Lee Orchard Photography

Last night is snowed!

This morning there was still some snow in the garden.

As I was having breakfast I saw a bird flitting around in the garden, so I decided to put some bird feed out.

I got about a metre from the bird table when I Robin landed on it. i froze! It stopped and looked at me enquiringly. I managed to throw a little bird seed on the ground, it jumped down a eat some. I managed to crouch down while it was still feeding. It was only about a foot in front of me.

Then it flew off.

I put some food on the bird table and went backing wishing I’d had my camera, so I dashed up stairs changed the lenses and went back outside. About a minute later the Robin was back!

After trying to get a Robin in snow for years, it seems this time I have succeeded a couple of times!

Last Sunday we had planned to go to Winkworth Arboretum with the Nokia Camera Club. This arboretum is one of the best places in the South East of England to visit for Autumn colours. I normally end up visiting a couple of times in the autumn and once of twice in spring.

So we watched the weather forecast eagerly all week. Rain was predicated! It was meant to clear by 1pm, so we were hopeful for some sunny photos!

We all met up in the arboretum car park and 11am, in the rain!

On entering the arboretum, a person approached us who worked there and noticing all our cameras suggested we head off in one particular direction to see a large red acer tree. It was actually the direction we were going to go, but it was good to know we had the right idea, and it we were not to early for the colours!

It continued raining!

So I thought it would be ideal for HDR images (High Dynamic Range). These images consist of taking an under exposed image, correctly exposed and over exposed, and then combining the using special software which then brings out the details in the highlights and lowerlights, in other words areas of the photos that might normally be lost.

I tried this with a few images and a couple of the views. These are a couple of the results.

It still continued to rain.

It was a really enjoyable and wet day, but we got some good photos.

Now, I like to add, that I have always said I don’t like to modify my photos. This still stands. I don’t clone out bits and add bits in, but I do change the brightness and contrast where necessary. HDR is a similar thing. Its using the 3 or 5 (even up to 9) images of differing exposure and combining them together. So the photo isn’t really being modified like cloning, but enhancing the depths and highlights of the image to be more like you see with your eyes. Some HDRs can be over done, but I’d like to think that mine are subtle enough that you might not be able to tell.

You will see more and more HDR added to my website, but they well be labeled. See what you think!

Where does time go? Its the weekend yet again! This weekend is going to be a bit more relaxing, at home tomorrow then out with the camera club on Sunday.

Time really does seem to fly. I’ve been reading over some of my old entries in my blog, good and sad, happy and stressful times, but when reading them, they all seem like yesterday.

Where has the year gone too? Its nearly November and thats nearly a year since I first meeting my girlfriend at the Christmas craft fair and in a months time, i’ll be preparing for that fair again!

As you get older time just seems to get faster and faster. It also gets faster when you are busy and also enjoying yourself, so thats why the year has flown by!

Have a good weekend!

Saturday was interesting.

We were invited to help out some friends with a photo shoot. The event was a royal regency ball.

Our friends were taking portraits and had a studio setup there, while we did all the event at different stages, like the guards outside, the meet and greet, and the dancing.  I was a busy evening, taking photos for pretty much 6 hours!

Its meant that we got to see the event as it happened where sadly our friends were in one room taking the studio photos all evening.

Taking photos of people dancing proved quite interesting, as people were moving around so fast.

Despite being apprehensive about the shoot and getting all the correct shots, it went really well and I enjoyed it!