Sign of Early Spring

Not surprisingly with the mild weather so far this winter, the hazels are already in full flower with the male catkins and the small female flowers. Image 2 is an in-camera focus stack. All our fields around Toft are waterlogged at the moment and the paths very muddy!!

Brightlingsea 2

Once the sun was above the horizon, I changed to my 100-400 lens to capture th boats, beachhuts and birds in the early light. 

 

 

 

Dawn at Brightlingsea

After an enjoyable day on Sunday selecting Ipswich PS Exhibition (thanks  for the hospitality David and Lynda), I decided on a dawn visit to Brightlingsea to let the traffic die down before returning home yesterday morning. Fortunately, the forecast wind and rain stayed away. The moon still gave enough light to illuminate the water and beach before the dawn light took over. I always enjoy the transitition from the blue light to warmer shades as the sun rises. Testing out using my very light 28mm pancake lens for landscape etc to see if ok for a family holiday at the end of the month. I did miss my wider 10-24mm lens so it may be that something else has to left behind!!

Processing Variations

I often find it difficult to choose what exposure to use for an image and then how to process it so I have been reviewing a set if images that I liked to decide how to process and print them. I bracketed three RAW exposures originally but (as almost always) it was the middle exposure (i.e. that chosen by my Fuji) that gave the widest tonal range when processed even though the highlights were flagged as overexposed on my camera screen - far left image. Then two colour and two monochrome conversions - needless to say still not sure on my preferred.

Lunar Eclipse and Wolf Moon

I am sure there will be plenty of images of tonight's spectacular full moon. It coincided with a  penumbral lunar eclipse, which happens when the sun, moon and earth are perfectly aligned. The Earth's outer shadow fell on the moon and made it look a bit darker than normal. The January full moon is called a Wolf moon. 

Paxton Pits on Dull Day

Unfortunately the light was pretty poor for my visit to Paxton Pits on Wednesday, so with an ISO of around 2500 the images lack quality but I was pleased with the Woodpecker flight shots (taken with Preshots on the Fuji).

Hunstanton - Final Images

Just four images to complete the set from our 2 days in Hunstanton and Titchwell - colours of the beaches through the day

Titchwell - Sharing the Beach

A few shots from New Year's Day on Titchwell Beach showing balance of man and birds and the wonderful wide expanses of sand and shells. For those interested in the Olympus Tough that we have acquired, images 3,4 and 5 are taken with it (Raw images).