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Showing posts from December, 2020

Photobook: Three Wood Lands

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I made my first photobook back in 2008. It was a memorial to my brother's photographs and was sent to a number of friends and relatives. I made it with Blurb and subsequently did a few more. Now it seems to be all the rage on YouTube and elsewhere. It is trendy to print photos as well as everyone is tired of consuming images on screens and they want to hold something real. Now photobooks seem to be an extension of this. I agree! I think there is something special about holding a physical image. Photobook Cover Spread Here is a video overview of the book with it's content and my commentary on how I put it together and what I thought about the results.  Three Wood Lands Genesis This past year I have been engaged in a project of woodland photography focused primarily on three local woodlands. I have written up my efforts here on this blog and most of the photos hav...

Best of 2020

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Click Above to go Straight to the Photos on Flickr! The last couple of years I have done what a lot of people do and try and select a limited number of 'best' photos of the year. These are of course by my own judgment though I do factor in likes from Flickr users in my decision.  This year I was very prolific in terms photos taken at about 375 (compared to about 50 last year!). I also have to say the yield of good photos was better. I attribute the increase in numbers mostly to my retirement from full time work this year. Covid-19 has limited travel but also provided a basis for more focus. The number of photos I am happy with went way up I think primarily because I chose to focus on intimate woodland as as subject and my further focus on three local woodlands. I have also been steadily improving technique and looking critically at the results. I ended up with perhaps 30 candidates on my initial long list.  The year divided almost in half betwe...

Woodwalton Misty Morning

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I was out again last week at Woodwalton Fen in the early morning as there was a forecast of some fog. I wasn’t disappointed as I walked in the pre-dawn darkness. I stopped in the middle of the reserve where a bench is located by a small pond. I sat and sipped coffee and ate my breakfast while I waited for the light to come up. When the light and color saturated I picked up my equipment and walked on.  I headed down a track I last travelled last summer along a line of oak trees. This lead to a little used trail and I found my first photo. Three interesting shaped trees in the mist. I setup first with my 150mm lens but needed the 90mm lens to capture it. This lens does not get much use. It is difficult to see the image on the ground glass because of the way the light disperses.  I was using my SINAR Zoom film back exclusively today and had loaded a roll of Fuji Provia 100. My limited experience with shooting in mist in fog has me favoring Fuji Astia and Provia. I find that Fuji ...