Looking at – and seeing – the world
April 11, 2018 6 Comments
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Three parked cars.
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Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 320 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film preset; rotated; Bedminster, Bristol; 8 Nov 2017.
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March 25, 2018 12 Comments
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A second look at the trees reflected in the lake in the Priddy Mineries Reserve. Rather than viewing them at an angle along the lake’s shore as I did in the previous image (3, below), I’m using a longer telephoto here to look straight at them from the other side of the lake, and this version omits the bright blue reflection of the clear sky.
Once again, the rising sun is lighting up the rising ground behind the lake shore, and the reflection of this colouration is seen in the shot’s foreground. Just above the centre of the shot is the lower ground along the lake’s shore, which has yet to be illuminated by the sun, and which is receiving its light from the clear blue sky. The reflection in the lake of this band of colour is seen just below the image’s centre.
Context from this shoot is here: 3 . Other photos are here: 1 2 .
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Provia/Standard film simulation; Priddy Mineries Reserve, on the Mendip Hills, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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March 24, 2018 11 Comments
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The Priddy Mineries Nature Reserve is found on the Mendip Hills, south of Bristol. It is an area of open ground made rugged by lead mining, and it includes a small lake. I’ve done quite a bit of photography here over the past 15 years, including recently on a very cold, early morning.
Other images from this early morning shoot, already posted, are here: 1 2 .
What is this image looking at? Well, I am standing on one side of the small lake, looking across it towards some small, bare trees on the opposite shore. The sun is just rising behind me, and the lower parts of the trees and the ground around them are still in shadow but, above the shadow, the golden, low angle sunlight is bathing both the upper parts of the trees and the pale brown vegetation on the hillside behind.
It is a very still morning, with barely a ripple on the lake’s surface, and this liquid mirror is reflecting the hillside’s warm, sunlit browns, the bright blue of the clear sky, and the trees’ upper branches.
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 106mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Astia/Soft film simulation; Priddy Mineries Reserve, on the Mendip Hills, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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March 11, 2018 11 Comments
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A view eastwards across Chew Valley Lake, just before sunrise.
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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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March 9, 2018 10 Comments
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I left home before dawn on a very frosty morning and ended up, just after sunrise, in the Priddy Mineries nature reserve on the top of the Mendip Hills. To say it was cold is vast understatement, and much of the small lake on the reserve was iced over. The sun was just rising above the horizon, and its nearly horizontal rays illuminated the reeds around the water’s edge.
I metered for the reeds, to catch their golden glow. Below them are their reflections in the still water, and the pale bluish rafts of ice – not yet illuminated by the sun but floating above the water’s dark depths.
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 400 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Priddy Mineries Reserve, on the Mendips, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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March 2, 2018 14 Comments
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Female Mallard, a common duck species, swimming.
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; image rotated; Herons Green, Chew Valley Lake, Somerset; 16 Feb 2018.
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December 27, 2017 16 Comments
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Apartments beside the river.
Turning this image onto its side makes it more abstract, as do the reflections. The combination of blue and orange gets to me.
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Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; rotated 90 degrees clockwise; opposite Welsh Back, central Bristol; 15 Dec 2017.
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December 2, 2017 10 Comments
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Left to right, a Little Egret and two Great White Egrets – three herons – processed with Silver Efex Pro 2.
And good news! Google acquired Silver Efex Pro 2 (and the other Nik Collection plug-ins) sometime back, but had ceased developing them and was plainly losing interest. The situation has (hopefully!) now been saved by DxO, who have acquired these plug-ins from Google, apparently with a view to further developing them. I’m very happy with SEP2 and Color Efex Pro 4 as they are, and so just knowing that they’re not going to disappear will be a big thing.
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Technique: the X-T2 firing at 200 ISO, and really quite a tribute to what this APS-C format camera can achieve with distant subjects. X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 305mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Strong Infrared Low Contrast preset; Capture NX2; Herons Green Bay, Chew Valley Lake; 24 Nov 2017.
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November 21, 2017 11 Comments
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After a cold night, still icy in the shadows.
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Technique: TG-5 at 70mm (equiv); 160 ISO; Lightroom, using the Camera Vivid film simulation; Hart’s Bakery, Temple Meads, Bristol; 8 Nov 2017.
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October 20, 2017 16 Comments
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Seating in a bus shelter – the narrow and tilted seats, with intervening arm rests, that are designed to make it impossible for homeless people to sleep on them.
The first post in this series on chairs, which contains context and an image, can be found here. Subsequent posts are here: 2 3 4 5
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Technique: Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equivalent); 200 ISO; converted to mono with Silver Efex Pro 2, using the Silhouette preset; Bristol; 24 Apr 2013.
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