The Great Escape...

Yesterday was just one of those days that were made for escaping from it all. Mist, ice, snow still lying on the ground and two days holiday booked from work.  Off to Bradgate Park with 7D then...

I include this last shot only to point out that I WANT THAT HOUSE!

Also linking to Photo Story Friday

Wordless Wednesday - macros etc...

So what have I been doing this week?

Well I had another go at macros - this time I tried focus-stacking.  What is that I hear you cry?!  Focus stacking is simply a technique to get greater depth of field in a shot.  

When you take macros you have to get very close to your subject (thanks for stating the obvious Barbara), and we all know that the closer your lens is to anything the shallower your depth of field, right? So what you do is put your camera on a tripod, no ifs or buts, you have to do this so that it remains in exactly the same place throughout.  Then you shoot away, manually refocussing for each shot so that different parts of the subject are sharply in focus.  I think I took four shots for each of the above but you can take more of course.

Next you have to combine the shots - you can do this easily in software such as Photoshop or CS4, I think there's also some free software available if you Google it.  As I only have Elements I layered one shot at a time on another and erased the out of focus parts, then added another shot and continued adding and erasing until I was happy with the result.

Here are the images I combined for the flower shot.

Cats on Tuesday...

A week in which Mrs P ended up at the vets again on Friday under general anaesthetic (after being there on Monday for an antibiotic jab for her ears).  They cleaned her ears out and x-rayed her head to see where the infection was (behind the eardrum).  There was talk of her having an underlying allergy of some kind which keeps causing the ear infections, so I'm trying her on hypoallergenic food.  We shall see.  Anyway, here she is looking sad... note the shaved paw.

Elsewhere, Pepper was...

 ... shy

... sweet

... and busy.

Charlie was busy too.  It seemed to involve a lot of sprawling on our bed.

For news of more kitties visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

Outside...

We went for a walk around Batsford Arboretum

yesterday.  I managed to get David to take his camera

with him and he amazed himself by taking some

arty photos involving nature!

In fact once he got started

there was no stopping him...

Backside...

I was somewhat bemused by this prompt.

Lest we stray into areas of bad taste, here's

a shot of the backside of an aeroplane taken

at Coventry Airport in December.

... Oh go on then,

here's one of Charlie and

his backside on the bed.

Little Things...

Bright yellow Witch Hazel

on a cold winter's day...

... and the first daffodils.

Some of them are even

starting to flower at Batsford.

A Cup Of...

Lapsang Souchong.

Reflect...

The Buddha reflects on

the nature of

life, the universe and everything.

Whilst the lights just

reflect in the River Avon

as a winter twilight closes in.

Say it with flowers...and light

Photography has been a steep learning curve for me, some things I've learned by making mistakes (a lot of them), some I have gleaned from the expertise of other photographers.  The main lesson I've learned?    Photography is all about light, so before you start snapping, THINK ABOUT THE LIGHT.  (Did you know that Einstein called photographers 'Light Monkeys'? I love that!).

So, questions to ask yourself: What kind of light is it? Where is it coming from?  How can you best use it for the effect you're after?  Do you need to add any more to it?  The angle and position you take an image from with regards to the light can make all the difference to the mood and feel of your shot.  If you want a shot to have an emotional resonance in the viewer you have to create the right mood with light and composition and processing, then if you're lucky the magic happens.

On to the flowers... 

To take this I had the vase of flowers next to the french doors on an overcast day, and shot into the light to give a luminous feel to the petals.  I could have used a reflector to bounce some light onto the darker side of the image, but I wanted contrasting shade.  I got my willing assistant to mist the flowers with water and shot at 1/1000 to catch the droplets, with an aperture of f/1.8 because I needed a lot of light to use that fast a shutter speed, and also because I wanted a shallow depth of field.  The ISO was 2500 which gives a touch of graininess that I like in monotone shots. 

Same flowers, different kettle of fish.  Much as I would love a macro lens I can't justify the price, so have to make do with a +4 filter and a +10 which screw onto the front of my 18-55 lens.  Liking the water droplets left from the first shot I wanted to feature them in more detail, and took this with the light coming from my right.  You need a greater depth of field for macros so I shot this at f/9 at 1/80 and an ISO of 3200.  It's all about trade offs - you narrow the aperture and you have to either slow the shutter speed down or up the ISO (or a combination of both) to get the same exposure.  Macros require a very steady hand or a tripod, oh and hold your breath when you press the shutter, the slightest movement will mean an out of focus shot.  You can also lock your camera's mirror up so that it doesn't cause unnecessary movement.

Another against the light shot...

And now heading toward the dark side... these were also taken with the macro filter but I wanted much grainier, impressionistic shots so underexposed them.

I always shoot in RAW and usually process in LightRoom.  I did have a play around with one of the above shots though and exported from LightRoom to Elements, added a texture, then imported it back to LightRoom and added a sepia tone.

Linking to:
Photogfriday
Photo Art Friday

Cats on Tuesday...

First cat post of 2013, and the first week of the year has been an eventful one.  Mrs P has been back to the vet twice with poorly ears, yesterday she was given an antibiotic jab to try and clear things up.  Aga did mention that sometimes they REMOVE the ear canal in cases where there are recurring infections, a thought which made both Mrs P and myself wince.  Mrs P also got to yell at the nice workmen who came to do some stuff to the house - they were only trying to tell her that she might like to move from the second stair where she likes to sleep so that she wouldn't get hurt with tools/plaster/large boots etc but she wasn't having any of it and in the end they gave up and worked around her.

And what about the other two? Well Pepper has been given two new collars; a gold one for everyday use and a  rather spiffing diamante affair which could be worn to film premieres, audiences with the Queen etc.  Charlie hid under the bed when the workmen were here (possibly hoping to snaffle a hacksaw blade or chisel when they weren't looking).  Fans of his will be pleased to learn that his last glucose reading was still low enough for him not to need insulin, so he now only needs to get his paw jabbed once a month.

As for myself, I went to Cath's to take some shots of her cats, including Bumble who used to be a mega cute fluffy ginger kitten.  What she is now is debatable, she's like a demonic pine martin in a cat suit.  She is next to impossible to take photos of as she moves so fast!  Emo, who used to live across the road from Cath but who then decided to move in with her as the food was better and Cath had 'gullible cat person' stamped on her forehead, was better behaved.  Little Henry has never been the same since Bumble moved in and is such a martyr to his nerves he had to leap through the cat flap and disappear down the garden (swiftly pursued by the Ginger Ninja herself).

Pepper...

Charlie inspects the ongoing work...

Mrs P shows off her sick ear...

 This is Emo...

He used to live with a wedding photographer.

You can tell can't you?

This is Emo licking his lips

behind Henry's back.

Quite worrying in itself...

This is the inexhaustible Bumble.

The light is bloody awful for photography in Cath's house,

so we went for moody b&w.

Besides, film noir is very Bumble.

If you'd like to see how sickeningly cute Bumble was as a kitten before she turned into an 8lb ball of terror then click here.

For more kitty news visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday.