Mooch Around Hurstwood Woods

 

Tedster and I took a mooch along to Hurstwood Woods this morning/early afternoon. Enjoyed part sunshine and cloud although it was chillier than I'd realised and I could have done with an extra layer on under the fleece.

Took the M50 and 18-150mm lens along, beginning to think the 15-45mm kit lens focuses better, unless somehow I'm getting it wrong occasionally. Might have to try the 18-135mm STM on it using the adapter ring and see what that's like.

This is Tedster along one of the more wooded paths, as this week's family photo challenge is all things wood (trees, bark, tree knots et al) I thought a trip to the woods might prove fruitful. Kept trying to catch the rays of sun streaking through the trees but it kept dipping behind the clouds so there was much waiting to be done.

Tedster is sporting his latest new pair of knitted trousers, from a seller on eBay who I'm pretty sure made the others he has. These are grey, obviously, and I also bought a chocolate brown. These are to go with the other blue, green and cream ones he already has. A different lady makes the jumpers, which are awesome, but she appears to have only made them in the colours I've already bought, so no new sweaters any time soon ;-) The trouble is Tedster is a small bear compared to the plethora of clothing made for the more traditional Build-A-Bear size teddy. Something which limits purchasing items for his wardrobe somewhat, especially now that Build-A-Bear no longer do the Small Frys/ Buddies clothing for their smaller characters. Fortunately I purchased quite a few (a lot) from eBay before they started to dwindle in the UK so he's not hard up for clothes ;-) 

More Twirling

 

This is another twirl based upon an image taken of some artificial flowers whilst playing with some prime lenses and extension tubes.

Love this technique, especially now that I have a PS action to save me having to remember the steps!

It usually produces a symmetrical image, something I find more pleasing, but I can choose to either skip that step, or let it run and switch off the layer afterwards.

It produces a total abstract image and you would never know the original image apart from the colour scheme.

In fact this is the original image, not bad for fake flowers ;-)

Vintage Bottles

 Been buying some vintage bottles from eBay for some photography given I couldn't find any in town last week whilst I was there to have my first Covid-19 jab.

Not purchased from eBay in well over a year, unsure why given I'm currently home all the time for deliveries ;-) Anyhoo found these dark blue medicine bottles and a set of four coloured glass bottles...

Which have a somewhat distressed look to the outside coatings - this makes for more interesting photos. Used some two tone material in the pop-up tent and spent most of the morning snapping away ;-)

Used the 77D and the 50mm and 60mm lenses with a combination of extension tubes to get all manner of piccies.

1st Covid-19 Jab!

 

So, Saturday 20th March and had my first Covid-19 jab at the Pentagon Centre Hub. Not too enamoured with the 55min queue standing up, for a 5min sit down, chat and jab, made my back ache incessantly when I got home. Still I got my sticker :-)

Next one is already pre-booked for another Saturday afternoon, same place and time, 5th June. By the time it kicks in I should be all good to go for any holiday time off. Should hopefully make the bus journeys a little less worrying!

Despite my reservations regarding how this pandemic has been dealt with I cannot fault the vaccine creation or roll-out. For once something seems to be going our way!

Local Walk - In the Rain & Hail!

 So thought I would take some daily fresh air and exercise in the local field this afternoon, one of my local haunts during this extended Lockdown.

Took the mobile along as usual and today thought I would see what I could grab snap wise as I trudged around in the long grass and mud ;-)

This is a wide angle shot taken looking right down towards the far end and the looming rain clouds. Had hoped that as the weather looked brighter behind me that the rain was moving away from me but sadly not! As I approached the end of this field, having stopped along the way to take some photos, the heavens opened and the rain fell. I scooted up inside the surrounding woodland just a little way to afford me some shelter, just as well as the rain rapidly morphed into hail! Geez I didn't think it was THAT cold! So stayed in my hidey hole until it eased off before venturing back out and continuing with my walk. Unfortunately I didn't make it home in the dry, on the return journey I got quite wet as yet more rail/hail fell and this time no hidey holes. So much so that I had to hang my coat over the airer and dry off my gloves and trousers :-( My shoulder bag is still hanging up in the airing cupboard!

Love this photo though, been experimenting with some new techniques in Lightroom with regards to Profiles and the Calibration tab, wasn't quite sure whether it would work on the phone shots as they tend to have a mind of their own at times, but this came out really well. The aim is to try and garner some consistency and the Calibration technique really does lend some pop to the images.

More Daffs!

 Thought I should take some proper photos of the daffs before they started to die away so took them up to the studio and dug out my 77D and nifty fifty. Ended up at F2.5 for most of the shots, I like this one as proof that there were some traditional yellow daffs amongst the bunch, although they seemed more reluctant to properly open out.

Used the new tripod and even did that zoom in thing to focus in Live View just to ensure it was focusing on the stamens. Well the shorter group anway!

Really like the shallow DoF from this lens, I don't use it very often as on an APS-C DSLR it's a tad too close when you're out and about, I have to keep backing up and sometimes there's nowhere to back up to. So it's not a goto lens for walking out, but it does produce wonderful dreamy images like this.

Glad I tackled these yesterday, the yellow ones are already going crispy ;-)

Happy Flowers!

 

So these are my happy flowers, all gradually coming out to bloom - bought for me by Carole as a thankyou for taking the photos for her various virtual floral competitions.

Two different varieties and they are certainly lifting the gloom of what is currently miserable weather outside again after a cracking day of sunshine yesterday.

Really liking the white and orange ones, they make a good contrast to the more traditional yellow which is what I normally buy and associate with the word daffodil, although there are 13,000 varieties split into around a dozen different groups - wow didn't expect it to be that many 😱

I always think of them as my happy flowers because they are so simplistic and a real sign that Spring is here. They adorn many a road side and garden (sadly not mine) and I look forward to the hope that they bring at this time of year - especially this year.

Spring Time!

So took myself out for a very local walk, literally just up the footpath to Horsted Park where there's a small kind of nature reserve now, that used to be part of the old Horsted Farm. Uber quiet and definitely signs of Spring coming in the form of this blossom and buds already forming on other trees. A short hop along the road to the traffic island to photograph the crocuses and daffodils and back home for a nice bowl of soup with bread for lunch 😋 All in all a good couple of hours out in the fresh air to lift one's spirits. 

Woodland Walk

So this Saturday Tedster and I headed along to Hurstwood Woods with the M50 in hand to take some snaps. A nice sunny, bright day and whilst it was reasonably busy with families, dog walkers and the odd cyclist there was plenty of space for everyone.

This photo is of a higher path that I reached by going up some steps in the bank just as you start to move from the field area into the woodland proper. Been experimenting in Lightroom (LR) with some profiles and other basic settings to try and create some sort of style. Also watched a really good video on YouTube which explains the use of the calibration panel to add "magic" to one's images.

Now I have used the calibration panel before in conjunction with the HSL panel to replicate the channel swapping for faux colour infrared photos taken on my converted compacts. But even then most of the desired effect has been garnered more by judicious tweaking than any profound knowledge of how calibration works on the colours within an image. However this little trick certainly seems to add a little something. Overall, at the moment, I quite like the combination I have created and indeed used it for the day's editing. It's trying to find something to help link one's images together, make them more cohesive. 

I love the idea of the cinematic grading, especially the teal/orange combination, but trying to make something like that work all the time is quite hard. And I guess the downside to a "style" of editing is that it then limits one's creativity. I have several presets within LR that I love to use and wonder if they will still work with what I have generated so far? Certainly from a purely software point of view there is no reason why not, LR profiles are separate to the sliders and so layering presets on top isn't a problem. No the question is more whether it will work from an aesthetic point of view? Probably only one way to find out...

But best left to my long weekends. Sat up too late last night playing around and woke up feeling weary ;-)