Delicate
With all my time spent with my new Drone, I thought that maybe I would be doing a little less ‘normal’ photography but this was not the case as due to the limited flight time of the Drone at around 20 minutes, I still had plenty of opportunities to also get some shots with either the 5D MK III or the 6D. This meant that I have been able to get a blog post in separate from the Drone work, which is definitely still a work in progress.
This month have managed to get a good mix of macro, Landscape, Wildlife and architectural shots so let’s kick things off then with some Macro images:
Minimalist Fly - 100mm Macro F/2.8
Dandelion flower - 100mm Macro F/2.8
Dandelion Seed - 100mm Macro F/2.8
Shield Bug on Dandelion seedhead - 100mm Macro F/2.8
My favorite macro’s of the year also came this month, with an impromptu shoot of some bees collecting pollen from a bush on a lovely warm may morning. The light was great, so I was able to bump up the F stop to get as much in focus as possible, while not needing to go high with the ISO. this combination with a fast shutter speed meant I was able to get in close and shoot handheld, while still maintaining sharpness and a nice depth of field as well. The results as you can see are some fantastically sharp and crisp images, where detail has been maintained without the compromise of focus.
Bee - (Favorite shot) - 100mm Macro F/2.8
100mm Macro F/2.8
100mm Macro F/2.8
100mm Macro F/2.8
100mm Macro F/2.8
Moving onto some landscape work, with shots taken across the month all using a tripod, and when around any body of water, my 35mm lens plus the 10 stop ND filter.
Prince of Wales Bridge: 70-200mm F/4
Comparing the compression that the 70-200 lens (above) gives you against the more ‘landscape’ orientated 35mm lens (below) as you can see, also gives great results when used correctly with landscape shots.
Prince of Wales bridge - 35mm F/1.4 + 10 stop ND filter
Driftwood - 35mm F/1.4 + 10 stop ND filter
The ND Filter is also a great way of ‘getting rid’ of anybody walking or moving along a beach or scene that would usually be crowded. In the case below there were actually about 20 people in the shots but a combination of the ND filter and a touch of Photoshop got rid of any unwanted mess in the image and makes it look like you had the place to yourself on a warm day in May.
Durdle Door 1 - 35mm F/1.4 + 10 stop ND filter
Also a bit of a bucket list shot was ticked off as well with the shot below which I have been wanting the chance to photograph for a long time now. As previously discussed the masses of tourists on the beach are easily taken care of using photoshop. The ND filter and around 25 second exposure also creates a very calm looking and peaceful sea. The Image could of course be improved with a more dynamic sky (sunset/golden hour). But you have to work with what you are given and In this case it was a very bright, Hazy mid afternoon.
Durdle Door 2 - 35mm F/1.4 + 10 stop ND filter
The final landscape was a scene I come across when down in Cornwall so often. I found this particular scene when out walking, so returned with my tripod to set up this shot as I knew I would need to take several images to get the right exposure across the image. I used 4 shots, exposing for the sky, the hills, the midground, and the foreground. I then merged them in lightroom to get the image below.
quintessentially English Scene - Cornwall - 35mm F/1.4 HDR (4 images)
Onto some Architectural shots taken of Salisbury Cathedral on a very overcast, dull and rainy day.
Door Knocker - 35mm F/1.4
Door frame bust - 35mm F/1.4
Tile Floor - 35mm F/1.4
Finally onto wildlife with some garden bird shots below where I used the backdrop of a white wall, and foreground of a grass lawn to create a uniform and interesting portrait style shot, to try and photograph garden birds as they came into the garden to feed on seed left out for them. This became a series and a slight obsession, as once the idea was in my head, I then wanted to get all the birds in the same sort of portrait style shot. I was successful with some species as you can see below.
Barry Black Bird - 400mm F/5.6
Collared Dove - 400mm F/5.6
Robin - 400mm F/5.6
Wood Pigeon - 400mm F/5.6
House Sparrow - 400mm F5.6
Blue Tit - 400mm F/5.6
Blue Tit in flight - 400mm F/5.6
The final image was not quite how I wanted it like the others above, and although not perfect (slight focus issue on the bird on the right), I love the symmetry of the shot so including it anyway.
Fledgling Robins - 400mm F/5.6
FIN
