New Layout!

As my regular readers will notice I've been changing the look of my blog today.

I felt the last layout was a little limiting for displaying the photos.

I've posted some pictures today in a larger format than before, let me know what you think!

The bright yellow of these flowers and their closely packed formation sets off this picture.

The subtle pinks  and intricate folds of this climbing rose look lovely in our garden.

Trying to get front to back sharpness in this last picture was difficult even using the depth of field preview on my camera I still haven't quite got it. It still a good picture, just not a great one. Its a good excuse to keep practicing though!

I hope you like the new layout!

If you find any issues with the page layout please tell me via the comments section and I will try and fix them.

A Lincolnshire Summers Day.

The weather in Lincolnshire, England has been lovely the last few days.

So grabbing my camera I set out down the back lanes near Spalding to see what photo opportunities presented themselves.

This was just taken by the side of a country lane in the middle of nowhere. Just acres of sky and agriculture. The tracks across the field lead the eye into the distance and the tree adds a focal point on which to calculate perspective.

Close-by where I parked was this solitary poppy.

I've used the photo editing package Photoshop on the photo, to give it a slightly more artistic feel.

Lastly this image of one of the main drainage waterways that flow from the fenland into the River Welland.

The blueness of the sky is mirrored in the waterway which disappears straight as an arrow into the distance.

Sat by this waterway listening to the birds, feeling one with nature, was a great way to end a lovely afternoon.

Bee's in Close-up.

I wandered into our garden for today's photo's.

My first choice had been to just take some pictures of flowers or plants. However, when I started taking pictures of our flowering hedgerow, the bumblebees started to fly into the frame. The photo shoot changed to that of a impromptu macro session.

I used my Canon EOS Rebel XTi camera with Canon EF 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens to take the photographs.

The bumble bees were constantly moving, so I had to make sure that the focal point was it and not the flower it had just moved from. 

Because the bee was flitting about so quickly, I had to set the shutter speed fairly high so that the whole bee did not become a blur. Unfortunately this also froze his wings in some of the shots.

Getting an even exposure as the bees moved around the hedgerow was another challenge. I  used both shutter priority mode and aperture priority mode, as well as manual, to try and find which gave the best shot. On this occasion shutter priority gave the better combination. It ensured a fast enough shutter speed that the bee was not blurred, but also allowed the camera to select the best aperture for the available light. I took the shots early evening, before the light started to fade, but after the harsh light of midday. This helped to create a much softer light on the subject.

I tried to use the rule of thirds, (explored in an earlier post) to compose the picture to make the composition more interesting. The depth of field has been kept short, thus enabling the background to remain out of focus. This ensures that the eye is not distracted away from the bee and the flower in the picture.

The white and subtle yellow of the flowers also help to enhance the prominence of the bee in the frame.

For an impromptu macro shoot I really enjoyed it and I hope you did too. I will try and do another close-up photo shoot in the near future. 

Why not add a comment or suggestion of what you would like to see as the subject of that shoot. I will then, if possible, carry it out and then I will post the photos on here once I have done it for you to see.

Lincolnshire photo project

I have decided to restart my Lincolnshire photo project.

Start date 11th June 2010.

Those of you who have been following me for a while will remember that I proposed to take a picture from the same spot in Lincolnshire, England every couple of days.

The aim was to see the seasons unfold through the various shots taken throughout the year.

Unfortunately circumstances prevented me from completing the project so here goes a second time.

This time I will take the same picture every two weeks, trying to match the camera settings as closely as I can.

Today's photo was taken on my Canon EOS digital Rebel XTi camera.

I used aperture priority setting the aperture at f8.0 it gave me an shutter speed of 1/60sec.

The ISO was set to 100 and the lens zoom was 62mm.

The tree in the foreground adds depth to the picture and the birds on the branches add a bit of character.

I will try and duplicate these settings in each picture (light allowing) to allow for a true comparison between photographs.

I have used no post processing on the Photograph either.

Follow me as the seasons unfold.

Abstract Art - Reflections.

I was sat on my computer, which is conveniently next to my drum kit, trying to decide what to talk about. I had a number of ideas, but then I glanced at the reflection on the base drum these were all scrapped.

The question posed itself. How can I take a good photo of a reflection in a non-traditional mirrored surface such as the kick drum?

Grabbing my camera (which was sat next to me on the desk) and my tripod I set about experimenting.

First I tried just letting the camera choose the settings!

As you can see my first attempts did not turn out very well. There is a film to the reflection and it has a lack of depth.

Next I manually changed the aperture on my camera to give the deepest depth of field possible thus keeping the whole of the reflection sharp. I also added a polarising filter to the lens to get rid of the film of white light on the reflection surface.

The example below shows the changes the effect of these alterations made.

Looking around the room for other abstract reflections I came across this bottle of coke.

The contours of the bottle create a fish-eye style reflection of the room including me taking the photo. The polarising filter has not fully rid the picture of the film of light but it has helped.

Going back to the computer I found the monitor had switched itself off into sleep mode. This produced another interesting reflection.

I've blurred the frame of the monitor in the shot, instead focusing on the reflection only, to create this dark self portrait.

It was an interesting experiment and something I will have to practice more of to get it just right, but worth the experimentation.

Have a go yourself and drop me a message or leave a comment to say if you tried it and how they turned out. I may even post some of your photos on a later blog.

Telephoto Lens in garden

Its been a while since I did this blog properly. I've been very remiss or is it just lazy, one of them.

Anyway I took delivery the other week of a new telephoto lens for my DSLR. It's a 500mm manual focus lens with a 2x converter option as well. I thought as the weather was nice yesterday I set it up on a tripod in the conservatory with both doors wide open. The theory was to get some good close up shots of the birds which frequent our garden. It was not to be though, I sat there for over an hour and not one bird came near the feeders. In the end I let the dog out into the garden and took a few shots of him. As you can see I need to practice more as the picture isn't the sharpest of shots, but at least its a start.

Much the same has happened with this picture of the hanging down branch. The background is nicely blurred, though maybe a bit too highlighted but the foreground leaves just don't have the sharpness I wanted.

And just a couple of other shots I took whilst I had the camera out...

Top of daughters swing-ball

Corky our dog and Garfield one of our cats saying hello, they have become very good friends.

Getting close up

The native hedging that borders our property is starting to bud and burst into flower. So I thought it was an ideal opportunity to practice some close up flower photography.



Its the hawthorn that has come into flower first, with its delicate white blooms it brightens up the bare hedging.
I've taken care to keep the background blurred by using a low aperture setting.
In this case f 6.3 at 1/100sec.
(NB. High f number more of the subject in focus - low f number less of the subject in focus.)
This can often be one of the more confusing subjects of photography but I find it is often best to go out and try for yourself.
Just remember if you want all of the scene in focus from the foreground to the background you need to use an f number as high as possible say high 20's (you may need a tripod for this though).
If you only want a small portion of the photo sharp as I have done here then try for the smallest f number you can use.
Some cameras help you with this by offering a depth of field button. We will go into that in more detail though at another time.

Update of Lincolnshire Project

Hi I've been out again following up my project of photos at the same spot taken every few days throughout the year.



The weather was much better for this shot allowing me to capture some definition in the sky, which sadly some of my earlier attempts had lacked.
Having blue sky gives the landscape much more definition, adding depth to the picture which had been missing in the shots with the uniformed grey sky.

New through the seasons photography project

Well I've started a project to see me through the year.

I will post a photo of the same scene taken in Lincolnshire, England, every couple of days.

Here is today's shot.

I took it with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Aperture was set at f/9.0 with an exposure of 1/100

focal length 74mm

Today the scene looks fairly uninteresting, though I have tried to add depth to it by including foreground interest in the form of the tree and hedging.

My hope is as the seasons unfold and the lighting changes and plants bloom you will be able to appreciate just how much nature does change around us.

By taking the same shot frequently we will be able to see all the subtle changes as they unfold.

Please, follow it with me.