Photographer
Winchelsea beach, Sussex UK.
Shot using an ND4 grad and processed using Adobe Lightroom.
Managed to pull myself out of bed this morning to go out with my camera, however nothing exciting happened with the weather. I came away with one or two OK pics, this being one. It’s nothing spectacular but I quite like how the water has formed a circular shape in the foreground.
Hoping for something better next time. Thanks for stopping by.
Golden reflection
Filter: Cokin Z Pro ND2 grad. Processed in Lightroom 5.7
Bodiam.
Filter: Cokin Z pro ND2 grad. Processed using Lightroom 5.7
Another view of the iconic Bodiam castle taken from a well trodden viewpoint which I call tripod corner. 🙂 For this shot I used my 10-20mm lens to utilise the trees and grass to help create a natural frame around the main subject.
Flood Reflection.
Filter: Cokin ND4 Grad. Processed using Lightroom 5.7
As the light got brighter I switched from using my ND8 grad to the ND4 and eventually an ND2 (for my castle shot a couple posts back). I always work in manual for my landscape work and so continuous reassessment of light levels is needed to get a good and balanced exposure to ensure the atmosphere of the scene is not lost. It was in this location that I had the most difficulty with frost forming on my filter due to being down a bank with the mist rising from the river. Â As usual, more cloud in the sky would have been nice. It’ll all come together eventually.
Thanks for visiting.
Medieval Morning.
Filter: Cokin Z pro ND2 grad. Processed in Lightroom 5.7.
Looking down the visitors walkway at the wonderful Bodiam castle. I took this a couple of weeks ago on a particularly cold and frosty morning. So cold in fact that frost started to form on my camera and filters!
Tranquility. Looking out across a flooded field at Bodiam, East Sussex.
Cokin ND4 grey grad filter, processed in Lightroom 5.7.
I made a spur of the moment decision today to head out to nearby Bodiam. The sky was clear and there was a heavy frost covering everything, including my car, of which a good 10 minutes was taken up defrosting the windscreen. I arrived after a short but careful drive just in time for first light, I put on my hat, gloves and wellies, grabbed my camera gear and quickly set up to start photographing. Â The light was fairly even but to bring up the foreground grasses (trapped in ice and covered with frost) I decided to put on a ND4 (2 stop) graduated grey filter. ND Grads are an invaluable accessory for any landscape photographer and I really encourage you to invest in a filter system of some kind if you can.
I took a fair amount of similar shots to this, making slight adjustments in both composition and focal length (using my Sigma 10-20mm EX f4-5.6) but standing in the freezing cold meant that my fingers and toes started to go numb. This told me that I had been taking pictures in the same spot for far too long and it was high time I moved on to capture something else and my feet and fingers thanked me for it.
Other than my extremities getting a tad cold I had a really peaceful and pleasant time photographing. The only thing I encountered was that ice kept building up on the ND filter as well as on the top of my camera, so every few minutes I found myself having to wipe the filter with a lens cloth. Â Never leave home without one.
I’ll be posting more shots from today over the next few posts.
Thanks for reading.
Dave Wares 