Still life with a triangle base at the bottom.

Pattern of dusty wine bottles in a wine rack. the background is an old painted stone wall. The lighting was a white balance craft lamp above and to the lseft with a reflector lower right.

Still life with triangle base at the top. Indian cookery book with five spice jars from the kitchen.

Three folk making a triangular composition. Thanks to Gary, Eric and Ian for posing for this on the old tractor at the Butcher's Inn Nercwys. As well as the implied triangle of the three heads there are subsiduary triangles formed by the lines of the tractor.

So a start with a real triangle. This picture taken from a canal boat on the Shropshire Union Canal as it passed under a motorway bridge in Ellesmere Port. the Shadows of the bridge railings were casting strong diagonal shadows on the concrete walls. The image has been processed to bring out the strong triangular pattern and also the texture of the concrete retaining wall.

In addition this picture of the lines of a roof of a factory is added as a contrast.

Triangle made by the roof line and gutter contrasts with the strong horizontal lines in the rest of the picture.

Before these two were taken the first triangle image taken was as below of the foxglove growing over the five barred gate. The image has been framed to exagerate the triangles formed by the bars of the gate and the diagonal of the flower spike.

Triangles from perspective these two were taken with the lens at 24mm. I was glad not to be spotted taking the first one of the church tower as I lay on the ground at the edge of the graveyard. the image has been straightened and cropped in post production.

Ilike the additional oblique triangle formed by the wall and roofline on the right hand side of he image. Pity about the blank sky. this will be worth redoing with a better sky.

the inverted triangle is of a small monument in the churchyard let with the evening sun. In addition to the inverted perspective there are multiple smaller triangles formed by the top of the monument. There realy is nothing straight here!.

Two pictures for this exercise the first a funpicture taken on a camera club outing has the eye line from the one photographer to the other. In addition there is an extended implied line joing the three heads in the image.

The second creates extended lines of the fire escapes leading to the wheelie bin standing against the wall. This is one of a series of wheelie bins in various locations that now is in its own collection on this web site.

I have been away from doing much photography for the last month. That was until this Monday when I had a studio shoot for a neighbour. A family group and some pictures of a couple with a new born child, very appropriate at Christmas!

This was a powerful reminder for me as to how limited my skills are in using studio lighting and how rusty I am at that sort of work. The Sitting room was converted in to a studio with a big white backdrop lit from the sides by a couple of softbaxes and then the folk were lit by a single big box alongside the camera. Plenty of light and the clients are happy with the results phew!

Back to course work now ASAP

D

Another grey day with occasional drizzle and getting progressively colder. As is usual I walked down to the village wih my favourite detour through the churchyard and also a visit to the church. At first with the hedges looking straggly and the light flat there did not appear to be many images with strong curves however the following all come from this morning's walk.

As in the previous exercise I tried to limit how many times I pressed the shutter these 6 images are from a total of 12 exposures. They were all taken with the 5D and 24-105 lens.

The first of the medieval church roof with the curve linking the two angels.

The second a detail of the North wall of the church, St Mary's is a typical dual aisle Welsh church..

A leaning tomb stone circled by the rough curve of the tree. Underexposed and then converted to monochrome to create the bleak effect.

Pumpkin on a circular table, I had to move about a fair bit to get a composition that looked interesting. The flat lighting helped here to give the soft orange tones and gentle modelling on the pumpkin.

Gate alongside the village hall. Tried to exaggerate the shape of the gate and also have the curve of the garden edge in the upper left corner as a counterpoint.

The slim branch of the apple tree weighed down with fruit . The picture has been treated with a preset in Lightrrom so the curve of ethe vignette mirrors the curve of the branch.

After a week of rain and grey light that was very flat with poor shapes today is bright and clear with a low sun giving great modelling.

For this exercise the traditional walk down to the village provided the images (I am deliberately trying to use a very limited area for taking these exercise pictures so I have to look harder at what is very familiar. On one occasion a passer by commented that there weren't any good pictures to be had!)

This time I tried to limit how many times the shutter was pressed in the end I came back having made 9 exposures for this exercise. There were three others of some orange berries that had caught my eye earlier in the week.

All were taken at different focal lenghts using the 24-105 on the 5D

The first taken at 85mm road, with shadow and diagonal bands of grass and wood contrasting with the vertical paling of the fence. I like the tonal transition in the series of diagonal bands of colour. At the time of taking I was not aware of the strong blues in the shadows as the wet tamac picked up the blue of he sky

The second was taken at 24mm of the lych gate and a chesnut in the church yard. There are two strong diagonals the first along the roof of the gate leading along the edge of the trees foliage and the second up the main trunk of the tree creating a triangular composition. I particularly like the way that the leaning grave stones mirror the angle of the trunk of the tree.

The third picture of the old smithy taken at 84mm. A series of diagonal made up from the roof and the external staircase and railings.

The fourth of a terrace of houses in the centre of the village a very contrasty picture with the diagoanls adding to the recession from the white of the nearest house to the dark shadows in the background. (Picture taken at 73mm).

After a long break I am trying to get back in to the course work. I am reminded that the course is much more challenging than I at first thought.

So on to the 8 images in this exercise.

As with most they have all been taken within a short distance of home. The camera used was my 5D with 24-105 lens. My sense is that I have been too literal in the interpretation of the task. All were taken on Sunday morning 7th November 2010.

Vertical 1.

Whips growing from a hedge provide a strong vertical movement against the triangular shape of the trees in the background. The image has been processed so as to enhance the contrast in the shapes and movement in the image.

Horizontal 1.

In this what caught my attention was the horizontal striations in the concrete drive. This is in counterpoint with the twigs and leaves which provide a series of points linking in an implied triangular composition.

Vertical 2.

The old barns in the village are an endless challenge to find a way to photograph them apart from anything else it is difficult to get the camera lined up the way I want. In this the old ventilation slots with the dark interior provide a pattern of vertical lines against the stome work. In addition they have something of a point composition implying again triangular movement in the picture.

Vertical 3.

The vertical lines of the gates lead the eye through to the vertical divisions of the church window. In addition there is strong horizontal of the boundary of the stone of the church wall with the grass. Because of the angle of the photo this is not completely horizontal. This is a picture I want to go back to it needs to be taken from further back and then cropped to nearly a square shape so as not to cut off parts of the gates but at the same time to concentrate the eye on the church window. I also need to think about depth of field more I think it would be better if the gates were as sharp as the church or alternatively the gates could be sharp and the church blurred so as to just suggest the shapes of the window.

Horizontal 2.

Rather obvious to cut up the frame with the bars of the scaffolding forming the footbridge (in place whilst the road bridge over the river is rebuilt) In addition the is a contrast with the verical and leaning trees. I am not happy with this as the way the running water flows through the picture doesn't work for me.

Horizontal 3.

Oh dear how literal almost two pictures the radiator of the truck and then the verticals of the roll cage and the trees in the background. I quite like the tension between the two. The strong horizontal lines and bright yellow of the truck hold the picture more than I at first thought.

Horizontal 4.

Hmm. Not certain of this one at all. Too literal or not strong enough to give a sense of he strength of the caterpillar tracks of this digger. Another problem was selecting what was horizontal. Oh well I need to think about this one some more.

Vertical 4.

This picture of trees looking up through them I think fails becaue they are not growing from the ground. There is a strong need for some sense of a horizontal here to provide a reference. As it is the pattern of the branches and leaves is not strong enough to stand on its own for me.

David 7th November 2010

The images for this section are on the OCA TAOP gallery. Very much a first attempt and it really needs to be rethought and reworked. The materials were floor carpet as background and some rather damaged small apples and poorish walnuts. The lighting was from a window plus some sheets of card and paper as reflector. The GF1 was used as it has live view which I find is much easier to use than the SLR view finder. For the sake of practive I will use the latter for the next try.

The attempt was to balance the two types of fruit in the composition and gradually develop a curve with the walnuts passing through the apples. My sense is tht the result is much too loose and unfocused. For the next attempt will try to bring the elements closer together. Also need to light the setup better and more evenly.

David

Just to show the sort of struggle here are two pictures from the first attempts at this exercise.

The first of the silage bale. Taken with the 5D and 70-200 lens, processed in Lightroom 3.2. There is a slight crop to remove a distracting highlight top right. The top and bottom of the picture has been burnt in as has the central dark V of foliage.

The second picture of our garden hut which does now lean at a crazy angle. It was not levelled properly when it was put there and now rabbits have dug underneath it. Taken again with the 5D with a 17-40 lens at 17 mm The hut has been dodged and the roller and riding school surface on the left have been burnt in as they were otherwise far too bright.

I have started to work o the next section of hte course. At first trawled through my own catalogue of pictures. An interesting exeercise that showed me why my first attempts at the set exercises were so very difficult. I generally have not taken photographs that would isolate a single point in the frame.

First attempts some rather ugly pictures of big bale silage left after our field had been cut. The second attempt taken of our old hut showed me why I am failing. I simply do not look carefully enough at what else is distracitng in the frame. The first image was OK with the hut very central but as I shifted it to other points in the frame other elements in the picture started to dominate. Very striking how it was possible to be preoccupied with what I wanted to see rather than what the camera was seeing.

For example a very bright roller and new surface next door came in to play at the edge of the frame and also some trees in the hedge became stronger points in the image than the hut itself. Conversion to monochrome did not help!