Cambridge Christmas Build-Up

Some images from Cambridge Camera Club trip on Sunday and what more appropriate for Christmas in Cambridge than a punt full of Choir members singing carols! We spent the first hour around the Market and King's Parade as the light faded and gradually the sky brightness matches the light below (so called Blue hour). At this time, there is less dynamic range so easier to capture images with even lighting and less harsh shadows, which makes it especially flattering for portraits etc. I was also playing with the Live Composite mode on my Olympus camera which continuously adds anything lighter to the image - usually used on a tripod (very good for water reflections and light trails) but can also be used 'on the move'. Last image not quite what I wanted - need the phone on a tripod as well as the camera but like the way the lighter areas bleed into the phone image.

Planning Shots for Wind Pump Photographs

 The main object of yesterday's landscape day was to use a wide -angle set up with filters to achieve some 'classic' Norfolk views. I used my compact (X100V) as a planning tool to see what compositions might work and what colour and 'information' might be achievable. The X100V has a built-in neutral density filter and also a HDR mode producing a raw file both very useful for this task. I find I can handhold to 1/8th sec. These are raws from the camera at ISO160 with no noise reduction or sharpening.

Bradgate Park RPS Nature Trip

 Yesterday and today were challenging days weatherwise for our visit to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire. Torrential rain in the morning on Sunday gave way to sunny intervals. Unfortunately the wet conditions were too much for my weather-resistant telephoto lens and by afternoon was fogged up inside due to internal condensation. This is a set of images taken with my X100V in the afternoon - a mixture of slow shutterspeed, multiple exposure and HDR.

Dorset 7 Kimmeridge Bay

 A few images from an afternoon visit to Kimmeridge Bay where the tide was coming in fast covering the rock pavement. Taken with ultra HDR mode on the Fuji which allows the full tonal range to be captured accentuating the colours. Last two image, Barry, Debs and Jim in action - some of our party of 12 from Cambridge CC enjoying a week of sunshine in Dorset.

St Tuguals Chapel on Herm Island

HDR of Five Shots 2 stops apart                            Middle Exposure

     

 While on Herm we set 6 tasks to keep us and the other photographers occupied. One of the categories was an interior shot. The first image is taken with the Sony RX100 in-camera HDR mode with 6 stops difference.  The others are 5 bracketed images (2 stops apart) taken on the EOS 5D processed with HDR Effex Pro2. The fourth image is a single exposure shot just to compare with the previous HDR.

St Apolline's Chapel Guernsey

 During our time in Guernsey we visited St Apolline's Chapel, a very small chapel with limited natural lighting and some veyr old wall paintings. This was a chance to shoot bracketed exposures for HDR. I now have HdrEffex Pro2, which has done an excellent job on the five-exposure sets (2 and 4 stops over and under exposed).