2017 Project 52 - 2nd Quarter by Geoff F

[Shadowman]

Nice capture of their dangerous activity in post #25.

[Shadowman]

Nice capture of the insects in post #26.

[Shadowman]

Nice landscape shot in #31.

[Cantab]

Geoff, the cows in the gate turned out well. The photo has a very pleasant feel to it.

Are the cows jerseys?

[bnnrcn]

Very nice Geoff

Week 20 - Wandering through the gap A typical late Spring English country scene.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F14 Iso 400.

I had been photographing insects in the nearby bird reserve when I saw a potential landscape scene with a cow laying down in an open gateway and a good background with a nice sky in the distance. But by the time I did a frantic lens change, the cow had stood up and turned its rear end towards me! A sign of contempt I am informed! Even the nice fluffy clouds had passed.

Then a little bit further along and another open gateway with some cows walking towards the gap caused another frantic lens change, but this time I just managed to capture them in time.

A merge of 3 different Raw conversions from a single shot. The harsh light was producing too much hard contrast. I wanted a bit of obvious highlight to shadow variation but a little softer than the original shot.

[Geoff F]

Thanks.

The cows aren't Channel Island varieties which are smaller and with a rather distinctive face. But I'm not sure which make they are. There was a South Devon breed which were somewhat similar to the Channel Island breed but slightly larger; they have virtually disappeared now. Very rich milk but low in volume. There is also a Red Devon breed which is still around although I think they are more of a dual use animal which produces a reasonable beef animal as well as milkers.

[purplehaze]

I absolutely love the shot of the footbridge from week 19, Geoff. At first I wondered if it wouldn't be better to enhance the bit of blue in the sky, but then I thought no; once again, the barest hint is quite appealing.

[skitterbug]

Thanks.

The cows aren't Channel Island varieties which are smaller and with a rather distinctive face. But I'm not sure which make they are. There was a South Devon breed which were somewhat similar to the Channel Island breed but slightly larger; they have virtually disappeared now. Very rich milk but low in volume. There is also a Red Devon breed which is still around although I think they are more of a dual use animal which produces a reasonable beef animal as well as milkers.

Week 20 - Wandering through the gap



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/320 F14 Iso 400.

It has been several years since I was involved in dairy & farming, however these remind me of Brown Swiss perhaps? They are well cared for and your picture is a nice slice of life in action! I've enjoyed viewing it! Thank you!

[Geoff F]

Week 21 - Salcombe Harbour from the Portlemouth side

Sunny but a fresh east wind. The tide was ideal so I had a go at getting some images for the next local history society calendar. That imposes some restrictions on the required scene. Bright and easily recognised landscape type of image but in 4 x 5 format. And ideally from a position which makes people wonder about where was the shooting position.

Firstly, I had to cross the harbour in this ferry.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/640 F11 Iso 400

A yacht is heading towards the open sea.



1/800 F11 Iso 400

And this man is finding it a hard paddle against the strong current.



1/250 F11 Iso 200

The water is just a little too high so shoes off to round the point.



1/400 F11 Iso 200

This ferry runs between the town and a beach near the harbour entrance.



A view looking towards the harbour mouth.



1/320 F11 Iso 200

I find it takes quite a bit of thought and some searching for suitable camera angles to fill a 4 x 5 frame with an interesting scene so a lot of initial ideas soon failed once I looked through my viewfinder.

[Shadowman]

Week 21, nice captures.

[purplehaze]

Yes, very nice. What a lovely part of the world you live in, Geoff.

[Cantab]

Geoff, I enjoyed all the photos. The composition/format works particularly well in the last one (view between rocks to a house on the far shore).

I was intrigued by the ferry in the first two photos. It looks like a tiller for steering and probably a diesel for motive force? What is the blue mast(?) for? It perhaps carries a steaming light and something else???

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, Bruce, it does have navigation lights on that little mast; just for the darkest depths of winter when they are still operating in the mornings and late afternoons as it begins to get dimsy.

With the introduction of modern small diesel engines, most inboard engine boats have that source of power now. Basic tiller steering but with attached ropes so the rudder can be locked in one position when people are coming aboard or the ferryman is collecting money.

I can just remember when this ferry service used petrol powered Kelvin engines with a direct drive. No gearbox, so the ferryman pushed off from the slipway with a long boathook then started the engine to cross the harbour. At the other side he would switch off his engine then grab hold of the slipway with his boathook to stop!

[Geoff F]

Week 22 - Monkshood. Deep in the woods where I regularly do wildlife recording there are a couple of large monkshood plants and I have been attempting to photograph them for several years but always arrived too early or too late. So this year I have been paying weekly visits to the area until I finally caught them in flower.

In dappled light and being around 6 ft tall they were waving around in the breeze. Being in woodland meant it was virtually impossible to get a clean background so I underexposed then added a tiny bit of fill flash.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/200 F8 Iso 400 flash used

Looking closer shows why the plant is known as Monkshood



180 Sigma macro lens 1/200 F14 Iso 400 flash



And while I was photographing the plant a friend dropped in to see how I was managing.



Probably a Dasysyrphus venustus.

Took many shots of this flower with various combinations of settings and, of course, most were quickly ditched.

[skitterbug]

Post #49 - Your area is a beautiful place. Lots of good pics for your calendar! my favorite from the series is the last one looking out toward the water. I can envision myself exploring there!

Post #54 - The next series of Monkshood pics is stunning. I like the macro shots best because I like the close up details and the vivid colors. And it is always good to have our pollinators show up to keep nature going! The dialog accompanying both series is also interesting! Thank you!

[Wavelength]

All excellent additions.... like them all...

[Cantab]

An excellent set of photos.

In the macro shots, did you focus stack or handhold and rely on a small aperture for DOF? I noted your comment that the tall plant tended to move around in the breeze so probably no focus stacking?

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments.

The monkshood photos were all on a tripod. F8 for the wider Tamron lens to help with background blur and F14 with the macro lens. With the macro images I did a little bit of alternative stacking. Where there was a little bit of focus softness I managed to select copy and paste a few small areas from one image into another.

[Cantab]

With the macro images I did a little bit of alternative stacking. Where there was a little bit of focus softness I managed to select copy and paste a few small areas from one image into another.

This sounds labour intensive. But you've had lots of practice so maybe not as lengthy a process as if I did it.

[Geoff F]

In most cases it is quite simple, Bruce.

Open two images on the screen, as single images or as layers and on the source image, draw around the area to be added with a basic lasso tool set to 4 or 5 pixels feather. In most cases you can get away with drawing just outside of the required area. Copy and paste into the main image. Position the pasted object and hopefully that will be it. But sometimes a little rotation will be needed and maybe use an eraser brush to ease together any join problems.

A little trickier if an exact selection is needed although the auto selection brush often works well enough with those situations.

I often use that selection method when doing a bit of clone work close to an edge, so it provides a barrier to the clone tool and prevents any bleed when working close.

And I frequently use the same idea for my insects/flowers to restrict any sharpening to the main subject. That happened with these images. Auto select around the required image area, set 4 or 5 pixel feather and move the selection edge fractionally outwards. Sharpen on just the required area then invert the selection and add some noise reduction only to the background.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that Monkshood is a seriously poisonous plant and even handling it has risks because the toxins can even be absorbed through your skin.