatory thank you for reading! Thanks!

Jake

Searching for Cement

Searching for Cement.

Today I was able to get out a little further from home – the car had to go in for an MOT, meaning I could pick it up at lunch and go for a little drive to get todays shot! I was actually intending on driving out to the local Cement Works to see if I could get some good industrial shots. But just as I got there I saw a gap in the trees and caught sight of the sea. (I’m a sucker for the sea!) So I quickly parked up and wandered back to see if I could get a decent shot. To my surprise I realised it wasn’t just the sea that’d seen from the car, but what I can only assume is an old filled-in quarry from the Cement Works. (if I rotated the camera 90 degrees, you’d see the Cement Works right there on my right hand side.)

The colours were fantastic today. The sky was bright blue, giving great reflections in the quarry and sea. The clouds were very nice as well, so with the sun at my back I was able to get a good number of shots away. I had to wait for a few minutes between some of the shots as the sun kept disappearing behind said clouds. But it was relatively easy to capture todays shot. The settings on this shot were; f/9, 1/400 sec, ISO-100.

Once I got the shots into Photoshop I just did some minor tweaks to the contrast and levels before touching up the saturation a little to bring the colours back to life. There were some train lines in the foreground that I removed using wireworm, but I decided to leave the fence posts in as a.) I didn’t have the patience today and b.) they kind of suited the shot.

Unfortunately the wife gets the car back tomorrow, so I’ll be stuck nearby for tomorrows shot. Still, almost the weekend, when I hope I can get out further afield to take some more shots!

Thanks as ever for reading.

Jake