My Weekly Photos during 2015 - Part 1

[Geoff F]

Week 07 - Thurlestone Bridge

Returned to the site of my first images in this thread but this time I was looking inland where a reed marsh is crossed by an old footbridge. Tried so many different angles but never quite achieved what I had in mind. These are the only potential keepers from that day; which started with bright clear sunshine then, like so much UK winter weather, quickly clouded over.

The overall scene. I took several alternative angles but none quite worked as planned, so this is the best of an unsuccessful bunch. Tried several different edits but I'm still not totally happy with the light and colours.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens, 1/1000 F11 Iso 400. I wanted a fairly fast shutter speed to cope with wind and water movement. Also shot some with 200 Iso but didn't like the composition of those.

Looking from the left side but still with a lot of restrictions. Brambles prevented me from moving further back and there was a patch of rotting seaweed in the foreground which had to be avoided.



1/400 F11 Iso 400

Tried a shot with a birdwatcher on the bridge to add a bit of human interest.



In desperation, I went for something different!



Looking inland from the bridge, across the reedbed.



1/800 F11 Iso 400

And a more conventional seascape looking towards Thurlestone Rock.

[ShaneS]

I am a late comer to your thread Geoff but I am enjoying the tour of the landscape in your part of the world!

I particularly like the last two of (and from) the bridge in your last set. My only nit pick was to see if you could find a crop of the one looking directly 'down' the bridge that excluded the joinery in the forefront?

[jcuknz]

All your birds are very nice ... tasty appeals to me

[Kaye Leggett]

I have been to this spot and know from experience how difficult it is to capture - well done on this set. I particularly like the first and fifth shots. The fourth has goo shadows. Not sure about the third - your central person is too central and I don't think in this instance the splash of red works, although I know it usually does

[bnnrcn]

I really like #5, very nice composition and colors. I would crop a little from the top, IMO the scene would look better this way.

[Geoff F]

I had already tried several different crops on the seascape but wasn't really happy with any of them. Here is another version with a crop from top and right side



The side views of the bridge all left me wanting something different which is why I tried that one of the birdwatcher. Another version gives him more prominence but I'm still not really sure if it works.

[bnnrcn]

Geoff I think you thought my comment was about the seascape. I commented on #5, the one above the seascape, but IMO the seascape looks better with your new crop too

[IzzieK]

I like the first one of this series, Geoff...I thought it was too technically clean but I changed my mind. The more I look at it longer the more I like it very much.

[Geoff F]

Week 08 - More Wildlife

Went back to Aveton Gifford estuary hoping for some more bird shots. On arrival, as I was opening up the hide I saw this Curlew nearby so had a quick handheld shot before getting everything together. Just as well I did because it then walked off and never returned.



7D with Sigma 150-500 lens. 1/320 F11 Iso 400. Handheld quick shot so not absolutely sharp but still an interesting shot.

Redshank

A bit too far away for relatively small birds but I did what I could. This is a composite of two different shots.



1/2000 F8 Iso 500. I could have managed with a slightly slower shutter speed but I was set up for flying birds when these appeared.



1/1250 F11 Iso 500. Another composite from two shots.

And some early insects from my garden.

Eristalis pertinax. One of the common and reliable early hoverflies.



7D with Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/200 F14 Iso 200 with flash

Syrphus torvus (probably). I think I can just see some fine eye hairs which will separate it from another species; but that one is normally a bit later in the year anyway.



Honey Bee



Bombus lapidarius. One of the early bumblebees

[IzzieK]

I like your birdies and others but my favourite goes to the bumble bee at the end...That is a brilliant and excellent shot, Geoff. The colour of the flower just went well together there...

[Geoff F]

Week 09 - Sunday at the beach - never mind the rain!

The rain dropped away to a light drizzle with fresh wind so I paid a quick visit to a small cove about half a mile from where I live.

As I arrived I spotted the lifeboat in the distance on an exercise but only just had time to change lenses and get into a suitable spot.



7D with Canon 70-200 lens 1/400 F7.1 Iso 400. Everything was against getting a sharp shot.

Of course, being a Sunday, there were families on the beach despite the conditions - just put on an extra layer of clothing.

Let's go for a paddle - and bring your phone. I suppose mobile phones are ever where now but in some ways it does spoil the shot for me.



1/1000 F8 Iso 400. The lighting was going to be impossible for getting everything well exposed so I went for a higher contrast effect to keep the shadows. After this first quick shot the group moved apart before I could shoot again with a lower Iso but I would still have needed a fairly fast shutter speed for the waves..

Watching the Waves. Another scene where I had to shoot into the light and accept darker shadows for a higher contrast effect.



1/500 F 8 Iso 400

Building a Sandcastle. A wider scene which for me, is typically English. A family on a rain soaked windswept beach with children digging a sandcastle while a flag flutters in the gale force winds and the adults huddle into groups!



Tamron 24-70 lens 1/250 F8 Iso 400

[Geoff F]

And another scene from the same time.

Instructing the dog.



Throwing the stick.



And of course, the dog is cleverer than its owner - so it just wandered off in the opposite direction.

[IzzieK]

I just love your narratives here and the photos to accompany them...They are all good shots but almost always there will be a cell phone that will ruin the scene for you...I love the last series too...don't underestimate dogs. They are always clever than the owners of them really and tend more to train the owner than the other way around...

[Barbara Ponder]

Geoff I love your photos! I seem to overlook them since they are all together, I am going to have to remind myself not to do that as I am really missing out if I do! Great captures of some interesting subjects. Thanks for sharing.

[Geoff F]

Thanks.

Quite a few people started out on the Project 52 Challenge this year but several seem to be slipping behind now. I thought that attempting two projects, this one for general subjects and another for botanical photo experiments, might be a bit too much and I see that I've fallen slightly behind. The typical English weather isn't helping at the moment.

Week 10 - Salcombe Castle

A difficult angle, and shooting over a gate where I can just get my head high enough. To say nothing of standing in a road while traffic drives past!

The castle wall faces north which always causes problems. I have tried this angle previously without achieving the desired result. Sunny weather causes high contrast difficulties and even these cloudy skies required a merge of 3 exposures.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Tried shooting with Iso 400 and 800 with the obvious result of being a bit noisy at the higher setting and having soft surf with the lower setting. I have tried to clone a bit of texture into the surf where required.

I have never got on well with any auto HDR software so I now do manual merges with layers and hand edited masks.

The rest of this castle was demolished around 1650 by Oliver Cromwell's troops.

[Shadowman]

I like the angle of view of "Instructing the Dog" and "Throwing the Stick", both have a bit more energy than the "Sunday at the Beach" series, perhaps because the group on Sunday seem to have succumbed to the cold.

[Shadowman]

Thanks.

Quite a few people started out on the Project 52 Challenge this year but several seem to be slipping behind now. I thought that attempting two projects, this one for general subjects and another for botanical photo experiments, might be a bit too much and I see that I've fallen slightly behind. The typical English weather isn't helping at the moment.

Week 10 - Salcombe Castle

A difficult angle, and shooting over a gate where I can just get my head high enough. To say nothing of standing in a road while traffic drives past!

The castle wall faces north which always causes problems. I have tried this angle previously without achieving the desired result. Sunny weather causes high contrast difficulties and even these cloudy skies required a merge of 3 exposures.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Tried shooting with Iso 400 and 800 with the obvious result of being a bit noisy at the higher setting and having soft surf with the lower setting. I have tried to clone a bit of texture into the surf where required.

I have never got on well with any auto HDR software so I now do manual merges with layers and hand edited masks.

The rest of this castle was demolished around 1650 by Oliver Cromwell's troops.

I think it would be a challenge to do HDR with that moving surf, although it is (surf) but a minimal portion of the image.

[Cantab]

Geoff, my favourite is probably the returning lifeboat although the dog photos are close runners-up. I was intrigued by the small floating green navigation buoy behind the boat. In North America the general rule is red, right, returning but it looks like the reverse in this cove (in Europe?): green right returning.

[Geoff F]

Hang on a minute Bruce. 'Is there any red port left in the bottle?' Ah yes, I'm orientated now.

With the European Cardinal System which was introduced a few years ago, while I was still fishing for a living, a few things changed.

When heading north, pass red objects on the port side (red to red) and green on the starboard side. North is on the left side of this photo.

So with the castle photo, two groups of rocks are marked with poles (one red and one green) while the green buoy marks another submerged rock near the tip of the central rocks.

Which means, coming from the open sea, on the right, you pass between the two poles and also keep the buoy on your starboard side.

In reality, the buoy is a little distance from the rock so I often passed the buoy, on the wrong side but still kept the green pole on my starboard. Just a bit of fun to make the visitors stare!

John, when there is a bit of movement in an image, but not too much, I find that I can often do a manual HDR or a merge of stacked images providing I can successfully auto align the stack. Then manually edit the masks to just show what is required. Auto HDR, even where Remove Ghosts has been selected can be more of a problem because the auto settings opt to include the 'wrong items' so it does indeed produce incorrect results.

Sometimes when doing an auto merge of stacked insect shots with different focus points I find that an antennae or leg have moved slightly. In some cases, I can clone out the offending article and still obtain a suitable result.

[Shadowman]

John, when there is a bit of movement in an image, but not too much, I find that I can often do a manual HDR or a merge of stacked images providing I can successfully auto align the stack. Then manually edit the masks to just show what is required. Auto HDR, even where Remove Ghosts has been selected can be more of a problem because the auto settings opt to include the 'wrong items' so it does indeed produce incorrect results.

Sometimes when doing an auto merge of stacked insect shots with different focus points I find that an antennae or leg have moved slightly. In some cases, I can clone out the offending article and still obtain a suitable result.

Geoff,

I think I saw that technique used for a sharpening exercise. The photographer did a series of captures where there were moving subjects and he used the multiple layers/opacity technique to smooth out the image.