Back in the Lake District

[Rosie]

Some more nice shots Paul. There's no denying your skills have come on in leaps and bounds in the last year. We were actually discussing your work in the office yesterday and
were saying what an improvement there has been.
I think now you would benefit from working on refining your eye for an image. By that I mean learning how to pick the very best of your shots and knowing which ones to hold back. I think sometimes by displaying your weaker images it takes away from the really top quality ones. All the pros have plenty of weak shots, but they are skilled in recognising which these are and keeping them out of sight!

[singingsnapper]

Some more nice shots Paul. There's no denying your skills have come on in leaps and bounds in the last year. We were actually discussing your work in the office yesterday and
were saying what an improvement there has been.
I think now you would benefit from working on refining your eye for an image. By that I mean learning how to pick the very best of your shots and knowing which ones to hold back. I think sometimes by displaying your weaker images it takes away from the really top quality ones. All the pros have plenty of weak shots, but they are skilled in recognising which these are and keeping them out of sight!

Thanks Rosie, I thought I felt my ears burning yesterday!

This morning I managed to get myself out of bed at 7 to catch sunrise. Just as well as heavy snow forecast here tomorrow!

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/16 1/25 ISO 100


Zeevogel on windermere by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Pentax 645D FA 75 f/11 1/50 ISO 100


waterhead by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/16 1/15


first light on windermere boat by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/16 1/25


waterhead, Ambleside by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Troy]

Great scenes here Paul. I'd be wary of cutting off the ends of the reflections though, but that could just be my personal taste.

[singingsnapper]

Great scenes here Paul. I'd be wary of cutting off the ends of the reflections though, but that could just be my personal taste.

Yes that was a dilemma for me. I wanted to get the boat to be fairly large in the frame, so that was a slight compromise. Ironically the 'zeevogel' is owned by the people who own the house next to my Lakeland bolt-hole which is very close to the lake.

[singingsnapper]

Today I left the big camera behind. It started snowing at 11.30 Saturday morning and kept going for 12 hours! So we have a very good covering and after Cumbria County Council went on TV last month proudly saying that in spite of the spring like temperatures they were stockpiling road salt that's how well prepared they were. Roll forward a month and they didn't get the gritters and snow ploughs out until there was 6 inches of snow already on the ground! I spent some time assisting some motorists stuck on the Ambleside/Coniston road who were stuck as I made my way back.

I'm not sure what you will think of these as two of them are with my iphone - did some panos handheld, and I think they've come out pretty well, YMMV. The other two are new for me. Having a macro lens I had a go of getting shots of snowflakes. I have to admit to struggle a little in the focus element of macro and I have even more to learn there. I did these when I got back to the house.

iPhone 4S 1/60 ISO 64 (4 shots) adjusted levels and sharpened then merged in CS5 then converted in silver efex pro 2


Panoramic Langdale on an iphone bw! by singingsnapper, on Flickr

same settings, less wide pano (2 shots)


Langdale on an iphone bw! by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Now the snowflakes:

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/6.7 0.5 secs


snowflake by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Pentax 645D FA 120 f/16 1/4 (with use of a torch)


snowflakes by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Troy]

I can't believe these shots were taken on a phone. The first shot is definitely my favourite, and looks excellent in black and white. Did you edit these shots with an app on your phone, or did you transfer them to your computer first?

If the snow does eventually reach us down here in Bournemouth i'm definitely not leaving the big camera at home. Not often we get the chance to capture snowy scenes in this country, so i'll be making the most of it.

[singingsnapper]

I can't believe these shots were taken on a phone. The first shot is definitely my favourite, and looks excellent in black and white. Did you edit these shots with an app on your phone, or did you transfer them to your computer first?

If the snow does eventually reach us down here in Bournemouth i'm definitely not leaving the big camera at home. Not often we get the chance to capture snowy scenes in this country, so i'll be making the most of it.

I took them with the phone and then imported to my computer and used CS5 to merge and sharpen then converted in Silver efex. The snow was coming down thick and fast and although the 645D is weather shielded the lenses I have with me aren't. One thing I have found is that Aperture scales the photo down by 4 x. So reimported with LR3.

I have editing apps on my iphone including a panoramic one but preferred to have more control so used conventional software

[Rosie]

Love the sunset images - definitely worth the early start. I agree with Troy about keeping the reflected image in the shot.
The third shot of the single boat is my fave - beautiful tones in there.

[singingsnapper]

A glorious day in the lake District yesterday, once the mist had cleared. Was a nice evening sky too:

This is a multiple exposure using photomatix

Pentax 645D FA33-55 at 48mm f/16


Brathay view by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Another multiple, further along the Brathay:

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 33mm and f/16


wethelam at sunset by singingsnapper, on Flickr

I waited for an hour or so to allow the sky to go dark, thinking that the full moon had set earlier as had not seen it out that day (misread my app) but decided to make use of the moonlight in any case as the mists descended to the valley

Pentax 645D FA 33-55 at 43mm and f/16


A Moonlit Wetherlam by singingsnapper, on Flickr

tighter crop:


moonlit wetherlam - tighter crop by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Troy]

Really like the last one Paul. The stars could do with being more prominent, but that's me being picky. If i had to choose i'd also say the wider crop was better, as too much of the sky has been lost in the second one.

[Rosie]

These multiple exposures are making a big difference to the quality of your landscapes. They have much more depth than your previous landscape work and are definitely paying off.
Beware of your white balance in some instrances with snow. I love the Brathay View image, but feel like the blue in the foreground could be knocked back a bit. Stunning cloud reflections and silhouettes though.

[singingsnapper]

These multiple exposures are making a big difference to the quality of your landscapes. They have much more depth than your previous landscape work and are definitely paying off.
Beware of your white balance in some instrances with snow. I love the Brathay View image, but feel like the blue in the foreground could be knocked back a bit. Stunning cloud reflections and silhouettes though.

Thanks! They are quite labourious as I used 9 images and took them into CS5 first for sharpening before I took them into photomatix. I'll have a look at the Brathay one again and see if I can select the foreground area and take some of the blue out...

Troy as far as the moonlit images are concerned, I prefer the full shot as opposed to the crop but wondered whether there was too much sky in the shot.

[singingsnapper]

I can't believe these shots were taken on a phone. The first shot is definitely my favourite, and looks excellent in black and white. Did you edit these shots with an app on your phone, or did you transfer them to your computer first?

If the snow does eventually reach us down here in Bournemouth i'm definitely not leaving the big camera at home. Not often we get the chance to capture snowy scenes in this country, so i'll be making the most of it.

When I took them I wondered how they would come out. I'm really happy with how they came out and the wider pano is my favourite of the two. It helps to demonstrate how important processing is. Some will argue that it is only in the digital age that there is so much processing, but there always was in the wholly film age. One thing I find different personally is the colour qualities that come from different film emulsions. I had a debate with my musical director who felt that scanning a film image means that it loses its film quality. I haven't shot film for a few months, but I love the qualities I get from Reala 100 film. I yet have to master Velvia 50 as I tend to underexpose it.

I've had a good week in the lakes and the weather was clear and bright again today, but am headed back home ready for a flight to Germany on Thursday. Any photographers up in the Lakes at the moment will get some great light.

[singingsnapper]

Here's an edit of the Brathay view - reduced the magenta, blue and cyans substantially in the foreground..


Brathay view -adjusted-2 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[Rosie]

Nice edit! Looks much more balanced