Tag Archives: landscape photography

Late Autumn lingers

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Surrey

Our very late Autumn this year has given so many opportunities to get out with the camera, I’ve hardly been able to keep up with downloading the images! These shots are from my outing last week with Jenifer Bunnett.  She found this beautiful set of fishing lakes, Frensham Trout Fisheries, and, apart from a solitary fisherman, we had them to ourselves.surrey landscape

The presence of a waterfall was fortuitous as I had only just the day before taken delivery of my new Lee Filters!

waterfall

I had a lot of fun experimenting with my five filters: the 105mm circ. polariser, .6 hard grad, .9 soft grad, .9 pro glass and Big Stopper.  The good news was that I had remembered all I had learned on the workshop ten days earlier.

autumn landscape 

The bad news was the circ. polariser created a horrible vignette when I used it with my 16-35mm lens at 16-20mm.  Hugely disappointing as that is my lens of choice for landscape work.   I was advised to use my 24-105mm on the course so this problem did not come up then. 😦

autumn landscape

Still Autumn, just…

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Weybridge

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.

Weybridge

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!

Weybridge

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.

Autumn Falls

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Weybridge

 

Last week I shared a picture of Coulson’s Weir on the Wey Navigation, Weybridge.  This is another shot of the same place, taken on the same day but a couple of hours later.  The light has become warmer and a cluster of oak leaves has fallen giving me some seasonal foreground. In fact, I like this one better than the first shot.  I think the person on the bridge helps the composition, although I know a few very good landscapers who absolutely hate seeing people in their shots.  I suppose this is not exactly a wild place and so a bit of human interest seems fitting. Which image do you prefer?  And what are your views on figures in landscapes?

I realise I have been wittering on about the Wey Navigation recently but haven’t really explained what it is.  I did a few posts about it last year, but that is a long time ago in blog-land!  A longer post on the Navigation is in the pipeline, plus one on technique, and one on selling your images online. But first my incredibly slow internet has to finish downloading OS X Mavericks.  So far, 8 hours and not even close to the middle of the progress bar!  Rant over.

The wonderful Wey

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Weybridge

Two more shots from my stroll along my local stretch of the Wey Navigation in Weybridge.  The top one is a panorama, stitched from five separate vertical images to make a big 11000 by 7000 (approx) pixel file, which will make a mighty print, if I ever print it.  The lower image is the same viewpoint as my moonrise shot last month.

Weybridge

 

I am now writing for a local website once a week and the second shot featured in my article last week.

 

 

An adventure in Dorset, with filters

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Dorset

f11, 30 secs, ISO 100, 24mm, cropped
Lee circ. polariser and Big stopper

Yesterday I had a bit of an adventure.  I attended a one day, Lee filters workshop in Portland, Dorset led by Jeremy Walker.  I have been thinking about investing in some filters for a while, particularly to try my hand at some long exposure photography, but also to balance my exposures in camera, so I can spend more time out taking photos and less time in front of my computer. When I came across Jeremy’s course online, it seemed the perfect way to learn how to use the filters, and to try before I buy.

long exposure

f/11, 2 minutes, ISO 800, 28mm
Lee 0.9 pro-glass, big stopper

After an early start and a two and a half hour drive, I found myself tucking into some much needed coffee and meeting Jeremy, Ed (the Managing Director of Lee filters) and Luciana, my fellow student.  We were provided with a set of filters for the day and were soon heading off to capture the waves and pebbles on the shore of Portland, Dorset.  The weather was inauspicious but, as we quickly learned, with filters you can make a photograph out of the most unpromising conditions.

long exposure

f/11, 2.5 secs, ISO 100, Lee circ. polariser, 0.9 pro glass

I am mostly a solitary shooter, finding it difficult to concentrate when in company. Add to that learning how to use the Lee filter system, and it is perhaps hardly surprising I did not take nearly as many exposures as I would normally when at the coast.  But Jeremy and Ed are good company and they were very patient with my rather fumbling, disorganised approach.  I also appreciated all the chocolate!

coastal long exposure

f11, 45 secs, ISO 400, 28mm, Lee 0.6 ND grad, circ. polariser, 0.9 pro glass

There is something very satisfying about using filters.  I think part of the pleasure is that you’re forced to slow down.  It takes time to select the right filter(s), set them up and position them (although I expect one becomes much quicker with practice!).  I liked taking it slowly, just enjoying the process and the experience.  Of course, I also learned a lot and not just how to use the filters.  For example, I can now adjust the kelvin value in camera, which was rather fun.  I chose to emphasize the blue tint in the light.  Well, I like blue!

dorset

f/11, 8 secs, ISO 200, 24mm. Lee 0.6 ND grad, 0.9 pro glass

Of course, back at home, I had to convert some images to black and white.

black and white black and white

Now I just have to buy some filters and start putting every thing I learned into practice.  I leave you with what is possibly my favourite shot from the day. Of course, it’s a blue hour shot, and that’s my favourite time of day, as I have said often enough here.  It also breaks rules (look at that horizon in the middle and all that emptyish space) but, as you know by now,  I like breaking the rules.  We may not have had a sunset, but we made the most of what the weather dished up.

Dorset

f/11, 30 secs, ISO 200, 24 mm. Lee 0.6 ND grad, 0.9 pro glass

If you are interested in learning about using filters, I heartily recommend Jeremy’s workshops. And no-one is paying me anything to say so!

An autumn stroll at Winkworth

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f18, 1/5, ISO 100, 16mm, circ. polariser

 

I had a lovely day yesterday in the company of Jenifer Bunnett at Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey.  Magical light and location, and a small starburst in keeping with this week’s theme.  One of the many wonderful things about Autumn as a landscape photography season is that the sun never gets very high in the sky, making for softer light, longer shadows and the availability of starbursts filtered through leaves.

Coulson’s weir

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Weybridge

 

What a stunning day we had today.  The light this morning was so clear; how could I resist?  This is Coulson’s Weir on the Wey Navigation in Weybridge, Surrey.  Continuing the theme of this week, there is also a tiny starburst on the lip of the falls.  Can you see it?  If you saw Monday’s post, you know what aperture I used for this shot. 😉

Desborough sunset

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Surrey landscape
Sun sets over Desborough Cut, a man-made channel that allows water traffic to avoid the deep meander of the River Thames around Desborough Island, near Weybridge, Surrey.
If you missed yesterday’s post on achieving the starburst effect in camera, here’s a link: Starburst- no filter required.