To showcase my books and photos
Having left my hotel in Queensferry, I caught a train into Edinburgh for a few hours of photography before the long journey home.
Two things I discovered about Edinburgh that day: it’s a city of monuments and a city of hills and dips. Calton Hill is a fair climb up from the Waverley Railway Station, but it’s a hill that’s festooned with monuments such as the one pictured.
In my next post I’ll include images of a couple of the monuments.
Sunset over the Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing from Hawes Jetty
The featured photo is of the Forth Railway Bridge seen from the West
To all those who have liked, followed – and especially to those, if any who have actually read any of the story of Melissa and Jamie – thank you.
The final episode was posted last night, but it was also my final post of this Blog. I’m allowing my 12 months subscription to expire when it ends on 14 August. It was started as a response to Covid and I don’t think that there have been more than two days on which I have not posted something.
The need for the Blog has run its course, summer has come and the time to enjoy life outdoor with my camera.
So, as the post title says, Thank you and Goodbye.
My final featured photo is of a field of lavender. I took the shot last weekend with my Pentax K-1 full frame camera using a 15-30 mm f/2.8 lens at an ISO of 100. The shutter speed was 1/500 secs @ f/11 and 15 mm.
You may have heard of the Aperture Triangle – I’ll be dealing with that in a day or so. The three sides are Aperture (which we’ve looked at), Shutter Speed (today’s topic) and ISO (tomorrow’s item – probably). ISO and shutter speed are wonderful tools.
Shutter speed refers to how long you leave the aperture open – to let the light from the scene reach the sensor. You’ll have picked up something of that aspect yesterday, I hope. I’ve provided, below, some examples of different types of scene that you may wish to photograph – not to say that you MUST use the speeds shown – but to give you a ball park idea of the order of magnitude that may be involved.
This is a powerboat racing scene, at Carr Mill Dam, St Helens, Merseyside. The boats are moving very quickly. I used a fairly fast speed and ‘panned’, that is, before the boat arrived, I’d already focused on the place on the lake surface where I knew it had to be. I stood still but, with my camera set to continuous focus, I turned my shoulders to allow the camera to track the boat as it passed, firing off a burst of shots at 1/1600 seconds, f/5.6, 260 mm and ISO 400. If I’d used a slower speed, the image of the boat would have been blurred.
I took this photo at a horse race at Haydock Park racecourse, St Helens. Horses don’t move as quickly as racing powerboats, so I was able to use a slightly slower shutter speed and still kept the horses and the background properly focused. I still used the panning technique, focused ahead and used continuous autofocus (AF.C). As the first horse started to move into my frame, I followed it with my camera and fired off a burst at 1/1000 seconds, f/5.6, 85 mm and ISO 400
This shot was my practice session the first time I ever used panning technique. The car is on the M62 motorway in Northern England. I was stood at the edge of woodland. I wanted to create a feeling of speed by letting the background blur. A faster shutter speed would have kept both the car and background in focus – as in the above examples. My ISO of 100 and aperture of f/8 allowed me to use a slower shutter speed to create the effect. 1/30 seconds, f/8, 55 mm and ISO 100.
This is a view of the city of London at daybreak. Nothing is moving apart from the River. I wouldn’t have been able to take this photo with such low light, if I’d used my camera’s minimum ISO of 100 with an aperture as small as f/16. To get the image I used a tripod and let the camera use a quite long shutter speed. 8 seconds, f/16, 28 mm, ISO 100
I shot this view of London from the South Bank of the Thames at night. I still used a narrow aperture for sharpness and a low ISO, but I needed a much longer exposure of 30 seconds to collect enough light at f/18, 30 mm, ISO 100.
Sometimes you need to use a faster shutter speed to compensate for camera shake because you’re not using a tripod. Even with built in image stabilisation it can help. The heavier your camera and lens the more difficult it can be to eliminate camera shake. A frequently quoted suggestion is to set your shutter speed to be no slower than the reciprocal of your focal length. If you are using a 50 mm lens, set your shutter speed to be faster than 1/50th seconds. With a 135 mm lens, shoot faster than 1/135th seconds.
The featured photo today is one that I took just before lockdown, at Trefor Stacks (Ynys Mawr) on the Lyn Peninsula, North Wales. You may have expected that, with the settings below, the whole image would have been vastly over-exposed. Because the the midday sunlight was so bright, I used a 10 stop neutral density filter. I’ll say more about filters in a few days. My settings were 20 seconds f/11, 20 mm and ISO 100. This means that, because my shutter speed, in a test shot, without a filter had been roughly 1/64 seconds at that aperture and ISO, I used a filter dark enough to cut out 10 stops of light. That meant that I could use a shutter speed of 20 seconds to provide an equivalent exposure value.
What do I mean by a stop? A shutter speed of 1/32 seconds is one stop slower than a speed of 1/64 seconds. Two stops would be 1/16 seconds. Keep on doubling the speed ten times from the start and you reach 20. (i.e. 1/64, 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 20) Okay, I did a bit of creative doubling to get from a half to one and a quarter, but I did say roughly 1/64 originally. You can’t be precise with very dark filters because daylight can change from sunny to cloudy in seconds. As I said earlier, I’ll deal with filters again, in more detail soon, when I write about long exposure photography
One last point, on the subject of shutter speed and blur, notice how that 20 seconds exposure has calmed the waves, focusing attention on the detail in the stacks.. You can get some great effects using long exposure. The golden lichen, by the way, really was that bright – no software trickery. I was tempted to make it duller but, what the hell, it was beautiful in my eyes, and it’s my photo, so I left it as it was.
Tomorrow I intend to deal with the third side of the Aperture Triangle – ISO or brightness.
Composition, in photography, means setting up your image so that it helps anyone looking at it to see what you want them to see. There are lots of online sites that tell you about the various techniques, but most of them will also tell you that, sometimes, you should throw away the rule book. It’s your photo – use YOUR judgement.
I’m just going to list eight of the techniques before I go any further, just to get that out of the way.
I’m going to ignore Radial Balance and Golden Ratio but add a ninth and tenth – Colour and People. Again, I’ll provide an example.
In this image of the South Stack lighthouse on Anglesey, I’ve placed the horizon asymmetrically.
This image, taken at Trefor Boatyard near Llangollen in Wales is fairly symmetrical to show off the reflections.
This is an example of a structural leading line formed by the Humber Bridge. The underside of its image drags the viewer’s eye into the frame.
Another example of a radial leading line formed by this spiral staircase at the Queen’s House at Greenwich. The eye is drawn to the skylight.
Here, the beach at Porth Oer on the Lleyn Peninsula provides a natural leading line. Other examples are rivers, roads and jetties.
You’ve seen this one before, but here I’m using it to show how the clouds act as leading lines.
Here, leading lines and symmetry are combined at the Brunner Bridge in the South Island of New Zealand.
Here framing is provided by the gateway entrance into Exchange Flags, Liverpool to draw attention to the Town Hall.
There are two other useful techniques, using colour – especially spot red – and people (preferably both). In this shot, the people provide a focal point, interest and perspective to the image.
Here we have symmetry, reflections, people and colour to draw the eye.
Today’s featured photograph is of the Healey Pass in the Beara Peninsula of Eire’s Wild Atlantic Coast. It has an unusually winding leading line to take the viewer’s eye on a road trip. I shot this panoramic image using my old Pentax 24 MP cropped sensor camera on a tripod with an 16-85 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens at 23 mm and f/13. The ISO was 400 and the shutter speed 1/10 seconds.
Your probably fed up by now, so tomorrow I want to look at a different aspect of light – Dynamic Range.
Today I want to illustrate three ways of getting up-close with a photo when you’re too far away where you are.
This shot of Media City at Salford Quays, Manchester was taken from exactly the same spot as today’s featured photo, but I used my lens to zoom in by changing the focal length from 24 mm to 43 mm.
Using my lens meant that I didn’t discard any megapixels from the image – I got the full benefit of my sensor’s resolution
This image has been cropped and resized in post processing from the original. The featured image is a panorama, stitched from three shots each of 42 Megabyte RAW format originals. This cropped and resized, jpeg format, image from one of the original three has less than 1 megabyte, and therefore, less detail information for further editing.
This photograph of Ynys Bach at Trefor, Gwynedd: one of two sets of sea stacks, is a shot taken from a distance along the cliffs
This is also a photo of Yns Bach, but I took this from the clifftop directly above it, by walking, sometimes known as ‘sneaker zoom’. No megapixels lost when getting closer this way.
I hope that seeing these three ways of coming closer helps you to choose the best method for you. ‘Sneaker Zoom’ is not always practical, but you get the highest resolution quality. Lens zoom – by changing the focal length of your lens – or by swapping lenses – is often more practical. Using a wide angle lens provides the big picture, but sometimes you get a nicer image by choosing some feature to zoom in on, and ‘getting right in camera’. Cropping in post processing is an option if, when you get home, and load your day’s image batch into software, you realise that there is a section of an image that you want to pick out. Just remember that, when you do that you are also throwing away megapixels. The cropped image will not enlarge as usefully as a close up obtained by one of the other methods.
I took today’s featured photo using my tripod mounted, Pentax K-1 camera plus a 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens at 24 mm and f/16. The ISO was 100 and the shutter speed 1/25 seconds.
Tomorrow, we move on to composition.
Thinking about position should begin when you arrive on site. Try to get the best possible viewpoint – check different places nearby, kneel, sit or lie down if necessary (did you bring a bin bag?) Compare today’s featured photograph with the one below. Both are images of the Millennium bridge in London, but the one below – apart from being a daylight shot – is a typical tourist photo looking across the bridge.
From this viewpoint, for me, the image is too cluttered, too many lines competing for attention, litter, no clear subject.
Sometimes, however, you can be spoiled for choice and you decide to photograph more than one viewpoint. This is a popular view.
This is the same jetty photographed from a different angle. Both shots are of Lake Ullswater in the English Lake District.
Have a good look around. but vary the angle that you look at your subject – look up and look down. Look at what’s behind you – it may be more interesting.
Here, I’m in London, in the Square Mile of the financial district, but I’m looking upwards.
Here, I’m in London again, inside Heals’ department store, looking down from the top of the spiral staircase.
Sometimes, if you look around you you’ll see interesting reflections or shadows. This shot is of the Gherkin Building in London
I was driving into my local town when I noticed these shadows, so I turned off the road, parked my car and walked back to take the shot.
Sometimes it’s just a question of noticing an unusual viewpoint. I was kneeling down when I took this photo in Blackpool. Everything seems to be bending away from the wind.
While you are looking, consider where the light is coming from. In landscape photography, sometimes you need to wait for the sun to come from behind a cloud, or to light some hills differently. In portrait photography, you may want the light to come from – or to appear to come from – above and to one side of the subject.
Whatever you are photographing, are there any objects in the scene that could spoil your composition – road signs, bins etc? Think especially of things that are at the side of your frame that could distract a viewer,.
Last, but not least – make sure that you are working in a safe position – for yourself and your equipment.
I took today’s featured photograph in London, at night using a Pentax K-1 36 MP full frame camera using a 15-30 mm f/2.8 lens at 30 mm and f/7.1. The ISO was 100 and the Shutter Speed 30 seconds. I used a tripod. No filters were needed.
Tomorrow, I’ll have a brief look at aspects of photographing distant objects.
The featured photograph today is of the Widnes to Runcorn Silver Jubilee bridge. It is one of my favourite shots. It represents Sunset – a time of day, in line with today’s title. I took the shot with my Pentax K-1 36 MP camera using a 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens at 35 mm and f/13. The ISO was 100 and the shutter speed 2.5 seconds.
To show the difference that the time of day can make, look at this photograph of the same bridge taken the same day, from only a few yards away but 56 minutes earlier.
The light at Sunrise can change just as dramatically and often more rapidly. This photograph was taken at 06:58 behind the Plas y Brenin Mountain Training centre at Capel Curig, Snowdonia. The moonlight is reflected in the lake.
Taken from a few yards to one side at 08:42, on the far side of the lakes (Llynau Mymbyr) the details in the slopes of the Snowdon Horseshoe range are now much more clearly defined.
Summer photography in the hills after mid-morning also means you will have to work with heat haze. This tends to blur and to “blue” distant hills and trees etc. The human eye interprets this gradient of warm to cold colour as a measure of distance so, in a photograph this is a sort of proxy for depth of field. The effect is at the cost of sharpness and detail.
At sunrise and sunset you will usually get softer light, beautiful colours, pleasing shadows and textures – and often calmer water for reflections. In the Autumn the gold, orange, yellow and brown tones of leaves can yield magical photographs. In winter soft, untrodden snow or children playing games in the snow are a gift to capture. Spring brings blossom, new foliage and buds. Even the harsh midday sun of summer can offer silhouettes and sharp contrasts of deep shadows framing bright buildings.
Ness Gardens on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside at Springtime.
As daylight disappears, the night brings new opportunities such as light trails, cityscapes and astrophotography.
Light trails from a bridge at Ravenhead, St Helens, Merseyside
Cityscapes are, for me, one of the most interesting types of photography
Canning Dock, Liverpool by night
Astrophotography is fairly specialised. I can’t afford the type of equipment needed to capture nebulae etc. Milky Way photography is more accessible in some ways but needs clear, dark skies and the galactic core can only be photographed during late spring to late summer.
Twr Mawr on Ynys Llanddwyn, Anglesey below the Milky Way
I’ll say more about the techniques and settings that I used for some of the above types of photographs in later blogs. Tomorrow, I’ll continue my generalised rambling but I’ll be starting to talk about aspects of position, angle and composition – possibly over three days or so.
In photography, thinking about time goes hand-in-hand with thinking about light. If your photographing birds or sport timing is at the heart of capturing the shot. In landscape photography, everything slows down.
A hill-walker jumps between Adam and Eve at the summit of Tryfan in Snowdonia. A split second’s delay and I couldn’t have got this shot.
Whatever you intend to photograph you should make time to plan and prepare for the conditions in which you’ll be working – travel plans, food, shelter, health and safety (eg on a mountain ridge). What will the weather be like? How much weight will I be carrying? Make time to check that you’ve packed everything.
Camera, lenses, tripod, of course plus backpack, filters and holders/step-up adapters, maps, timetables, food, water, lens cleaning material, body caps and lens caps (if changing lenses), cash, phone, spare batteries, spare sd cards, suitable footwear and outerwear. You may need to carry six or more kilograms to carry for remote locations for long distances and long periods of time.
You should be thinking about the time of day that will best suit your subject – sunrise, sunset, night? What time will those be on the day I’m going? Do I need to check tide tables? You should be thinking about the time of year that will best suit your subject – autumn colour, winter scenes?
Two elements of time here. I was probably two weeks too early to get the full effect of the Autumn colour, but the time of day – early morning – was right to get the calm water surface that provided the reflections.
You ought to build-in time to look around. Conditions change; roads and paths may be closed, there my have been a flood. Where will I get the most from the direction of the light? where will I get the best composition, the best angle? Would I be better moving further back or nearer?
I got a reasonable angle here, but later in the day – and at the Autumn equinox, I’d have been able to get the sun setting at the end of the pier.
You should make time to ensure that your settings are OK, This is doubly true if you’re considering employing filters. Is your sensor clean? Is your lens clean – and filters if in use? You should make time to check your preview and adjust accordingly – reset, re-shoot and re-check.
Just below the centre of the image you should be able to see two sensor spots. The image has been heavily cropped to show just one area of sky and the exposure adjusted to make them show up more, but they would have ruined the image without using spot removal tool in Lightroom. The shot was taken at f/11 but at f/16 the effect would have been horrendous.
Before you leave the spot, make time to check that you’ve left nothing behind.
Do check the ground around you. I once left a lens cap behind after a Milky Way shot. It was pitch black at night but I did have a torch and head torch – so no excuse. Also, check that you’ve zipped up your backpack pockets – dangling flap could allow your camera or a lens to fall out or get stolen.
Don’t rush
Tomorrow, I’ll say more about things like the time of day and time of year
My featured image today relates to a particular moment in the time of day – the Blue Hour, shortly after sunset, photographed here at Media City, Salford Quays, Greater Manchester UK. I used my Pentax K-1 36 MP full frame camera together with a 15-30 mm f/2.8 lens at 14 mm and f/11. The ISO was 100 and (without filters) the shutter speed was 5 seconds. The camera was mounted on a tripod.
