Andrex and marmite

You can't polish a turd,as the phrase goes, but you can soften it a little so it's less turd-like.

This isn't intended to be turd-buffing. When I saw the landscape before me with the abandoned crop and the colours of the leaves & branches I knew that there was an image to create, but naturally the original was flat due to the light seeping through the clouds. My preference for creating blur is to use bokeh and movement, but in this case neither was appropriate for this image, so I did what I'd do in the days of film and tweak in processing to make something more like a painting than a photo.

Base image

Full size after adjustment

Cropped 'final' image

Woodland walk at Stowe

I've been having problems getting photos hosted on Flickr to show up here properly, and also trouble with the blogger page layout tools when the images are embedded, hence this post is a week late. Try, try again.

Last Sunday afternoon was bright and sunny with frost remaining in the shadows, so we chose to walk again around the grounds of Stowe House. The woodland walk goes around the outside of the haha, up into the woods past the gothic temple and Lord Cobham's pillar to the Bourbon tower (not shown on the map) and then back down to the lakes and across the Palladian bridge.


The Gothic castle 

The Bourbon tower

Sunset from the Palladian bridge

I also processed some up as mono images

The gothic castle

Locked gates on the way round

All photos with a D610 and either Samyang 85mm f1.4 or Nikkor 28mm f3.5 manual lenses.

A little local tradition - Somerton Wassail

All shot using a Nikon D610 and 50mm f1.8 lens at f2.

Winter in the Cherwell valley

We had some fabulous frost last week, and I managed to slip down to the river and canal for about half an hour. Saw another togger at work (Hi Jo, if you find your way here) and we spent time talking technique & kit. And taking pictures.

Initially the sun was only just coming over the houses by the canal, leaving the sky very bright and slightly hazy, and casting long shadows.

I then walked down a little further to the river, where I encountered Jo, and took a couple more shots across the meadow toward Lock Cottage and the railway line. The light was changing as I walked, getting bluer and clearer as the sun rose higher.

Walking back, I'd wanted to go a bit wider than the 80-200 zoom would allow, so popped on an old 28mm f3.5 Nikkor that let me get 'into' the landscape a little more.

And then finally back over the bridge to head home.

All shot using Nikon D610, ISO 400, manual 80-200 f4.5 lens and manual 28mm f3.5 lens.

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