Water Tower - snow HDR

Water Tower - snow HDR, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

Used HDR toning to draw out the colour of the un-fallen leaves on the trees in the foreground.

It's really unusual to see trees with their autumn leaves still on, covered with a dusting of snow.

Gorge HDR

Gorge HDR, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

Bristol had a dusting of snow on Friday night. So I got up early on Saturday.. Wandered up to the Downs and took some photos. This is a HDR Photo.

HDR? High Dynamic Range. One takes at least 3 bracketed photos, one over-exposed, one under & one about right.

The 3 (or more) are then blended together. I have used this technique to draw out the colour of the un-fallen leaves.

I can not remember the last time it snowed in November. Hoping it is a sign of a proper winter ahead.

Depth of field and f/stops

As promised a while ago, a series of photos showing depth of field and visually explaining f/stops.

For the following photographs I used a Sony a550 DSLR with Sony's 100mm macro lens (SAL100M28).

I kept the same point in focus for all the shots.

1) f/2.8 most narrow depth of field and highest shutter speed.

2) f/4.5

3) f8

4) f/16

5) f/25

6) f/32 widest depth of field and lowest shutter speed.

Keep an eye out for coffee & tea related photos

eye like coffee, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

"eye like coffee" is the 2nd photo in a series of coffee & tea related photos, in order to submit to a local exhibition.

There will be more of these to follow.

I don't know what this says about me, but this was my 2nd idea.

Paddington Station

Paddington Station, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

I was on my way from one meeting to another.. the 2nd being in Paddington Basin. As I was walking out, I turned & saw a photograph. I always have a compact camera in my pocket, so here is my panorama..

The sweep panorama feature on my Sony TX5 cybershot camera is great. One can shoot in landscape mode and get 270 degrees or, as this picture is, in portrait mode.

Would you like a slice with that?

mine, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

Herring gull swooped down & took the bread before the black headed gull (in the foreground) had a chance to get to it. These birds are often referred to as "seagulls", however I'm fairly sure that there is no such animal as a seagull.

These birds get a really bad press, they're another of the birds I really like & almost everyone else seems to hate.

They're fantastic fliers & are opportunists - thus their bad reputation for stealing icecreams from tourists & such-like..

They'll eat anything they can get down their necks.

frog, emerging

frog emerging 1, originally uploaded by tmv_media.

Ok, I didn't take this recently, but thought that it might be a good blog subject.

How did I get this shot? I had to lie down in the middle of some mint (next to the pond), avoid being stung by the ants, as they didn't seem overly amused at my antics.

The pond has a few frogs in it & I knew that if I waited for a while one of them would surface.

This one did. It's just a common frog, but I think they're rather cool. Well camoflaged (unless the pond, like mine, is covered in duckweed) and they eat slugs! Every garden should have a pond.

My pond is home to a plethora of species including frogs, toads, 2 sorts of newt, drangonfly & damselfies (& their nymphs), water neetles, pond skaters, etc.