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Upper and Lower Falls || Olympus 66 mm, f/8, 1/20 s, ISO 200 |
What I did get though was this juicy shot of the sun shining through the moss on the side of a tree. I hadn't noticed in the field (alright, in the forest) that the background was so cool. This one breaks all the composition rules, but it works really nicely (IMHO), partly because of the palette of colours.
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Mossy Tree || Olympus 44 mm, f/8, 1/60 s, ISO 200 |
Tree stumps are wonderful things to photograph. I've really discovered them this year and they rarely let me down. They're microcosms of the forest, whether they have bracken growing out of them or moss like here. If you're lucky, you'll get a root system as well thrown in for free. My bonus here was the raspberry plant.
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Stumped for a Composition? || Olympus 86 mm, f/8, 1/80 s (HDR), ISO 200 |
Having climbed out of the valley our route took us past a number of lovely old farmsteads, many of which would have normally been selling buttermilk or a cool beer to supplement their income. Today they were all boarded up for the winter, but still looked pretty in the sun, especially when accompanied by larches like this. Larches are the only fir trees to cast their needles in the winter. Before they do this, though, the needles turn a magnificent golden colour. In the right light they can be real eye-catchers.
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Bifurcation || Olympus 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 s (HDR), ISO 200 |
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Frozen Puddle || Olympus 41 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 s, ISO 200 |
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Last Colours || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/50 s, ISO 200 |
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Frost Border || Olympus 44 mm, f/8, 1/80 s, ISO 200 |
On days like this there are plenty of details to catch. Some photographers tend to plan every shot down to the last degree, plotting where the sun's going to set and when, slavishly studying tide tables and weather systems. I tend to be a bit more spontaneous with my shots, with the exception of Milky Way photography, where you need a strong foreground and a new moon. For the rest of it, a little research can't hurt, but more often than not it's the chance encounters that delight.
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Crystals || Olympus 75 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 s, ISO 200 |
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Forest || Olympus 86 mm, f/5.6, 1/100 s, ISO 200 |
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Transitions || Olympus 31 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 s, ISO 200 |
Walking back along the other side of the Mittelbach towards the Weißach river we were given occasional glimpses of a ridge a little ways above us that had managed to stay mostly in the shade of the main ridge. One tree in particular caught our interest, a well-shaped deciduous tree on a bare ridge surrounded by firs. My longest lens was the one I had on my camera - my trusty 12-100 mm, but Sharon, bless her, had brought the 100-300 mm Lumix that I'd given her when I bought my 100-400 mm (following so far?). Once she'd finished with it, I begged a borrow (no, I hadn't packed the bazooka, it weighs almost 1,200 g and I hadn't thought I'd need it). I hadn't noticed the farm on the left until I processed the image, and yes, I did take the liberty of enhancing the colour of the roof. It's art!
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Standing Out || Olympus 120 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 s (HDR), ISO 200 |
As we descended back towards Steiblis where we'd left the car, there were a couple of larch trees catching the late afternoon light and glowing golden in a very tantalising manner. There was too much foreground though, and by the time we got to a place where we had a clear line of sight the light had dipped too far behind the ridge leaving them unappealingly dull. You win some, you lose some. Walking along the road though Sharon pointed out that the moon had just risen above the Hochgrat (yes,
THE Hochgrat of the sunset fame). And whaddaya know, there were some larches lurking in the foreground, rounding off the day very nicely.
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Half Moon over Hochgrat || Olympus 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 s, ISO 200 |
When I go out on a walk like this, I don't usually reckon on getting a single three star image, let alone three of them. Let me explain. I take so many photos these days that if I didn't have a rating system to help me organise them I'd drown. When I import my photos into ON1 Photo Raw, I scan through them and sort out the discards - shots that are out of focus, the 'butt-dial shots' where I've pressed the release putting the camera back on its bracket (yeah, I do it too!). At the same time I give a single star to the images that I at least want to look into editing. Once I've sifted through all the shots from a shoot like this, I move onto editing. If I'm happy enough with an image that I think I'll want to share it to social media (Facebook, Instagram or here on the blog), I'll give the image two stars. Once I've edited the whole set I batch-process the pictures, exporting the two-star images to jpegs. If I really like an image, I'll give it three stars. These are the ones I feel confident about submitting to PicFair for selling or submitting to magazines, photos that I'd be happy to print and hang. Occasionally I might even print one. Once or twice a year, I'll give an image four stars. I've yet to take a five-star shot.
So, can you spot the three-star images here? It's a completely subjective system of course, everyone has their own preferences. Which are your favourites?
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