Author Topic: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)  (Read 14657 times)

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
on: August 14, 2013, 15:56:17 PM
So, 2 weeks today I've been redundant. In that time I've spent 10 days split between Wales and Yorkshire, making the most of things. Have lots more planned too.

But here are my picks from Wales
(set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/sets/72157634957187426/)

Lots of jellyfish washed up on the beach. This was taken early in the morning, so the light was pretty good and not too many people had been poking around. I like the composition with a diagonal going up from bottom left to top right, but do find it otherwise a bit plain and boring.

Jellies 2.jpg by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Tiny beetle, on a gorse spike. Whilst waiting around for the "birthday boy" to turn up to the campsite I was messing around with the 100mm macro and 250D closeup filter. It is a tad soft though.

Beetle 3.jpg by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Birthday cake. Happy with this, as it was taken at night, only illuminated by our camping torches, and was hand-held. For some reason the exif info has stripped out, but I think it was taken with my 40mm f2.8 lens. No IS.

Cake.jpg by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

St. Davids head. Could do with a tiny bit of straightening I think, but I like how the image captures the sense of scale on the scramble up to the top, one of my few photos with people in, that I think the human element has worked. Straightening it would make it look even steeper probably.

Ant 4.jpg by Chris_Moody, on Flickr
and my picks from Yorkshire

View from the top. It's HDR, but I think I've not overdone it. It looks a bit grainy and desaturated on my monitor,but I think the overall effect is broody and gritty.

B21.jpg by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #1 on: August 14, 2013, 16:14:51 PM
And here's the picks from Yorkshire
(set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zpyder/sets/72157635063074515/)

Brimham rocks. We went during the middle of the day and the place was heaving with kids clambering all over the shop. Had to get creative. Limited kit so I bracketed things to have a play with. This shot was a bit unexpected, in that I had just seen a funky gap between two boulders, and snuck a cheeky shot. Only later when I processed it, did I realise it looks like two heads kissing (sort of)

Brimham rocks by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

One of many sunsets. Narrow aperture to make the resevoir a bit smoother. Not sure whether it is better like this, or if it would have been better if I'd bracketed better to get the trees on the horizon exposed as opposed to silhouetted.

Swinsty reservoir sunset by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

One of my few stitch-job panoramas. It's nothing special, except I've learned a new tool for this kind of thing. Hugin seems to have decided to stop working on my laptop for no reason, so I had to use Photoshop. The photos were taken by panning the camera on tripod, so there was quite a bit of fisheye-like distortion to the image. I needed to straighten it out, and discovered "Puppet warp". I don't think it's done too badly at straightening the horizon? (the big semi-circle IS a semi-circle in real life, it's not just distorted in the photo)

Fewston reservoir wier panorama by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Probably my pride and joy from the last two weeks. One of my few photos where the whole process just seemed to come together. Whilst retrieving a geocache from the river bank, I thought it'd be a good spot to try and capture the river. The water was just barely covering stones, so I figured I could walk on the pebbles and my feet should stay dry. Saw a good spot, and figured I'd use the polarising filter to cut glare as well as act as a 1stop ND filter, and then I also added my grad ND filter to try and compensate for any sky that might come through the canopy. I closed the aperture down to either f16 or maybe f22. I did take a bracket, but the "normal" exposure came out like this, pretty much how I saw it in my head (which is very rare for me).

Stream by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Overdone HDR, but wasn't sure how else to do this other than bringing a torch along. The water levels around the reservoirs were lower than normal, so as I was walking over a small road bridge, I noticed a stream (photos of which after this). When I hopped down to the near dry stream, I saw the cool architecture of the bridge, and figured I'd be wasting an opportunity if I didn't try to do *something* This I think was another polarising filter & ND Grad HDR combo. Pretty unnatural looking, but I do like the shiny texture on the wet rocks.

Swinsty reservoir tunnel bridge by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Same stream from the above. Another Pol&NDGrad combo. The chestnut leaves were moved a bit to pose for the shot.

Swinsty stream by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

HDR shot. Same kind of thing as the panorama from earlier, but this one is more "V neck" shaped than semi circular. I do think the HDR processing is just about ok though, compared to other attempts I've made.

Fewston reservoir by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Last shots from the trip. On my first day I walked around the reservoir just with my 7D and 40mm lens. I spotted these mossy steps and a small woody area with broken drystone walls, and made a note to come back with a wider lens and tripod. These were the results. This one is HDR (I think), but only to try and make some of the texture Pop a bit more.

Mossy steps by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

This one's a bit warm maybe, but I think it works well with the one bit of sun we had on Sunday, coming through the canopy.

Woodland wall and tree by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

    • Tekforums.net - It's new and improved!
  • Offline Clock'd 0Ne

  • Clockedtastic
  • Posts: 10,937
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #2 on: August 14, 2013, 16:20:13 PM
The woodland shots are great, love the mossy steps and stream shots especially.

As for the beetle on the end of the stalk... "SOON..." :twisted:

Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #3 on: August 14, 2013, 18:17:23 PM
you were about five miles from me. theres a bridge over that res that makes for a great long shot for cars. ive got one of my s4 in it somewhere. nice shots though. did you not fancy any of the golf balls?

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #4 on: August 14, 2013, 18:24:21 PM
I did, but I needed to save something for a return visit ;)

Driving over to Otley one day I noticed a layby that gave a really good view of the golf balls, reservoirs and windfarm all in one viewscape. Figured it'd be worth a trip there next time I visit.

Where abouts are you based then? On the Sunday there was a group photographing some Red supercar, maybe a lambo. I was under the bridge when they drove past in it. When I finished, I walked past them setting up to photograph the car in front of the reservoir.

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #5 on: August 14, 2013, 18:33:37 PM

Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #6 on: August 14, 2013, 22:23:37 PM
Great set of images you've got there.  I'll not got through all of them but the Beetle shots cool, does look a touch out but not bad really, the climbing shots could do wtih straightening in some ways but I don't think you notice it too much.

B21 is good, could possibly do with a touch of contrast though, could possibly do with a little less sky and more of theose fields, also whats it like without the HDR'ing?

Swinsty reservoir sunset 's got some nice cloudage but yeah I think it could do with more in trees but I also know loads of people who say it'd be fine, instead of trying to get more detail in the trees what about making it a proper silhoutte?

The weir panorama's neat, the fisheye-ness is cool but then my next lens is either gonna be an 8mm Samyang fisheye or a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 (probably the tamron though)

The stream shots could do with more water in them but you've done a good job with the polariser the greens look nice and punchy.

The tunnel bridge is a nice idea, don't think I'd have thought of it at the time either but what about tilting the lens down a bit to get more of the reflection of the trees in?  Maybe another one that probably doesn't need the HDR its probably lacking something dark and black in it so it feels a little flat, nice idea though.

Fewston reseroirs good too, possibly could do with more contrast in the sky just to darken it a touch.  Does look a cool spot to get the water going over the outlet, well if the reservoir was fuller anyway!

Mossy steps I like especially as its a bit unusual, looks like no ones cleaned them or many people have been up and down them in years.

Last shots my fav, like the colour & the composition and its also a shot I'd probably never see, I'm always too focused on trying to get everything in so I don't try and look for the shot inside the shot so to speak.

Ok so I think I did all of them whoops lol.

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #7 on: August 14, 2013, 22:54:07 PM
B21 is good, could possibly do with a touch of contrast though, could possibly do with a little less sky and more of theose fields, also whats it like without the HDR'ing?

Problem with getting more field in, was that there were rocks right under the frame (just about see one poking up). I could have zoomed in, but then I'd have lost some of the cliff-jaggness?

The stream shots could do with more water in them but you've done a good job with the polariser the greens look nice and punchy.

I've now got an ND4 filter, so maybe next week I'll be borrowing some waders and heading to the New Forest, should give more water! Might do a bit of location scouting on flickr in the meantime.

The tunnel bridge is a nice idea, don't think I'd have thought of it at the time either but what about tilting the lens down a bit to get more of the reflection of the trees in?  Maybe another one that probably doesn't need the HDR its probably lacking something dark and black in it so it feels a little flat, nice idea though.

I tried to do that, but couldn't get it quite right.

Swinsty reservoir tunnel bridge by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Fewston reseroirs good too, possibly could do with more contrast in the sky just to darken it a touch.  Does look a cool spot to get the water going over the outlet, well if the reservoir was fuller anyway!

Xmas, just wish I'd spotted the location before. Could be that the lower water level made it interesting, it's certainly changed the character of the place quite a bit. It's also meant that whereas when it's full you're stuck to the paths, now you can actually walk off the path onto the reservoir, to get shots without branches etc. (also, spot the telltale HDR halo'ing)

Curve HDR by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Mossy steps I like especially as its a bit unusual, looks like no ones cleaned them or many people have been up and down them in years.

Last shots my fav, like the colour & the composition and its also a shot I'd probably never see, I'm always too focused on trying to get everything in so I don't try and look for the shot inside the shot so to speak.

Pretty sure the last two are my favourites too!

Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #8 on: August 15, 2013, 08:03:22 AM
im in menston, other side of otley. i mentioned it in one of russelss threads, the old lunatic asylum place. you were ten miles from a mortuary slab ;)

these golf balls here.


DSC_2583 by aka shofty, on Flickr

this is the bridge.

DSC_2604 by aka shofty, on Flickr

thinking about it, i can't remember if its fewston or swinsty res...

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #9 on: August 15, 2013, 09:30:45 AM
Must be Fewston, as Swinsty is ever so slightly shorter/closer to walk around, so I've done Swinsty a fair bit and not seen that bridge!

Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #10 on: August 16, 2013, 21:50:00 PM
Problem with getting more field in, was that there were rocks right under the frame (just about see one poking up). I could have zoomed in, but then I'd have lost some of the cliff-jaggness?

Thought that might be the case with the cliffs, just had a thought what about making it black & white?

Quote
I've now got an ND4 filter, so maybe next week I'll be borrowing some waders and heading to the New Forest, should give more water! Might do a bit of location scouting on flickr in the meantime.

ND4's are just the right amount normally to get down to a second or so so should do nicely.

Quote
I tried to do that, but couldn't get it quite right.

Swinsty reservoir tunnel bridge by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Yeah looks like theres not quite enough room to get it in, maybe with a fisheye or something.

Quote
Xmas, just wish I'd spotted the location before. Could be that the lower water level made it interesting, it's certainly changed the character of the place quite a bit. It's also meant that whereas when it's full you're stuck to the paths, now you can actually walk off the path onto the reservoir, to get shots without branches etc. (also, spot the telltale HDR halo'ing)

Curve HDR by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Certainly looks a bit different with lots of water in, wonder what it would be like to walk out to the middle and do a slow mo shot of the water not sure how easy it would be to walk out that far in lots of water though.

  • Offline zpyder

  • Posts: 6,946
  • Hero Member
Re: Redundant photography (Stuff from between jobs)
Reply #11 on: August 16, 2013, 22:48:49 PM
The tunnel shot (and many others) were taken with a 10-20mm lens, probably around 12mm. Not quite fisheye, but still pretty wide!

As to the reservoir and water. I don't think it'd be wise. There are so many warning signs plastered around those lakes it's ridiculous. I imagine if you were to stand on the edge there, the volume of water going past would easily be enough to sweep you off your feet and down the stream :D

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.