Day 11 - Landscape

I've wanted to do some nice landscape photography for all of you wonderful readers... but honestly I live in a very flat and boring area!

I looked at lots of examples that involved mountains and cliffs, rocks and beaches. My immediate surroundings, however, are a little more like fields and trees and more fields and more trees! Fields and trees ar enice, but don't make for interesting landscape photography in mypersonal opinion (I'm sure if you live in the city then fields and trees are really exciting!!).

So, I took HARVe up at the weekend while doing some exploring, you can see those pictures below, and I thought I'd also share a few pictures I took at Sutton Bank a few months ago (sadly with my phone before I had my gorgeous new camera). That should satisfy the landscape photography!

I DO want to revisit this one, but I'm also keen to get onto the other ones too!

Day 7 - Silhouette

I'm excited about today's blog!!! Really excited because for once I actually love nearly all of the photos I took! I don't love them because they're all brilliant photos, far from it actually, but I love them because I can actually see the potential in each one and have a rough idea of how to make them better next time! :)

Once again I didn't really have much time to devote to it and ended up rushing a bit, but the three I've got I love, love, love!! :)

Onto the photos:


Trees

It's a little out of focus because I was losing the light (as you can see, sunset) and I didn't have a tripod at the time so wasn't able to keep the camera completely still... but wow! I LOVE the colour of the sky behind the trees and the way they really dominate the picture, but also love the fact that after you've finished looking at the trees and gorgeous sunset, you just notice the tops of the tents and that adds a whole other lever of interest to the story behind the photo! :) I Like it!! :)

Hedingham Castle at Night

Again this photos is suffering from a lack of tripod and is also a bit noisy. As it's the first attempt at shooting anything at night I'm very proud :) I took most of the colour out in the editing software as it really wasn't adding much to the photo (and I'm getting a bit of a thing for this black and white lark) and that really brought out that tree at the corner of the castle. I like this, and would like to take it again with a tripod and with a bit more time to really get it right :)


Cecil The Trebuchet

What can I say? Wow.... It was a gorgeous picture without any editing, but a but of adjusting to get the colour of that sunset to pop and wow wow wow. I am SO pleased with this one I can't even begin to describe it! :) Just like the one with the trees I love this because it's got that added bonus; there's a gorgeous sunset, beautiful trees and majestic trebuchet in the middle, but as you follow the arm of the treb up to the top you notice one tiny star coming out in the night's sky. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!! ^_^

Day 8: Sunset. I've not done this yet, so I'm a day behind. Hoping to get some good photos tonight... if the postie arrives with my new tripod today they might even be good photos!! You never know!!! :)

Day 5 - High Angle

So, Day 5 has rolled around and today's theme is "High Angle". all the tutorials basically say "photos taken form a higher than normal vantage point".


It is at this part in our adventures through Niki's foray into photography that I have a small confession to make.


I own this:

This is HARVe (Hovel Aerial Reconnaissance Vehicle). He is a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quadcopter (not drone...), and I love him!

So yes. I have mercilessly cheated on this little post! All of these high angle shots have been taken by HARVe! From anything upto about 300ft in the air! ^_^

Onto the pics!!

Hedingham Castle

The camera on my P2V (called HARVe) has a fisheye lense. I really wish it didn't. Was also losing the light, but this has so much potential! :) I'm also a bit peeved that it is wonky. I tried straightening it but that cut off half the castle :( The issues with this picture are 100% pilot error!

Cecil (Follow Her on Twitter: @CecilTheTreb)

Quite like this one. Can't see the fisheye effect too badly too which is cool, and its a lovely view of Cecil! :) Was a bit over zealous with the cropping though and appear to have chopped off a stake...

Hedingham Castle Black and White

Ok ok ok.... I actually really like black and white!!! Who knew you could get ruins and decay to show up so much better with black and white!! It was also a very dreary day in early spring so the trees are a murky brown colour! What I LOVE about this picture is how the castle dominates the right hand side of the picture and really draws your eye right up the top to the flag,yet at the bottom in the corner the black and white has really made the tents pop out, especially the stripy one! :) I REALLY like this picture!! :)


I'll be updating a few days as I've got them all done and edited now :)

Day 6 is Low angle and Day 7's pictures I'm SO happy with!! Silhouette! :)

Check out: HovelTV for footage and more pictures from the weekend as soon as I've got round to editing then waiting for my painfully slow internet connection to upload! :)

Day 4 - Texture

I'm beginning to worry I'm a bit crap at this whole photography thing... Looked at "texture" photos and thought 'no worries, looks dead easy'. It wasn't! :/

So, here's my attempts.... Bit late as I forgot to upload last night! :)


Crochet:

I like this one quite a bit, but should ahve played with the settings a bit more as it seems too bright in some places. Yeah I hear you "lighting, lighting, lighting".... vintage filter and we're sorted!

wool

Actually quite like this one too! Cropped it right down to just the wool and then you can really see not only the individual strands wound around but also the fluff. I used the 'bleach' filter for this one to take away the really bright colour of the wool, this is really cool as it made the fluff stand out a bit more


Toad In The Hole

For some reason doesn't look as yummy as it tasted or as it looked when it left the oven. I like the rough texture of the dinner and the smooth of the oven dish :)

Brick Work

You thought I'd do a post with no decay? WRONG! Even better, last post I said I didn't think black and white was my thing.... turns out I was wrong about that too! :) Quite like this one! :)


I'm going away for a few days, but the next three days are: High Angle (for which I have a plan...) Low Angle (for which I have no plan) and Silhouette! So See you in a few days!

don't forget to leave a comment if you're liking these posts, if you're not liking them... stop reading! :P

Day 3 - Black and White

Have to say, I really struggled with this one.

I don't know if it was a lack of inspiration or the fact that I got up STUPIDLY early this morning that I now feel like a zombie at 6 o'clock at night... Either way, I found this one hard.

There's six different photos here, some I like more than others. I don't think black & white really suits me, but some of the decayed stuff looks good!! ^_^

Daisy

Admittedly I put a vintage filter on this then turned it black and white...

Bridge

Quite like this one, like the mix of urban and country :)

Fence

It's a fence. I'm getting Alfred Hitchcock ...

Abandoned

Couldn't resist a bit of a mooch around an abandoned building! :) I took the contrast right down on this, so it literally is: black and white. Not sure if that worked better or not?

Abandoned Roof

The roof of the abandoned building I was wandering around. Kept this one quite bright so there would be more detail inside... I think it kind of worked?

Decayed Cross

Just for sh*ts and giggles, here's a black and whit decayed cross in time for Easter! :) This one is actually my favourite.


so there you ahve it, black and white. I'm not really overly impressed by any of them. Tomorrow is "Texture" I'm really excited about that as I'll be in London all day too! Hoping to wander around some more abandoned & derelict places... so expect lots of mould, moss, mildew and RUST! ^_^