Project 2013 - Weekly Photos

[Brownbear]

Also very beautiful. Makes one long for a visit!

[Cantab]

Same shooting position but a different angle which shows more of the general landscape instead of concentrating on the sheep.

I really like this second view, possibly because it places less emphasis on the trees on the other side of the hedgerow. They're quite dominant in the first photo. Thanks for sharing.

[Bobobird]

I like both of the latest set. Nicely done.

[Geoff F]

Thanks for the positive comments.


Week 22 - Field of Gold

This field of buttercups looked stunning. But how to photograph it without losing the impact?



After trying several angles I finally decided to try this shot where there was a gorse bush, also with yellow flowers, to add a bit of foreground interest.

7D with Canon 24-105 L lens 1/100 F14 Iso 200.

Finally added a little bit of Local Contrast Enhancement selectively applied to a layer to give a little punch to the foreground without overdoing the trees.

I always find this sort of scene difficult to photograph.

[Letrow]

What I did on a similar place was get closer to the buttercups using a wide angle lens. Ive put it in my own Project 2013 thread here.

Getting low helps with these shots.

[Geoff F]

I was kneeling down when shooting, Peter, but the field is on a fairly steep slope.

Tried some closer focusing but rejected those shots.

At the same site again today so I tried some different angles, including closer focus; but once again I quickly rejected those.

This time I shot from the other side, looking down the slope and with a bit more landscape in the distance.

Used various tripod heights but found somewhere around 4 ft seemed to work best. Shot from many different positions but think this angle which was diagonally across the field and showing a path through the buttercups seems the best.

Shot mostly at F14 and increased the Iso to 800 for some shots (like this one) to cope with wind movement on the flowers and trees. Manual focus.



Still not quite what I had in mind though. It was a sunny day but the distant sky has come out a bit on the grey side.

[Geoff F]

Week 23 - From My Garden

Haven't done much photography this week. A little bit of bug hunting then a couple of days recording memories of our older citizens for the local history society.

And a strong wind also reduced enthusiasm.

So today, a couple of quick shots from my garden on a grey day.

I grew this plant from seeds 3 years ago (this was the only germination) and it is starting to flower well now. But a strange plant with iris like flowers on the top of 4 ft stems.

Moraea huttonii apparently it originates from the higher ground of South Africa.



1/160 F14 Iso 200 7D with 24-105 lens flash used on tripod.

Another angle without flash.



1/200F11 Iso 400.

A little bit of technical kit which may be of interest to anyone who photographs flowers outside and suffers from wind problems (on the flower stems that is).

Available from all good hardware stores.



A while I was in the garden, some totally different and more useful flowers.



I switched to my Sigma 180 mm macro lens for this shot. With flash. A merge of 2 shots with different focus positions.

[Bobobird]

Beautiful set of flowers in the last set.

Interesting kit there.

[Geoff F]

Week 24 - Foiled

I originally designed this bird table to exclude crows and wood pigeons.

Somebody living nearby has started keeping ornamental pigeons which are smaller than wood pigeons so they started raiding my birdtable and eating uneconomical amounts of my birdseed. I have seen 6 of them queuing up to feed; and that works out as a lot of seed over a week!

At the moment, this table modification seems to be excluding them but still allowing wild birds like blackbirds and anything smaller to still feed.

[Cantab]

An interesting structure! Do you have problems with squirrels feeding on the bird seed? We have a non-native grey squirrel which is a real problem with bird feeders (and attics).

My initial reaction on seeing the two pigeons was that they were decoy pigeons but, after reading your comments, realized that they're presumably some of your neighbouring pigeons.

[Geoff F]

No serious problems with grey squirrels, Bruce. On the odd occasion I have seen one on the bird table but they mostly keep to the woodland.

A few years ago I had a cat (ex farm cat) who managed to kill a squirrel and drag it in through the cat flap!

I originally designed a couple of bird feeders (slightly different designs) where the seed is retained in a wire feeding tube to prevent larger creatures quickly gobbling up everything.

This one has a lift off top. The top space can be used for feeding kitchen scraps to gulls and crows etc.

I tried to create a 'Greek Temple' effect with the design. The thin band of wood half way up the 'columns' is the new 'large bird filter' but it does spoil the overall appearance.

Depending on the outcome of this trial of intelligence (pigeons versus me) I will have to eventually produce something different.

[Geoff F]

Week 25 - Orchids and Iris

Another day of dull skies at the wildlife site!

Not much insect life so tried a few wildflowers. At least there wasn't much wind.

Orchids



7D with 24-105 lens on a tripod. 1/100 F11 Iso 400.

A little bit of rearrangement with some of the foreground thick grass but left some in the background to create a more natural look. Possibly I should have removed this as well. Not really sure.

A Pale Orchid.



I now realise the focus depth was a bit shallow as part of the closest petal is a little soft. But I include this photo due to the somewhat unusual petal colour scheme.

Yellow Iris - Iris pseudarcorus



These were just starting to flower in a pond and I was struggling to find a suitable camera angle. Will try again next week. With Sigma 180 macro lens F11 Iso 400.

Yellow Rattle - Rhaninthus minor.

A rather small common wildflower, but I struggled to find a suitable angle to show off the narrow flowers. Eventually went for a side view.



24-105 Lens 1/50 F11 Iso 400

ps. It has been suggested that from some angles these small yellow flowers look like three yellow ducklings!

[Letrow]

Some nice flower photos Geoff. The DOF is very shallow indeed. The difference between your 105mm (in an earlier post) and the 180mm is obvious and so far I like the detail that the 105mm provides better. It's not a big sample though, so curious to see more.

[Geoff F]

Yes, Peter, that 24-105 lens is becoming my first choice for flowers; and it will focus fairly close. But not suitable for those tiny nervous insects. I have managed a few butterflies with it but not much else.

The latest set of flower shots were all fairly rounded flowers which required quite a bit of focus depth. Maybe I should have gone to F16 and used flash, but that was tending to make an unnatural looking background.

If I had been shooting these at home, with no wind movement, I would certainly have taken two shots with different focus points and merged them. Sometimes, I can manage to paste in a bit of sharper material from a second shot even when the images don't line up perfectly.

Maybe something to play around with next time.

Incidentally, I have recently tried photographing a large red cactus flower but haven't been happy with the results so far.

[ggt]

Close-up of the Chalice at Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL.



Thanks for viewing.

Gretchen