Some Images from the ’summer’

While I’m still saving up and lusting after the Fujifilm S5800 (as explained in the previous post) I’ve still been using my trusty little F700 to take photos this ’summer’. Actually, the islands have been very fortunate and had much better weather than the mainland. Even when the rain was pouring down and the floods were rising on the mainland, we were having our rain at night and then the clearance came along at about 11am – visitors had a leisurely breakfast and lazed around until the weather improved before going out.

So, here are some photos I took:

First, a red hot poker, but this is the bigger, fatter, autumn-flowering Kniphofia rooperi.

This is a close up from underneath of one of the flower spikes on our yucca

This one is a fluke shot of a housemartin returning to one of the nests under the eaves of our house

And this is the beautiful and unusual flower of Stapelia variegata – a small variety of Carrion Flower

I hope you like the photos. I tend to be much more ‘picky’ about images since I took T189 but I’m still not a skilled user of Elements despite all the work we did with it. Cropping, sharpening, levels and straightening tend to be my stock tools.

Now I must go … we’re out to dinner with friends this evening and I don’t know WHAT to wear!!!

Growing!

Well, it’s just over 24 hours since I last posted on this blog about the new board:

T189 Digital Photography Unofficial Forum

and the stats show that the board is definitely growing

Community Time: 17/07/07 16:46

Founded: 14/07/07

* 55 Avg visits per day
* 27 Posts per day
* 56 Posts in last 24 hours

* 217 Total visits
* 106 Total posts
* 28 Total topics
* 16 Total members

which is very gratifying

It’s probably the wrong time of year to launch a new board – summer is notoriously slow in messageboardland – and it may gain new members when the official T189 First Class forums close in about six to eight weeks time. Nevertheless, it’s there for any T189-ers who would like to keep in touch and anyone who is thinking of studying T189 in the future.

It’s also worth popping in to the Flickr group and checking out the discussions:

T189 OpenUni 2007

where students are posting links to their final ECA images. Those I’ve looked at have been fabulous

Now, if I can persuade my daughter that a walk would be a good idea, I hope to be going out in the slightly cooler late afternoon soon with my camera to hand. There’s no guarantee I’ll come back with any shots – she likes to keep moving – but you never know!

Back!

It’s now just gone 9pm and I’ve been up since 5.30am so apologies if this post seems to be a bit disjointed. I don’t think or write very well when my brain needs sleep …

I confess that I am faintly dismayed by the number of students on the OU T189 conferences and also on Flickr who are celebrating having sent their ECA After seven years of OU study, I thought I was pretty much immune to the feelings of panic, indecision and anxiety that seem to invade the consciousness of a student nearing the submission date for an ECA when surrounded by students who have already completed it.

So I’m sternly telling myself that I took my draft ECA away with me on my laptop and gained valuable insight and feedback from various family members as we travelled upcountry and back down again. The deadline isn’t until midday on Monday 16th so I still have plenty of time. Creating the slideshow in Acrobat format wasn’t difficult and I’ve done a fair amount of zipping and despatching of zipped files through the OU’s electronic TMA (tutor marked assignment) system so neither of those pose any problems. Writing has always come pretty easily to me and 200 words x 3 isn’t exactly taxing. But still there’s this still small voice inside telling me that I’m behind everyone else …

Part of the problem is the conflicting feedback that I’ve been getting on OpenStudio and on Flickr. One image may be a ‘hit’ on Flickr but a ‘miss’ on OpenStudio AND vice versa. This brings all sorts of doubts and anxieties bubbling to the surface and it’s induced a sort of paralysis over the final choice of ten for the panel. I thought I had it pretty much sussed out but now I’m not quite so sure. I was planning to drop the Ripe Golden Pear in Sunshine which, although nice, hadn’t received much feedback and replace it with the rather more dramatic Evening Storm Cloud.

But now the pear has gathered some very favourable comments on OpenStudio and I’ve been thrown into indecision

The other “not sure” has been the dramatic blood red amaryllis close-up (image on a previous post) which was raved over on Flickr, gathering several ‘awards’, but managed only one single comment on OpenStudio. Talk about conflicting views! I was wondering whether to replace it with another moody grey evening sea image (probably one of the week 4 images either Porthloo at Dusk or Steely Sky) … but would that be too much sea in my panel? Would the poor assessor have to reach for the Kwells to stave off seasickness?

As you can tell, I’m both tired and confused. I think I need to sleep on it and return refreshed to the fray later this week….

Almost crunch time!

Trust me, it’s a challenging process trying to whittle down your T189 portfolio to just ten images to submit for the ECA!

I selected about fifty images that I thought had potential, trawled OpenStudio and Flickr to glean further inspiration then narrowed the choice down to about twenty. We aren’t compelled to submit ten images using completely different techniques but I felt it was probably best to select ten that illustrated various important aspects of digital photography.

My problem was a portrait image. As I’ve mentioned before, my family runs a mile if I point a camera at them so I had to resort to an archive image. Christmas proved a particularly good source of images because people are generally relaxed and happy, less likely to bolt at the sight of a camera. I narrowed it down to about four images … then two … then put them up on OpenStudio for other students to comment on … then narrowed it down to two … tried some of the editing techniques suggested to improve them … failed dismally on one but succeeded on another.

So, if you visit my Flickr photostream you can view the ten images that I think will probably be my final panel for the ECA submission. I say think because I’m well aware that an unfavourable response to any image may well see me reviewing my choices again.

Aqua Marina’s Photostream

But, since I’m away from home tomorrow evening until Wednesday lunchtime (and I intend to take my laptop so I can show my prospective ECA slideshow panel to family members to gather their opinions), I am planning to chill out a little, enjoy a few days away (collecting autistic daughter from college) and then return ready for the final push. So the ten images aren’t absolutely definite but they are pretty certain.

Let me know what you think of them, please?

Refreshing the memory

I decided this morning that I would revisit my OpenStudio weeks and re-read the comments that students made on my images just to refresh my memory. I also went through all the images on my Flickr photostream as well and did the same. It’s interesting that there isn’t necessarily a correlation between the two – an image that was liked on Flickr and got several comments might be languishing un-commented on OpenStudio. I’ve now got a good selection of ECA ‘possible’ images and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to choose between them.

I’d like to get a fairly broad selection of images rather than mainly macros or mainly landscapes. One of the trickiest subjects has been portraits which have been common amongst other student images but which I find very difficult, not only because I feel self-conscious about photographing other people but also because most of the folk I know would run a mile rather than let me take their photo! If I do manage to ’snap’ someone it’s usually a spur-of-the-moment candid shot – grabbing the opportunity when it arises – so the images tend to be less than perfect technically but usually capture a great expression or a special moment.

The other problem I’ve had has been weighing up one image against another and trying to determine which one should be included in the ECA panel. It’s very difficult to make a decision when you’re comparing two very different images. Adding the potential for editing in the Elements digital darkroom just complicates the issue for me especially since I’ve not mastered all the techniques in the tutorials, especially the more complex week 8 techniques. Anyway I’ve always had problems making decisions and the final ten images for the panel is going to take a lot of time and deliberation.

We’re also going to be away for four days over the weekend so that raises the prospect of taking more photos which will then throw all my ECA panel plans into disarray!

Stuck indoors :-(

This morning dawned bright and clear with brilliant sunshine, blue skies, a few hazy clouds and a gentle breeze. I SOOOO want to be out with my camera, exploring, experimenting and enjoying myself …

… instead I’m stuck indoors at the computer, ‘on duty’ in our Gallery until at least lunchtime while The Artist is out painting. Even then there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to get out this afternoon because he may well want to go out painting again after lunch…

I don’t think the Gallery is going too be busy in any sense of the word – the weather and the coming & going nature of holiday Saturdays will see to that. So I shall just have to knuckle down and get on with those tutorials that I’ve now completed downloading from the T189 website in .avi format to replace the Flash ones that didn’t work properly.

These are some of the results of the ‘ageing an image’ tutorial using Elements:

I spotted these arum lilies on sale, displayed in a bucket of water, at the gate of a farm, during a recent walk. I thought they would make a good subject for an aged sepia image.

This is the circular granite Coastguard Tower standing atop Telegraph Hill, the highest point of St. Marys at a shade under 170ft, in the company of the Decca navigation mast and various radio dishes and antennae for transmitting telephone calls and TV signals (yes, we’re still firmly analogue here – and NO cable!) . It probably DID look like this a hundred years ago!

This was taken on an unexpected sea journey back to the mainland after the May half term week with my daughter because fog had grounded the helicopters. Scillonian III came into service in May 1977 so she definitely wasn’t around a hundred years ago!

This is a typical scene on Scilly – a punt drawn up above high tideline and turned over to prevent it filling with rainwater. I liked the diagonal composition with the lobster pot on one side but I couldn’t quite get the angle I wanted. This one is a candidate for the ‘blurring the background’ tutorial in Elements, I think.

Now back to Elements and the tutorials …

Grab that camera again!

I spotted this male blackbird sunbathing on the concrete wall alongside the steps up to our Gallery this morning and fetched my camera to see if I could get a good shot or two. It’s the sort of opportunity that suddenly presents itself and you don’t have much time to think about composing or setting up the shot … even if it IS still there when you get back with your camera!

Enjoying a spot of sunshine!

Blackbird up close and personal

We have some very tame birds in our garden – I suspect this is the cheeky chap who comes into the house occasionally for a look round to see if he can blag some food. Fortunately our cats never really bothered with birds (although the local rabbit, mouse and rat population did come in for a lot of feline attention over the last seventeen years) and anyway the ones in our garden have a very loud and efficient warning system in place if they see feline intruders. I once found our tabby slumbering peacefully on the grass in the sunshine oblivious to five blackbirds all shrieking their alarm calls from the surrounding trees and shrubs.

Week 6 Assignment

Since our one course CMA (computer-marked assignment) is due for submission by June 18th, the Week 6 assignment is optional. Please don’t take my efforts too seriously – it was a bit of fun, quickly snapped and quickly edited (hardly T189 portfolio material …)
Take five photos that form a set linked in some way, for example in technique (e.g. motion blur, macro, small depth of field), colour theme (e.g. reds, natural colours, cool colours), or subject (e.g. portraits, landscapes, still life). Upload the photos to OpenStudio. Can you spot the linking theme on other students’ sets?

So I’ve posted six – can you find the subject that links them all together?

So these are bulldog clips

Quite a new rucksack – bought last month.

Yes, it’s a Tilley hat! (quite a new once since it was a birthday present in April …)

Rather old and battered – an easel.

Fabric roll of ‘tools’

Small steel vacuum flask (usually contains black tea)

I suspect that the input from students for Week Six may be rather less than for previous weeks. There are several probably reasons – it’s now mid June and people are going on holiday before the schools break up for summer, some students have said that they are behind and trying to catch up (mainly because of the DVD fiasco) and some are just busy with other courses and commitments.

I’m off to study my printout of the CMA ready to submit tomorrow (if all goes well ….)

Unexpected bonus!

I was having to scrape around to find colourful images to post for my Week 5 assignment when I realised that I had the perfect subjects right under my nose – a pair of ‘Benfica’ amaryllis, newly acquired this spring and now about to come into bloom. They were described as ‘blood red’ and already they are spectacular. So, having posted eight images, I now completed my set of ten by adding the following two:

and

Now on to Week 6 ….

Week 5 images

Week Five was about studying colour and, amongst other things, we had some great interactive widgets to play with on the T189 website, varying the amounts of colours added by moving sliders and seeing if we could match up ‘our’ version with the one onscreen. So this week’s assignment was about colour …

Go out with your camera and look for colour. Take photos close to subjects, so that the colours fill the frame – it doesn’t matter if the viewer cannot immediately tell what the subject is. Consider the following guidelines:

Look for images composed of vivid colours (highly saturated) as well as more muted colours.

Look for complementary colours (those opposite each other on the colour wheel) and harmonious colour combinations.

Consider images that consist of single colours and multiple colours.

Think about balance, unity, dynamism and focus of attention when composing and editing your images.

Once you have a selection of images use the cropping tool in Elements to remove areas of each image that don’t add to the impact of the colour. Then use any of the Elements tools, especially those that have been introduced in Session 5, to adjust, enhance or correct your images.

Upload six of your selected images to Open Studio for discussion among your group.

It’s an interesting challenge and there must have been about a thousand T189 students roaming around the UK this past week studying and photographing colour … except me because I had to take our adult autistic daughter back to college and spent five days travelling and stopping off en route. I was hoping to get some photography done but unfortunately it proved quite difficult despite the nice sunny weather.

We were instructed to upload six images but I had a couple more so I uploaded them anyway – using a combination of recent and archive images that were colourful. You can check them out on my Flickr Photostream …

Aqua-Marina’s Photostream

Will try and post more later!