My 2015 Weekly Photos - Part 4

[IzzieK]

All good ones so far and very dedicated an still standing. You got 6 more weeks to go to complete this project... Keep going...

[bnnrcn]

Hi Geoff. I love the bird shots and that cat looks so funny and cute

[Geoff F]

Yes Bruce, she was shooting through the smoke, which is why I quickly moved to the left.

I did try a few shots by shooting through the smoke and flames with people working on the other side stoking the fire. Might have produced something interesting if I had been able to use a narrower aperture but as it was I either had the fire or the people too far out of focus. If I had a tripod and manual focus plus enough 'thinking time' it would have helped.

This thread, with a variety of subjects, is relatively easy to keep going, Izzie. It is my Botanical Subjects thread which is slipping behind due to all the gloomy wet weather; it's even been too wet to find any decent looking fungi.

[Geoff F]

Week 47 - Wading Birds

A few brief bright spells between the showers and the tide was right so I nipped off to a creek for some more testing of my new big lens. Some scenes were black and white subjects while others meant shooting directly towards lightly overcast lighting. So certainly a good range of testing conditions.

Heron. Fairly distant and shooting towards the light. Well cropped.



7D with Sigma 150-600 Sport lens. 1/200 F8 Iso 8oo on tripod.

Little Egret running through the water.



1/2500 F8 Iso 400

Oystercatcher



1/500 F8 Iso 400

Little Egret flying.



Eels make tricky prey. Another long shot into the light; and quite a bit of cropping.



1/400 F8 Iso 800

[Wavelength]

Superb set of images...really liked all of them

[Cantab]

Geoff, a really good set of photos. What focal length did you use on the first (heron) photo? The results of the new lens look great.

[IzzieK]

Only one shot showed the EXIF -- the flying one which was taken at 410mm. I prefer the egret running in the water as I like that composition very much, especially the water, the same as the flying egret. All of them are good and sharp. You did very well in that new lens of yours.

[Geoff F]

The first and last images were at 600 mm and I thought the other two were shot at the same but I must have altered the lens without noticing so they were around 400 mm. Possibly I had accidentally moved the length while checking/altering camera settings.

I see the exif details aren't showing in these links from P base. The Show Full Exif setting was off which may have happened automatically because full GPS information is included which shows the exact shooting position.

Maybe I can get the next link to show everything.

[Geoff F]

Just as an experiment here is an attempt to show the first image again with the Show Full Exif option selected.

Let's see what information is now visible.

No good. Most information is being lost. If I go into my P base file and select the image I get the full details including the GPS map but that seems to be getting stripped out when linked.

Maybe I will try a Tiny Pics direct upload.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Geoff F]

Thanks everyone.

Just as an experiment here is a slightly different subject (Stonechat) with the same equipment but looking the other way; towards the marsh.

See what exif details survive a Tinypics direct upload.

[Geoff F]

That seems to be giving everything including a map of the location and shooting angle.

The P base link must be losing some information. Possibly a security issue?

[Cantab]

That seems to be giving everything including a map of the location and shooting angle.

The P base link must be losing some information. Possibly a security issue?

Yes, I noted the very precise GPS location with a link to a nice map!

[Geoff F]

Week 48 - On the way to the Birdhide

Went back to that spot for some more bird shots but this time I also photographed the scenery.

Frosty Path



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/50 F14 Iso 400. In shade. Tried several handheld shots at different angles and positions along this path. I really should have set up the tripod but I wasn't sure if anything would work; so I was just a bit lazy. Most didn't work!

Morning Bonfire across the marsh



1/500 F11 400 standing on a steep grassy bank shooting over a fence and between two bushes. Another scene where I was unsure of the result due to the light angles; so I took a few shots with different settings hoping something might work. Needed a merge of two Raw conversions plus a bit more editing.

Looking towards the creek



1/250 F11 Iso 200. Leaning over a barbed wire fence and twisting to clear foliage. Another merge of two Raw conversions to prevent over exposure from the boats. I took several shots and wasn't sure about the jogger in this one; but eventually I decided to show her as an additional bit of colour.

Looking south towards the birdhide.



1/160 F11 Iso 200. Another merge from two Raw conversions; and also another shot taken by leaning over the fence and twisting.

[Shadowman]

Geoff,

So have you found the Week 52 series stimulating enough? Do you plan to undertake another next year?

[Geoff F]

And shortly after setting up my bird equipment I took my best ever shot of a Kingfisher.



See that bright fuzzy blur on the boat mooring rope!

I've seen plenty of Kingfishers and have been quite close to them sometimes when I didn't have a camera but this is the best I have ever photographed.

In reality, besides the distance, that was a poor light angle and all my other shots from that direction were also failures.

One other clever idea which didn't quite work out was a frosty seat.



I wandered around and tried several angles but there were problems from all angles so this is the only one which came anywhere close to being acceptable.

[Cantab]

Geoff, my favourite is the first one. It brought back memories of a walk on Sheen Common (Richmond, Surrey) early December in 1972. The only reason I remember the precise date is I was in England at the time. I love the paint job on the bench!

I hope you renew this thread when 2016 arrives.

[IzzieK]

Geoff is still going strong on his project...it is a good one. In this latest batch here, I like the bench best...eveni= if all of them are good ones too.

[Geoff F]

Thanks.

Yes, I'm intending to continue with something similar next year. Not quite sure what at the moment but I'm thinking about having every scene containing a person, or an animal; as with the jogger in this boat scene.

If only that seat was facing the other way I think it would have made a stronger image. I tried shooting from the other side but that had parked cars in the background while working from the left side was creating a shadow from my body.

[Geoff F]

Week 49 - Stormy Weather which starts with a ring around the moon. When I noticed this potential scene it was a perfect bright well coloured ring but by the time I fetched and set up my equipment it was starting to fade.



7D with Canon 70-200 lens 1/6 F6.3 Iso 400 obviously on a tripod.

Surfing at North Sands. Just the small messy UK surf. There was a brief slight brightening of the light so I grabbed some gear and went to a location less than a mile from where I live. But the tide had dropped a little too far which reduced the surf and it wasn't long before drizzle returned.



7D with Sigma 150-600 sport lens. 1/800 F6.3 Iso 800 handheld. Even the improved light meant having a narrow aperture and increased Iso to give sufficient shutter speed for the movement, and this was still slower than what I would have ideally preferred.





By now, with failing light, the shutter speed had dropped to 1/320 so it was time to go home.