CHEW LAKE 25 – THE VIEW EAST, ACROSS THE LAKE (MONO)

 

 

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Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – certainly recommended.

Technique: Z 6 with 70-300 Nikkor lens at 300mm; 800 ISO;  Lightroom, starting at the Camera Graphite profile; Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 7 Dec 2020.
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CHEW LAKE 24 – JUST BEFORE SUNRISE

 

 

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A view eastwards across Chew Valley Lake, just before sunrise.

Click onto the image to open another version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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CHEW LAKE 23 – SIX DUCKS

 

 

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Six ducks, Tufted Ducks if I remember correctly, swimming towards me from shadows, just before sunrise.

Technique: both the X-T1 and X-T2 have large and very usable Electronic Viewfinders (EVF).  Here I set the X-T2 to spot metering, and moved the metering spot around the frame until the EVF showed me an effect I liked, when I locked the exposure via the AE-L button.  Then, with the exposure locked, I framed the image as I wanted it and fired.  This is certainly not total reality as it appeared at the time, but rather my interpretation of it – and a technique where EVFs really come into their own.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window, and click onto that image to enlarge it further.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Herons Green Bay, Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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CHEW LAKE 22 – SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW

 

 

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Sunlight on bushes and grass in the dense thickets around Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 29 Sept 2015.

Not a lot visible, and quite a lot softly focused – more an impression of light and shadow than an image rich in informative detail.

And, of course, not reflecting exterior reality, but rather the frequently fleeting, interior realities of my mind.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO.
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CHEW LAKE 21 – THE VIEW EAST IN HERONS GREEN BAY (MONO)

 

 

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This image is best viewed at larger size: click onto it to have it open in a separate window.

Looking out eastwards across Herons Green Bay, to the low hills that surround Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 27 July 2011.

I was looking through some old pictures and found this, which has never seen the light of day (or should that be the light of the Net?) before. 

I know the scene well – and especially that dead tree –  but can’t recall taking this at all.  Its most probably been processed in SEP, but I have no record of the details.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 800 ISO; Silver Efex Pro, probably.
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CHEW LAKE 20 – HAZEL AND REEDS

 

 

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Hazel shoots beside reeds; Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 15 May 2015.

A spring morning, and young hazel shoots rise up from the drier ground beside one of the lake’s fringing reed beds.

The glowing greens of the young leaves are really the thing here, and so a shallow depth of focus reduces the reeds’ hard linear shapes to the softest of dark, streaked blurs.

Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 400 ISO.
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CHEW LAKE 19 – FENCE POST (MONO)

 

 

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Fence around the edge of the reservoir at Herons Green, Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 6 Apr 2015.

I thought about restoring the colour to the little plant – is it a lichen??? – but ended up deciding that it would be a distraction.

There is another image of this fence here (although you’d never know it from the post’s title!).

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset.
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CHEW LAKE 18 – MIST LIFTING, HERONS GREEN 6 (MONO)

 

 

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Railings bordering the lake, silhouetted by the rising sun; 6 Apr 2015.

Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window.

Other images in this series are here: one, two, three, four, five.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 240mm; 200 ISO; +0.7EV; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Low Key 2 preset.
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CHEW LAKE 17 – MIST LIFTING, HERONS GREEN 5

 

 

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A pair of Tufted Ducks in Herons Green Bay, as the mist lifts; 6 Apr 2015.

The male (drake) Tufted Duck is on the left; his little tuft or crest can just be seen sticking out from the back of his head if you click onto this image to enlarge it.

I rarely use software presets with images if the presets take everything out of my control and just produce “a look”.  But I like the look of this “look”, if I can put it like that 🙂 , and so here it is.

Click onto the image to see a larger version in a separate window.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 300mm; 200 ISO; +0.7 stops overexposure at capture; Color Efex Pro 4‘s Bleach Bypass preset.
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CHEW LAKE 16 – WOODLAND POOL

 

 

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This image is best viewed and understood when it is enlarged – click onto it to see a larger version in a separate window.

Pool in the woodland at Brook Copse, on the lake’s northeast edge; 15 May 2015.

An abstract and, as often happens, things are not quite what they seem.  The shot’s most easily identifiable elements are the slender tree trunks over on the right, which appear to in their natural, near vertical orientations.  But the picture has been rotated, and these are in fact branches growing much near to the horizontal.  Far less well seen structures over on the left also appear to be growing vertically.

The outlines of the pool’s reflected highlights are another clue.  They are predominantly vertical, which adds to the shot’s other worldliness, but they should be horizontal.

D700 with 70-300 Nikkor at 122mm; 400 ISO; rotated 90 degrees clockwise.
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