PANSHANGER PARK -28

On Friday we took a look at Panshanger Park, near Hertford. More info here Panshanger Park

Plenty of walking space across open fields and through wooded areas. To cover the whole are you’ll need a few hours – downside to this : no toilet facilities ( that we found ) and no refreshments ( that we found ). But still, a place to visit.

Some images from our trip : The Osprey Lake

A colourful Peacock butterfly, sun-basking on a rough path.

Cardinal Beetles securing their future

Be careful what you say – these trees have ears.

All taken on the Olympus EM-1 Mk 11 with a 12-100mm Pro Lens

Flower Images – 25

Some different takes on flower photography this week.

The first is the studio shot of a freshly cut rose. This was an experiment into 3D ( or stereoscopic ) photography and this is only one of the pair of images I took. Sadly at the moment I can’t show you the 3D effect – but maybe later.

This one is a table decoration in a local coffee shop. A grab shot on an iPhone with natural light. I left the ‘order number’ and the books in the shot as added interest.

These last two are of wild flowers on a recent visit to Switzerland : the first a worm’s eye view, and the second thistle-like ( or clover? ) plant attracting the interest of an small insect.

You can see I’m not at all clued up on the names of Flora and Fauna – but in my mind, it’s the image that counts!

Thro’ A Crystal Ball – 21

I’ve been photographing black and white geometric patterns through a crystal ball. In fact, two crystal balls in the second image – a small ball balanced precariously on top of the larger one.

The challenge proved to be getting the shot without reflections for the lights. I ended up using a long exposure and painting in the lights with different torches and video lights.

The Live Bulb exposure facility on the Olympus OM-D EM1 was very useful here as you can see the image build as well as being able to monitor the histogram develops

All taken on the Olympus EM-1 with a 12 – 100mm f4 Pro lens, imported into Lightroom Classic CC  and then tweaked  and cleaned up in Photoshop CC. The background pattern was also created in Photoshop and then printed out as an A3 image.

SMOKE & MIRRORS – 19

This week I’ve been making smoke! Joss stick smoke, in fact.

All of these images started off as a shot of smoke lit with a single flash unit, against a black ( very black ) background. Each was then post-processed ( ie manipulated ) in Photoshop CC,  which is where all of the colour and the reflections were added in.

Like inkblot images, you can see things in most of these shots! Well, I can!

Angels?

Kissing Ducks?

A burning joss stick – multi-layered, the exposure for the joss stick layer was flash plus 2 seconds to catch the red of the burn.

BREAMISH VALLEY – 37

In Northumberland for a week with some photography friends from our club. The weather for the week doesn’t look too kind but yesterday we went to the Breamish Valley on the east side of the Northumberland National Park. 

This is a shot of the River Breamish running across the rocks forming a small weir. Taken at f/22, 1/20 sec at ISO 320.