Some Bedford Rural history

[Crotal Bell]

Had a run out today to try the Panasonic 12-60 on the G80 MFT.
The light was a challenge with the sun flicking in and out from behind white and rainy clouds, but I really enjoyed myself. Pleased with some of the results but others show I have plenty to learn.

Willington Dovecote, built during the reign of Henry VIII, the Dovecote and main hall, and Willington Church. A lovely little pocket of Bedfordshire.

This is Valerie, she volunteers to take people in the dovecote and share some of the history.


It's an impressive structure. You can see Valeries seat bottom right.


Here's the inside wooden beams and structure.


The main hall and church behind. I'm really pleased with this photo.


This is John who works for the National Trust, they own the buildings.



Is this the smallest 2nd hand shop in the UK? Undoubtedly the prettiest.



A short drive down the road and we come to the Cardington Hangers, famous for the doomed flight of the R101 Airship.
Slightly less famously, the place where my Doncaster born father did his RAF national service and met my mum.
They re massive !


Another short hop along the road and we come to the village of Elstow
This is Moot Hall, made famous by it's connection to John Bunyan who wrote the Pilgrims Progress.


Just across the green is the Abbey, the Church, and ruins of an old building that was used as a nunnery. The Abbey is centre, church tower on the right, ruins to the left.


And finally a shot of the ruins. Hope you enjoyed the set.

 

[tijuana taxi]

I have taken a few photos of the airship hangars, they are huge and loom large on the landscape. Some talk of establishing an airship museum there, Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden fame has an interest, even wrote a track about the R101 "Empire Of The Clouds"

Some nice photos there Keith, glad you are enjoying yourself.
Like the photo of the hangars over the others, sky and clouds are very nicely exposed and captured.
For the same reason I also like no 4, feel the verticals need a bit of correcting though.

Must get over that way again, its not that far from me over in Cambs.
Have you ever visited the Glenn Miller museum on the old airfield at Twinwood?

 

[Crotal Bell]

I have taken a few photos of the airship hangars, they are huge and loom large on the landscape. Some talk of establishing an airship museum there, Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden fame has an interest, even wrote a track about the R101 "Empire Of The Clouds"

Some nice photos there Keith, looks like you are enjoying yourself.
Like the photo of the hangars over the others, sky and clouds are very nicely exposed and captured.
For the same reason I also like no 4, feel the verticals need a bit of correcting though.

Must get over that way again, its not that far from me over in Cambs.
Have you ever visited the Glenn Miller museum on the old airfield at Twinwood?

Thanks Rich. I seem to struggle with clouds and sky, I think that when I get that part right it's more with luck than judgement.
Do I need to have the histogram in the viewfinder, would that help me get the balance right?

 

[tijuana taxi]

Thanks Rich. I seem to struggle with clouds and sky, I think that when I get that part right it's more with luck than judgement.
Do I need to have the histogram in the viewfinder, would that help me get the balance right?

It never hurts to look at the histogram or the "blinkies" that show over exposed areas.
When there is too much of a difference between light and dark you do have to compromise.
Have you tried using the exposure lock after metering from a suitable area?

If you have for example a dark foreground and light background that just doesn't work.
Its possible to take two photos, one exposed for the bright area and another for the dark and merge them.

If you use manual and have constant preview selected it will give you a good idea what the finished article will look like.
You can then alter the three parameters to help give you the exposure you want.

 

[Crotal Bell]

It never hurts to look at the histogram or the "blinkies" that show over exposed areas.
When there is too much of a difference between light and dark you do have to compromise.
Have you tried using the exposure lock after metering from a suitable area?

If you have for example a dark foreground and light background that just doesn't work.
Its possible to take two photos, one exposed for the bright area and another for the dark and merge them.

If you use manual and have constant preview selected it will give you a good idea what the finished article will look like.
You can then alter the three parameters to help give you the exposure you want.

My camera has a tool called focus stacking, but I think that's just for depth of field.
The constant preview sounds like a good idea, it will give me a chance to learn as I go along.

 

[woof woof]

With some compositions and lighting you're never going to protect the highlights and get the less bright areas good with a single exposure but often you may be able to get a happy compromise by dialling in some but not too much exposure compensation to protect the highlights whilst not making the other areas too dark. You may then be able to selectively reduce the highlights a little more and boost the shadows but boosting the shadows can get a result that doesn't look good but may improve with some selective increase in contrast and/or saturation to get something that looks about right. One thing I often do is paint on exposure reduction to the bright areas and paint on a boost to the shadow areas. Or, for some shots even a completely blown sky may not be too much of an issue depending on how much of the frame is involved and if the picture is otherwise strong and interesting enough.

If it helps at all, assuming the sky isn't completely blown I've found that painting on as much as two stops of exposure compensation to pull the sky back can be ok with MFT.

I'm not a great proponent of slavishly correcting perspective distortion but do correct things if I haven't held the camera level.

I like the idea of photographic the staff and No4 is one I like too but they're all interesting and the write up adds to it. Well done .

 

[Crotal Bell]

With some compositions and lighting you're never going to protect the highlights and get the less bright areas good with a single exposure but often you may be able to get a happy compromise by dialling in some but not too much exposure compensation to protect the highlights whilst not making the other areas too dark. You may then be able to selectively reduce the highlights a little more and boost the shadows but boosting the shadows can get a result that doesn't look good but may improve with some selective increase in contrast and/or saturation to get something that looks about right. One thing I often do is paint on exposure reduction to the bright areas and paint on a boost to the shadow areas. Or, for some shots even a completely blown sky may not be too much of an issue depending on how much of the frame is involved and if the picture is otherwise strong and interesting enough.

If it helps at all, assuming the sky isn't completely blown I've found that painting on as much as two stops of exposure compensation to pull the sky back can be ok with MFT.

I'm not a great proponent of slavishly correcting perspective distortion but do correct things if I haven't held the camera level.

I like the idea of photographic the staff and No4 is one I like too but they're all interesting and the write up adds to it. Well done .

Thanks Alan.

I have a bad habit of no getting the shot level and had to straighten a few of these, I forgot to do it on the second shot. Looks a bit like it's sinking

 

[woof woof]

If it'll help you should be able to call up a grid and a level.

One good thing about the Panasonic cameras is that you can have the grid, level and histogram showing, my Sony A7 only allows the grid and either the level or histogram but not both.

 

[GordonM]

Such a shame my one visit to Cardington I was banned from taking photos inside the hangers. There was the film set for Batman The Dark Night Rises inside the one I went in, along with several Harry Potter Ford Anglias and a number of other film vehicles!

 

[Crotal Bell]

Such a shame my one visit to Cardington I was banned from taking photos inside the hangers. There was the film set for Batman The Dark Night Rises inside the one I went in, along with several Harry Potter Ford Anglias and a number of other film vehicles!

I hope to go in one day myself, especially because of it's connection with my dad.

 

[GordonM]

I hope to go in one day myself, especially because of it's connection with my dad.

It’s very difficult to get permission to enter. I was lucky I was doing emergency blue light driver training with the ambulance service and my instructor knew someone on security. Thus the no photos rule, we even had to leave phones outside in our vehicle.

 

[G-Slev]

I am going to be around the centre of Bedford in the next few weeks. Is there anything worth shooting?

 

[Crotal Bell]

I am going to be around the centre of Bedford in the next few weeks. Is there anything worth shooting?

The river embankment has some nice potential, classic old bandstand and arched walking bridge.
What sort of things do you like to photograph and will you have time to head out of town?

 

[ancient_mariner]

Willington is just a couple of miles from my brother at Blunham - some day we'll have to visit.

 

[Crotal Bell]

Willington is just a couple of miles from my brother at Blunham - some day we'll have to visit.

Best to try and find out when the volunteers have the buildings open for the public.
Some lovely villages all over that area. Old Warden, Ickwell, and Cardington are all worth a look.