Yachting on the Thames at Shepperton. The light was lovely on Sunday. I popped out to practise with my filters but when I saw these yachts on the Thames at Desborough Island, all thoughts of long exposures were forgotten.
A view of Surrey, looking South from St. Martha’s Hill.
Still on an Autumn tack, I thought I’d share some seasonal shots of the different craft that can be found along the Wey Navigation in Weybridge.
Situated on the confluence of the Thames and the Wey, and with the Wey Navigation running through it as well, Weybridge has a lot of watercraft, of all shapes and sizes.
I am mostly content to admire them from the towpath, however.
Of course, there could only ever be one quotation for this post:
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
– Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)
f/11, 1/25, ISO 100, 16mm, circ. polariser
There is a heavy hint of change in the air. The trees no longer bask in full Autumn glory. Instead, their leaves billow under the wheels of passing vehicles. Twice this week my day has begun with scraping frost from car windows. Staying out to photograph the sunset, my hands and feet became numb from the cold.
f/11, 1/15, ISO100, 16mm, circ. polariser
Perhaps in sympathy, it’s been all change in my digital life this week. I have finally downloaded Photoshop Creative Cloud and Lightroom 5. For photographers there’s a special subscription deal for just under £9 a month. That’s a huge discount, but hurry, it ends on 2nd December. It will take me a while to get to grips with Lightroom as I haven’t used it before but PS CC seems fairly intuitive, not too much of a leap from CS4.
One of the things that’s much improved from CS4 is the HDR facility. The image below is my first attempt. Just three exposures blended by PS CC. It’s certainly light years ahead of what CS4 would have produced but I’m still not sure about it. I had to tweak a lot to get it to look even vaguely natural. Perhaps it’s a good thing I have ordered some ND graduated filters so I can do it in camera instead!
f/16, 1/6, ISO 100, 16mm, circ. polariser
Just to make life even harder, I also upgraded my iMac operating system from Snow Leopard to Mavericks. It seems mostly familiar but for some inexplicable reason I now have to scroll in the opposite direction. Mighty confusing! There’s probably a setting I need to tick somewhere. (Scratches head bemusedly.)
And, just to add to it all, I have finally given up on Redbubble and am working on creating a new website with Photium. More on that soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these further images from my walk last week along the Wey Navigation towpath.
f/18, 4x 14 sec exposures, ISO 400, 18mm
One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.
– Tom Wolfe
Give me such shows – give me the streets of Manhattan!
– Walt Whitman
f/14, 1/24, ISO 400, 18mm
f7.1, 1/140, ISO 640, 35mm
Central Park from the ‘Top of the Rock’
View downtown from the ‘Top of the Rock’
Balloons over Manhattan
Moongazing buildings
Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles
Miles and miles.
-Robert Browning, ‘Love among the Ruins’ (1855)
Lyme Regis, on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, is one of my favourite towns. One morning in August last year I left my family enjoying the sandy beach and went hunting for images. I have shared some of my larger compositions in earlier posts, but I also snapped up some details, trying to capture some of the textures of the harbour.
Can you see a face?
Focused Moments 