Creative Photography

[briantrumpet]

I'm quite happy with this one as I saw the opportunity when visiting Bembridge windmill last Sunday during the daytime. The following day was looking like the best chance for a clear sky but unfortunately it was still forecast to be blowing 50-60mph gusts. As an additional challenge, the hedge along the public footway that would have provided shelter from the wind was too high to shoot over, the open field the path led into was very exposed and also made the angle tricky with the only option being to take a panorama to get the windmill and Milky Way in frame - the problem this gave was that I'd be completely exposed and I was also missing a minor component on my kit that meant panoramas would be challenging. I did take one and it looks OK (the perspective on the windmill is better). In the end I got myself tight in the corner of the field and using my widest lens setting (11mm / 18mm equivalent) I as just about able to get everything in one shot although I've lost the bottom corner of the windmill and the persepective has a bit of a fisheye look. I was also a bit annoyed by the fence but I actualy quite like that it sort of mirrors the Milky Way and guides the eye towards it. I used my considerable bulk as a windbreak and took the exposures at 3200 ISO, f2.8 and 15" as it was too windy to go longer with my star tracker. The final image is 8 frames stacked to give an effective 2 minute exposure.

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Good work, Pross.

 

[Pross]

The clear, moonless and still night on Monday was too good to waste so I headed to Llangorse Lake for more Milky Way photography as it might be the last chance before the core disappears below the horizon for the next 6 months. Despite there being no towns for miles to the south there was an annoying amount of light pollution but the sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way clearly by eye and get a decent shot. The sky to the north was far darker and the view of the other end of the Milky Way arch was more clear. The image is a crop from a panorama though not as wide as I'd have liked due to distortion. Foreground was shot at the end of blue hour (the ISS made a pass as I was shooting it) with 2.5 minute exposures at ISO 800 and f/3.5. The sky is a 2 minute exposure using a star tracker at ISO 1600 and f/2.8 (focal length 16mm on APS-C / 25mm full frame equivalent)

I also got a brief guest appearance from the Northern Lights, I got it stronger on my phone but by time my camera had stopped shooting and I was able to turn it around it had started to fade (it was only diffuse and not visible to the eye)

 

[Psamathe]

Apologies- more from the ‘Wood Wide Web’. I thought I’d better take the opportunity whilst there’s a glut of them around.
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You really ought to start selling some of those. The level of detail is incredible

Or just ID the subject and upload them (categorised, etc.) to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, the image section of WikiMedia/Wikipedia which releases them under Creative commons license (you select which licence) and allows others to make use of them. And others do. Images I've put up there I add a note that I'd appreciate being told when people use them and I've had people include them in published books *(one publisher in Germany even posted me a copy of the final printed book), people regularly use them in their thesis, etc.

A brilliant resource for others to legally make use of your images.

 

[briantrumpet]

A WoW hommage... a tiny daisy.

 

[Way-Out-West]

A WoW hommage... a tiny daisy.

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Ha, I’ll homage you back with this from a not so colourful garden.
And a quiet one from porthgain harbour. I might use this angle again when there’s a storm and try to leave a gap on the right hand side of the harbour mouth, if possible.

 

[briantrumpet]

Ha, I’ll homage you back with this from a not so colourful garden.
And a quiet one from porthgain harbour. I might use this angle again when there’s a storm and try to leave a gap on the right hand side of the harbour mouth, if possible.
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Ha, went there in 2019, on one of my last holidays with my mum (actually, might have been the very last one). A highlight was our finding the very cottage in Parrog where she stayed in about 1947.

 

[Way-Out-West]

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Ha, went there in 2019, on one of my last holidays with my mum (actually, might have been the very last one). A highlight was our finding the very cottage in Parrog where she stayed in about 1947.

Yes, I remember you posting that shot (page 8), which was a near duplicate of mine. Was it the cottage near the bridge or along the bank of the estuary?

 

[briantrumpet]

Yes, I remember you posting that shot (page 8), which was a near duplicate of mine. Was it the cottage near the bridge or along the bank of the estuary?

Well remembered - I'd forgottened I'd posted it before.

Rock House, here, I think. It was a bit weird taking a photo of Mum in front of it about 70 years after the previous time she was there.

 

[Way-Out-West]

The online focus stacking software behaved itself this time, which was nice.

 

[Way-Out-West]

A miniature rose. Although it looks simple enough, I ended up taking a 16 shot stack (would've needed more for full front to back focus) and wasted more time with two other stacks, both compositional failures of the same flower. No wonder I prefer taking blurry ones.

 

[briantrumpet]

A miniature rose. Although it looks simple enough, I ended up taking a 16 shot stack (would've needed more for full front to back focus) and wasted more time with two other stacks, both compositional failures of the same flower. No wonder I prefer taking blurry ones.
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It's easy for me to say it was worth the effort, as the only effort I made was clicking on the link. But it's an amazing shot, nonetheless, thanks WoW. There's something very lovely about rain on flowers.

 

[Way-Out-West]

It's easy for me to say it was worth the effort, as the only effort I made was clicking on the link. But it's an amazing shot, nonetheless, thanks WoW. There's something very lovely about rain on flowers.

Thanks, agree, rain droplets do give them a nice lift. Now that the stacking software is working again, it takes care of most of the editing work. Upload pre-edited images, click the ‘Stack’ button and hey presto.

 

[briantrumpet]

Just a useful sky reflection in a window. Oh, and macro-micro.

 

[Way-Out-West]

^That’s some magnification on the OM.^

I think I’ll have to apply for a new username; Mushroom Man or Fun Guy.
New (old) gear today, experimenting with achromatic diopters. They basically function as a magnifying glass that attaches to the end of a lens, allowing for a closer minimum focusing distance. Put one (or more) on a macro lens and things get very magnified, but DOF becomes extremely shallow.
I’d mistakenly overlooked these due to the generally bad reputation for image quality of the standard (single element) diopters. These achromatic versions don’t compromise the image. Unlike macro tubes, they don’t diminish light levels, which is handy when using an optical viewfinder.
Or just get an OM like Brian’s, for less hassle.

 

[Way-Out-West]

A storm is coming...