Watching the skies

Thought I'd have a go at taking some pics of Jupiter, which has been very bright this week - and nice crisp, cold, clear night tonight seemed a good time to do it. Pretty amazed that a 300mm cheapie Sigma lens performs well enough to show three of the four moons (assume the fourth is being coy behind Jupiter itself) All done on tripod with a remote release. Experimentation showed low ISO with longer shutter just resulted in blurred images - too much vibration or wind shaking the tripod. Higher ISO (800-1000) allowed shutter speeds of 1/15 or 1/30s which worked much better. Couldn't get a clearer shot of Jupiter itself - any longer exposure lost the moons without bringing out any more detail on the planet. Shot of moon and Jupiter a composite of two exposures, one for moon, one for Jupiter. Moon shot f8, 1/160s at ISO 200.

Fun with cliched effects...

Recent work trip to Devon, visting about 12 pubs a day over four days to talk to the licensees and photograph the pubs. Not as much fun as Toby might imagine, and much more fun than Kevin might imagine. Driving down tiny, twisty country lanes and no drinking involved at all (until I got to the hotel each night).

New LX5 firmware comes with a "tilt-shift" effect built in, which I tried a few times - but forgot to switch camera into JPG mode, which mean the filter effect wasn't on the RAW files. Played around in photoshop instead to try to get a similar effect.



This is the original - pretty dull bar shot, very little DOF. Used the quick mask mode, the gradient tool and then the lens blur filter on the selected area to get the effect.



I'm still not sure if I'm a huge fan of this sort of shot - it's certainly being overused everywhere at the moment. Interesting to see how easy it is to do though.

Landscape pic crop

As Kev suggested.

Last of Tom's landscapes...

I'm not sure if these strictly count - let's call them urban landscapes...both wide and vaguely scenic anyway.

(and because I'm boring myself when it comes to the LX5, just assume if I post any photos from it, they were from a situation when there's no way I would have had the D300 with me, therefore I'm feeling smug I've not lost a lovely shot I would have done usually...in this case a routine walk down to the shop for milk)



f2.8, 1/400, ISO 80, 50mm



f3.2, 1/400, ISO 80, 24mm

Just to make us feel inadequate...

As it happens, Guardian photo competition this month was "Landscape" also...

Landscape- 2nd batch

An ideal counterpoint to Toby's sundrenched landscapes - I give you the west coast of Scotland, in one of those rare moments when it wasn't chucking it down with rain during our week up there. These are both from a little fishing town called Kirkcudbright, now an "artists' town" according to the signs on exit and entry. Horrible grey, overcast and flat-light day - all you can do is turn to a bit of black and white and curves/contrast turned to 11.



Above is my favourite of the two.

LX5 again. f8, 1/100, ISO 80, 24mm



Liked this as well, but slightly soft (taken at long end of the Panasonic's lens range might be to blame).

LX5. f3.3, 1/400, ISO 80, 90mm

And I can't work out why my photos are uploading so small - I'm selecting "large" in the options...

Landscapes from Spain #4 and #5

f5.6, 1.6 sec. Using the gorilla pod.

f5, 1.3 sec. Trying out the gorilla pod again.

Tried some longer and shorter exposures, but these seemed to work the best.

Landscapes from Spain #2 and #3

f13, 1/250 sec.

f13, 1/350 sec.

I think I prefer the portrait orientation, because it is more unusual.

Landscapes from Spain #1

OK, here are a few. Be gentle.

f14, 1/640 sec. First up, I had to do this. Stood in the middle of the Mar Menor with an expensive camera, took some shots and stitched them together in Photoshop. Sarah really likes this, but I'm not so sure.

Landscape - first attempt and also-rans

First try, been meaning to try to get a shot here for years but it's on one of our regular cycle routes, so never managed to stop for the shot. We walked the route this time (all 12 bloody miles of it). Very thankful I had the LX5 rather than the D300!



f2.6, 1/15s (-.3 EV), ISO 80, 47mm

Same place, more or less same shot - preferred the first though:



f3.5, 1/400s (-.3 EV), ISO 80, 26mm

Another LX5 shot - proving its worth as this was staggering back from a drinks do in Borough during GBBF week, never would have had the Nikon with me in these circumstances, but did have the Panasonic and gorillapod in my pocket:



f8, 8s, ISO 80, 24mm

And again, just trying out the long-exposure/low light capabilities of the LX5 - pretty impressed (this is through a hotel room window, which I think has made the blooming/starbursts a bit worse):



f4.5, 60s, ISO 80, 24mm

Compact Cameras and Mobile Phones (EDoF)

Here's something not entirely related to the usual stuff of this Blog. Since getting a new phone a few months back I have been using the camera more and more. It comes with some technology called EDoF - lots of post-processing involved to make everything from 50cm to infinity appear in focus.

Is it any good? Someone has done a side-by-side test of EDoF vs a compact camera. Lots of pixel-peeping nerdery but quite interesting. My take? Upside: I'm now happy to use my camera as a compact (for those occasions where carting a DSLR around is impractical). Downside: if I start using my phone as a camera regularly I'll begin to wish I'd paid the extra for something like the Nokia N8.

Been a while...

...anyone still reading this?

Can I propose: Long-term Challenge 11 - Landscapes

Something I really struggle with, so selfishly, will kick me into trying harder, if nothing else.

And assuming everyone is heading off for some sort of summer holiday...

Something wide and scenic please, five shots maximum, usual rules apply.

A generous deadline of September, which should cover everyone's breaks away.