Before the game

Small personal project, additional practice; buildings and people.  It has to be before the game, I'm there to watch - perspective in all things.

The aim of this project was to capture images of he industrial structure that is Twickenham as well as images of people connected with the event and the day.  The space will be open public space with large crowds.  Safety concers are general  - traffic, people etc.  Equipment - EP-1, standard lens and circular polorising filter.  Chosen for ease of use, forecast bright conditions and photographing in crowds without drawing too much attention.

Stadium structure       

28mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 200

Pipeworks           

25mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 200

Skyline               

26mm, F11, 1/60th, ISO 200

Starters Orders         

39mm, F5.4, 1/30th, ISO 200

Inclusive shade        

42mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 400

Seated early            

34mm, F5.6, 1/60th, ISO 400

England Expects         

35mm, F5.3, 1/30th, ISO 400

Adventures with a tripod

Go west young man, get a tripod and all will be well!

Actually no!  First a note on health and safety.  When using the clips to set the leg height make sure you move your fingers out of the way, otherwise, like me, you will bleed over everything for at least an hour.  It wouldn't have been quite so bad except that I was already out at the nature reserve.

Second note - always make sure you have tissue / plasters / hanky when you are out, they may just be useful.

Remember the jokes about men and instruction manuals.  How difficult can a tripod be?  Just set it up, stick you camera on the top and off you go.  Easy in the kitchen with the lights on, not so easy in the semi-dark with the instruction sheet elsewhere.

So the final note is practice for at least 10 minutes before you set off, it'll make a difference  and there will probably be less blood.

In planning this asignment I have previously visited the area to be photgraphed at a number of different times of day including early morning.  Having a clear understanding of the paths is an important element of safety around water.  The intention was to explore capturing images during the "golden hour" - time around dawn when lighting conditions cam greatly enhace the subject.  The actual day was decided upon after checking weather forecasts for the weekend - fortunately they were accurate.

Equipment is limited to that owned - camera + kit lens.  Will also be using a tripod to facilitate longer exposures.  When using the tripod the image stabilisation system built into the body will be turned off.  Details of eqipment can be found here - Unit 208 Statement of intent.  It would have been useful if I had access to a faster / wide-angle lens as this would have been of beneift with the low light landscape images that I was looking to capture.

14mm, F22, 1/60th, ISO100, tripod
Underexposed, but I like the effect.



Horizon set at lower 1/3rd and framed by the trees.  Underexposure makes it appear darker than it actually was.  There was no cloud, so very little colour in the sky.  The orange glow behind the trees giving just a hint of the day to come.

I spent last Sunday looking at the water and tree line so time to try something different.

 As part of the conservation at the reserve a flock of Jacobs sheep are allowed to roam the area.  They keep down some of the undergrowth and graze the clearings.  This is apparently good for specific types of flaura in the Spring. 

42mm, F16, 1/2, ISO100

Sheep, like people, move.  Next time need to look at a higher ISO

and / or wider aperture so that I can use a faster exposure to minimise blur.

The leaf just stood out from the rest of the leaf litter as the sun rose and hit the ground. 

First effort at longer exposure.  Exposure OK, but composition weak - not real focus on any one element - the image is busy.

Leaf

36mm, F22, 1 sec, ISO 100

Log & moss

29mm, F22, 2 seconds, ISO 100

Log & moss ii

42mm, F22, 4 seconds, ISO 100

Fern in highlight

14mm, F8, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

Fern in Highlight ii

24mm, F8, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

Getting there.  The idea is OK, but execution needs improving.  Fern leaf isolated by sunshine.  Too caught up with the idea of longer exposures.  Messy foreground - options include clear away if possible without causing damage or move in closer.  The better option would be to change the position that the shot was taken from as the trunk in the background is also distracting.  Other options wold be to use a larger aperture - f4 / f5 - which would have the effect of creating a shallow depth of field, blurring the background and potentially blurring the foreground as well.

Start of Autumn

14mm, F22, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

The way home

17mm, F22, 1 sec, ISO 100

Dawn at Hilton Gravel Pits sssi (17 Oct 2010)

The weather forecast had indicated a clear bright start to the day.  Little or no wind so the chance of mist in the early morning.

I do not possess a tripod yet so hand-held it is (mini-tripod will be taken with me just in case).  Will be using standard kit lens.  The gravel pits at Hilton are an area that I have walked regularly over a number of years, during the summer months I lead a walking group out of the village and we regularly take the route that I intend to walk this morning.  In preparation for this I have taken the camera with me to take a few images that will give me a feel for specific locations within the reserve.  Have only had the camera since June and have undertaken this course to get used to the equipment.  Lighting conditions will be mixed and changing with time.  The image stabilisation within the camera has been turned on to allow me to take hand-held shots down to 1/15th-1/30th with a reasonable outcome.

Forecast for a cold morning so need appropriate clothing.  Although I know the area well it will be necessary to be careful around the water as light will be at a minimum.

On arrival at the old gravel pits the mist had started rising off of the water.  The surrounding trees masked the changes to the sky and light. It was a cold morning, whoever had spent the night fishing must have been freezing.  The break in the trees gave me my first view of the lake and provided a frame for the shot.  The first pinks of the morning sky just appearing over the tree line reflecting in the water.  Need to work out how to expose a shot to record the mist accurately rather than just as a blur.

Pre-dawn fishing

Manual hand-held, resting on fence post

15mm, F11, 1/15th ISO200

Walking to the nature reserve before dawn gave me the opportunity to witness the transformation of the sky from night to day.  The change in colours as the sun rose became spectacular, with gold's almost looking liquid in texture.  Keeping the shutter speed fairly high kept the foreground in silhouette and prevented over exposure of the sky.  The bank of clouds in the east almost looks like a range of hills in the distance, providing a false horizon just below the bottom third line.

Aproaching dawn, Lucas Lane

Manual, hand held

17mm, F4, 1/125th, ISO200

The sun not having risen above the tree line turned the sky golden, reflecting similar colours in the waters surface.  I need a tripod!  I need gloves!  Don't breath near a metal-bodied camera when it's this cold. 

Using the tree line as the horizon allows 2/3rds of the frame for sky, making the most of the colours and cloud that the morning has provided.  There is very little wind resulting in the lake surface being almost like a mirror.  Exposing for the sky allows the use of a relatively small aperture, enhancing the depth of field.

First Light, mist rising

Manual, hand held

18mm, F16, 1/250, ISO200

As the sun rose I stepped back from the shoreline to bring some of the foreground into the shot to act as a frame.  The winch adds to the composition as a reminder that this nature area is actually man-made, the lagoon resulting from many years of gravel extraction.  The increasing light levels increase the strength of the reflections.  The flare around the rising sun was not intended, but I like the effect.



Dawn sun flare

Manual hand held

18mm, F16, 1/250, ISO200

Time to change position.  As I walk through the wood I realise how lucky I am to live near this place, which this morning I have all to myself.  The trees frame the path with both the path and the tree trunks forming lead in lines.  The gold of the sun starting to streak through the trees adds to the atmosphere, enhancing something that would otherwise be fairly ordinary.  Still trying to stick to the rule of thirds, using the waters edge through the trees as the horizon line.

Early morning woodland

Manual hand held

34mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO400

A new waterfront site.  With the sun a little higher the rising mist becomes more evident.  More thought about composition of the shot.  Tree line at 1/3rd, sun through the tree at 1/3rd, good reflection and strong frame with the tree on the bank.  This is one of my favourites from the morning.  Throughout the morning I have struggled to capture the mist over the water accurately - almost there with this one.

Misty morning

Manual, Hand held

15mm, F16, 1/125, ISO200

Took more time to look at the composition in this shot.  Clear use of the rule of thirds with the mushroom itself positioned at the first 1/3 vertical line and the head of the fruit at the junction of the 1^st horizontal and vertical lines.  This was the first of three shots. Used the in camera macro programme to help identify potential setting for the following two.  This programme pushed the ISO to 800 which has allowed a very clear image to be taken.  The result of this is an image that is a lot brighter than the ambient, dawn light that was present.

The aperture is set very large, allowing more light to reach the sensor, but more importantly limiting the depth of field, blurring both foreground and background.

The red of the mushroom and the green of the moss stand out well against the autumnal colours of the leaf litter.

I did consider moving some of the leaf litter, but decided against it. 

This is the image as taken; the only change has been to reduce the size of the file to ease uploading.

Fly agaric

Macro programme, mini tripod

26mm, F4.5, 1/13th, ISO800 



First of 2 fully manual shots.  This Fly agaric was about 12 inches away from the previous shot, very close to the bank of the gravel pit itself - you can just about make out the water through the foliage at the top of the shot.  To cut out the relfection it was necessary to get in very close.

The colours in this image are much closer to those on site.  Early morning, Autumn sun, very gold hue.  Have kept the aperture open to narrow the depth of field.  Chose to use an ISO of 200 to increase detail captured.  As I was using a mini-tripod it was possible to use a longer exposure time to make up for the lower ISO.

The reds, greens and golds make the image look very warm, unlike the close to freezing air temperature that was the case.

Fly agaric, woodland floor

Manual, mini tripod

26mm, F4.5, 1/8th, ISO 200

While I liked certain elements of the previous image I wanted to get more detail of the mushroom itself.  Reduced the height of the tripod, moved in closer and reduced the focal length of the lens.  Have increase the detail of the Fly Agaric and the surrounding leaf litter, but lost some of the balance of the composition. 

Fly agaric, woodland floor ii
Manual, mini tripod
19mm, F4, 1/8th, ISO200

Woodland gravel pit

Manual hand held

26mm, F11, 1/125 ISO400 

Misty Dawn reflected

Manual, hand held

18mm, F11, 1/125, ISO100



Woodland walk

Manual, hand held

14mm, F4, 1/60th, ISO200