2019 Project 52 by Geoff F - 1st Quarter

[joebranko]

Week 6: This is a beautiful shot even with the ' busy foreground' I really enjoyed it.

[joebranko]

Week 7: Great sequence!

[Geoff F]

Thanks for all the positive comments. Something different this week.

Week 08 - Shadycombe Cemetery Gate. I am still photographing local gravestones for the Salcombe History Society and have moved on to this cemetery so I have had a go at the entrance gate. One of those situations where the light is always going to be problematic so I deliberately choose a dull day. This is a merge of two bracketed exposures.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. 1/125 F5 Iso 400

[Rufus]

Geoff - you have captured some nice texture in the stonework and colour in the wooden gates.

It is interesting how the cut stone pillars are constructed on a visible foundation that looks to be the base of earlier rough stone pillars or walling.

I wonder whether the purpose for which the shot was taken would allow the cloning out of the background properties by extending the evergreen trees on the right?

[Shadowman]

Week 8, nicely framed and processed.

[Geoff F]

I suspect that when this small steep field on the edge of town was first used as a cemetery the wall would would have run along the road edge so when the gates were created they probably used the old wall footings as a base. I'm not sure when this area was first used as a graveyard. The 1842 tithe map shows a 'burying ground' behind the church which was under construction at that time. But by the 1890's this was shown as the town cemetery.

That distant house did concern me as it was originally rather too bright; so I have toned it down. I wondered about attempting to hide it but that will be tricky to make natural looking and because this image is part of a project for the local history society I thought it ought to be a true historical record of the scene. There is another house on the left side but after a bit of shuffling around I did find an angle which excluded it while still looking like a straightforward scene.

[skitterbug]

It would have been hard to hide the house and have it look natural. It doesn't bother the image having it as it is. Interesting gate. It looks recently cared for? Or is that a fairly new install of the gate? I enjoy seeing your photos of "history".

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comment, Sandy.

Week 09 - Foggy Morning at the Bird Hide. When I arrived at the path leading to a local bird hide I found it shrouded in thick fog.



Canon 7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of two exposures with the normal shot at 1/160 F11 Iso 400

After about an hour the fog cleared to give a bright and calm morning.



1/320 F11 Iso 200 for the 'normal' shot of a two shot merge.

There were a few birds around but the haze was rather limiting at first.

Black-tailed Godwit



Sigma 150-600 lens 1/640 F8 Iso 400

Stonechat



1/400 F8 Iso 800

Teal

[Cantab]

Geoff, I love the first photo. It reminds me of a B&W image I took at Sheen Common, Richmond, Surrey, one December in the early 1970's. I had the negative professionally scanned a few years ago and began cleaning up dust spots. Your photo may encourage me to go back and see what I can do. The photo was taken on a folding bellows camera with a lens dating from probably the late 1930's so it does not have the sharpness of our modern lenses. One thing that makes your photo work well is that you have a sharp image of the fence posts before everything disappears into the mist.

I also really like the stonechat photo. The EXIF appears to say you shot it with your lens at full extension, 600mm. Did you crop the photo when editing? There's good feather detail on most of the bird when I enlarged the image on my monitor.

[joebranko]

Great capture Geoff. The fog lends a aura of mystery to this composition.

[Shadowman]

Nice series, week 9.

[Geoff F]

I have said it many times before that foggy scenes usually require some form of 'reference area' often in the foreground to show that it really is a foggy scene and not just a badly exposed and focused shot. After that, a bit of editing with two or more exposures or careful use of Curves etc can gradually add some 'depth' into the scene by fading the details as a viewer looks closer into the apparent distance.

Incidentally, I have produced a video of the birds from that hide which were clips taken over a couple of visits. But I don't seem to be able to get the Insert Video link to work (although it is visible as I am typing) and my alternative just produces very small images



Maybe going to vimeo.com/321046174 which isn't now a direct link will show the full size version.

It is something of an experiment for me but maybe I will now get around to producing more videos. Shot with my Canon 7D mkII and the Sigma 150-600 lens. Basic editing with Photoshop CC then put together with Pro Show. There is still so much for me to learn about video work and I found that shooting those fast moving waders were a real challenge. They were running around faster than I could follow while retaining smooth panning and keeping sharp focus was so difficult with a shallow focus depth as the distances kept changing. And I did use a tripod.

So maybe this is far from perfect, but everybody has to start from somewhere!

[Rufus]

A very relaxing video, Geoff, rather like I imagine "slow TV" might be. I had never before seen a swan put its neck into a complete circle!

[Geoff F]

They certainly have amazing dexterity, Rufus.

Week 10 - Demolition of the old Lloyds Bank. We used to have two banks but one closed then the other only opened part time until it closed a couple of years ago and now it is being ripped apart. Hopefully, it looks as though they are attempting to save something of the historic walls but it has been totally gutted inside.



Fuji X20 1/250 F8 Iso 7.1. The dull conditions were a bit testing for this little camera. But the best camera to use is the one which you have with you!



1/75 F9 Iso 200. The slow shutter speed was a mistake but I preferred the composition of this shot and I think I just about managed to get away with the speed.



1/160 F8 Iso 200



1/140 F8 Iso 200. A difficult angle looking partially towards the light and with deep shadows but I did what I could by making two edits of the original Raw File.

[Geoff F]

Week 11 - A few birds, before all these gales arrived.

Cirl Bunting



7D with Sigma 150-600 Sport lens. 1/500 F11 Iso 400

Reed Bunting.



1/800 F11 Iso 400

Grey Wagtail finding that some ragworms put up a bit of a fight!



1/400 F8 Iso 400

[Cantab]

Geoff, the wagtail portrait is quite an action shot! Did you see who won?

[Rufus]

Week 11 - These are all pleasing natural looking shots of the birds. I like the colour of the background for the Reed Bunting which sets it off rather well.

[Shadowman]

Post#54, week 10, nice captures of changes of the environment.

[Shadowman]

Post 55, nice series.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments. Backgrounds are always a bit of a gamble with nature photographs. Sometimes I refrain from clicking my shutter when I know there will be problems; unless it is a rare species. Aperture settings sometimes come into my thinking when there is a chance of avoiding a poor background.

That Grey Wagtail eventually pulled the worm from its burrow, or at least it had most of the worm.