1. Enter (top left) - shutter 1/160 aperture f4.0 iso 400 Focal Length 50.0mm
date 25 Jan 11 time 13:53
2. China (top right) - shutter 1/85 aperture f4.0 iso 400 Focal Length 45.0mm
date 25 Jan 11 time 15:28
3. Ladders (middle left) - shutter 1/85 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal Length 65.0mm date 22 Dec 10 time 15:41
4. Dark Red Wood (middle right) - shutter 1/160 aperture f7.1 iso 200 Focal Length 58.0mm date 24 Nov 10 time 14.06
5. 4 Ducks (bottom left) - shutter 1/100 aperture f4.0 iso 400 Focal Length 105.0mm date 25 Jan 11 time 15:13
6. Alive (bottom right) - shutter 1/250 aperture f11.0 iso 200 Focal Length 24.0mm date 24 Nov 10 time 13:04
I am happy with the settings above and think they matched the subjects well. I had set the iso setting to 400 on the dull days and wanted an F stop of f4, then I would turn the main top dial adjustment control of my camera (the shutter speed) until the scale inside the viewfinder showed the correct exposure on the indicator. Then I took the picture. On the bright days the camera set the iso to 200. Where I used a tripod I set this up first to full height, then lowered the leg adjustments accordingly until I was happy with the height, depending on what eye level I wanted to take the shot from. The tripod can take video cameras on it too, which enables it to have a very adjustable head swing. The focal lengths shown are from my zoom lens where I was zooming in and out.
Equipment Used:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II EF 24-105 L IS USM Kit
SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash card 8GB
Tripod
Mac Computer to present the images with more vibrance (adjustment controls of Brightness/contrast/saturation) and to print out from a template set up onto photographic paper.
Choice of Images:
All images are within my theme of "Natural Wonders". They are landscapes where I have particularly homed in on 'trees' as a main subject. I love the colours and the scenes of all these images and in my choice I have tried to show my compositions in different weather scenes with different light effects ie. autumn and winter, with sun, snow, bright and dull days. I entitle my images because I enjoy giving them names and it is what the professionals do. It also makes it easier to refer to them throughout the blog.
The names usually come from what I am seeing and thinking at the time I am shooting the scene, or later when I view them on the computer: -
'Enter' is obvious, it is the entrance to what has quickly become one of my favourite places to visit with or without a camera. The trees are great and stand to attention, making the path look inviting to follow. There is no-one around giving a sense of peace and solitude to the atmosphere.
'China': the scene looks abit chinese to me and alittle surreal... those intricate trees, that shade of green water, it just had that feel.
'Ladders': the left tree twigs are horizontal looking like you can step up them. I have seen a similar snow tree image portrayed by a professional photographer during my research on the internet.
'Dark Red Wood': again looks just that. It looks mysterious and is one of my favourite images. I love wooded areas with the sunlight coming through. I have featured this image in an earlier blog and now I have tried to present it with more vibrance.
'4 Ducks': This image is another obvious choice of name when 4 ducks appeared, 2 in the centre and 2 approaching. It looks serene to me.
'Alive': though this tree is dead it looks more alive to me. I have featured this tree in a previous blog taken from a different angle, on different camera settings. I found this scene bright and pleasing with such great detail and array of colours on the tree's bark, I loved it. I particularly like the way dainty branches pertrude out of its mouth (to the top right of the image) and the way the sun just hits from the right behind him.
Venue:
All the images with the exception of 'Ladders' were shot at the same venue: the grounds of Calke Abbey, Ticknall, Derbyshire.
'Ladders' was shot at a Derbyshire village brook location in the snow.
Presentation of my images:
At first I was going to present my images in a photograph album and I placed 10 x 8 gloss prints, which I had obtained from the High street print shop and on-line Photobox, inside a decorative A4 black and white covered one. I had secured the prints inside, on top of the plastic sleeves, instead of underneath them, to not obscure their clarity in any way, by way of photo corners, thinking these were not permanent and I could change them in the future. However these alone were insufficient to hold them in place as I turned the pages, so I had to re-inforce them with invisible mounts; I placed 4 under each one a couple of inches in from each corner, still leaving the photo corners in place also. This gave them the steadiness needed.
I had noticed that the prints from Photobox were far superior to those of the High Street, and I now had a mixture of qualities. I had gone to the High street store after Photobox, requiring more prints, with insufficient time to get more from Photobox. Plus one of my prints would not take to print on the machine at the High Street so I decided to print them all off again at college on a A3 sheet, in a matt finish, as a collage (all 6 showing together on one). This was the best idea and proved to look nicer and more professional. I have outlined more on the method I used to present my final images in the previous section, 'Quality Checks' because it was through these checks that I decided to change my way of presenting them.
So an alternative way of presenting them would have been the above (photo album/photo book) or any of the other methods as outlined in ' Research Presentation of images'.
The arrangement of the 6 images (the Collage):
I selected this arrangement of the images with the entrance (Enter) starting at the top left, with its trees looking like a surround from the top left corner of the collage to 'Alive' at the bottom right corner, with its tree acting as a surround of the bottom right corner of the collage. I then placed a water scene at each of the other two corners showing their trees to act as a surround again for each of the other two corners of the collage. ( So a tree would be showing in each of the four corners of the collage, like corner borders). The middle scenes show weather mixes from Winter snow to Autumn sunshine.
Composition:
I enjoy autumn colour landscapes with contrasts; from the russet foliage to the bright path (it had been raining that day) and the green waters to the dark wood. Then the contrast of the bark of wood to that of bright white snow. I love the tree shapes and their details and go in search of these. I like the reflections of the trees in the waters of China and 4 Ducks, and the suns reflections in Dark Red Wood and in Alive, showing its tree shadow in the foreground.
I think half the images show the rule of thirds; China, 4 Ducks and Alive, though this was not intentional as I just shot what I liked and felt right.
I am happy to include animals in a scene (4 Ducks) as I consider it to be nature at its best when they are in natural surroundings, and I was pleased on zooming in that the 2 main middle ducks were clear. Only one scene contains any amount of sky showing, whilst this was not deliberate, I consider these 6 work well together. Three scenes were taken in overcast light (Enter, China and 4 Ducks) and three scenes taken in bright light (Ladders, Dark Red Wood and Alive). No flash was used in any images.
Preparation:
I knew exactly where I wanted to go for each shoot and chose specific weather days; overcast, bright and snow. I had prepared myself with warm layers of clothes, gloves, hat and trainers prior to going out and with wellies in the case of Enter, China and 4 Ducks because it was raining that day and I thought it may be muddy. I had taken them with me in the car just in case (together with an extra pair of long thick woolly socks) and changed into them on arrival.
I ensured I had a fully charged battery and plenty of memory space, lens cloth and small plastic bags for the tripod legs in case I wanted to use it in the mud. I knew the route I was going to take: the entrance (Enter) then up past the 'Alive' tree, down to 'China' and along the lake side to (4 Ducks). I am happy wandering around this area with my camera and then you just 'see' the shots that have to be taken. I knew I wanted to head down the the lake for some water scenes and was just lucky there were ducks around at the time.
On a separate day I had explored a brook on foot in the snow and found 'Ladders'.
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