2016 Project 52 - 4th Quarter by Geoff F

[bnnrcn]

Nice series Geoff, I prefer the cropped version of Hustler

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the replies.

The store boxes are used to keep crabs until they are required for market. Ideally I wanted some shots of the crabs being placed into the boxes but the tide was running from the wrong direction, so these boxes were hidden from view at the critical time. I just managed these couple of shots as the boats briefly swung around.

Maybe try again next week.

My first thought was to shoot wide enough to show the top left corner box, then wondered about cropping tighter when I saw the computer image view. I also took a few shots much wider to show the shoreline on the other side of the harbour but without any other craft etc in those images I thought the scenes lacked clear subjects.

[Cantab]

Well, I have moved some sea around in the second image so it now looks like this



Somewhere I have an old photograph of that tractor thing which crosses the sand between island and land. It was constructed by a local agricultural engineering company and the image shows the men who did the construction work. It originally had a petrol engine but that often caused problems when spray shorted out the sparking plugs, so it was replaced with a diesel tractor engine.

Geoff, I've just noted this reworking. Congratulations on your ability to control the sea!

[joebranko]

Nice work Geoff! I prefer the alternative hustler shot.

[Geoff F]

Thanks.

Week 48 - A foggy morning. Bright sunshine here, on top of the hill, yesterday but with fog in the valley so I went down to the harbour to see what I could find. Rather thick on the water but I tried multiple settings and angles on several subjects and took the small ferry across to the other side for a different approach. This is the best of them; but I found it was a tricky experiment to find anything which worked out as desired.



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



1/125 F11 Iso 400



1/200 F11 Iso 400



1/320 F11 Iso 400

I did open the lens up to F8 and F6.3 for some shots; but I see all those which I selected were at F11 which gave a bit more depth of focus so the more distant items looked definitely foggy rather than just out of focus.

[Geoff F]

This one is another of those 'clever ideas' which didn't really work as well as I imagined when I was looking through the viewfinder. Shot in portrait mode but I thought the tree was a bit excessively top heavy; then eventually settled on a square crop, but I'm still not sure about it.





Several other scenes seemed OK through the viewfinder but I changed my mind after looking at the computer screen.

[Cantab]

Geoff, I enjoyed all the foggy photos. In post #85, my favourites are the first two. The first photo captures the mood perfectly: dead calm, no horizon and quite possibly very little sound (photos are very good at conveying a scene where all is quiet😀 ). The second is a good contrast with the first. The nearby boat suddenly stands out. I can never remember the terminology but the second one is high key?

In post #86, I probably prefer the square crop. I don't think they work as well as the first two in post 85, possibly because there appear to be varying degrees of fog everywhere so it's not high (low?) key but the objects are not all significantly obscured. (Does that make any sense?)

[rpcrowe]

Great collection of images. I have to respect the fishermen anchored in image #4 and #5. I really don't like to get beaten up by the sea while I am fishing. Of course, at my age, I wouldn't be fishing from the cliffs either.

[Wavelength]

All nice additions

[Shadowman]

Thanks.

Week 48 - A foggy morning. Bright sunshine here, on top of the hill, yesterday but with fog in the valley so I went down to the harbour to see what I could find. Rather thick on the water but I tried multiple settings and angles on several subjects and took the small ferry across to the other side for a different approach. This is the best of them; but I found it was a tricky experiment to find anything which worked out as desired.



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



1/125 F11 Iso 400



1/200 F11 Iso 400



1/320 F11 Iso 400

I did open the lens up to F8 and F6.3 for some shots; but I see all those which I selected were at F11 which gave a bit more depth of focus so the more distant items looked definitely foggy rather than just out of focus.

Nice compositions.

[IzzieK]

Geoff, I've just noted this reworking. Congratulations on your ability to control the sea!

Your comment reminds me of Moses, Bruce...

[bnnrcn]

Very nice trials Geoff , my favs are the first and the last images as the scenes look very moody with fog

Thanks.

Week 48 - A foggy morning. Bright sunshine here, on top of the hill, yesterday but with fog in the valley so I went down to the harbour to see what I could find. Rather thick on the water but I tried multiple settings and angles on several subjects and took the small ferry across to the other side for a different approach. This is the best of them; but I found it was a tricky experiment to find anything which worked out as desired.



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



1/125 F11 Iso 400



1/200 F11 Iso 400



1/320 F11 Iso 400

I did open the lens up to F8 and F6.3 for some shots; but I see all those which I selected were at F11 which gave a bit more depth of focus so the more distant items looked definitely foggy rather than just out of focus.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments.

With the editing, I deliberately went for something along the lines of a high key/low key mix to boost the foggy effect. During the initial Raw conversion I increased the exposure but also darkened the blacks a little. Then finished with selectively increasing the highlights just a fraction.

Also, as the tide was dropping I was able to keep trying new angles as they developed.

[joebranko]

I realize the composition of the second shot. The foreground with reflection is clear and crisp while the background although it is in fog entices you to discover what is in the the mist. Great shot.

[Geoff F]

Thanks, Joe. Nearly at the end of this year's project.

Week 49 - Dull Day Boats. Tide was good so I tried a different angle on fishing boats entering the harbour. But . . . I had anticipated the weather brightening up later, however it just became more gloomy. Anyway, having walked a mile along the cliff path, I might as well have a go; so I pulled back a bit with the composition and showed more of the background by using various crop sizes.

Claire Louise



7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/400 F8 Iso 400. F8 was going a bit towards the shallow focus depth problem, particularly when I tried to include some more foreground rocks. Iso 400 was starting to get noisy so I didn't want to increrase that and a reasonable shutter speed was required for movement.

George Edwin



1/320 F8 Iso 400

Southern Star



And a slightly different angle with the old castle as background.



Some taken closer towards the town.

Hustler



1/250 F8 Iso 400

Nemo



Maybe try again if we ever get some more sunshine. Forecast looks to be continuing bleak for a few more days though.

[Shadowman]

Very nice, I like the Hustler.

[bnnrcn]

Nice series Geoff , Southern Star is my fav with its composition

[Geoff F]

Thanks. I ought to spend more time with alternative crop ratio sizes, like the Hustler scene.

And now, attempting to catch up and finish on time.

Week 50 - From the Bird Hide. Including a few problematic situations.

Around the corner from that hide, is atypical creek with plenty of bird life but difficult to get close so I eventually shot this image with my bird lens but that has caused a few issues with focus depth. Took many shots with different angles, zooms, lenses and camera settings, but this is the only one which comes anywhere close to being acceptable. I counted 8 bird species in this scene.



7D with Sigma 150-600 Sport lens at 340 mm.

This hide always gives me light angle problems with sunlight coming from the side, eventually moving around to directly in front.

A tusstle between an Egret and a Cormorant.



1/2000 F11 Iso 800. A merge of different Raw conversions to control over exposure of the whites and noise in the shadows.

Greenshank landing. If only the angle had been fractionally different so the bird's head and particularly its eye were visible . . .



1/1250 F11 Iso 800.

Wigeon. A better light angle but they were rather distant and I struggled to find a group of birds which were sufficiently compact to all be in focus and without too many birds having their heads underwater. The only keeper from many attempts.



1/640 F8 Iso 800.

There were a lot of birds in good clusters but I was facing into the light. So a few experiments with a high failure rate!

Exposure compensation to give a little over exposure. A lot of shots looked washed out and lacked clarity.



1/800 F11 Iso 800

An alternative idea of under exposure compensation to produce an almost black and white image; but difficult to achieve sharp edges.



1/1250 F11 Iso 800

[Cantab]

Geoff, today's post has an interesting collection of images. The egret and cormorant is a real standout photo. Were they fighting over food or just getting in each other's space?

The first photo with its eight species was a real challenge. I managed to make out six.

I enjoyed seeing the Eurasian widgeon in a European environment. We get lots of American widgeon here but there are often one or two Eurasian widgeon mixed in with the other widgeon. Although not common, they're frequent enough I wonder if they breed here rather than being strays visiting from Asia via Alaska. I have a reference book which I'll check.

[bnnrcn]

I like the egret and cormorant shot very much Geoff May be just a little crop from left and bottom ?