Around the garden..

just a quick post of some flowers from around the garden. I was out there yesterday afternoon having a play with the camera and these are what I’ve come up with..nothing too special as some of them are beginning to go over but they’re pretty flowers and it good to have some colour.

It’s a long holiday weekend here in the UK and whilst the weather has been good today the forecast isn’t too bright for the rest of the weekend. I had hoped that maybe on Monday we would get out and about to do some photography but it’s not looking too promising but check back you never know..

Today has been the Scott Kelby worldwide Photo walk whereby photographers from around the world could sign up to join in a walk taking part in a city/town near to them. Unfortunately the ones closest to me London and Cambridge were fully booked. However I do know our friend Fiona has taken part in the one in Cape Town so I’m sure she’ll have some great photo’s to show us.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend have a great time and stay safe.

See you again soon

Beverley

Visit to the Zoo!!

ok I know it wasn’t my 4th birthday on Tuesday, well ok we have to add 60 on to that but hey if a child of 4 says it would like to go to the Zoo why can’t a ‘grown lady’ of 64 say she would like to go to the Zoo. So much to the amazement of my dear husband that was my requested day out for my birthday treat – a visit to Colchester Zoo. Well we did also go out for a nice lunch and there were all the usual birthdays treats at home with lots of pressies…

I last went to this Zoo about 30years ago and at the time it was a very sad place but now I’m pleased to say it is a lovely place to visit although I still continue to have issues with animals that are kept under restricted conditions and not out in the wild roaming free. We got to the Zoo at opening time in the hope that I would be able to get some photo’s without crowds of people around me! Of course taking photo’s at a Zoo is never going to be easy as there will always be the problem of people, a fence or some type of boarding in the background which didn’t really help with the composition.

So what I have done with my photo’s which I am reasonably pleased with is to crop them in tightly and thereby get rid of any background fences, boarding or people!! Having said about composition of photo’s it is an area that I need to pay more attention to. I’m still at the stage where if I see something that I really must have the photo of then I quickly keep clicking the shutter button whereas what I should be doing is to quickly take the one shot so that the capture is caught and then step back and from that point on consider the composition, ie angle, zooming in just to the head, trying to look down or look straight up at the subject…ok you can tell I’m reading my course notes!! Putting this into action isn’t coming naturally at the moment so I’m going to pay particular attention to this aspect when I next go out with the camera!!

So here are the cropped close-up photo’s from my day out at the Zoo..


When I look at these photo’s together they all seem to have an ‘organgy’ look to them but that was the colour of the earth. I think it must be caused by the various elements maybe straw and bark that they spread on the ground for the animals which helps with the mud etc that would be there from our rainy seasons. There were of course many more photo’s and they will one day get loaded into my photo albums – when who ever it is that hands out ‘Time’ gives me some more hours in a day!!

Thanks for visiting and I’ll see you soon.

Beverley

Something a little brighter…

than my last post of photo’s that I wasn’t happy with. This last week I’m working my way through an online course that I’ve downloaded and trying to concentrate on a few things. Anyway during the course of ‘playing’ I’ve been busy taking pics around the garden..now all these are ‘square-ish photo’s but that’s the way I wanted them to look at the end, so some cropping and a little curves in photoshop and in just a couple a tadge sharpening but otherwise as taken. Al least they look brighter.

I’m due to do the walk again this coming week on Thursday and Lois has asked me to be the back of the walkers to keep an eye on any stragglers and of course to make sure we don’t lose anyone by them taking the wrong path. I’ll have my camera with my again and who knows this time we just might have some bright sunny weather!! If I get any better photo’s I’ll post for you.

One of the other things I’ve been doing during the last couple of days is ringing around the country trying to find somewhere where I could get lens hoods for 3 of my lenses – did you know there’s a shortage of Canon Lens hoods in the UK, well there is. I have however traced one down for my 75-300mm lens and hopefully it should arrive early next week. The one for my 50mm lens, well hopefully one will arrive in the UK at some point and I’ll be the first to know about it. I’ve still got to get one for my macro but I think I’ll wait on…money doesn’t grow on trees!!

So here are some brighter photo’s for you:

and the last one was a quick one I took yesterday before some of them were eaten..yes I’ve grown them myself and they taste delicious!! now I feel better as my blog looks brighter again..see you soon and thanks for visiting.

Beverley

Short Walk…

At the Ladies Probus Group I belong to, besides having super lunches, great speakers and various outings we now have organised walks. Lois our secretary has very kindly arranged for some short local walks once a month in and around the Essex area and thoughtfully has chosen that they all begin and end at a ‘pub’!!

Starting at a pub not only allows for parking but it also means at the end of our walk what better than to be able to sit and relax enjoying a glass of ‘whatever’ and a light lunch!

Prior to the actual day of the walk Lois likes to do the walk herself to check it out for the route and suitability for the members. So in readiness for the next one my DH and I went along with Lois to do the walk.

Here are a few photo’s I took as we went along, it wasn’t the best of weather and hence the reason for the sky looking very washed out. We did have a little light rain at one point but in between the sun peeped out but not long enough for me to capture any blue. It’s not a long walk, took us about an hour but through some very nice countryside, across a field belonging to a local Mansion, which I won’t give details of as it is privately owned, down through the woods and back up through a nice pathway to the main road and then a few quick steps back to the pub The Bell this is the only picture I can find on the net. Silly me I didn’t think to take one myself! The Pub hasn’t changed since this was painted all those years ago…thank goodness somethings in life stay the same!

So here are the photo’s taken including one of the back view of our leader Lois:

Just a quick note on my photography..yes I’m going through yet another ‘bad’ patch at the moment whether it’s me being over critical of my work I’m not sure but of late I’ve seen a lot of ‘noise’ on my photo’s so I’m playing around with different settings and then checking the photo’s out on the PC..lots of deletions!!

The flower at the start of this post is a good example of something else I’ve got to address. I spent so much time concentrating on the composition and just didn’t see the little bug crawling

around in the flower!!

Thanks for dropping by, I’ll see you again soon but in the meantime stay safe and sound!

Beverley

Fun weekend..

the weekend just gone by. We had a friend Paul to come and stay with us. Some of you will already know Paul from PFAF or through his site http://www.20years.net/ where you’ll see some great photo’s from his travels around the world.

Well of course I was going to take advantage of having Paul here for some photography tips and also I wanted to pick his ‘brain, yes he does have one!, regarding a couple of things re my own web site. Needless to say my DH and Paul also spent some time talking about computers and their mutual ‘love’ of certain programs that they both have on their PC’s.

So what did I learn in between all the chatting, taking Paul on a visit around our area and of course eating and having the odd drink or two!! One thing I did notice was the number of shots Paul would take of the same subject matter. He knows his camera so well that he is changing the settings so quickly in between clicking the button for the shot. He would take at least 6 shots whilst I was still thinking about taking one or two. So that is something I must practice and I must also get more familiar with my camera that I don’t need to keep looking down and checking where to change the settings.

I’m posting just a few photo’s taken this weekend as I have a busy week ahead for me but I’ll be back soon with some more photo’s which I’m sure I’ll find time to take in between playing Golf, Probus Lunch, and some shopping!!

Now I know they’re not going to be happy with me for doing this but so what!!…this is what I had to put up with for the weekend..do they look bored I ask you!!….well actually I think they were in deep conversation about putting the world to right or if not, that then something to do with computers!!

Thanks for visiting and I’ll see you again soon..in the meantime stay safe!

Beverley