Staying Close to Home

Back in February I presciently posted an entry on the virtues of shooting on the doorstep. At the end of March it seems that it's all that we can do. Depending on where you live, this is either more or less of a convenience. I'm actually enjoying working from home. The boy-child made it home safely over a week ago and at the time of writing we're waiting on tenterhooks to see whether the girl-child manages to get on a flight back first thing tomorrow morning. No doubt none of us will sleep well tonight.

Snowbells || Olympus f5.6, 1/1250 s, ISO 200

Photographically speaking, it's a chance to sit back and take stock. I'm very fortunate to have a picturesque little wood at the bottom of the village that has a lot of potential, plus the garden is beginning to erupt, so there's a lot of macro work to do. I'd been looking for a chance to play about with some focus stacking and I guess now's my chance. On top of that, even though I'm working during the day, I now have a lot more free time in the evenings - I'm usually out at least three evenings a week and those meetings are either on hiatus or taking place online, freeing up time that would be spent travelling to and from Munich.

My Local Woods

There are other ways of investing time in my photographic skills, whether working on post-processing or making use of the plethora of online resources out there. Just this weekend I've come across another landscape photographer via the ON1 Photo Raw tutorials who has several online courses available. Hudson Henry's Approaching the Scene series on YouTube is going to keep me going for quite a while.

The Boy-Child is Back || Olympus f4, 1/640 s, ISO 200

A Walk in the Woods

It seems to me that there are two or three categories of photographers; there are those who know in the field precisely what makes a good image and will go out and take two or three photos and they will all be strong images. Thomas Heaton appears to fall into this category. Then there are those who recognise beauty when they see it but aren't sure how to capture it to make a good photo and end up taking lots of images, a few of which will be keepers. I like to think that I fall into this category. The third category, well, we won't talk about them, but we all know some people who fall into this group.

Here's a good example of what I mean. As we were walking through the woods, we cam across this fresh woodpile with the sun shining on the bright ends. My initial snap was just about OK, the second shot a bit better, but for the third I got down on my knees. The perspective is much better and although not a portfolio shot, I was quite happy with this one.

The Log Pile, 1st Attempt || Olympus f4.5, 1/125 s, ISO 200

The Log Pile, Better || Olympus f4, 1/125 s, ISO 200

Similarly, a few metres further down the track we caught this mist against the light. Again it took me a couple of attempts to capture the scene adequately. The first shot was my initial reaction to the mist - shooting from the hip so-to-speak. The second was after I'd had a minute or two to hunt down a proper composition.

Mist Rising I || Olympus f4.5 1/50 s, ISO 200

Mist Rising II || Olympus f4.5 1/100 s, ISO 200

Out of the woods we circled back towards home though open fields and lots of solitary tree goodness. There are a couple of stands of my favourites as well, the mighty silver birch. Here with a bit of Orton magic, just because.

Orton Birch || Olympus f4, 1/500 s, ISO 200

In the Back Garden

Of course there are some genres of photography where you have to take a lot of photos to get just a few good shots. Wildlife photography is certainly one of those genres, whether birds or, in this instance, bees. We have a young nectarine tree guesting with us at the moment (long story, it was a present from one of my choirs to one of our singers last year for his new house which is still being built, in the meantime we're looking after it). Sipping tea on the terrace yesterday afternoon after spending all day in the garden clearing up after the winter storms I noticed a couple of bees humming around it, collecting pollen and so I grabbed the camera to see whether I could catch them in the act.

Michael's Herrenbesuch Tree I || Olympus f11, 1/400 s, ISO 200

Michael's Herrenbesuch Tree II || Olympus f9, 1/320 s, ISO 200

The tree has beautiful pink blossoms and a lovely petal structure. I spent about 10 minutes yesterday trying to catch a sharp photo of the bees, took the SD card inside and plugged it into the PC, only to be disappointed. None of the bee shots had turned out sharp. It was then I remembered that I also have a Hoya +3 diopter screw-in lens for the front of my zoom. So it was on with the magnifier and back out to the nectarine, where I was able to get these shots. The magnifier lets me get much closer to the bees, but it does come at a cost of depth of field.

As with all animal portraits, the eyes have to be in focus for a decent photo. Almost got it...

Nearly, but not quite || Olympus f11, 1/320 s, ISO 200

And this was my shot of the day. Not 100% sharp, but I'm happy with this for a first attempt:

Bee on Blossom || Olympus f11, 1/400 s, ISO 200

Stay safe, stay well, and we'll catch you on the other side of this mess.