Not a great shot, but at least I have started trying to defend my trophy!

I took this on my EOS400D 17-40mm lens at 17mm, 1/2000secs (I told you the sky was bright) at f/8.0.

Our camera club has the subject Stone Walls as its subject.  I am not sure I want to sit through an evening of photos of stone walls, or to go out with the intention of taking photos of stone walls, but, if I was to enter a photo, then this would probably be it.  It is the outer wall of the old Coventry cathedral.  The interest for me though was in the two small patches of thin layers of stone that are inserted in between some of the large stones.  Why are they there, how long have they been there?  Who knows, but they do add some interest to an otherwise not very interesting subject.

This is obviously a heavily cropped photo – it is another attempt at the set subject competition that the camera club is holding this year – a crop ratio of 1:3. I have the full picture on Flickr which I also like, and have left in colour with only a small amount of cropping.

What I noticed when searching through some photos that I forgot I had taken was the atmospheric nature of the snow in the car headlights. I think this is made more atmospheric by converting to black and white. The close crop then concentrates the eye in this area of the photo, the blurring adding a sense of motion as the snow came down at what should have been rush hour (such that it is in Daventry) just before Christmas. The barrier at the back also reflects the tracks in the road which almost adds to the motion even though static.

The settings chosen by my camera were (on low light setting) 1/80 f/3.2 ISO3200 at 10.7mm.

It is the porch roof and I liked the shadows cast by the sun and the contrast of the dark waves with the white snow.  I also like the repeating pattern, interrupted only by the moss growing up there.  I also think there is a bit of a sense of motion from left to right.  The horizontal lines also recede slightly, drawing the eye into the picture a bit.

Perhaps I should enter this into the other set subject competition titled ‘Only a photographer would take this’?

My new 50mm lens was employed again, settings were ISO100 f/7.1 and 1/250secs.

I took this on a whim when out for a walk in the snow, but not as an entry in the competition.  I cropped it savagely in Lightroom to try and concentrate on the couple out for the walk and to cut out a lot of parked vehicles and road furniture.  I like the warmth of the sun on the ground, the darkness and sharpness of the figures contrasting with the haziness in the background and the shape of the tree.

I was unhappy that there were so many lamposts visible, but when I look at the picture again I think they add to the vertical nature of the photo.

The thing that I don’t like that I didn’t notice at the time is the figure that is just the other side of the tree walking towards the couple.  In fact, as I watched they stopped and had a chat!

So, I will probably not enter this, the judge will think it is too messy, and someone will probably win with a letterbox style picture of beach huts or something, but at least I am thinking about different crops.

I had my 50mm lens on, settings were ISO100, 1/1250secs at f/3.2.

Now, the problem with trying to take photos on a Saturday afternoon in a place like the bombed-out wreck that is Coventry Cathedral is that there are a lot of people there to spoil the picture.  After sitting and thinking for a little while I thought I would try somewhere else.  My other problem is that I am not very good /  practiced at architecture shots and so finding something that looks good and will translate onto the camera proved a little tricky.

The good thing about this is that I wandered to parts of Coventry that I had not been to for years, and, in some cases, hadn’t visited before, even though I lived there for 4 years and still visit it occasionally.  Plan B was to look at some of the more modern architecture from the time when the city was rebuilt after the war.  It hasn’t worn well!  I then discovered lots of new buildings, bright bricks and lots of glass, all of which looked quite impressive – but then will it start to resemble the post-war rebuild in a few decades?  I am not sure how well “modern-looking” brick and glass will age.  I took lots of shots with my S90, not so many with the EOS, I am still a bit shy about taking my camera out for a bit of street photography.  However, this was far from satisfying.

I then had a cunning plan.  I have an underlying, non-religious obsession with churches and this seemed to be the perfect excuse to photograph a church that had caught my eye whenever I had passed it in the car.  So, this is one of the pictures I took.  Not the usual one face on from the front, but one from the side, looking up, as this asymmetry was what had caught my eye in the first place.  However, this church is also a bit special, as it was designed by Pugin.  Quite what Pugin was doing in Rugby I don’t know, but then his designs have turned up in the most unlikely places.  I am not a fan of Pugin’s designs particularly, but he does have an attention to detail, although there is usually too much detail.  And I have to admire someone so dedicated to what he was doing and who produced and influenced so many other architects.  Unfortunately, the church was not open when I visited so I could not go inside.  But I am told that it is open on Mondays and that the inside is very Pugin.  I can’t wait to visit!

I will update you with details of the photos that I decided to put into the club project when they are printed.

For anyone interested in the details, I shot the picture in RAW, the settings chosen by the camera were ISO80, 1/500 secs, 6mm, f/4.0.  I applied some sharpening in Lightroom as I am still finding my way round the camera, trying to get the best from it.

PS I realise that it would be better without the bottom of the church chopped off, but I couldn’t get it all in the picture and I really wanted the top, including the winged ‘things’ in the shot, so I compromised.  If you want to see the church from the front, then I have posted a picture on Flickr.

Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly ovipositing

One of my favourite competitions at the camera club is, unsurprisingly, the Natural History Competition, even though I never expect to win.  This year, we could enter three pictures, in any combination of projected or printed.  The main rule is that the pictures are ‘straight’, cropping and adjustment of exposure, levels etc are allowed, but taking things out or adding things in is not.  It also has to be a picture taken in the wild, e.g. no garden flowers.

This hoverfly is one of those I entered as a projected image.  It is a photo I took last year and is one with which I am pretty pleased, I hoped to do well.  I had even discovered the latin name thanks to John Showers, someone I met through the Northamptonshire bird club, who also runs Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust hoverfly identification courses – my picture will now feature in one of these courses (a fact of which I am very proud)!

The judge on the night apparently takes a lot of pictures of wildlife for competitions and has been judging for a few years.  He was also a very poor judge.  I was not too unhappy with the points awarded, and do not doubt his ability to judge a picture (well, not too much), but, his knowledge of Natural History appeared to me to be woefully inadequate.  Whilst I am not claiming that you need the knowledge of Chris Packham to judge a local camera club competition, I do expect the judge to know the difference between a hoverfly and a wasp (especially when the title of the piece was ‘hoverfly’) and to know the difference between baby blackbirds and starlings (with the latin name in the title). Although, apparently, the judge professed to making up latin names if they were needed for any of the competitions he entered.

He also stated that some pictures would have gained more marks if they had been photoshopped – perhaps he should have read the rules before starting the judging.  Is there any way of complaining about a judge?

For those interested in the photo, it is of a Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly, taken in my garden, handheld using my 100mm macro lens, ISO 400 (remarkably clear for this setting), f/8, 1/200secs.

Birmingham Street Scene

Every year Badby Photo Club has a small print competition which I think is a great idea.  Everyone can enter up to three pictures of any subject, they don’t have to be mounted, the only rules are that they are no bigger than 7″x5″ and that they have been taken in the last two years.  Then everyone gets three votes and the one with the most votes wins.

The thing I like is that you get such a wide variety of subjects entered each time, and it gives everyone a chance to show something different.

I was lucky enough to win last time, this was one of my entries this year which came second – I was very pleased, the photo that won was the one I wish I had taken.

I took this photo when killing time in Birmingham city centre – the title I gave it was “Something old, something new and the sky was blue”.  I think I surprised people at the club with this shot – they are used to my bees and butterflies, not urban scenes.

The photo was taken with my EOS 400d handheld with my kit lens on  – 17-85mm (at the time it was that or the macro lens) set at 17mm, I think I had a polarising filter on to take advantage of that fantastic sky, and the settings were f/10, ISO 200, 1/125 secs.

Cirrus Clouds

I had a conversation with my mother-in-law this weekend about how nobody is a winner when a photographer goes for a walk with a non-photographer. The photographer wants to spend time taking the perfect shot (or lots of imperfect shots in my case) but feels guilty about it, the non-photographer can’t help but look bored and they also feel guilty. The result, few or no pictures and more standing around than was really required. However, this is where compact point and shoot cameras come into their own.

I have had my Canon Ixus for a few years now and it goes almost everywhere with me. I can put it in my pocket and forget about it if there are no photo opportunities. (If I have heaved the DSLR and associated lenses with me I am bloody well going to take some pictures dagnabit!) I even won a small print competition at the photo club with a picture that I took with it when walking to work. Unfortunately this is the disadvantage – the light was a bit low, and the picture is grainy about 7×5″, so it is no good for other competitions.

So, where am I going with this. You can get perfectly good results with a small camera, you are more likely to get some great pictures with a small camera because you have it with you, and you will not annoy anyone that has gone for a walk with you as you endlessly arrange a shot, you are more likely to get the shot and go.

This picture is inspired by the club set subject competition for this year – the subject is clouds. Whilst I am hoping to get some better shots by April, I liked the way the clouds seem to be rushing in the opposite direction to that in which the trees are being blown. I am also a sucker for white against cornflower blue!

For those of you interested, the settings chosen by the camera were 5.8mm (the widest setting), f/5.6, 1/1500 secs and my default choice was ISO200 which I had forgotten to change from taking some macro shots earlier!

Damselfly on a leaf

Each year Badby Photography Club has a set subject competion (I guess this is the same for all photography clubs). This year the subject is shadows, the competition is on 20th May. I wanted to approach this with a number of ideas of photogenic shadows, I even toyed with the idea of a sundial, but the shots I took were all a bit underwhelming. The picture shown is one that I will be entering, entitled ‘You can’t see me’. I have spent far too many hours in the last two weeks photographing emerging damselflies with varying degrees of success, but this picture of a damselfly from below is just right, I like the way you can even see her feet hanging on at the sides.