December 27th 2024 – Farnham Christmas Lights
As always in low light I had to use high ISO, but processing in DXO PureRAW4 does an excellent job or removing noise.
December 22nd 2024 – Farnham Christmas Lights
A quick scoot round after dropping Callum at the gym, and rushing home in time to receive the shopping. I’m pretty pleased with the results, all hand held and post processed to reduce noise because most were taken at ISO 12800.
December 20th 2024 – Moat Pond, Elstead
Another dull day and its the first time I’ve been here. I will return in the spring when the light is better as it looks like a promising location.
December 19th 2024 – Frensham Little Pond
The weather isn’t particularly helpful, but sometimes any image is a good image.
December 17th 2024 – Waverley Abbey
A very dull miserable day.
November 11th 2024 – Frensham Pond
RAF Odiham which is not far away, has recorded zero minutes of sunshine so far this November. According to the BBC, an area of high pressure has trapped cloud resulting in this run of dull cloudy miserable weather. On the other hand, its not particularly cold for this time of year either. These were taken whilst taking a stroll around Frensham Pond this morning.
October 30th 2024 – Farnham
A first attempt at traffic photography. I think I need a better location though…. Most are 25 second exposures at ISO 125 and F14, but a couple are 5 seconds at F8.
October 11th 2024 – Farnham
Walking around town at dusk is a nice change, and the shop lights change the mood.
These images aren’t in a particular order.
The low light mean I’m shooting with low shutter speeds, leaning on the camera IBIS (in body image stabilization).
Too early for any customers who in summer would often be eating outdoors.
Hardly anyone around even though its only 18:30. In a couple of weeks the clocks change and it will be completely dark by this time…
The new Brightwells development is almost complete now. Its nice to catch the sky whilst it still have some blue in it.
Some other images I took…
September 28th 2024 – Hayling Island
First stop was pub car park at the start of the bridge which takes you off the mainland onto the island. I left rather lot of water in the foreground, but wanted to keep the standard 3×3 dimensions, keep all the cloud and capture all the reflection in the water.
I quite like this image, the clouds have a nice grey base, the trees haven’t lost all their leaves yet, and if you look carefully you can see seagulls flying low over the water.
This area is tidal, a couple of hours later and there was not water at all, just mud.
Displayed full screen this is quite nice. I was stood too far up the beach though, had I moved down the green triangle would have moved closer to horizon, compressing the sea and reducing all the negative space. I liked because it kept all the boats close the horizon.
This suffers from the same problem most of my image do. They look good on my 32 inch monitor with 40mp of resolution, but once I’ve scaled the image down to suite the internet, it just doesn’t look the same.
This took a few minutes of waiting. I wanted a pigeon facing towards me, but the they insisted on facing the other way. I could have move my feet to the other side, but I nice stone to sit on, and thus a pigeon looking to the side is the nearest I could get.
After taking this I was watching this Youtube video where at 3:45 he shows his own image of a flag. Next time I see a flag I’ll remember to try the same technique. A slow shutter speed on a tripod, it worked really well for him.
I kind of like this, but also kind of think it doesn’t work. The cloud points into empty space pm the right, and the foreground draws the eye left.
Finally I have a bird in flight image that’s not too blurred or muddy. This was taken at 1/2500s, f5.6, iso 200 at 300mm. At 300mm one the problems I have is getting the bird into frame and keeping it there, it only take a very small movement of the lens for it to disappear.
This lenses loses focus as your zoom, so the traditional technique of zooming out you get the bird in frame and then zooming in doesn’t work too well, as the bird has gone by the time the lens and re-focused.
This is solvable by spending money and a better long lens for the 100-400 and 150-600 are both in the region of £1800. They are also big and heavy, not the sort of lens you carry around just in case.
Why do all seagulls insist on facing the wrong way!
What do you think?
Some other images from the day….
September 21st 2024 – In the Garden
For one reason or another I couldn’t get out to take any photographs, so a few minutes in the garden would have to do.
I like the colours in this image of an Oak tree. Greens, browns, yellow and blue sky in the background.
This was pleasing simply because I got the exposure right myself, all taken manually. I exposed for the light on the leaf which is why the background is nice and dark.
Had this been taken in aperture priority, the background would have been more exposed but that would not have worked as well.
A close up on the under side of Oak leaf. The trees are all turning and the autumnal colours are everywhere.
September 13th 2024 – Frensham Little Pond
This was an early evening walk around the pond. Normally there are plenty of people around, especially dog walkers but this was a quiet evening.
This Heron was a surprise, I was stood my the shore in a place which is normally very popular but on this occasion I was the only person around. So, I assumed that Heron‘s would not be in this area as its too popular, and to my surprise this Heron walked out of the reeds and paid no attention to me at all, even as I moved closer.
It spent several minutes just 6 feet away from me. Though what you can’t see in the images is that I’m stood behind a 4 foot fence used to keep people back from the reeds.
Another Heron. This was sat on a wooden box put out on the pond for birds to purch on.
This is a tight crop of an image taken at 300mm hand held and heavily sharpened.
My 70-300 lens is a bit soft at 300mm and a better or longer lends is tooo much money right now.
Another long shot at 300mm. It always take me a moment to get the bird in frame and the camera to focus, so invariably they are flying away from me…
There are always a couple of swans on the pond.
Some other shots I took that evening….
September 8th 2024 – Basingstoke Canal
I took these from the banks of the Basingstoke Canel.
As you can see, the water is pretty dull around this Mallard.
Eventually I figured that standing on the opposite bank brought nice reflections into the water. Much better.
This is a Pekin duck.
I even took some video of coots feeding.
Some other images from that afternoon…
September 7th 2024 – West Wittering
I think this is my favourite image of the day. Click on the image to see it full size.
The tide was out and the beach felt very large and hardly anyone was their. This image just seems to capture the feeling of it.
I have consumed a lot of youtube videos about street photography lately, and this reminded me of that. You haves layers, reflections and almost a sense of isolation with the lone figure.
This is an 18 second exposure to smooth our the sea. I quite like it, might be better in black and white though.
The inevitable seagulls shot…
Its not as easy as it looks to get a sharp image of fast moving bird.
I like this one.
Other images taken that day…
September 5th 2024 – Birdworld
This image of a Macaw, like many of the images from Birdworld is complicated by the cage.
You can see the wire mesh in the top of this image, so getting focus and the cage sufficiently out of focus to effectively disappear took from careful positioning.
Everybody loves a Penguin. I spent quite a long time sat watching them enjoy swimming around their pool.
I’m not sure a Robin was meant to be in this enclosure but it got it somehow….
These must be the mother in laws, lined up keeping an eye on everyone else…
What is this…
Some other images taken that day….
September 3rd 2024 – Waverley Abbey
Lots of Mallards.
Don’t forget you can click on these images to expand them.
Common Moorhen.
I can decide whether this is better as is, with the reflection or should be a tight crop.
Might be better as a tight crop though.
Some other images from the day…
September 1st 2024 – Alice Holt Forest
A dead tree with some character but whilst it’s OK as images go, I now think that perhaps a wider shot showing its isolation might have had more impact.
Alice Holt has plenty of dead trees to choose form.
Lots of paths to follow…
August 30th 2024 – Birling Gap
This is the photo I went for. Its a long journey, over 2hrs each way but worth it in the end.
At this time I only had the 16-50mm lens, so this is a tight crop which is not ideal.
I think I’ll return next year with my 70-300mm and get closer.
My favourite image of the day. The green of the sea weed really comes over well, and has the nice shapes in the sandy foreground.
The cliffs really are enourmous, no wonder they are visible from so far out in the English Channel.
I wanted to take this as as long exposure but failed miserably… perhaps I should have turned off the IBIS. Lesson learned, so this will have to do.
Some other images…
August 29th 2024 – Waverley Abbey
Its a nice walk down the far side of the lake.
Not often that you see a snake swimming in the UK. It Grass Snake.
Not the sharpest shot, shutter speed was only 1/500. A tight crop too.
August 25th 2024 – Hayling Island
I only took a few shots before betting a call to go back home….
This was a slow shutter speed using ND filters to try and do something creative.
August 25th 2024 – Imperial War Museum Duxford
I’ve seen my fair share of air displays and I have to say these aircraft were filthy. Most of the older static display aircraft were in real need of a good clean. In that respect it was a little disappointing.
See if you can recognize the F4 Phantom, SR71 Blackbird, Lancaster (not as big as I expected), B52 (not as big as I expected), English Electric Lightning (the original not the modern F35 variant), Harrier, Comet, Wessex, F15 Tomcat and my favourite aircraft of all time the Avro Vulcan bomber.
In service these were always very clean, but this had a thick coating of dust on it. The SR71 should be jet black, not so covered in so much dust its turned grey. How hard can it be to give them a clean once every 5 years ! You may also notice the TSR2, which if the labour government had not cancelled it would have been the best of its type in the world! You can see the shine on the wessex, well that was how the RAF kept the Vulcans when in service. I know this because until I left home at 18, I lived 1 mile from RAF Waddington which was where many of the RAF’s Vulcans were based during the cold war and I went to see then close up at the airshow every year. As a child I was frequently woken up by them in the night either warming their engines when they were on standby or taking off, which was very very noisey.
UPDATE: If you google the XJ824 registration number of the Vulcan you can find photographs of it from 1962 where it is painted white. Up until the Russians shot down a U2 flown by Gary Powers in May 1960, the intention had been for the Vulcan to be a high level bomber, and thus painted white. It was only after the U2 was shot down that they switched to low level bombing and painted in grey camoflage. Duxford have plans to restore the Vulcan at some point and give it a new coat of paint.
I somehow managed to take every photograph with white balance manually set to 5500K. Thats fine for outdoors but completely wrong indoors and required correction in post. Lesson learnt, I’ll stick with auto white balance from now on, especially since I’m shooting exclusively in RAW these days.
August 23rd 2024 – Waverley Abbey
August 22nd 2024 – Hayling Island
Don’t forget you can click on any image to get a larger view
The big lesson today was that I should check the weather forecast before leaving home. On the upside though is the added drama it can add to an image. The image above is a 17 second exposure at ISO 125, f10 and 50mm. The long exposure turns the waves into a mist.
and the really were some significant waves…
These conditions lend themselves to Black and White.
A wet through fisherman. He didn’t seem catch anything and just stood staring into the distance…..
Other images….
August 21st 2024 – Ceasers Camp
I spent a couple of hours wandering around Ceasers Camp, but only found tress and cows.
August 16th 2024 – Farnham
August 10th 2024 – Lincoln
I do like this abstract reflections of ‘Wagama’ in the water.
August 9th – Farnham
August 7th 2024 – Farnham
I wonder how old some of these doorways are in Farnham town centre.
August 4th 2024 – Alice Holt Forest
It can be nice to walk around the forest in summer. In winter it feels dark and damp, but a good place to be in summer.
The natural parts of the forest is better IMO. I have mixed feelings about these parts where lines of spruce tree block out so much light that the forest floor is bereft of life.
August 3rd 2024 – Farnham
There is a genre of photography known as ICM, Intention Camera Movement. There are some incredible images produced, but in my case it was entirely accidental and pretty lame in comparison.
Worth looking into though.
August 2nd 2024 – Farnham
Just another walk about town with my camera. This image reminds me of houses in the south France, despite not having shutters.
