Spring has Sprung!

Evening all,

Just a quick one tonight - I've just submitted my dissertation, so some celebratory sheep are clearly in order. Also tulips - who says I never get you anything!

These are both from before I came back to uni last week - it's been so hectic I haven't been out with my camera. Never mind though, I'm off to Thetford Forest this weekend so will make sure I get some pretty pictures for you...whoever you may be!

Anyway, sheep:

Aw, isn't the little lamb lovely! As for the tulips in my front garden:

Ta da! Anyway, I'm going to bed. Night!

J

Lines

Everybody likes lines. Here's some partly imaginary lines with things at the end!

First up, a field.

OK, there's nothing especially interesting going on here, I just liked the repeating pattern of the furrows. They do give the picture a real sense of depth though, as your gaze is drawn from the front of the image into it to the houses in the distance. If there's a vanishing point, it's on roughly the top right third where the lines seem to be leading - I was trying to get more of a glint from the car parked there, but as it is there's just a highlighted spot. On the other hand, the next photo has a lot more going for it, photographically speaking...

Yes, it's a ladybird! And it's not just a ladybird, it's clearly a ladybird that's going places. When you first see this picture, you're drawn to the contrast of the red insect against green tree, and that's exactly where all the lines are leading. I took this as an attempt at seeing different ways of guiding where whoever's looking at the photo (that's you) looks. In addition to the contrast in colour, if you look at the out of focus area, you'll naturally be drawn back towards the sharp area on the top right third. The strongest line in the photo is that of the branch, and the eye follows it from bottom left upwards towards the ladybird...it gives a real sense that that's where it has come from, and that this is an insect on a journey. It's not quite Everest, but to the ladybird it could be something close...

Anyway, work time.

J

Some Unusual Cropping

Evening.

The more observant of you might have noticed that most of the pictures I post are in the same aspect ratio, and those of you with rulers and way too much time on your hands might know that it's 2:3. That's the ratio my camera takes photos in, and I tend to not stray too far from this. Here's a bit of an experiment - a few birds in some funny aspect ratios.

This photo looks almost as though it's 4 shots of the same bird at different points in flight. Unfortunately I'm not that clever - it's just that there were A LOT of birds about at the time. I have no idea of this particular aspect ratio - I just chose it because it fit the birds in.

Finally, one of the girls - I'm never short of an omelette when I'm home in Bergholt for a holiday. This one had a bit too much white garage on the right hand side for my liking, so I changed to a 4x5 crop. Partly because it worked, and partly just because it's a nice combination of numbers that I've wanted to try for a while.

There won't be many posts over the next few weeks - too much work and revision to be doing for a while, so I probably won't be out with my camera much. I'll write a few now though, and then stick them on a timer. Ta ta,

J

A Very Desaturated Recap

So, following yesterday's horsing around one of my friends suggested trying the second, very mediocre, horsey picture in black and white as a high contrast thing. I don't want to give away names, so I'll call him  "Mr. Wood". No, that's too obvious. "Callum", that's better. Well I thought I'd give it a go and here's the result:

If you missed the first attempt, you can see it here (hopefully.)

It's still not amazing, but I think it works better than yesterday. Obviously the main difference is the colouring, but to be honest that bright grass only pulled the eye away from the horse. Now it stands out boldly against the darker trees, but the cloudy sky has gone from overcast to white. Nice. Thanks "Callum"!

I thought this might be a good opportunity to go back and look at some other mediocre shots to see what I could do if I blackandwhiteised them. Yes, that is a word.

First, this shot from the New Forest back in march. This DEFINITELY works better in black and white - I'd kept it in colour before because of the movement captured in the red flash, but actually if anything the train looks even faster in B/W, probably because the door and windows are all less defined.

Finally, the rubbish boy next to a lake on a misty day. I tried this one in black and white at the time, but wasn't a big fan because of the way his jumper contrasted with everything else. This time, rather than going for full black and white I figured I'd try just desaturating everything apart from the red. It definitely brings out the contrast a bit more, but I left a hint of colour still which you can in his skin tone and in the grass. The heavy mist stops the trees on the other side of the lake looking coloured, as they were fairly desaturated anyway. So still not a stunning image, but better than before I think.

Anyway, now I should really do some dissertation. More photos soon - feel free to stick your email address in the box on the right hand side if you fancy getting a wonderful automated email after the morning after I've posted something. There are worse things to wake up to, honest! It's near the top on the right somewhere, if memory serves.

Right, work.

J

One for the horse lovers...

Laptop is back in action, so more photos again today. It's a compare and contrast - one corking photo of a horse (makes a good desktop background, by the way) and one incredibly mediocre one.

First off, the cracking horse (in Suffolk, of course!):

I'm liking that one...different to the standard "horse in the middle of a field, placed in the bottom third, edge of the field running along a third, horse miles away in the distance" type photo you often get. Probably in the New Forest.

Oh.

Well, it's OK. But nowhere near as much spark as the first one. Frankly, the horse looks bored. I don't blame him. He's probably seen the photo.

Anyway, now that Laptop is alive, there will be more photos to come soon...spoiler alert: probably not horses.

Have a great Easter,

J