Cactus flower close-ups

Cactus flowers make attractive close-ups:


Although these were taken a few years ago, I am having a tidy-up of my archives and decided to put these images in the Nearscapes Gallery. I must admit that I am having trouble naming them. Can anyone help?

The 'studio' set up for these, was the top of a freezer by some windows with a black card propped against a wall to provide the background. Some kitchen foil glued to a piece of cardboard was used as a reflector. For some of the photos the sun was shining on the flowers, for others they were out of the sun. It was later that I upgraded the close-up studio to a cardboard box!

The photo below I entered into a competition at the time - it cost money to enter as well - but it did not come anywhere. I would not have minded if the winner was a decent photograph, but it was an ordinary landscape that I felt was off topic for a gardening competition... What I really like about this image is the way the centre of the flower glows - this was entirely accidental and was just a feature of the way the light fell on the subject.



The third photo appeals to me for although it breaks many 'rules', in my opinion it works. What do you think?

Base of beech trees

This week I am showing photos of the base of beech trees:


In these I have tried to capture both the strength and timelessness of these oldish beech trees. These were taken at my previous smallholding in Wales. I am not certain of the age of the trees but suspect that they date from the 1920s when the farmhouse was built. Counting the rings of a tree that was cut down seemed to indicate an age of about 80 or so.

These would have originally been part of a hedge line between a field and the entrance drive. Now the field is the garden. These were taken in the early spring when the daffodils where blooming, but before the leaves emerged from the trees. The first photos seen above shows the line looking in a southerly direction with the garden being on the left. I like this for the way the moss covers the trunks and roots which helps give the impression of age.

In the second image I have concentrated on part of the trunk and roots of one tree. The trellis in the background separates the garden from the drive - the garden being behind me. I like this for the impression of size and strength conveyed by the tree - the size being emphasised by the ivy leaves.



In the final photograph, which was taken in the autumn but before the leaves had turned, I have tried to show the green canopy shading the area around the tree. I have deliberately kept this dark to add to the atmosphere.



The full set of photos can be seen in the Nearscapes Gallery.

November Camera Club Competition

There were 2 competitions last night - 'In Flight' and 'Beccles OAT':


I had a poor showing in both competitions and did not get any placings. These competitions were judged by the votes of the members present - next year the club is anticipating having an external judge for most of the competitions.

The OAT (Outside Activities Trophy) is a competition where those entering go to a specified location (in this case Beccles, a town in Suffolk, UK) at a specified time to take the photographs. At the time my main camera, a budget DSLR, was in for repair. So I wandered around with my old compact camera until both batteries ran out.

The first photo, shown above is one of the entries to the B&W section. It drew favourable comments from the senior club member providing comments on the photos, but it was not placed. It seems that the A3 sized prints do well so I wonder if this would have attracted more votes had I printed it at the larger size instead of A4. I have had trouble printing decent B&W prints, but this one worked quite well.

The second photo of the horse drew favourable comments for the photograph but was criticised for not being demonstrably 'Beccles' to which many of the audience agreed. I was a little peeved by this because in the previous OAT competitions, including one judged by an outside judge, there were similar pictures with no obvious link to the location which did not get similar comments - this gave me the confidence to enter such a photo.



This third photo is one of the Projected Image entries. Like the rest it was unplaced, although the comment was the subject suited the letterbox format.


For the 'In Flight' competition, my photos were on the weak side as I had to find some subjects from my archives - I could not take photos specifically for this competition with my camera being out of action. Below I show the strongest, which shows a hover fly on a poppy. This is spoilt a little by the green stem of another poppy in the foreground.



The full set of entries can be seen in the Featured Photographs Gallery.