2019 Project 52 by Geoff F - 3rd Quarter

[Wavelength]

really nice

[Geoff F]

Thanks John and Nandakumar.

Week 34 - The grass cutting machines at Andrews Wood. Another of those 'This isn't going to work but I might as well give it a go anyway' type of scenes. Both are a merge of three bracketed exposures. One of the sites where I regularly record wildlife.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Middle image of the stack 1/400 F11 Iso 400. Maybe reduce the sky a little?

[skitterbug]

Week 33 - Neat way to keep the grass under control. I'm not certain that the horse's heads is as sharply in focus as you may have wanted but it could be my eye sight...<sigh>
I like the scenery!

[Geoff F]

Week 35 - North Sands Valley. I was photographing/recording wildlife nearby so I had a go at this scene; partially thinking about next year's history society calendar with the 4 x 5 ratio image. But, getting to this shooting position meant going over one gate, with a barbed wire top, into a narrow lane then over a second gate and some linked hurdles, which caused me a bit of confusion. The hurdles may outwit sheep but I was thinking that I am probably cleverer than them; so I managed to work out how to unlink the hurdles and pass through - eventually.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of three bracketed exposures with the middle one at 1/250 F11 Iso 400



Another three exposure merge. 1/320 F11 Iso 400.

[Geoff F]

And looking the other way, towards the gate and hurdles, there was the first sign of approaching wind in the clouds.



1/400 F11 Iso 400. Another three exposure merge.

[Shadowman]

Week 35, nice series and explanation of the hurdles taken to get the captures.

[Geoff F]

Week 36 - The local agricultural show. I didn't want to lug heavy photo equipment around so I just took my pocket sized Fuji X20.

South Devons are an old breed of dual purpose cattle which produce a high fat milk which is good for butter and cream plus tasty meat. However, with the introduction of high yielding lower fat milking breeds and larger animals which had leaner meat this breed nearly disappeared. But now, there is an increasing demand for dual purpose breeds on small farms worldwide; so they are slowly finding a speciality niche. They are particularly docile animals which are easy to handle.



Fuji X20 1/500 F7.1 Iso 200 Shooting through the bars of that small pen so there was no way to get a perfect image even with better equipment.

Sheep Judging.



1/400 F7.1 Iso 100

These look like sheep which have been on steroids !



1/680 F7.1 Iso 200

[Geoff F]

There was some old machinery on display. This sawbench was powered by a steam traction engine.



1/680 F6.4 Iso 200. Wrong angle for the light so this was the best I could do with that little camera.

[Shadowman]

Week 36, nice series.

[Cantab]

There was some old machinery on display. This sawbench was powered by a steam traction engine.



1/680 F6.4 Iso 200. Wrong angle for the light so this was the best I could do with that little camera.

This was before the days of safety guards!

In post 47, I particularly liked the South Devon cattle photo, perhaps because there's direct eye contact with the animal closest to the camera.

[Geoff F]

It was a struggle to find an angle between the bars, Bruce, so when they both looked towards me I clicked the shutter and hoped for the best.

There were also some old tractors and cars there.

[Wavelength]

A pleasing tour...

[Geoff F]

Week 37 - Aveton Wood. This is a site where I regularly photograph and record wildlife but on my last visit I had a go at some other 'impossible' scenes just to see what I could do with them.

The old railway bridge.



7D with 24-70 Tamron lens. Tried all sorts of camera settings for this deep shade scene and this is the best which I could manage. 1/60 F8 Iso 8oo with flash. Then a merge of two conversions from a single Raw image. Maybe a tripod should have been used but I was in a tricky position on the river bank.

Reflections.



Merge of three bracketed exposures with the slowest at 1/20 F11 Iso 400 plus a bit of extra tweaking. Looked at quite a few scenes but this was the best of a difficult situation and I had several goes with different options before deciding this was the best of them.

[Geoff F]

Here is another one where I messed up once again. I came across this Dipper near the river bank. It jumped into the river to grab some food item then returned to the log. But, once again, the light was poor and I only had my 180 macro lens which I had to hand hold between the foliage. Because of the light angle I tried some flash. Unfortunately, I had just been photographing fungi and in my rush to capture the scene I forgot to change the camera settings until it was too late.



Sigma 180 macro lens. 1/125 F11 Iso 400. Merge of two conversions from one Raw image plus some extra editing.

And the fungi, in heavy shade. Sulphur Tuft



1/80 F11 Iso 400. Flash, on a tripod. Merge of three focus points.

Chicken of the Woods



1/40 F11 Iso 400. Merge of three focus points. Tripod used.

[Cantab]

Geoff, I enjoyed both images in #53. The first one definitely has a feeling "old" for the old bridge. I had to look carefully to make out all the bridge. I was curious about your use of flash in a relatively open outdoors shoot. Was it to lighten up the leaves overhanging the bridge? In any event, I think the photo works well.

The second photo grabs one's attention since the only glimpse of sky is at the bottom -- very unusual. I'm interested to see what others make of it. I went so far as turning the image upside down to get the sky in the "correct" location -- but then I saw subtle ripples in the watery sky!

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments, Bruce. With the bridge scene, in deep shade, it was a choice between an attempt with flash or unacceptably slow shutter speed which would have resulted in motion blur. Increasing the Iso level would have produced serious shadow noise. Even at Iso 800 there is more noise than I would have liked.

With the tree reflections, I have cropped a bit from the top to create a better looking balance; but the real sky was missing in the original. I did try showing more at the top and less reflection but that seemed too bland.

[Geoff F]

Week 38 - Harbour Scenes. We have had a few windy and cloudy days with frequent showers so when a bit of brightness appeared this morning I set off to a headland in the local harbour; but by the time I arrived, just 10 minutes later, those blue skies had turned distinctly grey! However, I continued and did what I could despite the dull light.

I tried to get some sort of action scenes instead of just moored boats, but that meant attempting less than perfect light angles. All images are a merge of bracketed exposures or different conversions from a single Raw file



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/250 F11 Iso 400



1/320 F11 Iso 400



1/250 F11 Iso 400



1/200 F11 Iso 400

[Cantab]

An interesting set of photos. I was intrigued by "Wolf" in the third image. It has a crew of 6 plus cox'n [spelling?] but it's not a freshwater rowing shell or a racing lifeboat.

I perhaps should not have limited racing shells to freshwater. I live 60 seconds by car from a salt water inlet/waterway completely protected from ocean waves. Every fall (aka autumn), there's a rowing regatta with crews coming from far and wide. Does the same thing happen in the area where you caught this racing hull?

I noticed the different crop ratios you used in this set. For my money, they all work.

[Shadowman]

Week 38, nice set.

[Manfred M]

Week 38 - Harbour Scenes. We have had a few windy and cloudy days with frequent showers so when a bit of brightness appeared this morning I set off to a headland in the local harbour; but by the time I arrived, just 10 minutes later, those blue skies had turned distinctly grey! However, I continued and did what I could despite the dull light.

This set of images tells a wonderful story. I wonder if you had used a polarizer to cut the glare from the clouds and water, the image might not have been a bit more effective. I tend to always have a polarizer in my camera bag just in case I run into a scene like these.

You might want to play around a bit in post. Not as effective as a polarizer, but a partial solution I think.