I admit it is not a great picture, but it reminds me of Winter evenings in the UK, a bit cold and empty, but surrounded by nature, even if it is hidden by the night.

I put the picture into black and white in Lightroom and tried to reduce the noise a little (after all at ISO8000 there is a lot of noise!) and applied an infrared filter to lighten the sky. I thought that the black and white showed the shape of the tree a little better.

I had my compact on low light setting, and the settings were ISO8000, 6mm, 1/15secs at f/2.0.

I took this picture with my compact camera whilst walking my mother-in-law on Boxing Day. It was one of those times where I had not expected to be taking any photos, and, if I had not had my compact in my pocket (as always) then I would have missed the shot.

The reason I took the shot and the reason I like it is that it conveys the emptiness on that day. This is a place that in the Summer would be full of people playing cricket or walking their dogs. The snow, and the fact that it was the day after Christmas meant that none of them were there to ruin the photo.

I cropped the image in Lightroom to remove a lot of foreground and therefore make the trees the main subject. I have another picture of the tree on the right on its own with the foreground in place, but I don’t think it is as good a picture.

The settings chosen by my camera were 1/500secs f/4.5 ISO80 at 6mm.

I took a few pictures of this tree with its covering of frost, but decided to post this one for a couple of reasons.  Firstly there is the comparison with the earlier post that I did with the tree on a misty and not quite so frosty day.  Secondly, and more importantly, I love the way the sun catches the branches of the tree.  All of the foreground is in shade and the snow/frost gives it a cold, blue tint.  But the main part of the picture feels warm, with the apricot-coloured glow contrasting against the clear, blue sky.

Whether the tree is too central is open to debate, but the crop is there to remove the houses and lamp posts which would otherwise intrude and spoil the picture.

I am still in love with my 50mm lens, the settings were f/7.1 at 1/320secs on ISO 100.

I think that this conveys how cold it was and how desolate it can be, although this tree is right on the edge of a housing estate!

I don’t have much else to say about this photo, but it was taken with my 50mm lens, ISO200, 1/200secs at f/13.

This was a shot I took because I saw it and wanted it – yes, photo-shopping, sometimes it just has to be done.  I was taking a walk during my lunch hour, looking for good pictures of the landscape (aka industrial estate) in the hoar frost.   I happened to turn round and saw the tree.  Now, I know that the tree is there, but have never taken it from this angle, in Winter, before.

However, there was not a lot of colour and there was some detail needed in the tree – so I admit it, I cheated and applied an infra-red filter in Lightroom.  Sorry.

I like the composition of this photo (cropped because there were some ‘weeds’ in the foreground) despite the fact that the tree is breaking the rules and is sitting slap, bang in the middle.  However, I think the small oak tree to the right and the shrubs to the left balance the shot.  The fact that the horizon is on the third also helps with the composition.

The settings using my EOS400D with 50mm lens (again – getting a winter obsession) were ISO200 and 1/320secs at f/8.0.

This is another photo which I took on my way to work, being initially attracted to the sunlight which was catching the brown needles around the bottom of the group of trees.

Then I noticed the texture of the bark, so started taking some shots of that.  Then I decided I liked the way that the tree swept upwards, then I took this picture.

I am not sure if the low-ish early morning sun is a good or a bad thing – it does bleach out some of the tree, but it does a good job of hiding the industrial estate.  So, from a compositional point of view there are quite a lot of features, but it could benefit from the sun being behind the tree completely (I did try this, but then lost the second tree and a lot of the interest.

This was taken with my Canon Powershot S90, ISO80, 1/50secs, f/4.0, 6mm.

However, there are a lot of great plant photographers out there that I don’t think I could ever rival, so I concentrate on pictures of plants that are nearby and am trying to take more abstract and close up shots.

This is the same pine that featured in one of my most  abstract photos of about six months ago.  This time my eye was caught first of all by a small water droplet, then by the light on the needles at the edge of the shot.  I also liked the fact that it refused to be buffeted by the blustery breeze that made all the other plants impossible to photograph.

In essence I think that this photo, especially compared with the more abstract shot, shows a different facet of the plant.  There is the glaucous, subdued colour of the small cone and the fresher green of the needles, particularly when many plants were starting to look a little parched.  Unlike many conifers this is quite a soft needled, tactile plant which is one of the reasons that I bought it, and I think that comes through in the picture.

The picture was taken with a macro lens, handheld, ISO200, 1/125secs at f/4.0.

This has the required elements, a main subject in the foreground and so background interest with the trees in the background.  The shot would have been better if I had taken it earlier, as the light on the tree was much better, but, there were a load of photographers in the way all taking the same photo.

Would it be better with a more interesting sky?  Possibly, but the sky was bland for most of the day, and it does allow the tree to be the main focus, so, I am quite happy with the result overall, and I do like the minimalist pallet – there is nothing there really other than shades of green.

Any complaints?  I do think the lighting is a little flat, and wonder if the effect is a little bland.  But, it does what a landscape photo should and gives a feel for the place, it was quiet, peaceful, in the middle of nowhere and a little bit hazy.

This photo was taken with my compact camera, ISO80, 1/500 secs, f/4.0, 6mm.

Twisted Branches

I went for a walk in the Winter sunshine yesterday, not necessarily with the intention of taking photos, but took my EOS400D with me.  As I did not know what I would be taking photos of I chose my kit lens (17-85mm), it is a lens I have not used for some time; the results can be a little disappointing at either end of the focal length range, but it does the job in the middle.

I am contemplating buying another lens at some point, perhaps a fixed focal length of 35mm or 50mm, so this lens also affords an opportunity to test out how much I would use either lens.

I also took my polarising filter with me as the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

So, why did I take this shot (and the many others that look remarkably similar)?  Firstly, and most obviously, I liked the shape of the branches – the effect differed depending on position, and, with the lens set at one of two focal lengths, I found myself moving around the subject quite a bit.  I also liked the contrast of the semi-bleached branches against the blue of the sky.  But they were not just dead wood, they had lichens growing on them as well.  So there were two stories to the tree, it is both architectural and a home to other flora and fauna.

A third reason for photographing trees is that this is one of our set subjects this year, for projected images, and so I am looking for inspiration and opportunities for the competition.

I cropped in from a larger picture, preferring to focus on the twists of the dead branches rather than show the whole of the tree in context.

For those interested this was taken at ISO100, 1/30secs, 35mm, f/9.

Tree Bark

I had another of those what to take moments on Boxing Day.  We went for a walk at Kedleston in Derbyshire, the sun was shining, there was still some snow on the ground, the landscape was rolling, etc etc.  I took some of the obligatory shots of the dales, and of the light coming through the trees, but, to me,  it did not capture the essence of a walk in the woods.

This picture was closer to it.  I think that the trees are individual and worth taking photos of in their own right, the leaves, the bark, even the bits left after they have fallen and are decaying with other flora and fauna making them home.  I have no idea what type of tree this is, but the sun caught the bark and made it sparkle, just as I was walking past.  The swirling patterns really caught my attention and made me stop.  My companions carried on oblivious.

This was snapped with my Canon Ixus, 5.8mm, f/2.8, ISO 200, 1/100 secs.