26

Jul

Leading Lines

Looking down the tracks left by a tractor after plowing. For this shot, I wanted a nice simple composition that would take the eye through the scene, off into the evening sky. When you want to create something simple, then it is the small details that count more than they would in a crowded picture, full of many varied objects. Having some kind of symmetry can help a lot with making such a picture feel ‘complete’, as do leading lines and ways of making the eye move naturally through the photo. That said, the two small trees in the top right of this photo break the symmetry, but feel to me as though they are perfectly correct. What do you think?

A recently plowed field, with tracks leading to the horizon.

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes

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20

Jul

Leicestershire Sunrise

The sun was actually only visible for a few minutes before disappearing once again into the low cloud just above the horizon. Luckily, I had arrived early enough that I was already prepared to get the shot, and managed a few more in the moments whilst the sun was visible. The quality of light you get at sunrise can be seen in the tree. It’s easy to see how much more delicate it is than would be the case during the rest of the day. It’s next to impossible to see these kinds of colours at any other time than sunrise or sunset, although even at sunset the colours tend to be a lot warmer and lack that crispness you get on early mornings.

This photo is a good example of when you have to mask sky back in to an HDR. In this case, the clouds had moved between exposures, so large parts of the sky looked a bit odd. Blending back these areas of cloud allowed a much more natural finish.

Sunrise over a countryside field

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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28

Jun

Towards Sunset

A tree sitting in a field near sunset. I got a few different shots of this tree, all taken from different angles and positions, but I think this is probably the best of the lot. I like how the tree is in a kind of dip in the land, with the field rising towards the left of the picture.

It took quite a lot of processing to get this into a finished state. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do for most of it, and think the end result is probably over-saturated, but oh well. Although I seem to shoot a lot of HDRs around sunset, they always seem much harder to process than HDRs taken at any other time of day. I’m not really sure why this should be the case, but it must be something to do with the amount of yellow in sunset light.

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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22

Jun

Leaf

I found these leaves when taking more general, wide angle shots of the steps they are found on and thought that they deserved a closeup. The positions they are in are exactly how I found them. Sometimes it may be necessary to move small objects about to provide a better composition, but I usually prefer to shoot things as found.

This had very little post-processing applied to it. I used the adjustment brushes within Lightroom to provide a vignette, then used the cross-processing filter from Nik’s Color Efex Pro. This gave the blue colour cast to the concrete which I feel makes the single green leaf stand out that little bit more.

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

Natural Landscapes/Urban Landscapes

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18

May

Wildflowers

Probably one of the best things about Summer (apart from the warmth!) is the wildflower meadows that pop up here and there. They seem to be very few and far between these days, but I always manage to stumble upon at least one by accident.

Shooting with a lens with a wide aperture (in this case f/2.8) means you can get that lovely, shallow depth of field that these kind of scenes demand. In this case, it was the poppies that drew my eye and that I wanted to focus on, but the de-focused buttercups in the background are just as important I think.

Roll on this Summer for more of this kind of shot!

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Flowers/Natural Landscapes

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13

May

A Tree’s Sunset

The setting sun passes behind a lone tree. This shot would only be possible for a few days in every year, since the sunset position and the amount of crop growth in the field change so rapidly. It was simply luck that I found this spot at the right time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t shooting with a particularly good camera at the time, so you can really see the noise when you make it large. I have been meaning to try to recreate this with my Canon 5D for a couple of years but so far haven’t got round to it! Maybe next year…

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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10

May

Frosty Field

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

A cold, wintry morning walk, just after dawn, led to this photograph. I love that delicate light you can get in the Winter that doesn’t turn up at any other time of year. It gives that pink tinge to clouds that always photographs well.

This morning, there was also a frost on the ground, which provided a kind of sharpness to the soil. Hopefully, all taken together, this typifies the Winter scene.

13 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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07

May

Deer Park

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

A female fallow deer moves through a field of long grass. The deer in this park, whilst still being wild were used to people, allowing me to get close enough to only use a 100mm lens. Most wildlife photography seems to be taken with massively long lenses (300 mm minimum), so it felt good to get a decent shot without having to resort to that. Of course, this was largely dependent on the deer being semi-tame, so maybe it wasn’t that clever! I post-processed this shot with Nik Color Efex Pro. It helped that I was able to visualise exactly what image I wanted from this software when I took the picture, which made it actually quite a straightforward and easy shot to process.

13 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

Natural Landscapes/Trees/Wildlife

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06

May

Snow Tree

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

A lone tree sits in a snow covered field at sunset. The way the evening light reflects off the individual branches really makes this photograph for me. It was a cold wait to get this photo. It’s strange that you always seem to forget about the cold in your fingers and toes as soon as a beautiful scene unfolds in front of you though!

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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04

May

Snowy

Sunset behind a field of snow

by Tim Daniels - lapseoftheshutter.com

Just after the sun has set. I wanted the branches of this tree to fill the top of the frame, as though they were so full of energy from the beautiful sunset that they wanted to escape.

Taking this picture involved quite a trek through a snowy field, sinking up to knee deep in snow. I was actually intending to take another, wider photo involving this tree in the landscape, but when I got into position I found it wasn’t quite what I had hoped. Luckily, moving in closer secured a decent shot.

13 years ago Short URL Comments

Natural Landscapes/Trees

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