Landscapes
Mermaid of the North (#2)
Mon May 21st - 3:55pm
Here's a more dramatic picture of the mermaid. There was better sunlight for this shot. I also used a wider aperture to throw the water out of focus, while using a faster shutter speed to capture the texture of the waves.
Mermaid of the North
Sun May 20th - 5:06am
Here's another picture of the Balintore mermaid, or the Mermaid of the North to use her correct title. I got some nice pictures today with the tide really high so she's sat out there on her rock, totally surrounded by water but with just the tip of her tail getting wet. The sun even came out for a few minutes at just the right time.
One of today's pictures was a tight vertical shot with the sea looking rough and dramatic, and I'll process that one to show you during the week when I get time. But the person I was doing the pictures for chose this one with the water blurred so this is the one I processed today.
Here's a link to a local newspaper article about the mermaid for anyone outside the area who wants to know the background info:
ps. If you've ever used a Canon 1Ds then you'll feel the pain when I tell you that this picture was shot at f/32 and the camera's sensor hadn't been cleaned in months. Dust?! It was like a snowstorm. Took an hour to clone it all out. If you haven't used a 1Ds then you won't know its dirty secret, which is that it's a dust magnet, extremely difficult to clean, and the sensor alone costs £2k to replace if you scratch it. Beautiful camera but a bitch to maintain.
View from the Links
Mon Feb 12th - 11:09pm
Once in a blue moon I do still find time to do landscape photos. Here's a view from the Links in Tain, taken this afternoon. The tide was out and I couldn't find anything nice to have in the foreground, but the clouds formed some nice leadng lines to guide the viewer's eyes towards the mountain in the distance.
The processing isn't the best and that weird bit of grey cloud needs fixing, but this was just a quick edit before bed. Click the picture to view a larger version.
Memorial bench
Wed Jan 24th - 1:36am
What can I say about this picture? I think it's the best image I've ever produced. It was planned about a week ago, taken yesterday afternoon, and the finished product is exactly what I had in mind apart from some minor improvements. Very little work done in Photoshop, this is pretty much what came out of the camera.
Click the picture to see a larger version.
Weather photos
Thu Jan 18th - 7:22pm
There have been a few galleries on the BBC web site today showing pictures of the snow and winds affecting some parts of the country, so I headed out to see what I could find to represent Tain. The really bad weather hasn't hit this area yet but I did find a few nice scenes that illustrate how cold it is, and as a bonus I think they work well as landscape photos in their own right.
This flooded field near Tain didn't have time to drain before freezing over:
Anyone for a picnic on Tain Hill?
Sunset over Tain Hill:
Gray sunrise
Thu Jan 18th - 11:52am
Don't you just love the Internet? I noticed this atmospheric view an hour ago and went out to take a picture. Now the whole world can see it…
Lighting the Hilton Stone
Wed Jan 10th - 7:56pm
I had a go at lighting the Hilton Stone today with questionable success. The lighting itself worked well, but part of the reason for lighting the subject is being able to darken the background and the Stone has a lot of background. It's difficult to avoid having a large part of the image with no detail. I've got a few ideas for how to approach this subject with different lighting conditions, but here's what I came up with today. Those LED strips at the bottom of the Stone really ruin pictures!
Lighting Landscapes
Mon Jan 8th - 3:59pm
Following on from what I said about covering football the other day, I'm also going to look for new ways of photographing landscapes. My first thought was to treat landscapes like portraits, with a subject and a background, and to light the subject.
Note that I'm not talking about simply sticking a flash on the camera, I'm talking about setting up strobe(s) around the subject to control light and shadow in exactly the same way as you would light a person. You can then use aperture to control exposure of the subject, and shutter speed to control exposure of the background, producing some dramatic images.
This morning's first attempt was, in my opinion, a great success, and I'll certainly be exploring this idea further. I think there is enormous potential for creativity and originality, which is what I'm looking for. The gallery link below includes larger versions of these pictures and some other examples.
Click here for Lighting Landscapes Gallery
All shots were taken with a Canon 1Ds and 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens, some hand-held and some on a tripod (hate using that lens on a tripod!) with apertures between f/2.8 and f/5.6. All lit by a 550EX on a light stand, fired by Pocket Wizards. In each shot the strobe was positioned 45-90 degrees off camera axis, quite high up, and angled to feather the light in such a way that only part of the subject would be brightly lit. In the first two shots a CTO (orange) gel was used, for the others it was bare flash. White balance set to 5600K for all shots.
