Posts in Category: England
Another England
I have been playing with Snapseed on Nexus 7 v2 these past few days, and seeing the potential with some recent Smart Camera HDRs, I had to go back and reprocess a few of my pics from England. This one is from the grounds of the Gretham Valley Golf Club and Conference Center where we stay while working the British Bird Fair. Who could resist the purple weed in front of the pond under that English sky? I could not 🙂
Rich Tone mode on the Samsung WB250F. Processed with Ambiance, a touch of Saturation, Sharpness and Structure in Snapseed. Snapseed really does an excellent job of picking up an HDR without producing halo at the light/dark boundaries.
England in any weather: Happy Sunday!
We have had every kind of summer weather England has to offer at Rutland Water in the past 3 days. In fact most days we have had them all in a single day 🙂 This is a sweep pano showing the little cove where the optics tent (on the left, I am here for the British Birding Fair) is located, around to the Anglican Water Bird Center on the right. It is typical English weather. About to rain or just finished raining.
Still this is a view that has a lot to interest in any weather.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Sweep panorama mode. Processed on the Google Nexus 7 in PicSay Pro.
And for the Sunday thought. I know how blessed I am to be here in England to experience the beauty of these days at Rutland Water. And this, my birthday week, I realize how blessed I am to be here on Earth to experience the beauty of this life. I am not sure I give enough back, but I am sure this is part of what I have to give: these images and these musings.
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly: England
While there are many more Peacock Butterflies flying than I have seen on any previous visit to the UK, they are not the only butterflies visiting the flowers at Rutland Water. This is a Small Tortioseshell Butterfly, easily lost in the flight of Peacocks but worth more than a glance when spotted.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Program mode. Macro focus. -1/3EV exposure compensation. About 600mm equivalent. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Nexus 7.
A Bit Of England
Not exactly England in its native state as this is the very managed landscape of a golf resort, but the sky at least is all England. 🙂 And who can resist an upturned boat in such a display?
This is a vertical sweep panorama from the Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. A normal 24mm shot would end about halfway up the tree at the right on the skyline. I certainly do enjoy the options sweep panorama brings!
Processed in PicSay Pro and Photo Editor on the 2013 Nexus 7.
English Peacock
I am always delighted to get to England while the Peacock butterflies are flying, and they are flying in great numbers among the flowers at Rutland Water this year.
This is a shot from outside the Optics Marquee at the British Bird Fair, taken with the Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Processed in PicSay Pro on the 2013 Nexus 7.
9/8/2011: Once Upon an English Golf Course
We will pop back to England, and my recent visit there, for today. Mallards in the early morning sun on one of the many ponds along the heavily designed water course that passes through Greetham Valley Golf Course were we stay while I am at the British Bird Fair. Mostly I really like the reflections of the greenery around the pond. This is a long zoom shot to isolate the birds. And it is cropped slightly for composition.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/2/2011: Bugs on Stone, Rutland Water UK
In my one all too short walk around to the far side of the Visitor Center lagoon at Rutland Water, I found that the stone of the path seemed to attract a lot of bug life. They were not particularly cooperative. I suspect that the path carried the vibration of my foot falls well ahead of me, and the bugs were up and away while I was still out of zoom range. Eventually I caught on, and stood and waited just out of reach until the bugs rose and settled closer to me. The waiting game.
We have here, if you take the word of a novice at bugs in general and certainly a tourist among British bugs (not a good idea), a Gatekeeper, a Common Blue Damselfly, a Common Darter, and a Speckled Wood. Each image is linked to a larger version on Wide Eyed In Wonder.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode, with the default zoom setting overridden. 1) 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 2) 810mm, f5.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 3) the same. 4) 538mm, f5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. All but 3) cropped for scale.
8/29/2011: The Bee and the Bokeh
What makes this image interesting to me, beyond the fact that I like bees and flowers, is the bokeh. I especially like the receding diagonals of the brown stems, and the way they create kind of ceiling for the frame, and the well out of focus flower head in the lower left corner that echoes the slope of the daisies. Even the two strands of barbed wire turn to eye-leading graphical elements rather than distractions when defocused as much as they are. And I love the contrast between the smooth background and the wedge of well focused yellow and green that fills the right of the frame. I wish I could say I carefully planned the shot that way, but honestly, I was attempting to catch and frame the feeding bee, and the rest of it just fell into place…with a bit of a compositional crop from the right to get the bee off the static center of the frame.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 538mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Close Up mode.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Cropped from the right for composition.
8/28/2011: Feather
Happy Sunday.
I am not sure what happened, but along the trail at Rutland Water I came upon a quantity of loose scattered feathers, like this pure white one, caught well above waist height in the dead foliage of a bush. I passed it by, but had to stop and return. The contrast in color and texture, the bold clean white curves against the clutter of background, was just too tempting.
It is a tricky exposure problem. Heavy recovery was needed in Lightroom to bring up the texture of the feather.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 32mm equivalent field of view, f3.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. Close Up mode.
Processed for Clarity, Sharpness, and highlights in Lightroom.
And for the Sunday thought…well it is a very simple image, after all, to hang any great spiritual truth on. There is the thought of the passing of whatever passed along the trail, supper for fox or Great Black-backed Gull, that left the scatter of feathers to catch our eye…bitter sweet. Or we might think of the wind that picked this feather up and hung it in the bush like an ornament, which would lead to our capacity, our propensity, to see it so…and to a kinship with who breaths the wind. But mostly it is a matter of being arrested, stopped, brought to witness, by the simplicity of a white feather caught in a bush. And, on a Sunday, or any other day, that just might be enough to be going on with.
8/27/2011: Another Mood of Rutland Water
Rutland Water is one of those places I could photograph over and over again…which is fortunate since this is the view out my window (so to speak) for 3 days every August. I have already posted two different moods of this view. This is yet another, and about as different as different can be. From the final day of the British Birding Fair with lots of weather drama in the sky.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160. Programed auto with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity, Sharpness, Intensity and color temperature. Cropped slightly at the top for composition and to eliminate some brunt out clouds.