Object in different positions in the frame (2)

Second attempt at the exercise exploring the spatial relationship between a subject and its background; this time I chose a sculpture on the beach of Derwentwater in the Lake District.  You can see the relationship changing as the subject changes places in the frame.  When the subject is centred it is not as dramatic as when it is in one of the corners giving the scene a greater sense of space. The image that works best is the last one, with the sculpture in the bottom left-hand corner and taking up most of the frame.  (I did try to process this one, by cropping it to give the sculpture even more prominence, converting to b&w and then pushing up the contrast; unfortunately, this doesn't work as the sculpture is a similar texture to the beach, so there is not enough texture contrast in the scene for this to work).

I then repeated the exercise with a dead tree shot with a wide-angled zoom and polariser; because the tree is so striking, the most pleasing composition is with the subject centred and occupying the full frame (so opposite effect to the sculpture above, which looks nice in real life but is that great in a photo). 

I also tried the Dutch angle technique to enhance the impact of the structure of the scene, which although this is a technique that should be used sparingly, on this occasion it works! 

Finally I processed my favourite image of the lot to create a scene of drama.  I will return to this one on a cloudy day!

Fitting a frame to the subject (2)

Another demonstration of the fitting the frame to the subject exercise; simply because a good opportunity arose as I passed "Little Granny's Cottage"!  Here the object was clearly the humourous name sign made in the local slate, but seen in a wider context, it made a pleasing scene with the shade and sunlight aspects.

Shutter speeds - cameras with a manual option

The exercise required the camera to be fixed in front of something that moves across my view, and kindly suggest water flowing over rocks of which there are plenty in Cumbria!  I set the camera up on a tripod and ran a few trial shots.  Because the focus point was in shade, it was hard to get the right exposure even though I was adjusting aperture.   Eventually I repeated the exercise adjusting ISO as well as aperture and got some pleasing results.  These really show the effect of using different shutter speeds.  In the faster speeds, the water is captured sharply in the focal areas, whilts in the slower speeds, the water looks like it is almost made of milk. 

DSC2766: 1/640s; f5; ISO 500
DSC2767: 1/100s; f/10; ISO 250
DSC2768: 1/50s; f/14; ISO 250
DSC2770: 1/10s; f/29; ISO 200
DSC2771: 1/5s; f/29; ISO 1EV under 200

DSC2766

DSC2767

DSC2768

DSC2770

DSC2771

The exercise also showed the difficulty in using a fast shutter speed and hence large aperture, part of the image is blurred and I hadn't actually focussed where I had intended (I was using manual focus here).  I could have resolved this by using a higher ISO and a smaller aperture, and therefore not got the division between blurred and sharpness.  You can however see the water droplets captured.

I then decided to try to shoot my dogs playing in the water and see if I could freeze some water action.  This was a challenge!  The lighting conditions kept changing as the dogs moved in and out of the shade; the light also changed as I zoomed in and out, and trying to get good composition with the dog and the stone splash in the right place.....well..that was impossible!  But I did get some water action :-)

1/80s

1/250s

1/60s

A sequence of composition (3)

For this sequence, the approach was slightly different to the previous one.  As the action was coming towards me, I did not have to move to get the shots I wanted.  It basically was all happening from I was standing.  These images speak for themselves; this was a very lucky moment the added bonus of having Skiddaw and Latrigg as a backdrop!  Pity I didn't have a stronger zoom....