2016 Project 52 Challenge 3rd Quarter by Geoff F

[bnnrcn]

Nice images Geoff I too wonder like Isabel what they are surveying and why ?

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments.

It is an annual survey on approximately the same positions which samples one meter squares to evaluate the general health of the site by identifying and counting the plant species in each square. That records whether there is any loss of habitat with bare ground being present or if any one species is becoming dominant. For example, brambles or docks forcing out everything else.

On average there are between 5 and 10 plant species in each square and those species change between the different clearings which are surveyed. Some being open fields while others are distinctly boggy.

[Geoff F]

Week 31 - Planting Cauliflowers

Apart from tractor power instead of horse power this is virtually the same as would have happened 100 years ago, although the workers wouldn't have had the canvas weather shielding then. There are boxes of part grown plants and the workers pick up a plant then drop it into a shallow furrow at the appropriate distance. The slanting wheels firm the soil around the plant and fill in the furrow.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/125 F11 Iso 200



1/200 F11 Iso 200

[Wavelength]

Nice set of images......is that dog in one of the street images a stray one or a pet of the lady walking along?

[IzzieK]

It must be my sleepy mind again...I thought in the first image, the front wheel of the machine planter looks "eaten" or broken. When I straightened up, it was the ground was partially burying it. Optical illusion on my part. As for the second image which is much clearer to my little mind, planting like this is interesting to me as I was born and raised in rice country until I was old enough to go to "proper school" in the city. My grandparents' "laborers" plant each rice seedlings one by one by hand...and to cover half a province, they have plenty of people working the fields. Now to cover this big an area, there are only two of them? and a machine too? My lolo and lola will consider this a luxury in their time when they used to use water buffalos (carabaos) to till the land and workers to plant the seedlings...very archaic.

[bnnrcn]

Nice images Geoff The second image shows what they are doing better .

[joebranko]

Nice images. I like the colours. Very vibrant!

Another difference is, probably, that the planters wouhave been walking along behind the animal which was plowing and not hitching a ride!

[Geoff F]

Nandakumar, if you look closely at that dog you can just make out a lead between them. We don't really have stray dogs, here. Any which aren't clearly owned get rounded up by dog wardens.

With the cauliflower planting shots I deliberately took two different angles. The first one to show a little of the general landscape and the second, with a better light angle, to show what the workers were doing.

That sort of basic machinery goes back a long time. Previously, the workers would have sat on a steel seat which was connected by a springy steel arm. Similar to what would have been fitted to many early tractors.

I'm not sure about this particular planter but some of them had a peg on the wheels which would hit a spring on the machinery frame and make a click; so every time there was a click a plant had to be dropped into the furrow. This ensured equal distance between the plants. The position of the clicker could be adjusted for different planting distances.

It is certainly a mind numbing job. In the past it was often the farmer's wife and/or daughters which did the planting.

[Geoff F]

Week 32 - Bales at Bolberry Down

I was returning from an insect photography day when I saw this potential scene but couldn't work out the best angle. Tried quite a few options but eventually went for this view in a panoramic form.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/400 F11 Iso 200

[joebranko]

I can't think k of aanyway to improve this. I like it.

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Joe. I have a little space to reduce/increase the sky/foreground and a little bit on the sides.

My thinking on this version was that I wanted a little more sky than sea on the left. Having equal amounts looks wrong to me, so the only other alternative was to lose quite a bit of sky where it started to look a bit 'cramped' and lost the 'loneliness' factor.

Much the same with the foreground where just a little bit more would be acceptable but too much makes the bales seem 'lost'.

I did have to wait a while for that couple of people on the path to be in that position. They stopped, opened their backpacks and consulted a map, very slowly it appeared to me, before walking a few more yards to that position.

[Shadowman]

Nice, too bad you couldn't get on the other side of the couple in the background and miniaturize the bales.

[IzzieK]

Maybe next time you should take quite a few shots then pick from the rest of them. (Maybe you did...) I have no problem with your final image here. The midtones looks good and nothing overexposed even though it was shot in the middle of the day. The sky is not too bland either. You've done well.

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Izzie, I wandered around looking at various angles and took about 20 different angles, then quickly narrowed that down to 8 possible options. Several quite similar to this one but that couple on the path were in the 'wrong position' in all the alternatives.

[Geoff F]

Week 33 - Regatta. Rowing

I have been trying to reduce my involvement with the local regatta but had to help out with the setting up and clearing away of a few events. And I managed to take photos of a couple of events.

At the rowing, I took my big lens to zoom in on individual boats but also used the 70-200 to widen the scene a little and show more of the general area as a background.

Fancy a Race? 1/500 F11 Iso 400



A close race 1/800 F11 Iso 400



The Start 1/500 F11 Iso 400



All shot from the shore.

The Fishing Boat Race and as they started the sun went behind a cloud so I had to open up my aperture a little and hope for the best with slower shutter speeds than I would have ideally chosen.



1/400 F8 Iso 400



1/200 F8 Iso 400



1/640 F8 Iso 400

[Geoff F]

These races are for men with a lady cox and a lady's race with a male cox.



1/320 F8 Iso 400



1/400 F8 Iso 400. By now the sun had gone behind the hill so I had to give up.

More rowing images here

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/2016_rowing

And more from the fishing boat race

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/2016_crabbers_race

[Shadowman]

Nice action shots.

[joebranko]

Really nice shots. Looking forward to viewing them in my computer monitor (currently watching on my Nexus tablet). I bet the fishing boat race was a lot of fun!

[bnnrcn]

Nice shots Geoff, my fav is the fourth image in post #35

[Cantab]

Nice shots Geoff, my fav is the fourth image in post #35

I agree. It's a wonderful image!