Post Processing Fun

Part of my enjoyment of photography is the thrill of the hunt. I like trying to find a good shot, and then playing composition/exposure/aperture roulette to get the film to see what I see. I have taken many photos which I thought would look good, only to see I could have used a different aperture to reign in the depth of field.

Nowadays, in the digital age, this isn't as big a problem as it was during the 35mm days. One of my pictures of the last entry was a little red flower. When I brought it up on my monitor, I felt that the picture could have benefited from a shorter depth of field. Just one stop would focus the eye in on the flower, and hide a not so exciting background. So I went about trying to do this manually.

I use GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as my photo processor mainly for the fact I cannot afford Photoshop. The advantage of GIMP is that it is free and contains many of the features of Photoshop.

So, a quick bit of searching lead me to GIMP Guru's tutorial. I followed the instructions and came up with this:

So, from this:

We get this:

I think it works quite well. Click on the pictures to see the larger versions.

Macro Fun

Having bought my snazzy Canon Powershot, I haven't done much photography with it. However, a couple of days ago it was just light enough when I arrived home to take some photos.

One photographic technique I enjoy is macro. Nearly everything looks dramatic when taken so close that one can see all of the fine details. My new camera has a macro function which works quite well. I was very surprised by the quality of the shots, particularly when they were handheld. I think the built-in image stabiliser helped me out a bit. My composition leaves a bit to be desired, but I am rather happy with the results. Particularly the red flower.

 
White Flower Macro

Blue Flower Macro

Curly Red Flower Macro

By the way, if you know what these flowers are called, please leave a comment. I would love to give them a proper name rather than "Blue Flower...", etc.

Out for a Walk With a Phone

At the moment I am on a bit of a health kick so I try and go for a brisk walk as often as possible. Yesterday I decided to walk to Streatham Common to take some photos of the Rookery [map].
The Rookery is a Victorian Garden (actually visited by Queen Victoria at some stage).

I entered the woods from the Eastern end of the Common and walked through the woods to the Rookery.

Into the Woods

Once in the Rookery I spotted this lone flower in small stream running through it. I thought it looked lonely.

The Lonely Flower

Onwards down the hill into the walled garden.

Western Entrance to the Walled Garden

It is is very peaceful in this garden. Even in winter there is some colour.

The Centre of the Walled Garden and the Wishing Well

At the end of the rookery, some more pillars leading you back up the hill. The photo of the sqirrel isn't particularly good, but it was nice enough to pose for all the passers by, so it's photo makes a guest appearance.

The Eastern Exit From the Walled Garden and the Posing Squirrel

Finally, on the way home, I saw that someone had trapped cemented a flower pot to a wall around their garden.

Trapped!

This photo invokes a feeling of being trapped. This plant will never be free. **sniff**

The main reason for this entry is to show that, with a bit of patience and a steady hand, reasonable photos can be obtained by using a 2megapixel camera phone.

When One Just Isn't Enough

I decided that I should stick to only one entry per day lest I end up running out of quality photos, but thought that my first entry on this blog was a bit too lame. So, below is a picture I took last summer while wandering London.

Waiting for a Sweetheart

I saw this and thought of someone waiting for their sweetheart to arrive. A "I'll leave a flower in the letterbox so you know which door to knock on", kind of message.

I particularly like this photo because it is an impromptu photo. These are my favourite types of photo as you cannot plan them, but they can be some of the best you've ever taken. I took this with my 2 megapixel camera on my phone.

Lower pixel cameras do have their uses. After all Daguerre didn't have any fancy cameras and lenses!