Winter Wonderland

Well after abandoning my commute to work this morning due to traffic, I decided to go for a walk with my camera, and found myself in woodland only ten minutes from home, that I had never explored before. Mainly because of the big ‘Private Land’ signs, but I saw so many people walking their dogs, so I thought it must be ok? 🙂

I’m really glad I did, for once inside I felt like a child in a sweet shop. There were just so many photo oportunities, and fortunately it was so cold that none of the snow and ice was melting. I must have been there an hour and a half before I decided to go home and see what I’d manage to capture.

The first image happens to be my first real attempt at panoramic, and this image is stitched together from 10 images showing a full 180 degrees.

Enjoy…

Balancing the exposure

It makes all the difference to balance the exposure.

How often have you seen a beautiful sunset and tried to photograph what your eyes are seeing? Sadly cameras don’t have the ability to see the dynamic range that our eyes do, and that lovely image is somehow reduced to either a landscape in silhouette, or a sky that is all washed out.

The only way to do the scene justice is to balance the exposure. This can be done in a couple of ways, namely taking multiple exposures and blending them later in Photoshop, or by using one or more Neutral Density Graduated filters placed in front of the lens. These filters are half grey and half clear and are designed to simply reduce the light from part of the image (usually the sky).

Even if you later enhance the exposure more in Photoshop, the filter will have allowed the camera to grab more detail for you to play with.

Southwold

I thought I would take some time and reprocess some old images I had of Southwold.
Hope you like them…

Second wave of the invasion…

Of course I had to go back today 🙂
This time, I discovered a very different scene, with a strong freezing North sea wind whipping up the waves. As such I wasnt able to get as far out as yesterday before my fingers and ears went numb.

Enjoy…

The Martians have landed!

I had great pleasure exploring an area of sea defences at Felixstowe that I hadn’t even known existed until a few days ago. The moment I saw a glimpse of the structures whilst performing my usual virtual tour using Google maps and street view, I knew I’d found another potential location for some great images.

I first went there early in the morning hoping for a decent sunrise, but the conditions were a bit flat to say the least, although I did manage to grab a few keepers. However, it was the visit at the end of the day that exited me the most, as the sky was great and the tide was out, allowing me to explore the seaward facing side of the structure, where this morning there had been 4-5 foot of water!

I hope you like the images I managed to get?

Waldringfield

I thought I’d head out to a different location for this mornings’ hunt for the light, and I ended up at Waldringfield on the river Deben.
Although the sky was a bit flat and lifeless, I was quite pleased with some of the images I managed to grab. Once I realised that my shoes were insufficient to continue along the riverbank due to the mud, I reaslised I need a pair of wellies 🙂

Hope you like them too?

Felixstowe Sunset

What started out as a shopping trip with Tracy, ended up with me taking my camera and leaving her to pop into Felixstowe town centre while I went down the sea. I’m rather happy I did 🙂

Languard Fort

I took these images at one of my regular haunts as the sun went down on New Years’ Day 2013. There were more people about than I had ever known, and I guess they too wanted to make the most of the sunset and fresh air?

You’ll also notice a self portrait in this batch of images. 🙂

Orwell Country Park

I took these few images on my first trip to part of the Orwell Country Park in the outskirts of Ipswich. The park has seen a lot of changes over the years, including those necessary to build the Orwell Bridge, which wasn’t without its controversy. Losing its open air swimming pool was a great loss to the community.
I shall no doubt return to the park as the year goes by.

Bitter cold Landguard Fort

I somehow managed to convince Tracy that it would be a great idea for her to join me on a trip to Landguard, (not just so she could see where I seem to spend half my life at the moment :)). However, it was just my rotten luck that it turned out to be the windiest, coldest, and wettest (if you got caught by the spray off the sea), so she wasn’t that impressed, and I’m not sure she’ll go back again 😛
This time, I also turned my camera inland and at the fort itself, but I could only really muster some black and white renderings of the place. Perhaps I need a challenge to get some better images?

Anyway, hopefully this latest set of images will convey the conditions we endured… And no, I’m not becoming a twitcher! 🙂