What A View

This photo was taken from a window of St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall:

ISO 400 f/11 18mm 1/320 sec

Of all the castle’s we have been through, this was the one I could imagine living in. Believe it or not, it actually felt kind of homey to me, usually, I’m not a fan of a huge fan of castles other than to look through them.  It helped that it was a beautiful day. Really not typical British weather. I thought this terraced garden was quite beautiful too. When it came to editing though, I wanted to tone the image down a bit:

ISO 400 f/11 18mm 1/320 sec

The first step towards that was to drop the highlights, the whites and the blacks. I’ve added a custom preset look as well. It’s my homemade variation on a vintage look. I liked the effect it had on the green and blue tones in the image. The process of creating the vintage look I wrote about in this post.

This post was written as a response to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, A Room with a View. Your comments and questions are welcome below.

Cheers!

 

Reflective

I was lucky enough recently to be able to make a visit to Monet’s house and garden.

ISO 800 22mm f/13 1/640sec

This shot is of the water garden, there is a more formal style garden closer to the house. It’s a popular place even first thing in the morning still in the off-season. Walking in the garden it stuck me how versatile it was designed to be. Lots of different plants would mean that it would look different over the course of the year. Also, it’s an obviously planned space where the angle of light and time of day would make a big difference.

It’s a popular attraction, so my shots showing the overall gardens have a lot of people in them. It would be lovely to have the place to yourself. I walked this part of the garden twice. Once with my 50mm lens and once with my 11-22mm lens.  The photo in this post was taken with the wider angle lens.

For this particular interpretation of the scene, I wanted to create a vintage look, toning down some of the brightness of the original shot while still maintaining the reflections in the water. I have posted the original shot below. One of the first things I did was crop the photo. I then left a few bright spots in the photo, both in the sky and in the water, to attract attention to the trees and their reflection below.

ISO 800 22mm f/13 1/640sec

What do you think of this particular interpretation? Feel free to leave a comment below.

This post has been added to Thursday’s Special, Pick a Word in June.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twisted

Sometimes I can’t help but wondering, Mother Nature what are you thinking? because this seems a bit twisted:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/140sec

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/110sec

These photos were taken in the greenhouse that is part of the gardens at the Down House which was the home of Charles Darwin. If you go for a visit make sure to pick up an audio guide, it is fascinating.  As for the photos, they were taken with my iPhone.  I had brought along my Canon 50D with a wide angle lens, so while that was great for overall shots of the site and garden, I left the detail work to my iPhone. Shots like the ones above are something that I think my iPhone handles well.

I did edit these shots in Lightroom so the originals are below for sake of comparison:

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/110sec

ISO 25 4.15mm f/2.2 1/140sec

I’ve cropped both, as well as done overall adjustments to the highlights and vibrancy. I also sharpened both.

So do you like the edits? Do you find these plants a bit creepy? I do honestly.  Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Minimalist

When I think of minimalist photography, I always think of an image that is more poetry than novel. To me poetry as a writing form allows for more interpretation than the fully formed narrative of a novel. Minimalism allows for more breathing room.  So for this week’s challenge, I chose to edit an image that I took a few weeks ago in a very peaceful garden:

ISO 500 100mm 0ev f/10 1/500

To get this image, I chose an f-stop of f/10, because I wanted the water and the bridge to be in focus.  This image is more about taking in an entire scene than it is about just the elements in the foreground. I also chose a fast shutter speed because it was pretty windy that day but I knew I wanted an image that was more serene.

When I got to the editing phase, I first cropped the image because I felt there were elements in the photo that were distracting.  Then I put a warming filter on it in Photoshop.  Here is the original photo:

ISO 500 100mm 0ev f/10 1/500

What do you think? Does this qualify as a minimalist image to you, or does it still have too many elements? How about the filter, I think it conveys a sense of calm that helps the image seem more minimalist, do you agree? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Carefree

I’m not a very good gardener.  So in our garden we keep it simple.  I keep my eye out for native plants that don’t need a lot of care.  This year we tried two patches of wildflowers in our garden.  One worked really well and the other is struggling.  I think the patch that is struggling just doesn’t get enough sun. The patch that is doing well has produced some beautiful coneflowers:

ISO 200 50mm 0ev f/3.2 1/40

In order to get this photo I used my tripod.  These flowers are only somewhat protected by the house, so any breeze will blur the photo.  I could have overcome this by shooting at a higher ISO and shutter speed, but in this case the color is better if the ISO and shutter speed are low.  It is a subtle difference, but in this case it mattered to me.  I settled on an f-stop of 3.2.  That left enough in focus and blurred out enough of the background.  So, I was happy with this version of the photo, but I did want to create something a bit different:

ISO 200 50mm 0ev f/3.2 1/40

The theme of this week’s photo challenge by WordPress is carefree. So, I wanted to create a slightly dreamier looking version of my original photo.  I used Photoshop to do my editing.  I have applied an oil paint filter to the photo.  Then I used the high pass filter with soft light.  The result you see above is more mellow than the original photo.  Ironic isn’t it, that I had to do more work to look carefree?

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Gaudy

Gaudy? hmm… for a travel theme? I have to admit that the first place that came to mind when I thought about this challenge was Las Vegas.  So, I decided to post this photo:

ISO 100 28mm 0ev f/4.5 1/60

I really liked this snail.  It doesn’t seem gaudy at all in the garden at the Bellagio.  Of course, it is among other floral displays like it and huge glass flowers.

I’m just thinking it would look pretty gaudy in my front yard.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Spooky

I could not pass up this week’s theme, spooky.  A lot of pre-Halloween fun going on over at Where’s my backpack, so I thought I would join in.  This past week in my Digital Photography class we have been working on night photography so a bunch of my posts in the near future will have that as a theme.  Here is my spooky night photo taken this past week:

ISO 160 f/18 18s 0ev 50mm

It was lurking in my front garden! This photo was taken at 6:13am using a tripod, flashlight, and laser pointer.

Cheers!

 

Crazy in the Garden

Just for fun I guess:

ISO 200 135mm f/6.3 1/15

I usually don’t get a chance to take photos in the evening.  I did tonight, so here is my favorite shot, taken in the flower beds.  Bonus points for you if you know what this serious looking man is a replica/reproduction of.  If you have a guess, leave it in the comments section 🙂

Cheers!