A local walk with local Photos.

This morning the weather looked like it was taking a turn for the better. I therefore donned my wellies and coat, threw my camera around my neck and picked up my tripod. Nell and Bella were in tow(my two Jack Russell), all excited as they knew they had a good walk ahead of them.
the first thing of interest i came against was a angler trying to catch Pike. Difficult to get a good Photograph of a single person who is watching you all the way down the towpath.

The loan angler.

As i passed the angler i had a chat with him and established that he would not mind me taking his photo when i returned. Always good to get into a dialogue with people as you soon find out if they are willing to be photographed. i did get him and his mate on my return. Not overly impressed with my effort, but you live and learn.

I next came upon a small pool out the back end of Clayhanger, i am not sure what it is named, but it sure is beautiful. I was quite pleased with this photograph, and will see if i can do anything else with it.

local beauty spot.

I bumped into at least six more anglers an my way to my next photograph, most of which were pike angling.

Turning off the canal towpath i took a rather unused public footpath that lead me around a a few large fields. the older of my dogs Nell, was beggining to feel the pace a bit, so i stopped and took the following photos. In my humble oppinion, the image looks better in B&W, what do you think?

B&W image of drainage ditch,

Colour close up, not so good.

As i pushed on i happened upon one of the local beauty spots that has a large pool with two islands set in it. It has a wealth of bird life upon it, however they are easily spooked. I think it may pay for me to spend a hour or two around the pools to get some good wildlife photos.

Geese on the move.

The edge of the lake caught in bright sunlight, with moody skys in the background.

The whole area is a wetland type of landscape with pools and puddles everywhere. A little further on, the track way passes under a old railway bridge i took a photo of it, but some how it is not pleasing. i can't work out why, and would appreciate some feedback. Finally i turned it into a monochrome, but still not impressive.

What could i do to improve this image?

About 20 meters through the bridge the little pool on the right has overflown and engulfed the footpath. I crossed it easily with my wellingtons on, but the Jacks got their bellies wet!

Flooded footpath.

As i passed the puddle i noticed how the sun was occasionally catching the ball-rushes on the right.

I set the tripod and took a few shots. I managed to get a old signal tower from the railway track in the background. Again i am sure there is much more i could have done with this setting.

under exposed, and an epic fail as the sun went in as i snapped this one.

Rushes without signals in sunlight.

Finally i traveled most of the Journey home on the roadside footpaths. I did however divert to the canal for the last mile, so i could see the angler in the early shot. i found a couple of swans in all of their Majesty which i just had to snap. I know there are millions of swan photos, but they are so photogenic.

They are just so powerful.

The angler had now got his buddy with him, both of them were real friendly and talkative. i did get a shot of as they said goodbye to me, but it is not as candid as i would have liked it to be.

Happy anglers.

I hope you enjoyed my local snaps, please comment if you feel the need.

peace be with you.

Woz.

Photographing Fungus with Nikon D7000

I have a strange kind of affinity with Fungus. If I see it while out walking I feel the need to photograph it. Maybe it is that whatever the time of year, there is a fungi somewhere waiting to be photographed. Some are colourful and some are downright plain, but all are interesting.Today, while walking in a local nature reserve (Park Lime Pits), I spotted this particularly photogenic fungi. I am not sure of its name, may be some one can help with that?

A very photogenic tree fungi, of unknown name.

I took this photograph using the self timer and the bracketing button. I set the camera to take 3 shots, again at short intervals. One over exposed, one under exposed and one exposed correctly. It was a particularly grim day with water cascading down the banks into the pools. The pools were overflowing into the local brook which was itself cascading away down towards Goscote.I set the camera to ‘A’ aperture priority and the ISO to 4000. The shots were taken from my tripod, and turned out fairly well to my eye. This may not be what others think, I am very open to criticism so please leave comments.Here is a Fungus i shot prior to Christmas on Gentleshaw common. It is a colourful specimen, however it was so dull i had to use the flash with my D60. I think that it looks unnaturally light and is spoiled by that very fact. 

Flashlight Fungus.

Another rather lonely fungus on Gentleshaw common. I only thought this worthy of a photo as it looked very lonely and isolated.

Lonely little fellow.

Finally on my way home from work in late November i spotted these Ink Cap mushrooms. They only last a short time so i took my chance in the pitch dark of a November evening.

Ink caps.

Water cascades from one lake to another.

Scratch marks on tree trunks, may be from Deer?

Stream running at full capacity.

Stream emptying into largest pool.

Thanks for looking, and peace be with you.

P.S  please leave your thoughts and comments.

The Ogley dirt farmer.: HDR with the D7000 around Chasewater.

The Ogley dirt farmer.: HDR with the D7000 around Chasewater.: I thought i might blog my first experience with the D7000 while out and about on boxing day. The sun was shinning brightly first t...

HDR with the D7000 around Chasewater.

I thought i might blog my first experience with the D7000 while out and about on boxing day.

The sun was shinning brightly first thing, and gave me a good opportunity to get out and take a few shots with the D7000. My intention is to learn how to put a HDR image together using the new camera.

I had spent 2hrs reading the manual this morning and made very little headway. It is rather tedious reading through a 350 page manual while nursing a Christmas day hangover.
It needs saying that the best way to learn how the camera works is to get out with it and start pressing the buttons.  Previously i had a D60 which i loved to use, and found a sturdy and versatile accomplice. The D60 has helped me to understand the D7000 to some extent which was useful for getting started.

I will advise anyone to go and have a trawl through youtube videos to find tutorials which will definitely help. Whilst building my limited knowledge of HDR i looked in on many Youtube posts, some were downright awful and some very educational. One of them had a husband wife team showing their method for HDR. The lady however must have been on a bad day, and constantly gave her old man a ear bashing while operating the video camera. I guess the moral is that if you start watching and it does not captivate you change channel.

Here i am going to show my first effort at HDR along with a normal J-Peg of the same item.

Here is a bog standard image of a wooden bench (taken in RAW)

Now for the HDR image which used the above photo as well as one over exposed and one under exposed.

i used merge to hdr pro which is found under file in Photoshop. Simply select the three images you want to use and Photoshop will do the rest.

HDR image showing more detail in the dark areas.

I may well have messed about with this image a little to much in Photoshop. If you push it too hard, the photo begins to look more like a painting than a picture.

I think you will agree that there is far more detail in the HDR effort, even though its not perfect.

Just a quick tip i picked up from a youtube video which i think was useful for an armature like me.

When taking your HDR image, select the timer mode and set it to 2 second delay.Then hit the BKR button which will set the camera to take three images one exposed, one under and one over (you can change this, but we won't go there yet.) Now hit the shutter release and bang your three shots are done. the use of the timers stops one from getting any unwanted movement while depressing the shutter release.

After taking tips from other photographers, i have now decided to shoot all my images in RAW. This captures more detail, but also makes a bigger file (photo). I later convert to J-Peg when all photoshop work is done.

I did take a few other snaps while at Chasewater. I went down about three weeks ago and took some snaps of the pier. I took the same snaps again today, the difference in the water level is remarkable.

This was taken in early December.

Considering that it is less than 12 months since the work finished on the dam, and predictions were that it would take three years or so to fill, it ain't gone bad has it?

Looks like it has risen about a foot or so in three weeks.

The whole place has a bit of a buzz about it of late. I am sure if they kept visitor numbers, there would be a increase in the last 12 months over the previous year.

full car parks and  plenty of footfall all around the reservoir.

There are a few cows which roam around the top end of the reservoir. They are a friendly enough herd who even allow you to pat them. One of my Jacks got a bit too close behind one of them and just missed a flaying hoof. It is best advised to keep the dogs on a lead around the cows.

Big old girl, let me pat her and hold her horn.

At the top end of the reservoir stands a derelict house. I often wonder if it will ever become the attention of a developer, or even if it can?

derelict house.

And finally, i should have done more with the image below. These fish sculptures are on a putting/crazy golf course. I just think the concept of them being in water was worth more attention.

There should be no water, only golf balls around the fish.

Thanks for looking, your comments are very much appreciated.

Peace be with you.

Canal overflows at Tesco's Brownhills.

I am posting this as a part of my Photography blog.
I took a few snaps of the overflow which discharges from the canal at the rear of Tesco's into the drains that run across to Clayhanger.
They will never win a photo competition, however they are part of what creates a historical record of Brownhills and it's happenings.
My brother Richard gave me a call to say that the overflow was running over the top of the culvert. I drove over with my camera and took a few snaps.

The culvert lies below the submerged wall.

Water flowing over the wall and into the undergrowth.

The small pool just off the black path and below the iron bridge seems to be bearing the brunt of the water.

Overflowing at a fair rate.

I am sure if an alien space craft had landed next to the culvert they would have suspected something biblical was about to happen.

One side of the canal had flood water cascading down through the woods, and the other side had people panic buying from Tesco's because they will be shut for two days!

There was not a space to be had in the car park of Tesco or B&M.

May be the lynx guy knew what he was doing.......or was it Noah??

God bless and merry Christmas to all.

Chaddesley Corbett re-visited.

 Our latest club dig was at another farm in Chaddesley Corbett near Kidderminster.
I had helped gain permission for this field and had high hopes of what it might have on offer.

I pulled up at 8am on a beautiful crisp winters morning. There were already a few of the die hards their in their Christmas hats. Everyone was in a upbeat jovial mood, probably anticipating a good days hunting ahead.
One or two of the members had put a bit too much effort into their costumes.

Member, Woodentop who forgot to get out of his onesy in the morning.

Trying to pull a rabbit from his hat.

My head used to be this big.

It was a crisp cold morning but it was no excuse for the red noses on some of the attendants.

cold air and a cold red nose.

The rest of the lunatics put some effort in and had some considerable fun out of the occasion.

is that filthy Phil i see? That mustache is unmistakable.

Padfoot who i think won the token hunt.

Sid with Filthy Phil, yes its the Sid of the famed hammy dance video.

notice how many hands in pockets, and its not because the raffle was on its way around.

an idiot.

About 15 minutes before the off a van turned up which i did not recognise. Two chaps got out and proceeded to unpack a couple of birds of prey. They bring the birds to where we were parked on a regular basis to work them on the Rabbits.

There are few things in the world that impress me more than the Majesty that comes with a big bird of prey.

bird and master.

Squawking.

A close up of the Harris Hawk.

He was excited when he was put on his perch.

On the stroke of 9am the farmer and his wife came over and said hello to us all. He gave us permission to go on all of his fields, even the ones with crops. We all raced up a hill which was in crop with Kale. The hill was crested by a single tree and looked a promising prospect. I immediately found a threepence bit and followed that up with a silver sixpence. Things soon dried up and it became evident that detecting through the Kale was very difficult.

A fair few headed over to the field where the tokens were hidden, though i never went near it. I stayed in the Kale field for the most of the day. 

I popped back to the car and had a mince pie cooked by the delightful Jax (greyhound). There were also sausage rolls and quiche on offer.

For the last half hour i headed into the cabbage field, however the sky was looking very threatening. After half an hour the heavens opened and began soaking everything. Once my feet were wet i decided to pack up and head home. This was unfortunate as i wanted to get my camera out and take a few snaps for the last hour.

The fishing lake adjacent to our meeting point.

A second pool next to the cabbage field.

i was going to set the tripod up and take some HDR of the tree but the rain stopped it!

Heads side of two coins.

And tails.

All being said it was a very enjoyable day, and sad that our next dig may not be until March.

God bless ya.