This image is one of those images that one minute I like and the next I go so what! It appeals more than I dislike it, although overall it doesn’t have much too it. There are a few small trees close to the top entrance to the gardens off Mayals road, and with the sun back lighting them, I found them quite challenging to make images of.
Fern leaves always make great subjects, so it made a change to get pictures with some snow on them. In previous years the ferns had been protected in the Winter from frosts etc. but for the last couple of years they seemed to have coped quite well with the conditions. I believe that the ferns originally came from New Zealand, but I don’t know if they have snow in the part they originated from. I will have to wait till the spring to see how they respond. It would be a shame to lose one of my regular subjects, but I suppose something else would come along.
The patterns that these tree roots make always get me trying to make an image all year round. I still don’t think I have got the ‘one’ yet, so I will keep trying. I originally was planning to convert this to black and white, but for once the colour image worked better. A little filtration was added in Lightroom to tone down the bright sky between the trees at the top of the frame, but overall it was quite a straight forward image to make if you know how to understand the histogram on the LCD screen on the camera and how it translates in your RAW processing software. What a lot of people don’t realise is the the histogram displayed on the LCD screen is actually that of a JPEG version of the image, and that there is a little bit more leeway with the actual RAW file. The other little known fact is that with the same image in front of the camera the histogram will change with the white colour balance setting you use. Some people go to great lengths to produce an accurate histogram to reflect the RAW exposure range by creating custom profiles to match it. The trouble with these is they tend to make the images get a green colour cast which then needs to be removed later. More time in front of the computer!
As the path close to Mayals road reaches the house half way down the gardens, the view of the small valley opens up. This was a popular spot on my Clyne day course last year, and was originally spotted by Trevor, one of the participants. In winter the view opens up more with the lack of foliage, but as a view point it works all year round. The main problem with this view is that there is normally quite a high exposure range and I needed 5 stops of neutral density soft graduated filter to bring the sky into range of the sensor. Even with that help I still needed to add an extra 1 stop of graduation in Lightroom to totally balance the sky and trees. I suppose another option would be to take two exposures; one for the sky and one for the undergrowth and then combine them later on the computer. This involves to much computer work for my liking, so I will stick to the filters, even though they may not be as subtle or accurate as the merged images.
Most scenes allow some extra images to be made from a wider view by switching to a longer lens and selecting some details of the view. If you watch movies, you will often see that they make a wide image of a view, but rely on long lens detail images of the view to show more of the landscape for the next few scenes. This is where stills and video differ so much. In still photography you are trying to capture the essence of a scene in one image, unless you have the luxury of being able to use multiple images to tell a story in an article etc. With video, multiple scenes can be interlinked to allow you to build up an impression of a place, and where as individual scenes in themselves may not be remarkable, due to the input of the other scenes you develop the essence of the place. I took quite a lot of video while in Clyne, and I hope to get a short film together which I will try and post on the blog, or at least a link to a website page with it on.
Once again we had a surprise with a small sprinkling of snow last weekend. I decided to stay a bit more local and ventured into Clyne Gardens which has some great features in it. With the sun starting to melt the snow quite quickly I decided to stay close to the small stream that runs down through the gardens as I knew that the sun wouldn’t reach the snow there as much. This would give me some time to explore before making some images.
The way the snow had stuck to some of the branches on the trees caught my eye, but I found it quite difficult to make an image that showed this really well. I tried detail images, partial images of branches but none seemed to work as well as the pretty straight forward image below. I liked the pattern of the branches and the way they spread from the tree. I was careful when walking around the tree to make sure my footprints wouldn’t show in any potential images, but anybody who studied them later would probably be a bit confused as to my movements!
With the second lot of snow I ventured out again to Broad Pool, but this time the surface was very grey in colour due to the ice being visible, and with a dark grey sky it just didn’t seem to work as well as before with the blue sky. I decided to go for a wander across the common behind the Pool as normally this is quite boggy and hard work to walk across. With the cold temperatures the ground was frozen and firm to walk on, so I went further than I have been before and found another pool behind Broad Pool, which I never knew existed! I think I need to get out more! It had some great details and a great curve on one side which prompted the above image. Due to the light being so dull and the image being made at about 4.30pm in the semi dark, I switched the image to black and white even though my original idea was to stay in colour.
My liking for detail images came to the fore for the above image. As with most scenes there is more than one image that can be made from the overall scene. Normally just a different lens, angle, height or position of the camera will reveal these options. With practise, this becomes more instinctive and hopefully you reach a point where you know what lens, angle, height and position is needed when approaching a scene, or at least a close approximation.
With a new forecast for snow being given, I was better prepared this time round. I set up two hides in the garden as the number of Redwings had increased to about 7 to 10 regular visitors plus the Starlings and Blackbirds were increasing in numbers as well.
By feeding regularly in front of the hides, the birds very quickly accepted the hides and started coming very close. Once I was inside the hides they occasionally came too close for the lens and with the numbers of birds feeding, it became difficult to isolate individual birds at times.
The more eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the catch light in the birds eyes. Once again due to the dark conditions high ISO’s were needed and to help provide some colour correction and improve colour saturation, I used fill in flash with a flash extender fitted to match the lens coverage. I used a 500mm lens on a beanbag and laid down in my hide I have set up for ground level photography. Normally I would have used my 90 degree angle viewfinder to view through, but I kept fogging it with my breath so I used the normal viewfinder instead. I had to alter the ratio of fill in flash as the birds were coming quite close and as a result I probably didn’t need the flash extender as the birds were within about 5 feet of the lens.
With film my normal fill in flash setting was one and 2/3 of a stop less than the correct exposure, but with the enhanced low light capacity of digital I have found that I have decreased this to 2 and 2/3 of a stop less than the correct exposure. At the old setting the flash looked over done, and due to the close proximity of the birds here, I feel that I maybe should have gone lower to 3 stops or more less than the correct exposure. The flash setting on the camera is always set for Rear Curtain sync to avoid motion blur appearing over the sharp image with slower shutter speeds. With rear curtain sync, if there is any subject movement due to a slow shutter speed, it is overlaid with the sharp image made by the fill in flash. This provides a more acceptable image than having motion blur on top of a sharp flash image made at the start of the exposure with normal curtain sync. When the shutter speed gets too low, especially for the feeding motion of the birds, I had to wait for the bird to pause slightly before making an exposure. The flash was connected to the tripod collar foot with a Wimberely flash bracket, so the flash moved with the lens and was kept off the direct axis of the lens to avoid steel eye which is the bird equivalent of red eye.
I left Broad Pool and moved onto Ilston valley as I knew that it would be in shade for most of the afternoon, and with the low temperatures the snow would still be present and last longer. Being quite a small wooded valley, it is a very cluttered visual scene and poses some difficulty in making successful photographic images. Once again I tend to end up make detail images more than true landscape images.
It was the diference in the cool blue of the shade contrasting against the warm colours of the sunlight trees in the background that initially caught my attention. The problem then was to find a pleasing composition that seemed to work with the pattern of the branches. After a few attempts this seemed to be the best angle and most pleasing to my eye.
The same tree from the opposite direction just gives a pretty standard image of a snow covered tree. You can also see the visual clutter that is hard to pare down to a single image. Making images of details makes this process easier, and in some locations a visual story of the location has to be made through a collection of detail images rather than through one single image.
Even though the snow was starting to melt, the ice on the pond at Broad Pool was keeping the snow on it around longer. Small patches were starting to melt creating circular areas and some great patterns on the surface of the pool. I find making landscape images around the pool quite difficult due to some telephone lines and houses being visible in the background, which I don’t like. The one direction that is free of these didn’t seem to work as an image this time. Also having a clear blue sky didn’t really help with providing interest in the sky either.
I decided to focus on more detail images which I find come more naturally to me than wider landscape views any way. Some examples of which follow below.
Sunset at Mewslade Bay, Gower
This is similar to the last image in my previous post, but I had moved just a little bit further down the bay. These are relatively easy images to make once you have got used to using Neutral density graduated filters and being prepared to stack them so all the brighter areas of the image are brought into the exposure range of the sensor.
Where ever possible if the image works, I will make a horizontal as well as a vertical version or vicea versa. I find that L-brackets like those made by Kirk or Really Right Stuff make life easier and allow quick changes in the camera orientation without having to change the tripod head too much. I know some people don’t like them as they think they add unnecessary extra weight, but for me they are a great addition to my kit.