Walsall wood camera club, on the move.

Shortly after joining Walsall wood camera club i discovered that they were going to move their home.
The new home of the camera club will be at the Anex (the old boys school) at the top of Brownhills.

Having been a witness to the parking problems that they had at the church hall in Walsall wood, i fully understand their reasons. There is potential for the club to grow, but not where they were located.

The Anex will provide ample parking and a room easily large enough to accommodate and increase in membership.
You can find a link to the club here. Contact details and meeting times are all available for anyone interested in joining.

It is a friendly and welcoming club, so if you have a passion for photography, get yourself along to a meeting.

Happy days.

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.

Walsall wood camera club, my second visit.

This was my second visit to the club which meets each Tuesday in the hall behind St Johns church Walsall wood.
On this occasion, one of the local rival clubs (Aldridge) turned up to put on a prints and digital show for us.
I must start off by saying it was a fantastic turn out again, i never in my wildest dreams thought that a camera club could have so many active members.
One of the gentlemen from Aldridge, gave a brief description of what we were about to see.
The first display was by a gentleman who had a fantastic selection of shots from the Lake district. There were plenty of water shots which i particularly like, as he managed to capture very still waters and great reflections.
We then had a display of mixed monochrome and colour images. This particular selection had a couple of portraits in it. one of the portraits was of a Greek fella that the gentleman had spotted in a cafe while on holiday. This particular image was really eye catching for me and has enthused me to capture as many images of characters as i can.

Here is an image i took a year or so ago with a compact camera. This guy rocked up on a pier in Greece with his fishing rod and a stool. He pitched up next to me wearing wellies and what i imagined was a old German world war 2 helmet. He kept the helmet on the whole time to keep the sun off his head (i would imagine) as it was 40 degrees.

my favorite people shot so far.

Please feel free to criticise my images. I have not photo shopped this image, but what could photo shop actually do for this image?

The next set of prints came from some one who used the Clayhanger wet lands a lot. i was amazed at how he had managed to make some rather mundane spots, look fantastic on his prints. May be its the fact that i go there a la lot that i don't consider the area worthy of a good photo (lesson learnt). Next time i am over that area i will be taking my camera. That set of prints has given me much enthusiasm to capture more of the places i often go and don't appreciate.

It was time then for a cup of tea and a chat with some of the members. I don't have trouble chatting to be honest. A couple of the senior members made a point of coming over for a chat. I signed up for a lesson on framing (how to) which is something i need to learn fairly quickly. I had brought a photo with me which i had framed, my idea was to get an opinion of what i had done rite or wrong in this effort. I ended up putting it into the competition for next week. I know it won't win any prizes, but the criticism will be constructive and help me in producing a better shot in the future.

The photo i entered into the competition (the Oss)

We then moved into a digital display which was very interesting. Some of the shows were of mundane subjects, and others of specific targets. One of which was a dance group, definitely not mundane. These photos had some great shots in which seemed to utilize lots of black and white clothing and background, mostly black The little amount of colour on shots made the photos very interesting to me. I suppose if you get a subject so full of energy you are going to have that come out in your images, which these surely did.

There were a couple of the shows presented to music. These pricked my interest in setting some of my snaps to sound. Watch this space!

All in all it was a very informative night, and i look forward to my next visit.

Please leave comments on this blog, i do like to be interactive.

god bless ya.

Walsall Wood camera club, my first visit.

I decided to visit my local camera club yesterday. The decision came about as i have decided to take some expert advice on board and improve my photos.
The meeting was held in a church hall at the rear of St Johns church. It was a huge turn out as it happens, about 45 members. This may have been due to a visit from a prominent photographer from Birmingham.
A slide show was provided of photos from said photographer, with commentary throughout.
There were some interesting photos , and plenty of humor thrown in.

I think i picked up a few tips, especially on Photoing moving subjects. It's interesting to hear what he liked to see in a photograph, as he is a prominent competition judge by all accounts.

I think i will enjoy my involvement in this club, and can't wait to get competitive. I will be in as a beginner  to which i don't think there are many others in the club. Still, it makes life easier for me.

watch this space.

Photography.......i wish i was a little bit better.

I have always been a amateur photographer, and they way i have progressed, i always will be.
My wife is looking for buying me a new camera this Christmas  which i will cherish just as much as the Nikon D60 that she got for me 5 or 6 years ago.

Nikon D60 which has traveled the world with me.

As hard as i try i can never take what i consider to be a great photograph. My wife says that a photo i took of a grey horse in Alrewas is her favorite. I do like this photo as it looks somewhat unreal, but i have not done any photo shop on it. The one thing that annoys me is that just seconds before i took the snap the horse came rite up to my face and started neighing at me and showing its teeth. If only i had the presence of mind to catch that moment on camera i might well have my best ever photo. Instead i stood in amazement for 5 seconds then fumbled around to set the camera up and the moment was lost.

My shot of the Grey stallion and hay cart.

As anyone who has ever read my blog will know i am a keen metal detectorist. You might expect that i would get some good shots while out with the detector. This is not the case though, it's very difficult to carry a large slr camera and all of my detecting kit. I do carry a small digital camera with me, however having dirty hands and using a camera is very difficult.

Its always pleasing to get a good landscape shot (or what i consider good) while out walking. I think that if you have a mind to take good photos, you are always on the look out for an opportunistic shot. Here is one i snapped just a few weeks ago while in York. I was passing through a park early in the morning and noticed how the sun shining through the branches of a tree was lighting up the mist.

Early morning in York.

I will endeavor to take a better photo over the coming months/years as i expect all armature photographers do.

God bless ya.