This is one from October last year. I spent about an hour skulking around in this graveyard as the sun set, avoiding opprobrious glances from passersby. This was a shot I didn’t think too much of at the time, but I just came across it and rather like it (especially if you look at the larger view)
Technical info: ISO 100, f/23, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
Posted in architecture, hdr, skies.
The Newtown Linford entrance of Bradgate Park in Leicestershire is packed with stuff to point the camera at. The difficult bit is getting there when the light is right, because it’s in a pretty tight valley, and you don’t get good light for long.
This was taken on an afternoon out with Andy, who got this lovely shot at about the same time.
I relied on the wonderful water repelling abilities of my crazily high hiking boots, and stood in the middle of the stream with my tripod to fire this off. I like it’s dreamy quality - I don’t get enough pictures of nice water, really… I always find it hard to think of where there are streams nearby. Must go out with that in mind more often.
Technical info: ISO 100, f/16, trpod, 3 shot HDR process in photomatix
I go camping every year with some friends, and we found a gorgeous campsite near Chepstow, right next to Offa’s Dyke, a great frontier earthwork built by Offa, King of Mercia from 757 to 796 A.D.
It’s a splendid campsite with an honesty box, looking out over a gorgeous wooded valley. I wouldn’t be surprised if we return next year.
We had a great time, and I earned the mockery of my campmates by taking my camera along and getting up at dawn with my tripod to take pictures of the site.
Later on, I redeemed myself by getting this picture of Little Dave failing to catch a ball in quite a spectacular fashion:
Pic 1 Technical info: iso 200, f/11, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
Pic 2 Technical info: iso 200, f/4.5, 1/800s, handheld
On the one hand, this image is sickmakingly saccharine, but on the other… the colours are nice and I like the odd composition. It’s me and Ali, at the top of Helvellyn (the third highest mountain in England) this February.
We had to climb along Striding Edge to get there:
Which for a man who doesn’t like sheer drops, was a somewhat eye opening experience. I was crawling across it like Gollum, whilst Ali virtually skipped along. We then had to contend with a 45 degree (or more - bloody steep anyway) slope covered in snow with a cliff behind us to get up to the very top. It’s a miracle I didn’t just crouch down and start rocking to and fro like a mentalist.
Summit pic: iso 400, f/17, 1/1000s, handheld.
Striding Edge: iso 400, f/17, handheld 3 short HDR processed with photomatix pro.
Posted in lake district, landscape.
There are lots of nice old bridges like this on the stretch of canal between Loughborough and Barrow. If you go down on a weekday, it’s common to travel the whole stretch without seeing another person, which is always a joy.
Loughborough itself isn’t the most attractive of towns, so it’s gratifying to be able to escape into some proper countryside with about 10 minutes cycling.
Technical info: iso 100, f/22, tripod, 9-shot HDR processed in photomatix pro.
One from my recent holiday in Saint Ives, Cornwall. I got my feet a bit wet when taking this one, but I think it was worth it.
Technical info: iso 100, f/32, tripod, 3 shot HDR processed in photomatix pro
Manifold Valley is a lush green valley near Ashbourne, Derbyshire. You can park in a village called Wetton (near a good pub) and walk down a track to Thor’s Cave - an awesome cave overlooking the whole thing. Me and my friend Chris went down there to take some pictures, and oddly this simple tree turned out to be the nicest one. You never can tell.
Technical info: iso 100, f/17, tripod - 3 shot HDR processed with photomatix pro.
Photomatix Pro is the HDR software I use to process all my HDR pictures - it’s great, and they’ve agreed to give me a 15% discount code to pass onto you all.
The discount code is DanNorcott, and you type it into the ‘Coupon code’ box of the order page, which can be found here (click ‘purchase’ at the top, then choose the version you want):
If you’re interested in HDR photography, I can heartily recommend it - it’s enabled me to take pictures that would have been impossible without, and it’s a breeze to use.
Make sure you click “recalculate”, and you should see the discount appear.
Photomatix seems to be the HDR software of choice for people really serious about HDR photography. Whilst others are available, none seem to match Photomatix for simply and flexibly enancing your digital photography - pictures like the one below would be a real pain to produce without it.
If you’re just going to try out one piece of HDR software, I’d absolutely recommend it. You can batch process piles of images to save time, output individual HDR images in various formats and tweak the results until the cows come home. Read my hdr tutorial if you need help getting to grips with it.
HDR is one of those things that you can get results with in a few minutes, but takes a lot longer to master. When you first play with your HDR software, you will probably be impressed with the results, but looking back on them as you grow in expertise you will see the flaws. It’s worth putting the time in to become familiar.
As I mentioned above, I’ve got a hdr tutorial, and you can browse my gallery of hdr photography to see what I can do, and try to do better!
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 couldn’t resist this shot - the lights on the water and the colours were almost too good to be true.
This building in on the Seine in the middle of Paris, between the Eiffel Tower and the Isle de Cite. I didn’t know at the time that it was a department store - I should go in next time, it’s an amazing looking building.
This picture was taken from the top of some steps leading down to the bank of the river, whilst I was being jostled by a constant stream of drunken revellers from the music festival on that weekend.
Techincal info: iso 100, f/22, tripod, 3 shot HDR combined in photomatix pro.
Posted in architecture, bridges, hdr.
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