Month: October 2008

Its Snowed

Its Snowed

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!

robin2.jpg

robin1.jpg

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

Winkworth in the Rain

Winkworth in the Rain

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.

winkworth HDR2.jpg

It still continued to rain.

Winkworth Acer.jpg

So when we had finished getting drenched, and trying to protect our camera gear, and as there was sign of the promised sun, we head back up to the top of the arboretum, and went in search of a nice warm pub and food!

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!

Its the Weekend Again!

Its the Weekend Again!

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!

A Photo Shoot with a Difference

A Photo Shoot with a Difference

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!

Holiday Snaps

Holiday Snaps

Ok, as promised, & 1 whole month after returning from holiday 🙁 I have some holiday photos to show.We went to Sicily, and it was hot! We did lots of walking, visiting places and seeing the temples. The area we stayed in though was very busy with cars and a bit stuffy with all the fumes. This made exploring it very difficult, but it was worth it as there was so much to see.

Just outside Palermo there were some lovely small towns with Cathedrals and a couple of picturesque beaches.

Here are a couple of the photos.

I haven’t finished the sicily gallery section yet, so this is just a small selection.

Friendly Search Engines

Friendly Search Engines

Its seems these days that if your not in Google then you are not on the web.  Now my website has been around for over 4 years and is actually in Google, but it seems that you have to be very specific to find it.  IE, search for Lee Orchard Photography and there it is.  Saying that, that should be the case as that is what a search engine is.

Now Yahoo, has always been friendly to my site and has it been like that for quite a while.  It is a lot more willing to return relevant results high up the list.

Ok, this is still quite specific, but its more general than just searching for my name.  If you try searching in Yahoo for example, Spitfire Drink Coasters, then I am there third on the list searching the web not just the UK. In Google, who knows what page!  Back in Yahoo, searching for Tiger Mousemats, third on page 2, thats still good! Barn Owl Mousemats, front page!

So evenone uses Google, I know I do and it even become a word used to search, ie, google it!  But I like Yahoo for searching my site.  If Google returned those results for my site that would be even better!

A Photo Drought

A Photo Drought

I went to the NCC last night, but didn’t have any new photos to show. It seems like ages since I’ve taken any new photos, but I guess that is not strictly true. I took photos on holiday, which is now a month ago and I am just starting to sort through them and put photos on the website. Keep an eye out for them! And only 2 weeks ago we went the the Arundel Wetland centre, although we didn’t see much or take many.

So I guess I have taken a couple of post holiday photos, but just haven’t done anything with them yet. I’ve just been too busy to take new photos and too busy to print the recent ones.

Hopefully we get out soon and take some photos just for us!

Ah, I’ve just remembered I took some on Sunday, but only about 7 images. They were of old rusty drain pipes and doors. I need some Autumn images or some wildlife I think!

An Unexpected Trip

An Unexpected Trip

What another busy weekend.

Saturday we were up at some silly early time to get backed up and head to the Farnham Maltings market. The morning was quite busy before it slumped at lunchtime leaving a quite and slow afternoon.

The new display for the rulers worked well, and people were taking time to look at it and ask to see some of them.  I sold 2 of the new ferrari rulers and one of the new barn owl designs.

Then it was pack up, get home unpack, then jump back into the car for an unexpected trip to the IOW.

Yesterday was spent relaxing, visiting the Butterfly world, where actually I was surprised at the amount of butterflies flying around.  I didn’t expect to see many, but there was a few I hadn’t seen before.  And of course, the big Asian Atlas Moth!

Now I’ve been on the car ferry many many times, and have travelled on the ‘new’ ferry a couple of times too, but this time something unexpected happened.  We got to the ferry at 5:30 for the 6 and found we got on it straight away.  Nothing unusual, but when the person took our ticket, he put a small slip of paper under the windscreen wiper.  Strange I thought, never send that done before.  I expected another attendant to remove it at somepoint, but we drove on to the ferry and up to the second deck, using the narrow side slopes!  Parked up and still the slip was on the screen.  So on getting out the car, I thought I see what the piece of paper said.  I removed it from the screen and read it.  It said “Do not remove this piece of paper”.  Ooh, so I put it back.  At the end of the crossing it was still there so on leaving the ferry I removed it and thought, how strange!

The Ruler Stand

The Ruler Stand

As promised here is the ruler display.

Its not the best of photo unfortunately do to its size and that it was taken last night in the house with no additional lighting, but for this purpose it is good enough.

New Ruler Stand

Hopefully now I can start to review some holiday photos and maybe post some here!