Trees in the mist

I have been sorting through some photographs of trees taken during the early morning whilst there was some mist about. By the time I had weeded out the no-hopers, I was left with a few photographs that I was reasonably satisfied with.

The first two were taken within minutes of each other. In the first one below, the sun is just out of view causing a white, burnt-out patch as seen on the left of this picture.



In this second image, I have turned the camera away from the sun so the tree is on the left. This also shows better the trees in the middle distance. I think this shot is a lot more successful.




This third photo was taken in the late autumn of last year. This was at the opposite end of our smallholding looking more to the south, whereas the other two were looking roughly to the southeast.




I have not adjusted the colour balance in any way - the camera was on Auto White Balance. The first two are almost monochromatic with a sepia tone, whilst the third shows a lot more blue. It is interesting how the colour can be different in similar circumstances.

A couple of inches of snow

A few days ago we had a little snow - not a lot, just a couple of inches. Before I started work I managed to get out and take some photographs. The light levels were very low with it still snowing lightly and, because I was rushing before work, I was handholding the camera. So I haven't got the depth of field I would like.

Most of the pictures were pretty poor, below I show some of the best although these are not brilliant. They have had the 'levels' adjusted a little in Photoshop - the lighting was very flat causing the range of tones to be restricted. Most suffered from a slight blue cast which I have tried to remove.

This is an old railway wagon used as a field shelter on a neighbouring farm. This field is just down the lane from my smallholding. It is getting somewhat dilapidated - I have never seen any stock using it! It was taken by leaning over the fence, hence the branches from the hedge line.



This is a little further down the lane taken from where the lane goes steeply down a small sharp slope. The lane sharply turns to the left which is the cause of the large white patch at the bottom left of the picture. This would have been better if I had moved more to the left to reduce the size of the large patch of white.





This shows the snow and ice on a small 'natural' pond. I have been told that this pond is the remnants of where a large boulder of was melting at the end of the ice-age. It is now mostly filled with peat although the middle is still water to an uncertain depth. This again shows the flat lighting. I find the picture interesting due to the nature of the scene.

Horses grazing at Bryneirian Farm

We have a couple of young stallions grazing at our farm. They are not ours, but we have an informal arrangement with another farmer who wanted to put a couple of horses on our land over the winter. We agreed because it would do the grass some good to be grazed, and have the nutrients recycled as dung. They have been doing a grand job for the past 4 months or so.

It was only last weekend that my wife reminded me that I had not taken any photographs of these horses (or are they ponies?). As it was a fine afternoon, I spent about half an hour with the digital SLR with a telephoto lens taking some pictures. I used the telephoto as I did not want to get too close to them and disturb them.

In this first picture, this horse is backlit by the late afternoon sun. Neither of the horses had seen me.



In the second photograph I had moved round to the bottom end of the field and took a number of photographs as I walked along the bottom boundary. This horse had seen me and just stood and watched - not disturbed, but interested in what I was doing. As I moved back it started walking up to me and got too close for a picture with the telephoto lens.



This third picture shows both horses, the cream-coloured one still watching me whilst the chestnut had just lifted his head up from grazing.


Not amazing pictures, but a nice record of some friendly animals on the farm.

Background colours in flower photography

I recently tried experimenting with different background colours for photographing close-ups of flowers. I mostly use black card as a background which works with most flowers by providing good contrast with the tones in the flower.

In this exercise, I used different coloured card to see the differences and how well they work. I used a Christmas Cactus flower as it is one of the few bright flowers actually flowering at this time of the year.

1) The reference shot - black card



2) A bright turquoise card - the colour has not reproduced well and it doesn't work well with the colour of the flower.



3) A pale grey gives a washed-out look



4) A darker, more pure blue - not too bad



5) Green, but it doesn't work with this colour of flower.



6) This is actually a yellow card, but does provide good contrast.



7) This bright red is certainly distinctive...



Hmmm....
The card colour does not reproduce well. Unexpected combinations can work in the right circumstances. I quite like the way the yellow showed up as green.

This exercise has persuaded me to experiment more when I do more flower photography.

Pictures by Moonlight

One of my activities is writing articles for magazines and supporting them with photographs. I am in the process of submitting an article on taking photographs by moonlight to a UK photography magazine (if anyone else is interested in this, please contact me).

Before submitting, I decided to re-take a few of the photographs so, yesterday evening, I ventured out into the cold to take some more pictures. Below I show some of the results (these do not form part of the current article). They are all taken on a clear bright night with a full moon:

This first photograph is of the view from my garden overlooking village of Tregaron in the valley and the Cambrian Mountains in the background. The moon is out of the picture to the top left.



The second picture shows the farmhouse. You can see from the shadows that the moon is behind me to the right.




This third image was taken early this morning well before sunrise. The moon is now to the west, behind the camera and to the right. You will see that there is the first sign of dawn lightening the sky - the camera has picked this up but it was not apparent when I took the photo.


As you can see, the whole tonal quality is different to a daylight image.

These were all taken with a small compact digital camera, not a SLR.

Not an inspiring day

Today, like the rest of this week, the weather has been calmer than much of January. This morning it was dull and slightly misty. When I went out for my lunchtime walk along the prom at Aberystwyth, I took my small digital compact camera with me to see if I could be inspired.

The weather was not inspiring. It was still dull, overcast and misty - you could hardly see where the sea and sky meet. I went to my usual spot at the north end by the groyne that I have photographed unsuccessfully so many times before - Here are the results:-

The groyne from the northern side looking northwest:



The groyne from the southern side:



Looking in southerly direction along the beach:



Like the weather - Dull!