2019 Project 52 by Geoff F - 2nd Quarter

Some more typical British country scenes for you, Paul.

Week 21 - Views from Woodleigh Wood. Continuing with the idea of looking out for other scenes while photographing the insects.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...8/original.jpg

7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of three exposures with middle setting of 1/400 F11 Iso 400

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...9/original.jpg

Another merge of three exposures with middle at 1/400 F11 Iso 200

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...2/original.jpg

1/320 F16 Iso 400. Merge of two conversions from a single Raw file.

Week 21, nice exercise and captures.

Excellent images :)

A nice series, Geoff. I like the last one with the seat by the green pathway through the clearing.

Thanks for the comments.

With these scenes I did have a bit of thinking time before pressing the shutter, also a little bit of time to look for the best angles. The seat scene did prove challenging to get the angle I wanted because of a tree on my left side and there was really too much foreground/background which all needed to be in focus.

This is where I was recording insects today.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...4/original.jpg

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Thanks for the comments.

With these scenes I did have a bit of thinking time before pressing the shutter, also a little bit of time to look for the best angles. The seat scene did prove challenging to get the angle I wanted because of a tree on my left side and there was really too much foreground/background which all needed to be in focus.

This is where I was recording insects today.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...4/original.jpg

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The scene looks idyllic -- unless the insects were out trying to bite anyone who intruded on their territory.:)

Thanks, Bruce. There is a stream which flows in a channel at the bottom right corner but is hidden from view by all those Water Dropwort plants. The nature reserve is on the other side of the stream.

In this part of the world we are rather lucky for the lack of problem insects. Just the odd biting midge and the Cleg Horseflies which can cause a few irritations at times. Those flies haven't quite arrived yet this year but will probably appear in the next week or two. I find that always wearing long trousers and a long sleeved shirt plus a little bit of insect repellent rubbed around my neck and hands usually solves most of the potential risk. The larger horseflies tend to prefer farm animals to people.

Beautiful shot Geoff. Did you consider cropping a ,bit on the left removing that shrub left bottom.?

With that scene, Joe, I was working around the cattle positioning. Placing them on the third lines, very roughly. I never try to force a natural scene into strict placements but the general idea usually has some advantages. So cropping from the sides (either side) would mean getting them too close to the edges. It did take a bit of time to get those awkward creatures into some sort of a suitable position. My request to 'Move closer together' just fell on deaf bovine ears. :rolleyes:

Also, I wanted to show the full cloud height, so that was another limiting factor.

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

With that scene, Joe, I was working around the cattle positioning. Placing them on the third lines, very roughly. I never try to force a natural scene into strict placements but the general idea usually has some advantages. So cropping from the sides (either side) would mean getting them too close to the edges. It did take a bit of time to get those awkward creatures into some sort of a suitable position. My request to 'Move closer together' just fell on deaf bovine ears. :rolleyes:

Also, I wanted to show the full cloud height, so that was another limiting factor.

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Thanks Geoff for sharing your thought process with me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Some more typical British country scenes for you, Paul.

Week 21 - Views from Woodleigh Wood. Continuing with the idea of looking out for other scenes while photographing the insects.
Another merge of three exposures with middle at 1/400 F11 Iso 200

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...2/original.jpg

1/320 F16 Iso 400. Merge of two conversions from a single Raw file.

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I need to learn to merge especially when I have bright sky and dark subjects. These images are lovely but the third one of the path/bench is my favorite! I'd be sitting there! <chuckle> Thanks for sharing your beautiful country through photos! :)

All done with layers, masks and gentle brushing with a low opacity soft brush, Sandy. I have never been happy with any of the auto HDR software, even the Photoshop HDR never produces exactly what I want.

Slowly editing the masks with a brush between 10 and 20% allows you to gradually blend the masks together with multiple passes of brushing to merge the effects together without any harsh differences caused by hard mask edges.

Week 22 - The Cemetery Blackbird. Continuing with my task of photographing every gravestone in the town for Salcombe History Society and this Blackbird hopped over to see what I was doing. Wrong lens and wrong light angle; but I had a go anyway.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...8/original.jpg

7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/125 F6.3 Iso 800. Merge of 2 conversions from a single Raw file, selective sharpening and noise reduction plus some masking over Curves adjustments.

Some of the old gravestones under the trees are covered in lichen.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...9/original.jpg

1/400 F6.3 Iso 800. Merge of 2 conversions from a single Raw file.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...0/original.jpg

1/500 F6.3 Iso 800

Changing the Blend Mode during editing can sometimes make the names more readable.

I love the first photo. Despite the gravity of the location, the bird brought a touch of humour.:)

When you're photographing the gravestones, do you also make a written record of the details on the stone (a lot more work)? As you allude to in your post, reading details on the gravestones can be difficult. I was able to make out much of the key detail in the second photo, except for the year of death.

Some of them are extremely difficult to read. I do have a map showing the family name, or at least the name of the person who is registered to a particular grave. But sometimes families can get complicated and it was commonplace to include a surname as one of a person's first names. With some inscriptions you get cryptic clues such as Sally Smith which sounds promising but further down it reads 'and her husband Jack Jones. So possibly her maiden name was Smith or alternatively it was something like Sally Smith Brown which changed to Sally Smith Jones after marriage.

Then there was a mariner whose wife died at a rather early age; so he then married her sister.

Fortunately, my job only requires the gravestones to be photographed. Placing together the family history will be a task for someone else.

Week 23 - Moths. With the warmer summer nights, between periods of rain, more moths are visiting the traps in my garden. This is just a small sample of around 20 or 30 species which I regularly encounter over a couple of hours.

Buff-tip looking like a bit of broken twig.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...1/original.jpg

Burnished Brass. The amount of brassy markings is variable

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...2/original.jpg

Privet Hawkmoth. These are enormous with a wing length of 2 inches and appearing more like a small bird than a moth.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...3/original.jpg

Spectacle, named for obvious reasons.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/image/1...4/original.jpg

All shot with Canon 7D and Sigma 180 macro lens.

Week 23 - What can I say? They are all excellent photographs showing what remarkable creatures they are. :)

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Originally Posted by Rufus

Week 23 - What can I say? They are all excellent photographs showing what remarkable creatures they are. :)

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I agree with David.

The Buff-tip's camouflage is amazing. It seems quite awhile since I saw moth photos by you -- or is it my memory?:) I have a recollection that you have a studio setup for photographing chilled moth specimens? In any event, they all turned out well.

Wonderful, awe-inspiring set, Geoff.

Thanks for the replies.

That is correct, Bruce. At this time of the year I try to do a bit of moth trapping in my garden every 3 or 4 days, subject to the weather, in order to obtain consistent records of the species and numbers. I seem to get a few rarities from time to time. This location, jutting out into the sea and with farmland close by plus some rough grass and small wooded areas suits a wide variety.

Moths spend most of their lives as caterpillars so are an important indicator of general environmental health.

At this time of the year I would expect to get around 50 moths from 20 to 30 species a night. Those which I find difficult to identify, plus a variety of other interesting insects, get uploaded to the Nature UK website with one of my P base galleries forming a holding/linking area for my uploads.

https://pbase.com/crustacean/2019_linked_images_2