Antc's 52 - Part 2 - UPDATED 27/12 Week 52 - "Wandering the Grantham Canal Christmas"

antc

antc

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I have had to start a new thread for the 2nd half of the year as apparently after a thread gets to be over 6 months old you can no longer change the title which I wasnt aware of but then again I havent had a thread running for that long before where I have needed to constantly change the title.

The first half of the years blog shots can be found here - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=107698

That thread also includes last weeks "image 30" which you may not have seen due to the fact I couldnt change the title.
 
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It is with great regret this week that I made the decision to part exchange my Jag for a slightly newer much more economical car. Friday 31st July was a very sad day! No longer will I be able to plant my right foot and speed past just about anything I want to, or just go out for a run round the country lanes in a powerful 4wd car that grips like hell!Having said that though, no longer will I be spending copious amounts of my monthly wage on petrol or other running costs. I have purchased myself a nice 2003 mk6 Fiesta. Having already owned a mk4 and mk5 Fiesta in the past I can say they have moved on quite a bit. It looks like a baby Focus and has Focus build quality inside which is a nice step up from the ones I used to own. So this week to commemorate the passing of my lovely Jag I decided to make a panel. These are all shots I took last Thursday evening (the last chance I had to take any of the car, last minute job as always). They are not technically amazing photos, or had any fancy processing done to them. They are more record shots combined into a set of 3 images to make a nice panel.

Week 31 - The Beast

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I think you've done a nice job and done the car justice in that panel. A shame it had to go, but I hope the little fiesta serves you well... The only thing I'd suggest would be to maybe adjust the skies a little to get a bit more of an even tone ?
 
jgs001 said:
I think you've done a nice job and done the car justice in that panel. A shame it had to go, but I hope the little fiesta serves you well... The only thing I'd suggest would be to maybe adjust the skies a little to get a bit more of an even tone ?
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I agree, nicely done thought :D
 
Today at Mallory Park was the HSCC series historic car races. After discussing with my good friend Jurgen earlier in the week we decided to have a trip down and find out what it was all about. Very nice weather we had! Shame about the trackside burgers although the fresh donuts were nice! Not really sure what model this car is but I like its sleek lines. So thats all from me this week so enjoy the photo and please leave some comments!

Week 32 - Historic Racer

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jeangenie said:
I like this car - it's got character, imho (ok - I've already admitted to knowing nothing about cars). :)

The shot's nice and sharp and it looks as though you were coping very well with harsh lighting conditions. (y)

Jean
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Thanks! Yeah the lighting was a little harsh at times thats for sure! Just needed slightly less shutter speed to add a touch more motion!
 
This week saw a visit to Southwell Minster for a talk from Charlie Waite (world famous landscape photographer for those that dont know) on his rather amazing landscape photos. This goes hand in hand with an exibition running for the duration of August at the minster called Masters of Vision. Charlies talk was rather interesting, some useful hints and tips on how he goes about things. Before the talk while we still had some light I had a wander round and took some photos of the Minster of which this weeks blog shot is one. I took some shots of the whole building but wasnt really happy with any of them, I much preferred the detail shots I took of certain parts of the building like the windows and towers, the carvings around the doors and so on. So please feel free to leave some critique for me and I shall look forward to reading them!

Week 33 - Southwell Minster

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Love the historic racer shot (y)

There is nothing wrong with the building shot but it doesnt do any thing for me sorry :(
 
Toothie said:
Love the historic racer shot (y)

There is nothing wrong with the building shot but it doesnt do any thing for me sorry :(
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Thanks Ruth, I did quite enjoy the racer shot although as with every photo we take im sure there are little things I could improve on. The minster shot however, im not so sure on now a week on from posting it. I quite liked it at the time but the more I look at it now the more the lighting is worrying me.
 
This weeks shot comes straight out of my greenhouse. These tomatos are home grown right from seed. Its taken many weeks to grow them but its been well worth the wait. They are both extremely tasty and very colourful. After a bowl of them had been collected I decided they would make a nice photograph so set about snapping them from various different angles. I then wondered what they would look like covered in droplets of water so out came the water spray and the rest is history. Thats how this weeks blog shot was created!

Week 34 - Home grown produce

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Like the toms, the water and the stalks add lots to the image, might just be my laptop but it looks a touch noisy on my screen.
 
Hyster said:
Like the toms, the water and the stalks add lots to the image, might just be my laptop but it looks a touch noisy on my screen.
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There is a slight touch of grain to the image due to the high iso. I have tried some noise reduction on it and i would say it looks good on my screen. Not sure if others have noticed anything?
 
This week sees a shot pulled from the archive. This shot was taken on the same bridge (facing the other way) as "Stormy morning on Buttermere" earlier on in my blog. It was shot between the heavy rain showers and offers a completely different view and lighting conditions. I like this shot, reminds me how beautiful the place is and makes me want to go back to shoot some more.

Week 35 - In between the storms, Buttermere

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Bit of a catch up for me. :)

Of the last three shots, the tomatoes are streets ahaead. I love the frame being filled with luscious, fresh, tasty toms (ok - I'm a fellow grower!). The shallow dof is fine, imo and the colours are great. I'm sure they tasted just as good as they look. (y)

Southwell Minster - I think it would have been nice to see one of the detail shots you mentioned, and it looks as though the weather/light weren't being very kind.

Buttermere - Good sky, beautiful location. I hope you didn't get your feet wet, though. :)

Jean
 
Week 35 is a good shot mate, nice composition, looks a really beautiful place.

The only slight crit would be the sky looks a bit blown in places, nice pic though.
 
Nicely caught Ant, I think it would suit a subtal HDR to help get some details in the clouds though :D
 
jeangenie said:
Bit of a catch up for me. :)

Of the last three shots, the tomatoes are streets ahaead. I love the frame being filled with luscious, fresh, tasty toms (ok - I'm a fellow grower!). The shallow dof is fine, imo and the colours are great. I'm sure they tasted just as good as they look. (y)

Southwell Minster - I think it would have been nice to see one of the detail shots you mentioned, and it looks as though the weather/light weren't being very kind.

Buttermere - Good sky, beautiful location. I hope you didn't get your feet wet, though.

Jean
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Thanks :) Southwell Minster is the weakest of the 3 thats for sure. And no, no wet feet for me :D

Hyster said:
Week 35 is a good shot mate, nice composition, looks a really beautiful place.

The only slight crit would be the sky looks a bit blown in places, nice pic though.
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Yeah it does look like that bit lightroom shows detail in those areas.

Toothie said:
Nicely caught Ant, I think it would suit a subtal HDR to help get some details in the clouds though :D
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Mmmmm......you have given me an idea, however if its anything like my normal hdr efforts it wont look that good lol. I shall see what i come up with :)
 
Its that time of the week again, yes indeed its Sunday once more and that means a fresh photo for the blog! I have been running pretty short of inspiration in recent weeks, had my mind on other things like my photo clubs new website and our new season which begins this Tuesday. That and the lack of any decent weather recently has put a bit of a downer on my photography but hopefully thats going to change in a week or two when I am off to Northumberland for a long weekend of shooting! I cant wait, not been to that area before so like my lakes trip earlier in the year I will be exploring new places as well as hopefully some spectacular scenery. So back on topic this weeks shot comes to you all from my kitchen window, an Amaryllis plant to be precise. I have been meaning to take a couple of close up/macro shots of this for almost a week now since its flowered and today I got around to it. Hopefully you will like the results, but hey, weather you do or dont please leave some feedback and maybe some ideas on what you would like to see in future weeks on my blog. Thanks for reading and enjoy your week.

Week 36 - Amaryllis

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Toothie said:
nice abstract - i really like the use of DoF in this :)
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jeangenie said:
Oooh - I like this, Ant. Lovely colours, excellent dof, the composition works well and just the right degree of abstraction (if that's the right word!) (y)

Jean
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Thanks very much! This was taken with an upcoming club competition in mind. The theme for the comp is "abstracts" so hopefully this will fit the criteria fine :)
 
I set out this morning with the idea of getting some wildlife shots at a local reserve. However about 10 mins into my journey I came up against a rather unusual amount of traffic on the way to pick up my mate. Well it turns out the Nottingham half marathon was on today and I didnt even know about it. By the time I had collected shooting buddy the traffic was very heavy so decided we would would go up to Wollaton Hall to shoot some deer. When we got there we found that the marathons route actually come through Wollaton Park so this weeks shot comes from the Nottingham Marathon! Not what I had intended but hey I think it has turned out rather well. I have decided to convert the image to black and white as there wasnt a huge amount of interesting colour. I have used a slight vignette on this image to really make the lady runner the centre of focus. Hope you all like the photo and weather you do or dont please leave me some critique on how you think the photo can be improved or changed! Thanks for reading and enjoy your week.

Week 37 - Runner 5192

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Well caught, Ant. I like the pp-ing and, as you say, it draws the attention to the lady. It's funny how you often end up taking something you didn't expect - but in this case it's turned out well.

It would have been good to have the focus on her face - she's really concentrating - but she looks as though she was running quite fast - not easy to 'freeze'. :)

Jean
 
jeangenie said:
Well caught, Ant. I like the pp-ing and, as you say, it draws the attention to the lady. It's funny how you often end up taking something you didn't expect - but in this case it's turned out well.

It would have been good to have the focus on her face - she's really concentrating - but she looks as though she was running quite fast - not easy to 'freeze'. :)

Jean
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Toothie said:
i agree with Jean

great composition and i like the processing but its a shame its not a bit shaper.
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Thanks again for your comments this week ladies, appreciated as always (y)
 
Good day to one and all. This weeks image comes courtesy of a "treasure hunt" that my local camera club ran last Tuesday. We had a number of set themes and one of them was "illuminated building" This is my interpretation of that theme. For those in the know this is the new stand that was recently built at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in West Bridgford Nottingham. This was shot handheld at high iso (1600) which gives a nice film like grain to the picture.

Week 38 - Trent Bridge CC at night

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This week we have a shot of Dunstanburgh Castle taken whilst on my recent trip to Northumberland. Its the fist time I have been and I must say what a wonderful place it is. I think you could go many times and not run out of things to photograph thats for sure! There will definately be more to come from my Northumberland set in the coming weeks so watch this space.

Week 39 - Dunstanburgh Castle

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Illuminated Building: This is the sort of pic you'd expect in the architects' glossy brochure of prestige work. Excellent. (y)(y)

I can remember hearing the crowd at Trent Bridge when visiting my son who lived nearby when he was at uni - and yes, they did sound a bit like a football crowd. :)

Dunstanburgh Castle: I'm intrigued by this one, Ant. The foreground colours and interest are good, but the Castle looks as though it deserves more prominence - and what's just peeping above the horizon to the right of the Castle? Mmmmm, can I (politely) thump the table and demand more, please. :)


Jean
 
Ant, sorry, I've missed so many. Some really good shots in here. Not sure on the DOF on the Amaryllis, the colours are superb, but I think maybe just a bit more to get each of the yellow bits (Stamen ??) into focus. Trent Bridge stands out as a corker, and I really like what you've done processing the Marathon runner.

I really like the castle shot, the curving S through the stones up to the castle works well. I think the castle is possible a little small in the shot but to get that shot, I'm not sure there's anything could be done about that.
 
jeangenie said:
Illuminated Building: This is the sort of pic you'd expect in the architects' glossy brochure of prestige work. Excellent. (y)(y)

I can remember hearing the crowd at Trent Bridge when visiting my son who lived nearby when he was at uni - and yes, they did sound a bit like a football crowd. :)

Dunstanburgh Castle: I'm intrigued by this one, Ant. The foreground colours and interest are good, but the Castle looks as though it deserves more prominence - and what's just peeping above the horizon to the right of the Castle? Mmmmm, can I (politely) thump the table and demand more, please. :)


Jean
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I am in two minds about the castle being bigger in the frame. I have seen it done both ways and im not sure i favour one over the other.

jgs001 said:
Ant, sorry, I've missed so many. Some really good shots in here. Not sure on the DOF on the Amaryllis, the colours are superb, but I think maybe just a bit more to get each of the yellow bits (Stamen ??) into focus. Trent Bridge stands out as a corker, and I really like what you've done processing the Marathon runner.

I really like the castle shot, the curving S through the stones up to the castle works well. I think the castle is possible a little small in the shot but to get that shot, I'm not sure there's anything could be done about that.
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Agreed on the focus for the amaryllis, i shall have to retry that one when i get a second.

The castle shot was designed to have the S shape leading you into it, i tried all sorts of angles and lead ins for that shot i just couldnt decide which was best but the S works well.

kennysarmy said:
I think with the clouds and the foreground interest it is just crying out for a mono conversion :D
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Mono would work well for this i think, i shall have a dabble! Thanks (y)

Toothie said:
I really like the composition on this (y)
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(y)
 
Another shot from my recent Northumberland trip this week. This shot was taken from the beach by Bamburgh Castle shortly before 6am. Surprisingly there were other crazy folk out at this ungodly hour taking similar photos no doubt! I have added a selenium tone to this image, which i feel gives it a kind of cold tone and shows off the nice cloud formations in the sky!

Week 40 - Bamburgh Castle

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