Dobbygraphs

Shell Island June 29th 2010

2010-10-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Dunham Massey - Early morning photoshoot, 28th October 2010

2010-10-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since Ive posted in here, possibly because with everything else going on, allotment, beekeeping, work, I've not really has the chance to get out and do as much dedicated 'togging' as I would like, yes Ive been taking pictures, but usually of whats growing on the allotment (see the dobbyspumpkinpatchblogspot), rather than actually dedicated photography for its own sake!

Yesterday that all changed, we took a trip out to Dunham Massey before sunrise with our friend Jim, a very talented photographer, who is semi proffessional (links to his website and workstream at the bottom of the post)

Dunham Massey is a NT property, free to enter the grounds, with a Stately Home and Gardens (entry prices apply), a large rolling woodland and a large herd of deer, a place that can be very photogenic, especially in the snow or autumn!

Todays shoot was to capture the autumnal colours, plus try and get some decent pictures of the deer, if they would let us close enough!

Early morning shadows on the dew!

Autumnal colours.......

Autumn coloured avenue.........

These railing sillouetted against the early morning sky caught my eye, almost abstract.......

........ and this drop of water caught my attention!

The symetry of the railings called for another treatment, with limited depth of field, dont know why, but I like this one!

Of coiurse, no trip to Dunham would be complete without some pictures of the deer, especially at this time of year!

With 3 of us trying to capture that 'one' perfect shot, it became a bit problemtaic, with all 3 of us wanting to get close, but without spooking the deer! I opted to try and use my longest lens, which limited the shutter speed and aperture, making it difficult to capture anything as sharply defined as I would like! Lee opted to crawl forwards, whereas Jim tried to flank this stag whilst I held its attention and used my longer lens!

Not too bad, but not quite as sharp as I wanted...........

A little closer is better........

But not too close!

Warily I am watched, cant move any closer without spooking him!

And now Jim is spotted coming up close on the flank! They may look placid and sweet, but they can easily defend themselves with their antlers, cases of injury from these deer are not unknown!

After the fun with the stag time to look around for something else of interest, this downed tree caught my attention, the roots are wonderfully textured............

.......... and also contain many shapes that readily lend themselves to animamorphic interpretations, can you see the horses head, the otter, alligator, ducks, reclining man, ravens head?

The mill pond had some great reflections, shame the lighting wasnt quite right, a bit mnore blue in the sky would have been awesome!

Mill pond alternate view...........

....... and another closer view!

The 'moon' pool also had some great reflectons, these rushes and ferns looked like a wall of fire, especially with the reflections!

Autumn fungii, something I always find photogenic!

Autumnal carpet of leaves!

Autumn branch!

This drop caught my attention, especially with its inverted image of the treeline!

Amazing the difference a hint of sunshine makes to the vivid colours!

Love the texture!

Leaves on the pond, almost abstract...........

More leaves on pond..............

Leaves on water with reflections, need I say more?

Monet inspired autumn reflections!

More reflections with leaves!

Autumnal treeline, love the vivid colours!

And finally, our friend Jim, aka Beanie Hat Rocks - sans beanie hat! Take a look at the following 2 links for some of Jims fantastic work, he's definitely an amazing photographer and a darn good friend to boot!

http://www.wix.com/james_backhouse/photography
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagesbyjim/?v=1

Hopefully Ill be posting some updates from the past 12 months later on today, though I have got a bit of prep to do, we're off to Glastonbury tomorrow for a weekend away to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary, and to take some piccies too of course!

2008-10-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

These autumn leaves really stood out to me, so I tried a couple of different edits, landscape and portrait orientation, which do you prefer?

Some of the paths reminded me of scenes from the LOTR films, have a look and let me know what you think!

2008-09-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

2 Streams from Snowdonia!

This first one was taken in the shadow of Snowdon itself, handheld in very windy conditions, I liked the compositiob, just a shame the day was soo grey of sky!
This one was taken just below Devils Kitchen, in the valley below the Glyders! I used a tripod for this one, (it was less windy)! The composition is again what drew me in to the picture, although its not helped by the grey sky! I'm hoping to revisit the spot again in better conditions in the not too distant future!

Macro flower

2008-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, last few for today, again trying to use the macro end of my Canon 28-90mm f4.0-5.6 USM!
The first one gives some sense of the size of the flower, about 2" across!
A closer one concentrating on the detail of the stamen and seed in the center.
Cropped and blown up from the last one, showing the finer details! This is about as close as I can get with my current lens, perhaps when I get some other lenses I may be able to improve!

Comments, critique, hints and tips always welcome!

Bug life on the plot - pics of insects using the macro end of my Canon 28-90mm f4-5.6 USM

2008-09-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

As the title says, an attempt to use the macro function of my Canon lens to take some close ups of the various insects that a brief spell of sunshine brought out on Saturday 6th Sept 08!

Hover fly
Red Admiral
Ditto!
Fly
Another fly
Amorous Crickets!
Not too bad methinks for a non dedicated Macro lens, one day I'll have the Canon 100mm Macro lens, and then we'll see whether I can do any better!

B+W Photocomp - image 2!

2008-09-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Every day on my drive to work I go past Dunham Massey, a NT stately home, which is surrounded by a wonderful country park and outside of that lots of very expensive houses. In contrast to the beautiful houses, the fences are a lot more rustic and weatheres, so on my way home (and dodging the showers) I tred to get some piccies of the grain and detail, hence these 2 piccies!

Contry Show, Tatton Park 23-08-2008

2008-09-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

A few from the country show at Tatton, the most photogenic thing there were the Raptors, especially this little Falcon!

' Feed me, feed me now!'
'I really can't be bothered with all this, just let me go bak to sleep, ok?'

More newer piccies!

2008-09-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

3 more, this time taken on the 20th August 2008.
Mum and 6 baby hedgehogs, sheltering in a compost heap on the plot! Unfortunately the light was BAAAAD, and I didnt feel comfortable disturbing them with flash, so a bit of camera shake has resulted in the slight blurring!
Dunham Park gatehouse. A local NT site near us, the gothic gatehouse is one of 2 shots I took to enter into a B+W photoshoot comp (for fun) on the EOS forum! In the upstairs window was a white rose, it screamed out for a piccy, but without a polarizer (to reduce the reflections on the glass) this was the best I could do!

Some recent pics!

2008-09-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

These were taken on the 6th August, on an overcast day! Just practicing and attempting to gain a bit of skills in Photoshop, the version of which I have is an old one (6.0), but does allow me to do a bit of tweaking!

This piccy of Lee was crying out for a B+W conversion, but I didnt want to loose his gorgeous brown eyes, so a bit of PS magic and here we go!
Globe Artichoke

Chrysanthemum

Why?

2008-07-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, this blog is for my pictures, after beginning to get back into photography with the purchase of a 6.3Megapixle Canon EOS 10D DSLR, I thought it might be a useful place for me to post them and feature any I was pleased with! Please feel free to critique, commend or comment on any of the piccies!

These were taken walking around our allotment site, snapping at anything that was growing that caught my eye! I hope you enjoy them!