CCC London Trip: Wide-angle Architecture

Monday morning, after the colourful sunrise, was a very grey day - not usually the best for photographing architecture but I was surprised how much colour was present in the buildings along by City Hall - no colour has been added or changed just the saturation/vibrance increased. The images in Southwark Cathedral have the complementary yellow hue from the lighting and are photomerges of 4 images in the two wider views.

 

Epping Forest Workshop

Yesterday's weather was not kind to our RPS Nature Group workshop on Macro and Focus stacking in Epping Forest with very dull conditions all day. I was using my wide angle set up plus an LED light which proved fine when there was a distant background but rather too contrasty for close backgrounds - a lesson learned I hope! With the increased visitor activity since our last RPS visits to the Forest, large fungi were hard to find but there were plenty of small specimens. Many thanks to Duncan and Qasim for their tuition during the day.

Insects and Spiders at Summer Leys

A few more insects and spiders from Monday's trip to Summer Leys starting with mating Blue-tailed Damselflies and Sphaerophoria hoverflies. Other species include the Great Green Bush Cricket, Four-Banded Longhorn Beetle and 14-Spot Ladybird (very small with very long scientific name Propylea quattuordecimpunctata - ok if you know your latin numbers!).

Flowers Using Wide-angle and Long Lenses

Because of the cold conditions last month and early this month followed by warm temperatures, all the spring species are flowering together giving wonderful displays in Cambridgeshire's woodlands - here at Hardwick Wood. I took images with both a long lens (140-560mm) and a wide angle (23mm). Generally I prefer the wide angle shots giving some environment information. The Oxlips are particularly fine this year. For many years it was thought that the oxlip was cowslip/primrose hybrid. In 1842' the botanist Henry Doubleday did some breeding tests, later confirmed by Charles Darwin, that showed it is a separate species.  

12 mm Lens with Close up Filter for Fungi

 Still on my quest for a wide-angle close-up solution, I have managed to attach a close-up filter to my Zeiss 12mm lens and tried some fungi photography in our local Hardwick wood today. Very pleased with the results both wide open at F2.8 (numbers 1 and 8) and other apertures F7.1 (6), F9 (3) F14 (2,4,5,9-11), F16(7)  F22 (12).