Details
A deliberately vague category, to encompass all the shots I take without any overarching context to them - details of things I pick out of a scene.
I’ve just moved house to a little village that has a lot more pleasant surroundings than my old house in Loughborough. I finally had enough time to go out with the camera last night (with Andy and his kids) and found a lovely meadow a few hundred yards from my house. Had a nice few minutes messing around and dodging cowpats - I always enjoy being in meadows, you don’t see that many of them any more.
Technical info: iso 100, f/4.5, 18mm, graduated ND filter to darken sky
Not my usual type of photograph this, but I really like the weird shapes and sensation of movement created by the blur. Just playing with my new lens by taking pot shots at the birds just outside my office window, and caught this little chap just launching off.
Technical info: f/5.6, iso 100, 1/15s, 200mm, handheld.
I was in the mood to take lots of photos today, but the weather’s a bit bland, so I went and bought lots of colourful bits and bobs from tesco to mess about with.
This is my first success of the day. I might upload more later on if I pull anything good out of the bag 
Technical info: iso 100, f/4, 1/60s, tripod, external flash bounced off white wall.
This is at a weir near Pillings Lock, in between Barrow upon Soar and Loughborough. I’ve been playing around recently with two neutral density filters (basically expensive bits of dark plastic that fit into a holder over the lens) to darken everything so I can take long exposure shots during the day. This is a .9 stop filter and a .6 stop filter laid over each other to give me a 1.5 stop filter (or at least I think that’s how it should work).
The result… nice blurry water in the daytime. Huzzah!
Technical info: iso 100, f/23, tripod, 3 shot hdr processed in photomatix pro
Extremely cold and foggy day today - the fog never really lifted all day. I went for a walk up Beacon Hill (the highest hill in Leicestershire, which might sound impressive unless you’ve ever actually been here). I was snapping like mad all the way up, and this is my favourite of the bunch.
At the top of Beacon Hill the grass was actually frozen in a beautifully odd way - I think the mist must have continuously condensed and frozen on the wet side of the grass, causing these odd rectangular shapes to appear:
Technical info #1: iso 200, f/3.5, 1/180s handheld
Technical info #2: ditto.
Had a couple of hours shooting at the St Mary & St John parish church in Rothley, Leicestershire. The only shots I liked enough to keep were the stained glass details, but the colours have come out particularly well I think.
Not sure what this chap’s name is, but he doesn’t look too cheerful. I started out by taking wide angle pics (like I have before) but the church didn’t really lend itself to them - or I was off my game - so I got out my sigma 70-300 and took lots of detail shots instead. Good job my tripod goes up to about 7 foot tall, as it helps to reduce the angle.
Technical info: iso 100, f/11, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
Posted in architecture, details, hdr.
This was one of my first flower experiments, back in 2007 - I’d forgotten all about it until just now. It was taken using natural light in my front room with my macro lens. I tweaked the contrast a bit after the fact to increase the blackness between the petals, and I love the result.
Technical info: iso 100, f/22, 20 second exposure, tripod.
Mooching around Loughborough fair is an odd experience with camera in hand - you are surrounded by interesting imagery but it can be extremely hard to choose what to take photographs of. The result is normally that I end up with lots of poorly composed images of bright lights and rides that don’t really do anything for me.
I snapped this one in a very offhand way as I was forced down a crowded street in the usual surge of fairgoers - something about the simplicity of it pleased me. After cleaning it up a bit and straightening it I found I really liked the result.
Technical details: iso 200, f1.4, 1/750s handheld.
Posted in details.
This was my favourite bit of the stained glass windows I was snapping away at on Saturday. At this point, I was balancing my tripod on three pews, and standing on the backs of them in my socked feet (it felt too wrong to stand on a pew in my shoes - it’s weird for an Atheist to be mucking around unsupervised in a church - you have no idea when you’re committing some sort of sacrelige).
Worth it, though, I think. I love the colours in these shots.
An addendum… when I was taking shots of the altar, I had my new tripod raised up to its highest setting (about 7 foot), and I turned around to look at something, and the whole tripod with new 450d and my favourite sigma 10-20 toppled over and smashed on the flagstones. I was certain at first that both camera and lens were dead - but tried the camera and it seemed OK. The lens was clearly completely broken, so I came home and started to make insurance investigations. I was told to ring back on monday, so I started playing with the lens thinking a photo of its broken body might be an idea - and I tried levering the filter off - and was absolutely astonished to find the rest of the lens was intact. It looked with the filter on like all the lens glass had smashed (and when I shook it, there was loads of rattling) - it turned out that only the filter was broken, and the rattling was just some tiny pieces of filter glass - so thank God, I am saved from spending £320 on a new sigma! W00t!
Technical info: f/11, iso 200, tripod, 3-shot HDR processed in photomatix pro.
Posted in architecture, details, hdr.
I was kindly given permission to take photographs inside The Holy Trinity church in Barrow upon Soar, and spent a joyful hour there this morning snapping away.
At one point, my tripod fell over, smashing my prized sigma 10-20 wide angle lens to pieces, which made me raise my eyebrows somewhat, but I carried on regardless (with another lens). Hopefully I’ll be able to claim that back on the household insurance.
This is my immediate favourite from the shoot - just a simple detail of some stained glass, but I think it’s beautiful. More due to the craftsmanship than my camerawork, no doubt, but there you go.
Technical details: ISO 200, f/11, tripod, 6 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro.
Posted in architecture, details, hdr.
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