Be Excellent To Each Other

Glyndyfrdwy Roadsign by MrDavPaz, on Flickr


River Dee at Llangollen by MrDavPaz, on Flickr


Old Tankers in a siding by MrDavPaz, on Flickr


Neutral Zone by MrDavPaz, on Flickr

I like how you've composed the river shot with the chap at the bottom, DavPaz.

Ah, so that's what they are. I've had loads of these in my garden, particularly crawling about on the barbecue cover, and I didn't know what they were. Thanks.

Thanks man. From the angle I was at, it looked like the whole river was about the crash down on him. Through the lens, anyway

Yeah, it makes it look very powerful. Nice juxtaposition with the guy sitting there quietly and the RIVER OF DOOM CRASHING DOWN.

Your garden should be free of greenfly this summer then.

That seagull.picture is brilliant mark, my favourite in this thread for. While out of a lot of great pictures recently.

Gilly, you're breaking up!

Hope so.

Introduced my two year old granddaughter to a ladybird wandering around on one of the patio chairs yesterday and she was very inquisitive about it, and not phased when I got it to crawl on to her hand. Pity I didn't have a camera nearby at the time.

My 2 (well almost 3) year old daughter likes looking for creepy crawlies with me too. Most of the time she scares them away though

Testing the D300









Must get dad to take my up to chatsworth at some point and get some looked after flowers taken (me mam works there so we have free passes)

I'd shoot these in the early morning or dusk and get some glowing low light on them. They looks a little cold/dull to me.

The buds that are pointing down would work better shot portrait (or even just crop them that way).

It would be nice to see a shot as close as possible to that huge rose bloom, try and fill the frame with it. They look a little lost at that distance and in centre stage.

Right you are o7 I'll pop out again in a few. What is this "early" morning of which you speak?

Don't the kids wake you up then?

I find this time of year (and depending on the position of your garden and how high your fences are ) that around 7pm is good time for a nice warm natural light. And with the sun getting lower the shadows become far more interesting too.

Mess around with your shooting angle too, get some of the buds/blooms from below and above if you can. Maybe get the flowers 'looking' across the frame from the left or right too.

Went back to large rose to find it absolutly full of little bugs.

Would you like to borrow a ladybird?

Those have much more impact, Decca.

Mm, I cannot exagerate how important to photography the evening and early morning hours are. A very expensive camera and lens in flat, dull light will take a worse photo than a cheap one in great light. Also photography in the golden hours will make fairies appear in the leaves, increasing macro opportunities, whilst photography in the glaring brightness of noon will manifest the invisible Monster from the Id, which will knock your tripod over and cause global havoc in a disappointingly unphotogenic way.

Nearly all my best photos are early morning or evening. Pretty much all the American ones are. The Smith Rock photos I took were taken at half seven in the morning, and the foggy road one previously at half six.

Ta for the Smith Rock compliment by the way Craster! Means a lot to me. C'mere, big man! *Manly hug* I hadn't fully realised at first how nice that one was, as I put up the show-stopping earlier Smith Rock shot wot got published, and didn't want to put up another for a good long while as I didn't want to clog up my photostream with a load of the same thing. (I hate putting more than one shot at a time of the same thing.) But I always intended to put another one up eventually. This one was completely untouched aside from a very small smidgeon of desaturation - about 5% I think.

But yeah, that too is now one of my faves. It's really grown on me. Thanks!

Edit: Sadly can't see all these new additions at work, so I'll have to comment some other time. Also, been having bad dreams lately involving giant moths and things flying at my face, so thanks for the macro work guys. no, really.

non-manky rose by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr

Happy now chaps


Gaggle 3 by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr

Good rose. Geese make a nice pic. Would have been better if you could have had the foreground one not overlapping the background ones - but I appreciate they are generally unwilling to co-operate

I think I like this, but I'm not quite sure why.

Edit -- replaced it with one with tweaked exposure.

Non-Manky rose is very nice, Decca. Just the right touch of colour and beautifully lit. Looks impossibly delicate and fresh - well done! I also like the moodier, dark background rose you put up on Flickr. And geese! Pah, don't talk to me about geese! Uncooperative bastards that they are! Still, lovely framing of the pond's edge cutting through the frame.

Some nice stuff there DavPaz. I especially like the sign in the hedgerow, a really lovely weathered look there with the red stables in the background too, and I like the man sitting on the bench.

Zardoz - eventually you're going to find something in the undergrowth that you're really going to wish you hadn't. Good shots anyway, the usual high standard.

MarkG wins this awards here though - his B&W pill-box is wonderfully forboding with the sense of viewing it on an attack approach. The moss overgrown firing slit is a lovely detail shot too. I like the light and unfussiness in the flower stem shot that is difficult pull off. I really like the stained concrete and diffuse light for his architectural shot. What is it? It's really good. The seagul one is perilously close to being sublime. I wasn't sure at first but it's grown on me a fair bit. Maybe just a couple of percent highlight recovery needed to restrain the sharp bright effect just a touch - but I could equally be wrong on that one. Stirling stuff, anyway!

One new, one old:




Prineville tree.





Salisbury Road

Wow Pete. They're both stunning, fantastic light you've captured.

Beautiful colour in those blossoms, has a heaviness to them like they're being pulled down.

Love the composition of the Salisbury Road shot, nicely placed triangles down the edge of the frame. Caught a beautiful expression on your friends face too. Could be a scene from the 50's if it weren't for the Yaris

That's why I shoot first and ask questions later. Bugs don't phase me really, and besides I'm always behind an ugly step child

It has a certain something. Looks like the ivy has been shot with flash but the rest of the scene blocked it.

Thanks, Pete. The pill box was just near work but I'd never seen it before, there's actually a statue of a soldier kneeling down with some binoculars (you can just about see it, it's very realistic and freaked me out when I first saw it, I thought it was a twitcher then wondered why a twitcher would be in a WWII uniform). It's an odd location, usually deserted and quiet except for the birdsong and the occasional roaring lion and the elephants at the nearby zoo.

The dome is a concrete shelter on the newly rebuilt seafront near home, one of these (not my pic):



I see your point about the seagull pic and I just tried faffing a bit with the highlight recovery but it started showing up the gull's tail too much and I wasn't keen. I could use a brush tool a bit I guess.

I think the glare of that seagull pic is the best thing about it.

Yeah, I don't think it needs any adjustment at all, personally.

I thought I'd try taking pictures of some bugs at lunchtime, all I found was a snail so I took a picture and looked at on my PC but it made me feel sick, so I deleted it.

Bugs aren't playing in Preston today, too windy. Think I got some nice cloud scapes though.

Also: Cabbage Whites, the UKs most common butterfly is proving to be an utter twat to capture, so jittery, never keep bloody still.

I did get this one yesterday (in fact it's all there were, loads of them):



Perhaps Zardoz Bellamy might identify it

Speckled Wood Butterfly that.

Pete that tree picture is incredible, the light is lovely. Top marks
I snapped a wee camera phone picture on my walk with Willow after work. She is swimming in the water.

Had my first go at macro, (lens does 1:2 iirc)


first go at macro by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr


the girl by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr

she was watching and I took a snap.

After a fantastic meal I hung around outside the restaurant taking some pics, playing with my polariser and admiring the random number generator my Nikon has where the light metering system should be.

Took two I kinda like. There's a blue tinge to the grass in the first one that I don't know how to dial out in Aperture. I should google that shit. In fact, the whole thing is a bit oversaturated, I'll tweak it when I have more time.


Outside The Hardwick by PenLlawen, on Flickr


Outside The Hardwick by PenLlawen, on Flickr

I'm also digging my 16:9 crops tonight.

First one no worky

Beautiful colouring on that second one, but that glare in the top right is distracting.

Oh yeah. Fixed.
hmm. I kept that on a whim. Maybe I'll crop it out.

Very lovely, crystal clear and pin sharp - I prefer the second one, don't mind the glare, if you cut it out then you lose the post and the compasition will lose something imo.

I've just spent the last hour or so practicing with my metering system while forcing it to go above focal length and more (no VR on my long lens) with hand held. The matrix metering is very very hit and miss sometimes "How dare you make me take a photo of land and sky minion!", centre better, spot is fine.

This isn't anything special but it does highlight a problem the UK has.


England's green and pleasant land by Learnin' Curve, on Flickr

What?!

Pylons are majestic creatures that roam our green and pleasant land hypnotising us with their beautiful inner geometry.



They do hunt in packs though. RUN PETE!

Beautiful.

I'm mightily impressed with that first one from Rich. The grass should be blue, leave it

Aieee!

Don't do that to ME.

B&W the first one, btw, and up the contrast. Maybe some artificial vignette and grain too.

Brrr, there could be any number hidden behind those trees in the second one. And Scout Pylons as well as the Heavies. No likey.

Do you see the way the cables on the closest two tee off to point at the ground? Down there, you've got a sub-station. A NESTING GROUND. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXiOQCRiSp0

_{(sorry, back to the pictures)}

(Great vid Kalmar, if creepy!)



Taken at great personal risk!



Dark Pylon


Not fully convinced this is Flickr-worthy, but the light is quite nice:



St. Mellons Cottage


(Both taken on old D40x)

*Raises a glass to Pete's old D40*

Liverpool University Running Statue by MrDavPaz, on Flickr

Camera Phone Pic from my walk in this morning. Done what I can to jazz it up. Quite pleased with it.

On reflection, I prefer this alternative shot to the one I posted yesterday. It's less grainy (for no obvious reason, my D5000 cranked up to ISO3200 for the first one...) and better composed I think (there's only two stalks of long grass sticking up into the sky so it's less fussy).

Objection. Shoot manual.

(or at least cap the ISO for now)

Nicer photo though, Doc.

I do like that. The buildings in the back look almost tilt-shifted.