Project 42

Here are some images of landscapes that have been created by man.

The first image is of a corn field cut out of the natural surroundings. I've used an extreme wide angle to replicate the shape of the world and to give the viewer a perspective of the size of the field.

This next image is of the River Clyde shoreline that used to be host to some of the world's largest ship building yards. Almost all have been demolished with only a few remaining reminders.

The third image is of a mango tree imprisoned by teak trees. It's not immediately clear which came first, but I imagine the area was once a mango plantation then the owner decided to plant teak trees and left one mango tree behind to continue producing juicy mangos for the workers.

Project 41

Project 38 - 40 require a darkroom and so are optional projects.

Project 41 is actually for users of film cameras but as I have imagenomic software I can replicate the grain found in some negatives.

One of the images below does not have any grain added the other two have various degrees of grain added.

Again, one image with no grain and the other with grain added.

Project 36

In this project I have tried to describe the style of three famous but quite different landscape photographers.

Joe Cornish

Joe Cornish is well known for his large format landscape photography of locations throughout UK. His images are vibrant and full of colour. They play with the imagination instead of simply recording what has been seen at the time of capture. Most of his landscapes use a maximum depth of field and more often than not have a point of interest in the foreground leading the viewer into the scene. He has a preference for sunsets and sunrise to get the best colours. For his more intimate works he tries to draw out the textures in rocks and seashores.

Ansel Adams

America’s most famous landscape photographer, spent his life capturing the true essence of the Wild West. Besides some of his earliest works, every image is sharp and realistic. Only using black and white, Adams was a master in the field and in the darkroom. His images have been dogged and burned to bring out the feeling of awe that Adams felt while taking the photographs. By using a large format field camera his images have massive depth and often start with a close up of a rock or tree in the foreground. His more intimate work uses careful lighting to draw out textures.

Fay Godwin

Godwin’s works fall into two categories; documentary and abstract. Her documentary style was simple and to the point. She captured the English countryside as it is and not as endless beautiful scenes. She succeeded in picking out scenes within scenes that often told a different story. A lot of her images show contrasts between nature and manmade obscenities. Her abstract work is of dreamy proportions either in black and white or subtle colours. The abstracts leave many options for the imagination.

Project 34

This project suggests experimenting with graduated filters so we can better understand their effects. I've downloaded just a few examples and will give my thoughts on when to use a filter and when bracketing is better.

In this first comparison I have simply used a graduated filter on the second image and it's very clear that there is a great improvement in the overall exposure.

In this second sequence the first image is untouched, the second has a ND graduated filter and the third is a composite of three bracketed photos. Again the ND grad filter makes some great improvements and I would even say more so than the bracketed image, however the bracketed image only used +/- 1 i.e. 3 separate photos.

This last image is a composite of two photos +/-2 stops

So will I use my ND grad filters more often after undertaking this project? Probably only where there is a clearly defined horizon such as the images above. For more complex horizons I will relay on bracketing at least +/-2 and more for high contrast areas. What I do have to buy are some ND filters without the graduation to allow me to reduce the shutter speed when photographing scenes such as rivers and waterfalls.

The other great thing about bracketing is that you always have it available as long as there is sufficient light or a tripod handy.

Lastly, here's an example of how not to use a ND grad filter! Like I said horizontal horizons are fine.

Project 32

This project asks us to use a telephoto lens from a set position and see how many varied photos we can capture.

This small island was captured using a 460mm focal length.

This elephant salt lick was captured at 190mm.

This image, although not immediately clear, once magnified shows a rare great hornbill. And yes, this bird did happen to fly over as I was executing this project. I used a 200mm lens at 1/125sec f16

Although this image was only taken at 190mm it captures individual trees and gives a feel for the weather at the time.

Zooming in to 460mm, the blanket of jungle in the far distance becomes recognizable as trees.

Another image at 190mm shows the individual trees and feel for the weather.

In front of the jungle cover and above the elephant lick (see above) is a path that can be seen using a 220mm focal length.

Project 31

In this project we have a series of images taken with a telephoto lens. Using a telephoto lens we can pick out interesting parts of a scene that we may not have access to close up, however using a telephoto lens has a depth of field limitation and images tend to look compressed.

The first photo below was taken with a 200mm lens, 1/125 sec, f11. The small island would not have been recognizable had a wide angle lens been used.

In this next image a 190mm lens was used at 1/60sec, f8, allowing me to see clearly the humidity raising from a wet jungle canopy in Thailand.

In order to see clearly what this odd looking object was I used a 460mm focal length, 1/30, f11. Another shortcoming of using long telephoto lens is that shutter speeds become far longer due to the lack of light getting through all the extra glass in the lens.

Lastly, what looked like a dark area in the hill side turned out to be a cave when seen through a 200mm lens at 1/60sec, f11. Details become less pronounced when a telephoto lens is used, but unless I had climbed up through snake infested, thorn laden bushes, I would not have even seen this cave as an image.

Nepal Trekking

I'm recently back from a trekking come photography holiday in Nepal and thought I'd post some of the images I captured during the trek.

The image below was taken at 4,000m and it's of Langtang glazier. Although the landscape is spartan at this altitude, there are still many colours to be found. I like the way this scene has four distinct diagonal compartments.

This image is of one of many tea houses along the trekking route. A hot lemon tea can make you feel quite fresh again after several hours walking. Besides the interesting location, I liked the way the sun lite up the stones.

Again the colours are there and can be combined nicely to make a very interesting image. I also like this image for its balance and very different lighting to its various compartments.

I have a feeling this yak herdsman has had his photo taken a few times because as soon as I had finished he asked me to give him my expensive hiking socks. His socks had seen better days. A small monetary exchange was more to my liking as there were no camping shops at this altitude.

Original is in colour but I thought with all the silhouettes it looked better in b&w. It's never easy to get a good photo taken directly into the sun but I think I did okay here.

This was the same valley but obviously much later in the day. I waited at this location for an hour or so and took many photos as the sun disappeared. This one gives me the feeling and view that I had that day the best.

This image is actually taken at Monkey Temple in Kathmandu. I have tried to capture the movement of the prayer bells. This was done by running down the row of bells with my hand, missing out the first one then running back and taking the photo.

This image is also from Kathmandu and is a typical sight along the side streets. The building is as old as it looks and the colours were just as vivid.