Dorset day 1 - Long exposures and questionable fitness

Tweet Follow @photograferry

Rising at 5.30 am after a very fitful night’s sleep, thanks to the unpleasant effects of a bug I was suffering from, and stumbling into the bathroom to cough my guts up under the cold, florescent ambience, I was still trying to convince myself that driving down to Swanage the previous evening was preferable to staying home and, more importantly, leaving my comfortable bed behind.

But good thing or not, I was here, so it was time to make the best of it and strike out through the morning darkness to Swanage seafront, to see what variety of sunrise nature had decided to bestow upon me.

As it happens, she was obviously not in a generous mood, as the display was somewhat lacking in vibrancy. The sky was completely clear, apart from a big old ribbon of murky cloud settled along the horizon, doing its best to make the day’s entrance as subdued as it could.

A couple of shots of the beach groins as the sun rises behind clouds, giving off a soft ambient light.

Time Lapse Part 2

Tweet Follow @photograferry

So now the images have been taken for the time lapse video, it’s on to part two of the tutorial and we look at how those images are processed and combined to create the finished movie. We’ll be using Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop, before moving onto Windows Movie Maker.

To see part one, about setting up the camera and capturing the images visit here.

Once the images have been taken off the camera you will have a folder bursting with hundreds, maybe even thousands of images, so the key to processing them is automation, we want the computer to do most of the work. So with that in mind, once the images have been taken off the camera the first thing to do is open them in Bridge.

The reason I'm using bridge is because of its direct communication with Camera Raw.
Click on any image to see a larger version.

Time Lapse Part 1

Tweet Follow @photograferry

I’ve recently been trying my hand at a bit of time lapse photography, I’d seen some amazing videos online so I thought I’d give it a bash. And although mine are not up to a particularly elevated standard, they were fun to do, and it was interesting to learn the process.

Taken at sunset looking over a flooded field. I thought the reflections might add a bit of interest. But the breeze kept the water moving about. Only up until sunset though, then you will see the water suddenly go very still.

A bit of good old fashioned history

Tweet Follow @photograferry

I was feeling the need for a bit of history last weekend, so I thought I’d head over to Chastleton House, a grand old Jacobean pile owned by the National Trust, to get just that.

On the way there however I stopped off at St. Nicholas church in Lower Oddington, it had been a long time since I was last there, and as I was driving past anyway, it seemed a shame not to pop in on the way.

The church is set amongst woodland and a little way out from the village, the original settlement was probably moved to its present site during the plague, to make use of the higher ground, away from any swampland. And this tranquil isolation is one of the reasons the church is worth a visit.

A view of the Norman church from the back wall that runs around the graveyard.

The Forest of Dean

Tweet Follow @photograferry

I visited the Forest of Dean on a whim the other day, as I hadn’t been for quite a while, and I fancied a bit of peace and tranquility as only an idyllic woodland glade could provide.

Unfortunately I had picked the very day that the Wydean Forest Rally was taking place, the yearly motorsport event that roars its way along a twisting course through this ancient forest. And as such, pretty much all the usual parking spots had been commandeered by the rally, so those who couldn’t find a space had parked everywhere you could possibly fit a car, and a few places you couldn’t.

After driving around for half an hour, dodging all manner of vehicles and unwary pedestrians, and wondering if I shouldn’t perhaps have thought this through a little better. I finally stumbled upon a section of the forest that was clear of activity, so I turned off the main road and parked up at Cannop Ponds.

After making much needed use of the forest facilities i.e. a tree, and vowing that all journeys from now on would be coffee free, I grabbed my camera gear and set off into the woodland. After walking/slipping along the boggy pathways for some distance, I came across one of the ponds, with a section of its bank lined with wispy reeds.

With the sun out, the water lost this green/blue hue and began to blend in with the reeds.