Serenity - Skywatch

Reflections on a Skywatch Theme

Apologies to any Sci Fi fans who searched Serenity and were hoping to catch a glimpse of the cast of Firefly ( yes I am TV, film buff, uber geek in addition to the music buff bit too) but his particular image above is my own personal slice of serenity. Not your most up to date image, another of those snowy image shots I rattled off within a couple of hours in one day, knowing the next this scene would disappear, probably for another 7 years until we have any kind of snowfall worth mentioning. I did warn you the icy/ snow photos would run linger for a while but I do try and vary them. Blatant lie there. It's the same Sulby river walk as last week, further along the path with a touch of melting ice in the foreground and the stillest of reflections. You'll note reflections play a big part of the blog. Easiest shot in the world on a clear crisp Winter's day with no breeze and they are always a pretty spectacular shot even in a mere novices hand with a simple (no this is the big Nikon) point and shoot. In other words, if in doubt shoot over water. It doubles the amount of available light by bouncing it around and the flatter it is the deeper the depth of the reflection.


Short and sweet tonight and I won't be around. Babooshka does not exist but the photographer does and I will be out celebrating my Birthday for the next 3 days. Yes I know it is tomorrow, Friday, but somewhere around the world over the next three day it is Jan 29th. That's my excuse an I'm sticking to it. For more Skywatch images please click here

Pink, Pink ,Sunshine - Skywatch

A river usually runs through it

Skywatch

Following on from the image earlier this week of the golden mud (well it is when the sun hits the right spot) another from the same day, this time shooting towards the sun. That would be that circle of white light struggling to be viewed behind the clouds. You can see how the mud really looks now, dull flat brown with a little dingy green growth of some kind. Yes the camera lies all the time, you just need to know how to make it lie best for you. Same with the pink tinged sky. Just have your setting that apply turned way down low, manual of course) and shoot. The illusion of a pink/lilac light emanating from the clouds whilst retaining the natural blue of the sky is thus achieved with a little manipulation of the camera. Auto would just bleach that sky and lighten the mud and you would get a nasty sun flare quite central. Sunflares can be useful but only under certain conditions. There you go, not so much smoke, mirrors and Photoshop but lens magic. Of course it could be Manx Magic again as it is the month of Halloween. I'll let you decide.


That usu sally is a river, The Sulby. Sure the other images will pop up at some point for you to compare. That's it short and sweet. For other skies around the world click here.

Butterfly in a depth of field - Critters

How to capture this image

Critters

Can anyone identify this butterfly? Not a clue this end. As you can see by it's wings the poor thing is a little worse for wear, quite small and flat, dull brown throughout. Can't tell you what the underside of the wing looked like as the little blighter never flipped or fluttered for me. Also at quite a distance so this isn't a macro image. That though leads me onto what kind of image we would call this, and that would be use of depth of field, or as you may often see it abbreviated to dof.

It sounds far more scary and technical than it actually is. Not at all. If you were viewing this image with your own eyes rather than through my lens then your eyes and brain would adjust the sharpness and clarity of everything you see in the frame, so all would be in focus. With depth of field all you are doing is concentrating focus onto one point. In this case the butterfly. As the eyes move back through the image and around it you will notice the softening or blurring(usually referred to as soft focus) of the leaves, giving a 3D effect to the photo. Easily done. As I was at a distance I just adjusted the lens until I got the desired focal point for the butterfly. Needless to say this was on a manual setting. You can do this on any part of the image, but one thing you must get right is the sharp focus on the subject. If you don't get that right then the image will just be flat and blurry throughout. Easier to demonstrate and more dramatic on two opposing colours, but chose a nature image with muted colours as it's a shot often used in nature photography.


A while since we've had photography tips on the blog, but this is a question I get asked a lot, so there you go. Quite a sensible post for me too. Now go and practice and remember people I want results or you could just go and click Misty to see more cute critters.

On the road again

Last one gets the drinks in

Monochrome

Very late posting tonight. As it's Sunday I have decided not to do any internet or camera work all day. Finally picked up the laptop and went straight for a file of images that I am working on tonight. Well that is if I can be bothered of course or don't get distracted by other sites. Back to the image.Pulled one at random that shows you a familiar place on the blog, but from a very different angle. This is Parliament Square. This is the opposite way round to my usual photography spot for a scene like this. Also a far wider angle than you are used to seeing, those very tight close ups of the motorbikes. As you can see from where I was shooting I had the advantage capturing them leaving towards the Mountain road, or capturing them approaching me. A tip for you here is the leaving is better than the approach due to the shadow of the tree at this time of day obscuring much of the detail on those close ups. Some of you may find that useful for next year, but I can't give all my secrets aways now can I. It is a useful tip though, better for evening than lunchtime photography here.



Want to know what this event was and why I was photographing it click here, or here or even here though I know many of you have already guessed anyway. Looks a lot safer from this view doesn't it than the others. You can also see it really is just ordinary roads that are used and not a race track.



For other monochromes by black and white maniacs click here. No dash you have all week.

The original moonwalk on the dark side of the moon

Conspiracy theory anyone?

The moon is not a balloon or wedge of cheese (though this post might be a little cheesy wheezy) and I doubt the man in the moon is famous to everyone and he always dressed properly, but doesn't exist. One thing for sure we are close to the date of the first moon landing. No disrespect to Michael Jackson but I do believe Neil Armstrong was the original giant steps of what you take when walking on the moon, Moonwalker. So here we have a Luna eclipse over Ramsey. One of the few images I will ever show you where I will advocate a tripod and remote is a must, and a very looooooooooooong exposure time is my best photography tip. This is one from a series of images I took following the eclipse where I saw the whole of the moon through to the dark side of the moon. It wasn't a new moon on Monday, or a hunter's moon, but a killing moon on a Friday. How high the moon, well depends on the moon shadow cast to tell but it was a wonderful night for a moon dance. You can do the rest of the songs now about 50 while carry on mooning at image thieves.


More sky pretties can be seen by others here


So did they put a man on the moon? Hey we have 3 legs and strange creatures who live in the woods so who am I too argue otherwise despite what those shadows say on the film say. I vote they did.

SUPERSTOCK RACE , SHOOTING SHADOWS, ISLE OF MAN TT

Chasing the light

Avoiding the sun

A little lift

Wall of light



Or how to capture sport images when the light is fading!

Well it's all been happening here. Or not actually. The Sidecar B race got underway but was canceled due to a sidecar catching fire. Really. So now abandoned. Grabbed a few images from last night's Superstock Race. As it was rescheduled from day to evening gives me a photo tips opportunity. Who's game?

As you can see by the above images all shot on the wide angled lens without zoom on. I'm that close. Reason for choosing this lens was the light. Fading fast, but the sun was still fierce in just about the wrong place. Two options. Either a bigger lens with a hood attached to the end(looks like those things you see on dogs around there neck when they have an operation and can't scratch the wound) or wide lens. Went with the wide, no hood for one reason, to retain the light to capture those shadows. One thing you do have to do if you do evening sport photography is keep changing the setting to compensate for the fading light. By that I mean the ISO, shutter speeds, metering. Had to do this every couple of minutes otherwise the images would have been to dark as the night went on. Easy huh!

Not over yet!

HARBOURING COLOUR - SKYWATCH

Set camera phasers to stun

All to easy to grab the pretty sunsets and sun ups when you live coastal to glean those "ooh ah stunning" comments. Well my poor little harbour has been neglected lately because of this laziness on my part. Ramsey Harbour is a wealth of colour, textures, layers and of course cranes. Am I the only one who likes a crane looming over the skyline? Possibly. A little slice of working dockside life then but how come the colours are so vivid for an industrial scene. It's all to do with your helpful little camera and it's setting, one's you may not even be aware you have. Shut up as tell us then you ask.



Obviously not all cameras from point and shoot to the big guns all singing dancing many lens ones have the same features but you might find yours has. Firstly you will need a manual setting mode switched on. Be brave try it. Next look around for these thing in your menu- sharp, vivid, saturate, etc or variations on those themes. These are different to your weather setting - cloudy, sunny, shade, etc.For this image I wanted to pick up the orange green and yellow bits and still keep the blue/lilac of the sky. For this I set the camera to vivid. This meant that the white stays white not bleaches so the clouds are white and not bleed into the colour part of the sky. The sky colour reflected in the water remains and doesn't lose out either. The hints of yellow, green and orange are picked up by the vivid mode without over egging them, just retaining the colour. As there was a slight haze I decided against using the sharp which can give harsh lines to retain the natural hazy feel to the building rooftops and the lighthouse far left keeping the sharp natural focus on the foreground. Ok there is slightly more to it than this. Seeing the scene in the first place and of course no amount of "magic buttons" on your camera can compensate for you if you know naff all about composition and chop the heads off (figuratively speaking) your nearest and dearest or can't keep a camera straight. That one's down to you.



Hoe you got all that.

SIDECAR AT THE TT - ABC

Note the dragon logo

Well if nothing else goes right at least I'm on the right letter of the alphabet this week after the fiasco of r's and q's being all at sea. Sea! Now there is an image I could have had for S but as you'll all probably at little sick(should that be seasick?) of my meandering along the beach scenes I've dragged out a timely S

S for soon will on my fair isle(no not that Fair Isle that's the knitting one ) will be welcoming bikers to our humble shores here, spying the sidecar above . This particular image is from the 2nd lap. Don't try this at home unless you have a decent camera, lens, right equipment, quick fingers, steady hand(tripod for the inexperienced advisable) and years of know how. You know how I always advocate a point and shoot can do a great job, well not here due to the speed. You will need the big guns camera( to handle the top flight speeds) and you will need to be 100% accurate, ie complete focus, no drop out etc if you are selling. Magazines need enormous file sizes too, which are totally unforgiving if you are out in anyway. All shows when you blow up the image. So if you just want a few snapshots and keepsakes carry on with what you have and have fun. If you want to jump into my shoes take 5 years out to play at being a photographer, a lottery win to support you and buy the equipment, starve for your art, practice become, have innate natural ability be zen perfect then... find out that someone like me has already nabbed the best bookings.

DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING ON - MONOCHROME ODDSHOTS

Suspended in Gaffa.... tape

Monochrome Odd Shots

One leaf left, not five. I hope you have suspended your be(leaf) enough ( ouch! that pun even hurt my sensibilities) to go ooh ah at the floating leaf I found. Of course it's not floating at all. It's not gaffa taped either though. In fact it's so simple and I'm sure most of you have twigged how it hanging there. Of course it's trapped in a spider's web. Simply tilting the camera at an angle and slight underexposing on the setting prevents the backlight, the natural sunlight from highlighting the spider's web. We could pretend it's magical fairies at work and I could wax lyrical all day about the symbolism of the image, the fragility, the creative thought process that lead me to capture the special moment, but that would be poppycock. It's an image that just happened to be on my route to work, within the nature reserve. Of course I have the camera, the time, the inclination to manipulate the conditions to let the camera lie to you and create an illusion of mystical magic beyond human control. Rubbish! It's just a photographer's bag of tricks, blocking the light to detract an element from the image that is not required. Anyone who tells you otherwise is being far too pretentious for there own good and really doesn't understand photography, and what fun photography can be.


Click Katney for your odd shot quirks . Click Aileni for your monochrome maniacs.



It's getting to very busy time here,Literally working every day. The Laxey Blues Festival, The Isle of Man TT, Ramsey Rocks. In other words posts will be as and when, as my camera is needed elsewhere. Obviously I will share some with you, but one needs to eat and pay bills too so you can not have the best images I take those are either exclusive or retail. If I post an archive or a rough I'll let you know and I may occasionally miss a neme, or day but I'll be around in my unpretentious, soapbox style. I'd rather be honest, than wimp out and play the game just to ingratiate myself to people, it's call being genuine. One piece of good news.....

We are going to get the Watchmen at the cinema. Pester power works.

almoimo

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

As it's Saturday you know you are going to get as drab an image as I have to hand.always far too The realities of daylight can drastically affect an image. That said, it's also far more rewarding to challenge yourself( and you out there) to find colours in a grey world. This is the spot beneath my feet from yesterdays image. I chose not to compose the image just simply look around until I found a touch of colour on an otherwise blank grey canvas. If I wanted an arty statement image, I would have kicked the leaves and the fag butt out of shot and just kept the fruit red/orange fruit in, and applied those photography rule of the thirds to the fruit. This was the whole scene though, not tampered or stage manged. No cropping, saturation or contrast alterations. It is what it is purely an image to demonstrate that using your eyes and brain you can find dirty(the fag butt) pretty( the fruit) things (both) anywhere and using the drabbest backgrounds to really enhance those natural colours you find. It's only a photo of the path in the nature reserve. Nothing more, nothing less.


For those of you who are fascinated by the sky colours here and their intensity and are they real, they sure are. Most of the night images, usually dusk I use are taken in very secluded areas where there is no lamp light or light from building or houses, hence that nasty orange glow pollution you get which pervades the sky is omitted. The natural sky colours, especially the violet/ indigo hues are therefore so opaque and rich because of this lack of orange glow pollution. Coastal and country areas have the most amazing starry skies too due to the lack of nasty street lighting. Next time you are in the country or shooting the horizon over a coast, try dusk and around 15mins before the light fades completely. You'll be sure to get those rich violets. The same applies to dawn for those flamming orange, burnt rose and hot pinks. If you are very lucky you may even get a peculiar green tint( only about twice have even I got this) which is so spooky as it's a colour you don't associate with the sky.

Go out and capture the colours. I'm waiting!

HOW TO CREATE ABSTRACT WAVES

Surreal, naturally

No not the sky. Skywatch is the post below. It's an abstract image of a wave crash created naturally with a camera. We've had glass reflections and crashing waves caught in frozen time moments but now for a visual feast of abstract photography. Don't be scared. Come with me on a mini journey to see how it's done.

Now you can take a photo and just play around with your digital software until you get the desired effect. Now me I'm the world's laziest photographer( you get to be good by nailing a shot first time, by being lazy) and I just want to take the image and go. For the image today I wanted to create an arty image of water. The sea was very obliging and tempestuous. Good start. Next I wanted to capture the fluidity of the water, not freeze it. Think looking at a still image but seeing movement. So it's all about shutter speeds and low light. So not a noon shot. What you want are longer shutter speeds. Think the longer the shutter speed the smoother and more silky the waves swirls will be. I wanted to retain a little choppiness so I didn't use a tripod. To get those mist silken water images a tripod, very long shutter speeds, low light and a remote are paramount. To create a slight fuzziness like artist feathery brushstrokes hand held and longish shutter speed will do just fine. One trick I did use was to photograph the water bouncing off the dark promenade wall( not in the image,but left hand side) to intensify the sea-green we get here. So the result you should get is a still image that feels like it's moving, not frozen. Only alteration to the image re sized for the blog. For examples of other shutter speeds and water images see the red words below.

Fast crashing waves

Frozen crashing waves

Mirror image reflection
Still surreal


Taken the same place as the skywatch image in Ramsey. Fortunately I live on an island so water a plenty for me but I appreciate not everyone has access to the Irish Sea on their doorstep. Try photographing a puddle, and overflow pipe, a stream, a gushing leak if you don't have the sea. Necessity if the mother of invention.

Have fun.

PHOTOGRAPHING FADING LIGHT - EAST QUAY RAMSEY

Who let the water out?

Yesterday I showed you the view from the bridge looking onto the inner quayside, harbour and Sulby River and was asked if I could show the view in the opposite direction, flowing out to see. So doing a 180 degree turn this is the polar opposite view looking directly onto the outer harbour east quay and out to the Irish sea and beyond to the UK. As you can see someone pulled the plug out the harbour and let all the water out. Just by turning round and taking this image you can see how the light is fading further. Always adjust your setting re the light if you can, that is if you are using your manual settings. Don't forget how the sun rises and falls East and West so a turn of 180 degrees and a minute later will have a bearing on the light. Check out yesterday against today and you can see how that one minute and position change has drastically deepened the blue and introduced a peachy gold tone on the horizon instead of the pastel pink. If i had left the setting as they were the image would just be a flat dark, not graded shades. Even in Manx minute a world of change can happen. 

This leads me nicely onto my closing words. It is wonderful for me to not only show you Ramsey but now and again pass on a few tips in a light hearted way without getting too technical, encourage you rather than bombard you with info. Well good people out there here's someone else to check out Brett Trafford. See my links he's there and  he has been my go  to guy for ages. Well guess what he's only gone and started his only CDP - click Leek Daily Photo and hop to his excellent photography tips blog too. By the way he was also a blog of note like me and responsible for nominating me too for several awards. What can I say he knows a fabulous photographer when he sees on and he is extraordinary too. 

I am going somehwere hush hush(not really) tomorrow and breaking my cover of Babooshka for the day. All I can say for now. If you're good I'll tell all about it.

Babooshka ramsey daily photo http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

PHOTOGRAPHING STEPS

r

Running up that hill with no problem

Click to enlarge, and I do mean enlarge

Really very simple, no zooms telephoto lens or macros. No filters, hoods or tripods.  Just standing squarely in front of the subject. Close enough to keep everything in perspective as it should be, no concaving or tilting of the lines. For composition, depth and balance I have included a little of the promenade wall on the right hand side of the image. On the left a little space to see the stretch of beach leading towards Maughold. This also adds an extra dimension of layers or depth of field. The light was very poor, not dim but one of those horrible white light days which actually works well against the concrete and stonework. In keeping with natural images, shot as seen.  Tempting to up the contrast and bring out a silhouette of the steps, but then you would lose the texture of the stonework. I'd rather have the natural tone and see those textures. Plain and simple but a nice example of textures, using poor light and keeping subjects lines and form as seen not distorted.

 

I asked recently what you would like to see and so many of you asked for the swing bridge again. So the bridge at another jaunty angle will be up in the next few days.  I know it's been a while but I didn't want to overload you with it. Seems I was wrong. That and sunsets. You seem to like Poyll Dooey sunsets,  reflections and odd shots. Definitely odd shots. What do people want you to show more of on your own blog?

Babooshka/ramseydailyphoto/hhtp://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/

1/25

Black, blue, bare, branches

I love it when a plan comes together

Continuing the experiment of the week. Back to the dreamy images. It's Mooragh Lake as the chosen subject. That ball of white light is actually the sun and this is a day image, late afternoon where the light is fading at this time of year to dusk. Always manual settings. This would not have worked on auto, but a small point and shoot on manual would do a fairly good job. You need to employ manual setting for fading light images as light travels as we know. Auto would just create possibly a blackened image all over or a harsh white on black with no nod to the subtle blue of the lake and no definition of the black silhouetted bare trees branches

Notice the small object just off centre? It's clear to see on the large file that it's a large pebble peeking through. This then is the quandary. The image is as I planned, seamless colours drifting into each other with no harsh lines, but the pebble is clearly defined. If an artist painted this scene they have the option to paint it in or paint it out. I too have that choice with digital wizardry to erase and clone the water creating the overall smooth image. It would be the only alteration. I choose not to thus keeping the image pure as it was taken, what I saw, what was there. That is the way photography is for me. It's what I enjoy best taking the mundane and making in surreal. I like the pebble today, for tomorrow the same scene it may have been displaced and a new fresh unique image can be created. It also gives me a chance to have twice of many photos to sell, pebble in, pebble out. Twice as many names to come with though.

B's today, black, branches, blues, bare, ball(of light) and for me bewitching. You may have your own.

So when I put this for sale what would you title it? Any letter you like. I have the title already.

Just curious to see how others see things and for marketing purposes and would this be best, matt or gloss.