SWPP Monthly Competition - Jan 10

For the SWPP Monthly Competition, January 2010, I was awarded 2 Silvers and 11 Bronze merits.

SILVER

Category: Wildlife
Gull swooping

From SWPP Competition

Category: Pictorial
Price's Giant Helter Skelter

From SWPP Competition

BRONZE

For the bronzes and winning entries from previous months please see the album:

SWPP Competition

Sticker designs

After much tinkering in Photoshop I finally settled on a set of sticker designs which I have then had made up into a StickerBook. The stickers are only 22mm by 22mm so the designs needed to be something simple that would work at such a small size.

Here are the set of 5 designs:

They use my 'signature' green colour and the typeface is Ashley, to give an elegant art deco look.

The designs are then printed into a book of 90 stickers...


http://uk.moo.com/en/products/stickers.php

And thanks to a special promotion for SWPP members I enjoyed free postage.

New blog

For those that follow this blog to see my exploits with the OCA you may be interested to check out my new blog for the People and Place photography course. I am including a regular Tips feature which should make it potentially useful to OCA students studying any of the photography courses:

Its already up and going, as usual more followers and comments always welcomed:
http://ocaphotopandp.blogspot.com/

Meanwhile this blog is to continue. My final assignment work for the Landscape course is currently with my tutor and I am compiling my folder for formal assessment later in the year. I will still be posting landscape work here and feature the occasional geocache along with more commercial work, competition results etc.

Seasonal Portfolio, different views

This set of photographs is to show different views grouped by season.

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

The first assignment had been to provide a set of 12 photographs for the current season, in my case spring back in 2009. I used this as a starting point, going on to compile sets of candidate photographs, about a dozen for each of the remaining seasons. Being based in Scotland I was working to a 'standard' 4 season model typical of the temperate climes of Northern Europe. In moving from this to a final selection I then applied a number of stylistic criteria to ensure the set had some cohesion. Of course in some cases it revealed a desire to have taken more images of some subjects but the seasonal nature of this work along with the remoteness of some locations means a quick re-shoot was not an option.

The majority of candidate photographs were taken in landscape orientation and a 3:2 crop ratio so for consistency I decided to stick with these throughout the selection. Colour appeared to be a key feature in many of the images and helped to convey season so I ruled out any black and white conversions.

With the subject matter I found I was drawn to aspects of livestock farming and agriculture so have included at least one such image per season. Following on from Assignment 3 I have also included trees in at least one image per season. I also found I was often drawn to 'intimate' landscapes, getting up closer and losing any sense of horizon so again I included several of this type of image.

As usual click on these thumbnails to see larger versions (with EXIF and location details) and to view as a slideshow:

Spring

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

Summer

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

Autumn

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

Winter

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

Seasonal Portfolio, same view

This set of photographs is to show how the same view changes as seasonal variations occur.

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

For this work it took me a while to settle on my chosen view but I was pleased with my selection as it combined many visual indicators for the seasons, including deciduous trees, mountain tops and a crop field. My original notes on selection of the view and subsequent candidate images can be found at:
http://astbury.blogspot.com/2009/06/landscape-project-15.html

I opted to take the images approx monthly so that I would have some contingency in choice. This proved prudent in that a quarterly visit would have missed some of the transitions with the crop field which changed state much more rapidly. I opted to stop before completing the year as a final selection of images had become straightforward, the spring image is in fact taken during late spring / early summer, the other images nicely fitting with the 'correct' months for their seasons.
I was able to go to the same spot for each shot as it was located on a footpath and I was able to return to the same recognisable part of a fence. However I did find some variation in the shots on position of the horizon and left/right panning. Some post processing cropping was applied to minimise these differences but the images are not exact replicas in their view.

Some consideration was then given to how best to present these images. I started looking at Doug Aitken as I had seen some interesting groupings from his “New Opposition” series as appears in Art Photography Now.

Doug is more of a video artist and I didn't hit upon anything I wanted to use so I moved on, next looking back at the work of Elina Brotherus and images such as Le Nez de Monsieur Cheval from The Photograph as Contemporary Art

I liked the idea of using text with images to help learn a language, such a basic idea that starts with us as children learning from picture cards. Rather than include the text in the image (Elina used Post-It type notes), I didn't want intrude on the images as such so opted for a simple border for the text and using the border colour to reinforce a seasonal colour association. The final images were constructed using Photoshop, text added using the Segoe typeface, akin to handwriting but a sans-serif and easy to read.

For me the 'foreign' languages are the various Scots dialects and Gaelic so I wanted to incorporate the names of the seasons:

• an t-earrach – Spring
• an samhradh – Summer
• am foghar – Autumn
• an geamhradh - Winter 

The English season names are not shown as hopefully this is the obvious element of the images, especially when viewed as a set.

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

From Landscapes Seasonal Portfolio

Landscape Assignment 5, in the style of Godwin

This is the final assignment for the Landscape course. My chosen photographer from Assignment 4 was Fay Godwin and so this assignment followed on directly by aiming to produce a set of 12 photographs in her style. In Assignment 4 I put the emphasis on the work centred on the Land trilogy and so in considering the stylistic elements to be produced here I intended to continue with this area of her work.

I have processed all the images into black & white, sticking with the original 3:2 ratio for some and cropping down to 5:4 for others (noting that Fay won't have cropped in this way but more likely will have used cameras with differing aspect ratios). The images have been given filter effects in post processing, often an orange filter to slightly darken the skies. I have tried not be be too pedantic in this regard so this 'look and feel' treatment, to some extent, is superficial, the main stylistic tie in is however in the subject matter.

Here's the contact sheet:

From OCA Landscapes Assignment 5

The images have been grouped and sequenced by each of the Land trilogy books. I had originally had the idea to select 4 photos to relate to each of the three books but found I had a preference for the images associated with the first and last books (for Our Forbidden Land there was the risk I would just include a set of fences with 'Private' signs attached and I don't think this would have given the subject matter the treatment it would deserve).

I don't think the end result is a set of images that would necessarily be thought by those familiar with her work as having been produced by Fay, rather I have stayed with subjects and compositions that appeal to me and so with this set you get a bit of Fay combined with a bit of me. In this respect I am pleased with the set and find the images personally appealing.

Click below to view the images, as a slideshow or individually...

OCA Landscapes Assignment 5

(Individual image notes are included as caption text)

References and Further Reading

• (images 1 and 3)
  Kilmartin House Museum
  http://www.kilmartin.org/
  
• (image 2)
  Ancient Stones - 038 Boundary Stone, Witch Craig, Torphichen
  http://www.ancient-stones.co.uk/lothian/031/038/details.htm
  
• (images 9 /10)
  Cramond Island – Wikipedia
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cramond_Island
  

Cammo

With all this cold weather and too much time spent inside cabin fever was starting to set in so today we visited Cammo for a walk, for geocaching and to scout the location for future photo shoots.

Cammo house was built for John Menzies in 1693, and the surrounding parkland was laid out between 1710-26 by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676–1755). In 1741, the estate passed to the Watsons of Saughton. The house burned down in the 20th century, and the upper parts were subsequently demolished, leaving only the lower walls and the front doorway. After the fire, the owners gifted the remains of the house and the grounds to the National Trust for Scotland. The City of Edinburgh Council now maintain the grounds and operate a ranger service.

The obvious landmark at Cammo is the old water tower:

From Cammo

It is chained and padlocked but someone has lifted the entrance gate off its hinges:

From Cammo

And the view inside:

From Cammo

Looking back to the tower from the stable block:

From Cammo

And the front aspect of the now ruined stable block, which dates to around 1811:

From Cammo

Cammo House itself suffered from fire and was subsequently part demolished with just small fragments remaining:

From Cammo

From Cammo

One of several wooden benches that can be found in the parkland:

From Cammo

Read more about Cammo:

• GCHHBB Cammoflaged on Geocaching.com
• 030 Standing Stone, Cammo, Edinburgh
• Cammo on Wikipedia

Frozen over

When I think of a frozen lake I perhaps think of something like the well known painting of Rev. Dr. Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch, "The Skating Minister" by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter and so this study, dating from the 1790s, is a little unusual for him, drawing upon the landscape genre for its context, what would now be termed environmental portraiture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skating_Minister

The reality for the photographer is that there is very little skating on frozen lakes and potential danger in doing so. This is how Linlithgow Loch appeared recently, who would trust the thickness of the ice to walk (or skate) out to this frozen boat:

From Linlithgow

But its not just the lochs that freeze over, the canal suffers the same fate, in the absence of any skaters here are some of the boats around the Union Canal and Linlithgow Canal Basin (click to view album):

Union Canal

(The Union Canal is a 31.5 mile, 50.7 km, contour canal in Scotland, from Lochrin Basin, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to Falkirk, where it meets the Forth and Clyde Canal.)

Read More

The Thames Frozen Over

River Thames Frost Fairs

Orlando

BBC News: Two held after canal drive

Snowy negative space

So what is negative space?

Put simply positive space is where shapes and forms exist; negative space is the empty space around shapes and forms. Areas of a photograph that contain "nothing" are important visual elements that provide balance in an image.


So lets look at some examples

These examples have been inspired by the recent snowy weather.

From Scottish Landscapes

See how the large areas of snow emphasise the remoteness of this farmhouse. The fence and track from left side and left bottom corner provide lead in lines to direct the eye.

From Scottish Landscapes

Changing from 80 to 45mm allows the trees to be included to frame the image but note that negative space has been retained, here a 'C' shape of snow surrounding the farmhouse.


Negative space can be applied to close up shots as well:

From Scottish Landscapes

From Scottish Landscapes

Figure-ground reversal

From Scottish Landscapes

This image was inspired by the idea of figure-ground reversal. The image was shot into the sun to silhoutte the figure on the brow of the hill, the image was converted to black and white (orthochromatic conversion), inverted and blacks level adjusted.

Further reading on negative space and figure-ground reversal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space

Most popular posts

You will see I have added a new link section on the right hand side for direct links to the Most Popular Posts on this blog site.

Back in September I added Google Analytics to this blog to see what gets looked at and when, and from this to see what is trending and what has consistent interest. Using the data to the end of 2009 I have been able to easily pick out 4 posts which have regular viewings and these now have direct links.

Of course I am aware that in providing these links this may drive more traffic to those posts, 'artificially' making them appear even more popular.

These links are in addition to the Google Search box and labelling which will remain.

2009 by the numbers

For a bit of fun I typically look back at my image data for the year and see what I might conclude. Below are some graphs drawn from 2009 data and accompanied by a few comments by way of interpretation.

(NB summary image data has been gathered via Lightroom and processed using OpenOffice Calc)

Chinese proverb:

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

Some slices of pie

• Not surprisingly most images are taken in Scotland. Family visits account for images in England and NI. Images taken in Wales are due to a wedding shoot I had down there.
• I managed to get hold of the Canon flagship body, the 5D II, back in January. The full sesnor is stunning and the 40D was relegated to backup and high speed work (it can manage 6.5 fps).
• It seems like I have about a 2/3 to 1/3 split in favour of landscape orientation.

Glassware

• This shows I have a preference for the flexibility of zooms with the 24-105 L IS f4 being used the most and with the legendary 70-200 L IS f2.8 bringing up the rear.
• Of the primes the 50mm f1.4 is the most used. It offers stunning image quality and can be combined with close up lenses and extension tubes.
• The 100-300 is light weight so makes a good telephoto when I need to fly with my gear but image quality is poor compared with the 70-200.
• The x2 indicates the use of a teleconverter to give a 140-400mm range, useful for wildlife but difficult to keep steady.
• Extension tubes strictly speaking are not lenses and hence provide no EXIF lens data so I am unable to say how often these have been used.
• The 10-20 zoom is a small sensor lens and with limited image quality. On the wish list for 2010 is the 17-40 L f4 wide angle zoom.
  

ISO

• ISO 100, being the native ISO on both bodies, delivers the highest image quality and so not surprisingly is my preference. It is also therefore the value of choice for stock images.
• Although I have a large expanded range available 100, 200 and sometimes 400 cover most requirements.
• ISO 50 is handy when I want a longer exposure, say when photographing water but use of ND filters gives more control.
  

Exposure Settings

• The more extreme values such as f1.4 and f32 are only available on some lenses.
• I don't own anything faster than an f1.4 lens as they tend to be very expensive.
• Smaller than about f16 diffraction starts to become a factor so images tend not to be any sharper.
• Somewhere in the middle of the range tends to be the 'sweet spot' for most lenses, minimizing aberrations, pin cushioning etc.
• f8 and 1/100s seem to be the most common values used.
• The 5D II max flash sync speed is 1/200 with the 40D offering 1/250
• For exposures longer than 30 seconds I use the Timer Control unit
  

Known unknowns

Donald Rumsfeld:

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns

• As mentioned above I don't have data about how many shot were taken using extension tubes as its not part of the regular EXIF information.
• I don't know how many shots were taken with flash. This is recorded in EXIF if its a direct hot shoe attachment (not common for me to do this due to the flat lighting it creates) or attached via a TTL lead but studio flash triggered by synch cable or radio trigger is not recorded.
  

I could go on cutting and dicing the data in different ways but hope this limited selection has proved of some interest.

Snowy scenes in different lighting

As the snow persists I have had the chance to get out with a camera several times and to shoot snow in different lighting conditions.

Snow with Overcast Lighting

This first sequence, taken at Kinneil House and surrounding woodlands, was shot on an overcast day. I have concentrated on black and white images, looking for patterns and contrasts. Colour has been 'injected' in a couple of the images by toning during post processing. Long exposures are ideal for flowing water from now melting if you can find a waterfall or water cascade.

Click to see the album set with option of slideshow:

Kinneil

Snow with Sunny Lighting

By contrast these images, taken at Linlithgow around the Loch and Royal Palace, were done on a sunny day, with the sun low in the sky providing good illumination and distinct shadows. The low angle of the sun ensured excellent lighting for the crests over the portal to the Royal Palace (maintained by Historic Scotland).

Click to see the album set with option of slideshow:

Linlithgow

Tips for snowy shooting

• If using in-camera metering remember to make an exposure compensation to stop whites appearing gray. +1 EV is a good starting point but for very snowy scenes as much as +2 EV may be required. However also be aware of highlight clipping.
• If not shooting raw then take care with white balance, auto may leave a colour cast. A slight blue cast may in fact be desirable, to add to that cold look, but don't over do it.
  
• Batteries don't last as long in the cold, you may need a spare, which should be kept in an inside pocket for warmth.
• Keep yourself warm and dry, dress for the conditions
  
• If you don't want the snow spoilt by footprints and tracks then get out early in the morning or just after it has finished snowing. If you are too late then lookout for animal tracks and interesting patterns.
• When returning home water droplets can condense on the cold camera, to reduce this leave the camera in its bag for a while to warm up before taking it out.
  

Snowy pics

We have had fantastic snow up here so today I managed to get out with the camera and record some of it.


First up was my regular monthly shot for my Landscape Project 15, I have been updating that post most months, to see the set so far, including today's, please check out:
http://astbury.blogspot.com/2009/06/landscape-project-15.html


And here are some landscape views of the area:

From Bo'ness

From Bo'ness

From Bo'ness

And some snowy trees:

From Bo'ness

From Bo'ness

Winter Wonderland

Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens are playing host to a winter wonderland. This provided a great opportunity for some low light and night photography to record the spectacle.

Here are a set of photos taken as the sun dropped and darkness progressed, starting with hand held, progressing up the ISO range and then finally long tripod based exposures:

Hand held at 200 ISO

The National Gallery:

From Architecture in Scotland

From Architecture in Scotland

This snow covered bronze is a relief of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile and surrounding area:

From Scottish Landscapes

And here's a view looking up to Edinburgh Castle, silhouetted against the evening sky:

From Scottish Landscapes

And wider angle showing the Ross Fountain:

From Scottish Landscapes

Hand held at 800 ISO

As the light fell the big wheel started to really stand out but with the number of people about setting up a tripod close by wasn't going to be an option so I upped the ISO and carried on hand-held:

From Architecture in Scotland

Merry-go-round (at 1/20th s, with IS turned on):

From Architecture in Scotland

Price's Giant Helter skelter:

From Architecture in Scotland

Hand held at 1600 ISO

Waverley Station and North Bridge:

From Architecture in Scotland

Tripod at 100 ISO

By getting further back it was possible to set the tripod up without getting in too many peoples way.

Big Wheel at 1.6s:

From Architecture in Scotland

Big Wheel at 5s:

From Architecture in Scotland