Slip End Rape Harvest

I am returning from my trip to the Shell Garage again having changed the memory card in the camera I am taking time-lapse images of the refurbishment, when I join a queue of traffic for several farming vehicles entering a field at Slip End, and I recognise the Combine Harvester.

It is the very same machine I photographed a few days back! Once again the late afternoon light is beautiful, so I park the car, grab the camera and follow the vehicles into the field.

I am early enough to see the blades being attached to the cab, much like the Mach 3 razors are clicked onto the handle! I am recognised immediately by the farmer, and we chat very briefly before I start to capture their work in this new field. Once the blade assembly is secured the farmer moves off to combine and the Blade holder is re-sited and then the driver of that vehicles shoots off to collect the tractor and trailer for offloading the rapeseed from the combine harvester.

I then take a few shots from the field and later hitch a ride in the tractor to capture some of the rest of the activity, before returning to process the last couple of days’ time-lapse images.

Evening Harvest

Returning to Caddington in a different way because of the roadworks for gas-pipe laying, I found that the farmer was out bringing in the oilseed rape with a new combine harvester, so I stopped, grabbed a camera and captured one lap around the field before the sun dipped below the horizon, thus losing all colour, and subsequent interest on my part.

It seemed a fitting end to the afternoon, so deserved a small gallery of images.

Priory Park Bedford

Andy Fox, who has now gained his LRPS for his photographic work, contacted me to arrange a visit to Priory Park, Bedford, which turns out to be close to Cardington, the last RAF Station at which  my father had been stationed, and ironically the first I went to when four years later I joined the RAF. The entire area close by has been transformed almost beyond recognition over the last few years, but the park is a vast haven of lakes, woodland and wildlife.

We parked up and Andy showed me on a plan where he suggested we walk to make a round trip of it. The first thing that you see is a carved wooden totem pole, and Andy said there had been another carving, but local youths had set fire to that, resulting in permanent night closure of the park. That desecration saddened me that anyone could be so wantonly destructive.

We headed for the the Labyrinth and its carvings, before moving to the river.  (See if you can spot the owl, the horse and the shapely lady – they are not carvings!) One of the first things that I saw were large dragonflies, but they conclusively evaded being photographed, but one particular brown one gave us both quite a few laughs, flying often tantalisingly close and always at high speed. Andy was closer to getting a shot than me!

Soon one species of damselfly, I believe to be a banded demoiselle soon turned out to be a very frequent habitué of the reeds and nettles at the river’s edge.

It was whilst we were concentrating on these close to the ford, that we heard a loud scream of laughter as one girl managed to slip and land on her backside before reaching the water whilst her children looked on from our side. After much further laughter the father made the attempt to cross and had no sooner got to the water than he followed suit! He was not quite so lucky, as he got a soaking and filled his trainers with water, which he had carefully removed beforehand! He was not very happy at the thought of sitting in his car in sopping clothes, so we suggested he might walk for longer!

Although we saw a few more dragonflies, and numerous damselflies, there were very few butterflies to be seen. We did watch a persistent tern diving for fish, and a grebe with a single youngster, before our return to the car. We were very lucky weatherwise, as no sooner had we arrived back at Andy’s, the rain came down in a sharp shower! Altogether a very enjoyable afternoon.

Bamville Cricket Club vs Edlesborough2

Although I have had an open invitation to take photographs of the Bamville Cricket matches of a Sunday, each time this year that I thought I might make it something else cropped up, or I simply forgot, so this Sunday I was determined that I would make it, but having had a gloriously sunny but cool morning, I set off from Caddington in drizzle, and arrived at the far end of Harpenden with at least some sun.

I had intended to give my boomerang plate another outing with the gimbal head, but managed in my haste to leave it behind on the dining room table, however that turned out to be fortuitous as I was able to use it with my Acratech ball head, and found it was equally effective with this, which means that this is a seriously versatile plate in another setup than I had originally intended.

Bamville's pitch is fairly unique in that it possesses a unique boundary, that falls away dramatically on one side, and is also shared with a golf course.

I tried a few initial shots using the 1.4 Converter with the 300mm lens, but in fact that was too restrictive, so removed that and stuck with the 300mm on the Canon EOS 7D, some other shots taken early and at a break were on the 24 - 105mm. My neck was suffering due to the cold wind I experienced [part of the time, so I left before the end, so I have no idea of the score, but then I only wanted to see what I could capture as I am not a follower of the game. I just hope that as a record it pleases a few of the players.

Harpenden ‘Classics on the Common’

I have not managed to visit the car and bike display on the Common at Harpenden in previous years. This year Peter Carr a local Product designer and I have met up to visit the 2012 ‘Classics on the Common’ – all the Common, bar the Cricket pitch, is completely overtaken by parked cars and bikes from all eras, with milling crowds of all ages and colour thronging the lines of vehicles. In the main the bikes are under the shade of trees,

Overhearing conversations of others, confirms to Peter and I that we were not alone in pointing to the types of vehicles we had once owned. When talking to some of the current owners we reflected on the costs of ownership from those periods in our lives – cars bought for a few pounds, enjoyed for months or years and often sold for more than we paid for them! I could not match Peter’s knowledge, experience or range of vehicles owned, yet I had owned a fair few in my time, though never anything exotic or powerful.

The sheer joy on everyone’s faces and in their chatter certainly was a far cry from the doom and gloom reported in the media. I know the hot sunshine was a contributor, but this was a crowd out to enjoy itself, and to consider purchasing in some instances. The spirit of the festival, because that is how it seemed pervaded the whole of Harpenden and the place was very much alive, and I am certain it will have given the cafés and restaurants a welcome boost, along with all the burger bars and ice cream vans on the common itself.

Peter and a group of his friends were due to meet for Dinner at a restaurant, so we parted after meeting up with his wife Sue, and I returned to my car for the journey home and to put my pictures into another gallery.

One Seriously Hot Day at Stockwood!

Today was one of those days when two showers is essential. So what do I do? My desk was clear, so I paid a quickie visit to the Stockwood Discovery Centre, bump straight into Jan who says Ladybird larvae are to be found, in the greenhouse! It is 29˚ C outside, whatever made me consider entering the inferno that is the greenhouse?! No sooner does Jan unlock the door when it is apparent even the vegetation which have been watered earlier, are wilting, so in offering to sacrifice myself I have at least saved some of the plant life! Jan then hosed them down yet again, and I am sure I heard them sigh in relief!

Jan showed me where they were to be found; at least where they were when she last watered them,but I did find a couple and I must have found the most energetic or camera shy insect on the planet, and beads of sweat were pouring off me and covering the camera, but I managed to end up after a gruelling ten minutes with a couple of acceptable images.

Were it not for all my camera gear I would have asked her to water me from head to foot with her hose. I was glad to be thanking her for the opportunity, and escaping to the fresh air, and to hopefully dry out taking other shots in the gardens. Even after returning to the car I had to drape a throw across my seat to save it from being soaked. I was pleased though with what I had captured in the short visit.

Tringford Sunday Drifting

The next few weeks will see me tied up carrying out a time lapse series of images of the refurbishment of a retail interior, so since the weather forecast was good for a change, I took the opportunity to take a morning in a boat with Bob Menzies on the reservoir at Tringford, knowing there was a possibility I would be tied up giving some advice regarding software and hardware to a young artist in the afternoon.

It was pleasantly cool with a light breeze and the water close by the jetty was crystal clear, so the fish could see and therefore avoid the attentions of the anglers! So it proved for the only angler that took to the water on Tringford that morning, and as Bob and I went out he came in for a break.

We headed down towards the Pumping Station, gently approaching three herons, one of which was on a nest. Although I thought there may be young, we saw nothing in the nest after that heron flew off and circled around. This year has seen fewer heron that last year which is a shame as these birds are the epitome of graceful elegance. Overall we have seen fewer birds on all three of the Tring reservoirs, and this may be due in part to the fierce winter, the amount of rain over the recent weeks and Cormorants depleting the fish stock. We gently drifted around the bottom end looking in the clear water for signs of fish, and saw none, the fish that were to be seen were jumping in the top corner close to the main road, but only one took a sniff at the lone angler's line.

Marsworth and Tringford Grebes

An early start allowed me to get to the Canal end of Marsworth reservoir, just before the lock to see what I could find near the reed beds. I n the first location I chose I was out of luck, but when I moved to where an angler was below me, I was almost in line with a gap in the reeds on the far bank where I spotted a grebe nesting. I gather from another angler this spot is known as the suicide pitch as the slope is so treacherous, more especially when wet, which of course is most of this year! One parent patrolled along the reeds; from my observations seemingly concerned for ducks with evil intent. Certainly as I was packing up the guard grebe made a pretty determined go at one of the ducks, and the duck took off in a hurry!

I then set up on the bank level alongside the path between the two reservoirs, Marsworth and Startops End that led back toward Tringford, where I captured a few common tern patrolling parallel to the bank, before heading to the main road to see if the pochard was around still on the far side of Startops, I only saw a single female. I returned to Tringford on the far side from the Anglers pontoon and was privileged to see a grebe find and swallow no less than two fair-sized freshwater crawfish, and fortunately it was so engrossed in feeding that it stayed close to the shore to my delight.

A Quiet Corner of Startops

There was little bird activity above the Marsworth reservoir as I walked past several anglers relaxing hopefully beside twin lines by the side of the path from Tringford reservoir. Upon the surface there were the usual mallard, coots, and pigeons overflying. So I walked beyond and turned towards Startops. Spotting a flurry of small birds flitting between the bank-based trees and the bushes at the water’s edge in the corner, I watched for a while standing, then walked slowly towards the steps and sat just below the bank side on the top step, and the birds ignored me.

I stayed shooting either side of my vantage point as sparrows and pied wagtails flitted back and forth, often coming quite close to where I sat, before deciding that maybe I could represent danger and flying back from whence they came or looping out over the water and landing just beyond me on the steep banking. They were feeding well on various fly species, but since I never saw them swallow, I presume these were for their offspring possibly in a nest either in the hawthorn or other trees to my left where the branches offered shelter. I have only rarely seen the pigeons come down to the water’s edge, but one did, and foraged in the same area the wagtails and sparrows were frequenting.

Considering sparrows are now so rarely seen, perhaps the conservationists should study this habitat, as they have been flying across this corner for all the years I have visited these three reservoirs; something must suit them.

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2012

1. By the House

For only the second time I was being driven to Goodwood, this time by John Sentinella. We had planned to leave at six o’clock, and I was completely ready from around five to six. Soon I heard John’s purring Jaguar approaching, and all my gear was already outside in the porch, so I quickly showed John a picture of a Le Mans Jaguar that I took the evening before when it pulled up outside the Pub on the far side of the road, in case he knew the owner, as I had learned that the owner lived locally. He did not. I popped it back inside and we put everything aboard and set off.

We took a slightly roundabout route going through the recently opened Liphook tunnels, and arrived just after our planned arrival time of seven-thirty in light drizzle, having been in blue sky for most of the journey down. We decided exactly what to take with us and set off from the car park. Our first port of call was the Super Car Paddock, uncrowded on arrival, though within minutes became packed. We strolled through the Style et Luxe and headed for the House, so that I could capture shots of the latest installation, before that was swamped by the public. This year's theme was in celebration of Lotus.

Having grabbed a few Installation shots from differing angles, I headed inside Goodwood House to say thank you for the tickets sent to me, and learned that earlier in the year Lord March had put on an exhibition of his private photography at the Bermondsey Gallery; his wife’s PR lady very kindly gave me a catalogue. Walking outside, who should be heading my way, but Charles, Lord March just finishing a video interview; I took a quick few shots for myself before approaching him and thanking him personally. I was amused that out of the corner of my eye, the cameraman moved to shoot our meeting! Later in the Style et Luxe area I spotted Brian Johnson of AC/DC being mobbed by fans.

2. Bloodhound SSC

Another highlight came with my visit to the Bloodhound stand where I was in conversation with some of the SSC staff and later the current Landspeed record holder, Andy Green. I also caught sight of Richard Noble who is due to pilot the craft. It is truly massive and involves considerable new technologies involving processes from Formula 1 for the nose section, and the aeronautical industries for the central section and naturally the propulsion. What I photographed was the tenth iteration of the craft; they are currently working with the eleventh and still need more funding in order to make it to the attempt on the record in South Africa.

3. Typhoon / Eurofighter Display

A lone Typhoon performed in front of the house, but for much of the time, it was at a considerable distance, presumably for safety reasons, and some of that time was also somewhat cloudy which was a shame.

Because of several changes of routes and heavy traffic, my family arrived after an arduous three hour journey, that normally would have been just an hour. Trying to meet up proved fraught, due to overcrowded networks, but we did manage it, and either together or in groups we all thoroughly enjoyed the day.

4. On the Hill

I met several different and interesting people, and was able to pass on a few hints to some I met. The two vehicle-focussed meetings at Goodwood each year should not be missed as there is such a variety of activities, and so much to watch and learn, I cannot recommend it enough.

Stockwood Saturday – Warm and Windy

I had managed to clear everything in preparation for the family trip to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed meeting, so having used the Wednesday afternoon to cover Luton Hoo’s Walled Garden, I decided I would pay the Stockwood Discovery Centre a visit, as I was sure the flowers and insect life would not disappoint.

I was right, there was an incredible panoply of colour on display, and the Centre was crowded with young families enjoying the afternoon sun. I had found some interesting and unusual flowers with beautifully textured leaves in the bed at the entrance, so I took out the camera even before going in! I headed for the lavender once within the walled enclave, which I was certain would be attractive to the bees, I was not expecting to see just how hard it was for them to do their pollinating! The sensible ones didi not fly off when the breezes blew, they simply clambered from one flowerhead to any that were nearby, which at least meant there was more time they spent static than had there been less wind.

Once again the long greenhouse was locked, and on this visit I was too late for anyone to let me in there, and anyway there was plenty for me to shoot in the limited time I had left before they closed for the day. I only saw one hoverfly on this visit which I found surprising bearing in mind the moisture from recent rains.

Even though several days have passed since I took these shots, I have already used some of the images in a birthday card for my sister-in-law, and I have yet to load all the Goodwood shots from the following day, but the delay was all worthwhile as I was busy doing a ‘real’ job for a designer pitching for a Royal Mail project involving a hand colouring from an original black and white image; now completed and happily approved.

Floral Abundance at Luton Hoo's Walled Garden

I had not visited the Walled Garden at Luton Hoo for some while, so it was pleasant to see more new signage and the expanded area of the garden. The recent rains, and warm nights meant there were blooms in abundance, which meant that in some areas the younger plants that had seemed well-separated, had now become dense areas of overlapping species providing an artist's palette of extraordinary variety.

Although bright, it was very humid, and as I worked close in, the bees provided continuo as they serenaded through their favourite repertoire. One corner close to the greenhouses was particularly redolent of the scent of its flowers. Every once in a while a breeze would come, and the grasses would sway, but ironically they often occurred when I was trying to capture a single slender bloom, and I would be trying to hold still in an awkward stance and would find my glasses would steam up, and I'd have to break off just as the wind died back down!

I had arrived somewhat late and was probably on site for an hour, and as I finished shooting a few drops of rain desultorily fell, but stopped almost immediately.

Testing the new 'Boomerang' Plate

Back at the Focus on Imaging Show earlier this year, I tried to find a manufacturer interested in the production of a camera plate that would add functionality to the ease of use a gimbal head when using lenses of around 300mm. My issue was that with very long and heavy lenses these proved really efficient, but the lesser mass of say a 300mm f/4 did not work as well. I reckoned that there was not sufficient leverage from gripping the camera body because of its proximity to the axis of the rotating arm and the centre of gravity of the lens.

Panning was fine using the bulky upright of the gimbal head, it was the vertical movement which was less efficient, to test out my theory I angled a straight bar forward from the camera baseplate and added a pistol grip that was now in line with the centre of gravity of the lens/camera body, and with the added leverage of the pistol grip the balance of effort in both panning and raising or lowering of the lens was more equal resulting in far smoother use of the gimbal head with such a lens.

This morning Calumet came up trumps with a prototype of what I envisaged, and I set out out to test whether it worked by taking my Canon 7D, 300mm f/4 and gimbal head and the newly christened 'Boomerang' plate to the Grand Union Canal near Wilstone, and the gallery of images here is the result.

Obviously I have no idea whether Calumet will produce the plate, but for those photographers who would like to have smooth and controlled movement from the less weighty and shorter focal length telephotos, this plate opens up the world of gimbal heads, and I think it's the way forward – it is far more controlled than a ball head.

I only used the 300mm lens here and was only disappointed that the two kingfishers I spotted that sped like Exocet missiles along the reeds did not return later, which would have been the real test! But I did spot a Muntjack and a mobbing of a mating pair of damselflies by a mating pair of water boatmen!

Smart Objects – What are they?

Photoshop over the last several versions has moved to more and more non-destructive editing.

Smart Objects is just one of the ways this has been achieved.

What is meant by non-destructive?

It means that whilst working for a client or one’s self, the changes that are applied to the image file can be restored and re-altered differently; it means that when a client changes his/her mind, it does not mean a complete rebuild, or painful de-construction.

One of the simplest ways in which this can be accomplished is to apply a Layer Mask directly to a layer, rather than erase a section, which would be destructive by being non-reversible.That is not strictly so if one has had the foresight to check the History Option to allow for Non-Linear History, because under those circumstances one could step back to before the erasure, and paint from the earlier complete state. However someone who operates in that mode is likely not to have set this option anyway.

Select History Options from the flyout menu, top right

then check the box against 'Allow Non-Linear History'

   

When colour correcting: rather than work directly on a specific layer or layers, an Adjustment Layer is best applied above, which can either be linked only to the layer immediately beneath, or all those layers below. This means that the alterations can be made, yet later returned to and applied differently.

 

Here the mask is fully operative  

 

Here the Mask has been switched off temporarily

Since an adjustment layer has a layer mask option available by default, the mask can provide the means to apply the effect preferentially to specific areas, and this mask can be either altered at a later stage or switched off by holding the Shift key and tapping the mask icon for that layer. Since it is a toggle, that in itself is non-destructive.

This shows that in Colour Balance, I reduced the red component within the Shadows

Because I knew I might need to alter the size of the image I was bringing in to the existing image, at a later stage, and did not wish to lose its original quality, I made this a Smart Object from the flyout menu in the Layers panel.

Selecting a layer in the Layers panel and using the flyout menu to Convert to Smart Object

I took two photos: one of the remote in the hand, the other the Speaker Dock with the iPhone inserted. The idea was to combine the pair into a single image, whilst giving me the opportunity to alter the relative sizes of each at a later date.

This is where the concept of Smart Objects comes into play. The Smart Object is a file within a file, which in the Master image seems and behaves like a single layer. In the corner of the image icon within the layer is a label as shown here:

This shows the small label in the bottom right to designate this layer is a Smart Object

Double-clicking this image icon in the layers panel will open the image as it was last saved as a Smart Object (it is stored as a .psb file within the Master file). This means that even if you scale the Smart Object to small size, followed by enlarging it, each transform is made from the original file stored in the Smart Object, so it does not lose the initial quality of the file.

Here is a montage of the two files where the background of the Speaker Dock has yet to be scaled down, followed by the final relative sizes. But, at any time thereafter I can rescale the elements without adversely affecting the original quality of either image.

Here both images are the same size they were taken

Here they are at the relatives sizes I decided as I was primarily showing the Remote

The layered Master file contains both images at their full resolution, offering maximum scope for non-destructive future editing, as both elements are Smart Objects within a single file.

Wandlebury Woods Visit

The sun had slunk behind the clouds by the time we set off for Wandlebury, but that was not enough to dampen our spirits. Despite the girls telling me that there were no ponds or lakes, we had barely entered the park before coming across a small jetty alongside a reedbed. There were numerous pond skaters or water boatmen, a pair of mating damselflies, a leech, a wounded damselfly and numerous newts. We stayed a few minutes there hoping that the damselflies might come nearer, but it didn’t happen, and the wire covering over the wood planking was hard on the knees when we bent down to get nearer to our subjects.

As we left Catherine decided to challenge the girls by bursting into a surprise run between them, and I captured the happy blur as they sped off into the woods. I was soon asked for one of the cameras, and it dawned on me I could have brought all three along as I effectively had three willing sherpas to carry them, without overburdening myself! I will remember in the future!

Holly remarked that she could well understand why I loved taking photos as she became fascinated by using the camera with the macro lens, and within minutes Poppy wanted some time with the camera. Occasionally I would swap over or swap lenses between the bodies. Catherine was using her iPhone as well as one or other of my cameras, so the gallery contains images taken by all of us at one time or other.

Catherine enjoys standing on her head and this always results in help from the girls, though I am not certain whether this makes it any easier. She also likes to practice jumping, so this gives me practice at capturing the peak of the action, and both girls enjoy climbing trees, running and jumping. We were recently described as a very ‘huggy’ family at Joshua’s christening, and this was also much in evidence. We did not get to cover the entire circular walk, because it started to rain, but it gave us a good dose of fresh air.

When post processing I did a bit of exploration of some subjects in black and white and with toning.