2020 Project 52 by Geoff F - 3rd Quarter

[Geoff F]

Still rather limited by the virus and where I can find safe areas to visit, but I will continue to do what I can.

The previous quarter is here

2020 Project 52 by Geoff F - 2nd Quarter

Week 27. I wanted to try for some summer photos to use in the next local history society calendar and thought last Friday would be my last chance before the hordes arrived on Saturday and I needed to keep myself safe thereafter. Left home in sunshine but 5 minutes later a patch of cloud appeared which gave a strange dull light and continued until I returned home - when, of course, sunshine reappeared.

More people around than I was comfortable with seeing; but I did what I could by shooting a few images from quieter places.

Herring Gull with young.



7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/500 F11 Iso 400

Shady Path



Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of three exposures with the middle one at 1/125 F8 Iso 800.

Looking down on the harbour from a safe bit of road.



Canon 70-200 lens 1/500 F11 Iso 400

A slightly different angle



Tamron 24-70 lens 1/250 F11 Iso 200

[Urbanflyer]

Still rather limited by the virus and where I can find safe areas to visit, but I will continue to do what I can.

The previous quarter is here

2020 Project 52 by Geoff F - 2nd Quarter

Week 27. I wanted to try for some summer photos to use in the next local history society calendar and thought last Friday would be my last chance before the hordes arrived on Saturday and I needed to keep myself safe thereafter. Left home in sunshine but 5 minutes later a patch of cloud appeared which gave a strange dull light and continued until I returned home - when, of course, sunshine reappeared.

More people around than I was comfortable with seeing; but I did what I could by shooting a few images from quieter places.

Herring Gull with young.



7D with Canon 70-200 lens. 1/500 F11 Iso 400

Shady Path



Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of three exposures with the middle one at 1/125 F8 Iso 800.

Looking down on the harbour from a safe bit of road.



Canon 70-200 lens 1/500 F11 Iso 400

A slightly different angle



Tamron 24-70 lens 1/250 F11 Iso 200

Love the gull and chicks! Stay safe!

[Antonio Correia]

Good start for this quarter Geoff !

Stay safe and Cheers !

[Geoff F]

Week 28 - Robberflies. I am continuing to avoid busy areas but have managed to do some regular insect recording by only visiting the little known locations. Recently I have found a few Robberflies which are a group that have always interested me. They are rather specialised in 'design' and catch other flies/insects for food. Often perching and waiting until suitable prey comes within striking distance then dashing out to grab it.

Common Red-legged Robberfly



7D with Sigma 180 macro lens 1/200 F11 Iso 400. Flash.

Kite-tailed Robberfly



Striped Slender Robberfly



Stripe-legged Robberfly (dark form)

[Antonio Correia]

But these images are excellent Geoff ! Excellent !
Congrats for you good work !

Are you using some kind of merging software to get focus all the way ?

Cheers !

[Wavelength]

All images of last two sets are all very good...

[lesno1]

Superb images

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the comments.

Where possible, Antonio, I will attempt a merge of 2 or 3 focus points; providing there isn't any subject movement and only a little bit of wind movement. Otherwise, it is simply a case of getting square on to the subject to minimise the area which will be out of focus. Obviously using a tripod.

[Cantab]

...Where possible, Antonio, I will attempt a merge of 2 or 3 focus points; providing there isn't any subject movement and only a little bit of wind movement. Otherwise, it is simply a case of getting square on to the subject to minimise the area which will be out of focus. Obviously using a tripod.

A great set of shots.

You seem to have considerable good fortune in convincing the insects to stay put while you're positioning your tripod. Or is it simply the case that a good percentage of attempted shots fail because the insect does not remain posed in position?

[Geoff F]

Yes, Bruce, a lot of fly aways before I get a suitable identification angle. I like to roughly adjust my tripod and camera settings before creeping forward. With a bit of experience I often know which angles will be needed for identification but too often they fly off as I am pressing the button.

There are more of my recent insect photos here

https://pbase.com/crustacean/2020_linked_images_part_2

I use that P base site for linking to a UK wildlife site, as well as CinC.

[Cantab]

Geoff, I looked at your identification images on Pbase. You've been busy this summer! Thanks for posting the link.

[Geoff F]

That is just a fraction of what I photograph for identification. Those images are there solely for use in other sites. At this time of the year I would expect to photograph and identify around 50 species in an average day. Most of my wildlife records require a confirmation photo when I send them to various recording schemes. For instance I Record.

This is where I was recording wildlife today.

Week 28 - Aveton Wood



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

When I left home, on the coast, it was thick fog but after going about 10 miles inland I found sunshine at 9 am.

[Geoff F]

Week 29 - More entrance gates. Following on from last week, I thought I would photograph the entrances to some more wildlife sites where I was recording the insect life. But in reality this turned out to be far more demanding than I had anticipated. Very harsh light even around 9 am with a wide range of highlights and shadows. Bracketed exposures weren't really working well so I ended up using fill flash then creating a merge of images with different adjustments from the single Raw file.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens 1/125, F11, Iso 400. Flash



1/200 F14 Iso 400. Flash

[Geoff F]

Week 30. A mixture of sunshine with cloudy patches today.

Looking towards Dartmoor from my house.



7D with Tamron 24-70 lens. Merge of two exposures 1/160 F11 iso 200.

Looking towards the next town



1/800 F11 Iso 400. Merge of two exposures. Could have used a lower Iso but this was the first attempt at this scene before thinking about settings and I preferred these shots to the later ones.

[Antonio Correia]

But why Geoff, you merge two exposures for photographs like these ?
Wouldn't it be easier to make just one with a little treatment ?

[Cantab]

Geoff, the second one works particularly well, with its clouds and blue sky, and very clear air. A classic English countryside image!

[Wavelength]

Nice images of a rustic place.... in the last image i would like to see a bit more saturation...

[Geoff F]

With the second image, it seems to have lost a bit of impact in the size reduction and conversion to jpeg. What I think is required is a very slight additional tweak to the highlight brightness rather than the saturation. I did that to the original and masked out any problems created in the clouds, but possibly a bit more might be required. Although this is close to the reality of the actual day. The image does have more impact in the Lightbox view.

Which, Antonio, explains why I did a merge of two exposures. To get a good sky means the ground would be under exposed. So the alternative was a bracketed exposure (I ignored the highlight shot which was far too over exposed.

The two layers were merged with a gradient mask which started about the middle of the clouds and ran down to the middle of the land. This meant the upper clouds and the lower land areas were as shot (subject to a bit of Raw image tweaking) while a smooth gradient merged the two together; plus a little bit of extra brush work on the mask.

Then a bit of extra highlights were added to the whole scene, less any over bright areas of the clouds.

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Geoff for the explanation.
Cheers !

[Geoff F]

One extra sky scene given the same treatment with a merge of two exposures.



9 am where I was recording wildlife today.

1/400 F11 Iso 200