Big Ben!

Work took me to Westminster today for a teaching conference so of course I seized the opportunity and packed my camera! Last week when I was shopping in London with my wife I took a few shots and felt that the composition was lacking a clear subject, shots were busy and the focus was blurry so these were the things I set out to address today. I also seem to have a bit of a 'thing' for long exposures at the moment and so, of all the hundreds of shots I took, this location opposite big ben satisfied that end the most. As always, I invite friendly CC...

ISO100, F22, 13 seconds, 18-55mm kit lens.

Dead bird in the attic!

London #1

Two new(ish) subjects...

I popped out for a quick shot of Herne Windmill tonight as it is close to home and could make a fascinating subject for another start trail photo. The trouble I had tonight however is getting a full view which isn't obscured by housing, cars, streetlights etc. Another issue is the structure itself being lit. There are times I have noticed that the lights have been off but I don't yet know if this can be predicted and what the chances are of this coinciding with a clear starry night!

I also took a few quick snaps of the moon - a first for me using my 55-300mm lens. Again, the focus is slightly soft. I don't know how much of this is down to the lens and how much to my lack of skill. Time will tell I guess...

New edit on Reculver Towers

Following the last post I have been reflecting on the difference in clarity of the towers in the first shot in the 170 strong sequence of long exposures required to produce the star trail, and the last. This is of course due to the perceived movement of the moon and the light it reflects.

Here I have reversed the order of shots so that the resulting photograph finishes on a well-lit shot of the towers. Even though the stars are trailing the wrong way (based on the movement of the Earth) I prefer it as an image. What are your thoughts?

One step closer...

Finally a clear night with plenty of stars out! Unfortunately the nature of shooting night shots is staying up past my bed time editing so I may add a second post if I find any noteworthy shots when I look over these again at a more reasonable hour!
However, 170 long exposures on one composition and a few other random snaps made for a fun evening with some pleasing results. Looking at the star trail photo, it would seem the shot may benefit from even more exposures in order to complete each arc, though it is an interesting effect as it is. Either way, every time I leave the house with my camera I feel like I am learning and making progress and at the very least enjoying the experience.

Goodbye clear skies?

It was a clear starry night when I left the house so I set off hoping it would be 'third time lucky' at Reculver and I might just get a good light trail shot of the towers. On arrival there was some cloud around the towers so I took a series of shots facing the ruined wall but ran out of space on my SD card! The resulting shots were nothing new and not worth exhibiting though I am pleased to be developing more consistency and control.

I deleted one shot and took this before I left. This is straight off the camera after conversion to jpeg.

Reculver take 2!

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I went back to Reculver tonight to try and improve on yesterdays somewhat disappointing shoot.

This time I made sure I took some gloves and made sure my tripod, being a flimsy cheap one at the moment, was driven deep into the ground to eliminate wobble. Some friends on Facebook had recommended sticking to a lower ISO but using longer shots and so ISO 400 with 25 second exposers at f3.5 was applied following some test shots on a short exposure with flash to ensure the subject was in focus.

I had spent some time at home making myself familiar with the cameras intervalometer function so I could set it to shoot a series of long exposures continuously. At the bottom you will see I have attempted a star trail and also have compiled some shots into a timelapse video. I can see lots wrong with these, including some movement of the tripod [still!] but for a first attempt think they are pretty cool!

As always, I am here to learn to please do comment if you can be helpful. Equally, if you want to ask anything of me, I am always happy to try to help.

Herne Mill and Reculver Towers by night - take 1

Tonight offering the first clear sky in a long time I decided to get outside after dark and try to capture some local landmarks surrounded by stars.

First stop was Herne Mill which is very close to home. I took a few shots here and was relatively pleased with the results but even on the review screen noticed interference from the numerous street lamps. So I swiftly jumped in the car and headed to Reculver to try and shoot the iconic towers there.

I did a few test shots looking over the water to try and get the stars in focus. Can anyone tell me what the dotted lines are across the sky? I couldn't take a shot in this direction without them appearing in various positions in the shot. You can also see them in the windmill shot above...

Unfortunately, the towers were lit from this angle. I tried taking the same shot with two different exposures in the hope of stitching them together once home. I have found that without further research and perhaps better software (I only currently have Apple's 'Photos' and 'Gimp') that this is beyond my capabilities.

I spent some time on the other side of the towers and composed some truly beautiful shots. I am gutted that once on the screen at home they all turned out to be useless due to tripod wobble. The wind was strong and bitterly cold so I tucked myself round the back of a ruined wall and tried some shots looking almost directly up at the sky with the ISO whacked up to 3200. These are perhaps the most successful of the evening, if not a little noisy.

I would welcome any comments, constructive criticism or helpful hints!

Self Portrait #1 - Changes

First steps.

Welcome to my new blog 'Quickening Ray Photography'. To some who know me I am a musician, to others a secondary school teacher and to many of my friends, I am a keen fisherman. Photography is a relatively new pursuit for me but encompasses something of the essence of each of my other identities - creativity, a desire to learn and to share knowledge and a love of nature. 

The course this blog might take is unknown to me and therein lies excitement. My primary goal in most of my endeavours is self expression but it seems that very often technical proficiency is an obstacle initially but ultimately a valuable tool once overcome. To that end, some technical matters will be discussed but hopefully always with a creative goal in sight.

So let's start at the beginning! I have in my armoury a Nikon D5000 body with 18-55mm kit lens. I have since purchased a 35mm f1.8 prime for portraits and a 55-300mm lens in order to try and capture some wildlife whilst out walking and fishing.

Today I went out to the Herne Bay Memorial Gardens where I had heard a Mandarin Duck had settled. I was glad of the ability to zoom a reasonable distance though this did compromise the clarity of the focus somewhat. Nonetheless, a very attractive subject to shoot!

Over the Christmas holiday I met up with my niece, Catt Baker. She does a fantastic routine with a fire hoop and LED hoop which she allowed me to photograph. 1 second exposures were long enough to get some colourful light trails without the image blurring too much. It has since been suggested to me that a short, bright flash at the and of the exposure would allow the subject to be seen clearly as a frozen image without the motion-blur my images currently suffer from. I will be sure to try this at the next opportunity...

Finally, here are two slightly older images I am proud of. Both are long exposure shots taken at night whilst fishing on Fordwich Lake. The first was taken on my old camera, a Sony bridge which, even though allowed a similar level of control in manual mode to a standard DSLR, seemed to add some of its own colouration to the image. It was a bit of a shock when first attempting a similar shot in the final image on my Nikon DSLR when the picture looked very neutral in comparison. The effect achieved in this shot was a result of experimenting with white balance.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief introductory piece. Please do leave comments below - constructive criticism is very welcome indeed. Until the next instalment, thanks for reading!