The light is not great when you have a limited compact, but I didn’t have a tripod either, so my D-SLR would not have helped anyway.

The thing that caught my eye was the reflection of the clouds in the water and their apricot colour.  It added a warmth to the scene that tried to balance the cold of the snow and ice.  I thought about adding a little fill light in Lightroom in order to give a bit more definition to the foreground and remove some of the black, but, I like the contrasts and the darkness of the light.  (Can you have darkness of light?  Probably not, but you know what I mean.)  It is not a photo that would win any prizes, but I like it, it gives me a sense of the place.  There was a certain stillness that comes after the working day on most industrial estates, once the hustle and bustle of people driving home has gone, which was enhanced by the dulling effect of the snow.

As mentioned, it was taken using my Canon Ixus, set at ISO200 (there is absolutely no point going above as the pictures are of pants quality), and it chose f/2.8, the light on the water and the snow combining to allow 1/400 secs shutter speed.

3 Mushrooms in the rain

This was a spur of the moment photo that I took on my way to work and I wasn’t sure how it would come out (I was running late and didn’t have time to try any different settings on my compact).

I had noticed a few fungi here and there as autumn had set in, but the ones I wanted to photograph had vanished.  I was almost at work when I noticed this small group of mushrooms and it struck me that with an autumn leaf on the top it looked as though one of them was sheltering from the rain.  The composition is not as great as I would have liked, ideally I would have been able to get rid of the post on the left and just have the mushrooms and grass, but I still like the quirkiness of the photo, which sums up November to me, even nature is trying to get away from the damp!  (In an ideal world it would be sharper from back to front as well.)

The photo was taken on my trusty Ixus, ISO200, settings chosen by the camera were (on macro setting) 5.8mm, f/2.8, 1/40 secs.

Fly

My previous post pointed out that you don’t necessarily need expensive gear in order to take photos, much more important is being there with a camera, otherwise, no picture. Some of you may think this is a little hypocritical considering the number of pictures of insects I have taken this Summer with my much loved macro lens. But, without the macro function on my compact camera, I probably would not have bought the macro lens. It was really this function, and the fantastic pictures I get from my Ixus that got me into photography in the first place.
The picture shown here was also taken with my point and shoot (P&S). There are very few settings I can change, but I can put it on a macro setting. The light at this time of year is variable, and not always great at the time and place you want to take a photo. I had tried taking some pictures of the fly with my macro lens, but, although the sun was out I would have to open my lens to f/7.1 in order to get a decent shutter speed, especially as it was a little breezy. With a macro lens, f/7.1 gives very little depth of field. The resulting pictures were a little less than impressive.
Therefore, out came the Ixus and here is the result. As usual, ISO was set at 200, the camera then selected f/2.8 at 5.8mm, shutter speed 1/1250 secs. Yes, I could have reduced the ISO, but as I didn’t know the shutter speed was that fast then it didn’t occur at the time. (Note to self, adjust ISO setting on Ixus once initial satisfactory shot has been achieved.)
For a few more photos taken with my compact P&S camera, please see my set on Flickr.

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!