More Montana

These beautiful flowers grow in magnificent clusters and my garden has a wonderful display of pink and white and green.

The petals are so delicate like tissue and zooming in to the heart of the flower you see a mass of fine tendrils.

Mystery Blue

Sticking with the blue theme from the last few days I have switched from smoke to flowers.

These macro shots make the flower seem larger than life in reality they are smaller than a penny. 

I have called this post Mystery Blue because you might not immediately recognise what this flower is. It has something of an iris about it but can you guess what it is?

If you look at the leaves it may become more obvious...

It is in fact the flower of the herb Rosemary. Every time the plant comes in to flower I am surprised because I really don't expect it and it really is quite beautiful.

Cool Blue

Two more smokey blue images.

The first of these images is cropped and rotated clockwise through 90 degrees and I think it works really well.

I still have a few more of these to share and will do so in the coming days although I may break things up with some splashes of spring colour from my garden, come back tomorrow to see what I pick...

Whorls and Swirls

Here are three more images from my smoking experiment.

As I said yesterday there is an element of chance when photographing things like water and smoke because you cannot easily control or predict what will happen. You just have to try and set the conditions as best you can and hope that with a bit of experimentation and a lot of patience you can get some decent images.

Yesterday's ribbons of smoke were fairly simple but after a little more practice I achieved these more intricate and really beautiful whorls and swirls.

Ribbons of Smoke

A second helping of creativity for today...

I have been trying to find ways to get my photography fix but it has been really challenging. I have going out for the occasional walk along the sea front but as that has been for exercise I have left my camera at home, it has been a shame though because there have been some stunning sunsets that would have been great to share. (I did snap a few shots on my mobile phone's camera but haven't uploaded them).

Anyway after experimenting with  water droplets recently I wondered if there was something else I could try using my macro lens and lighting setup and hit upon  smoke trails...

These were shot against a blue background, lit from each side using spotlights and frozen using fast shutter speeds and camera mounted ring flash. 

There is an element of chance with this type of photography because each shot is random and unique and can range from simple elegant ribbons of smoke to more complex swirls and curls. Apart from the third image I have stuck with some of the simpler patterns for today but I will be sharing some of the more dramatic shots over the next few days so be sure to look out for them.

As a side note while I was sorting through these images I was reminded of a beautiful bit of cinematography from the 1981 French movie "Diva" where a cigarette burning in an ashtray where the lighting and the curl of smoke mirrors  the cover of an old French cigarette packet.

Drip Drop

These are the last few of my water droplet images for now, I will try some more another day.

For the colour in these shots I  used Vimto in the first two switching to red food colouring in the last two. I wasn't sure how this would work out because the colour is so concentrated and as you can see it very quickly dispersed in the cold water.

I think they create some interesting effects.

Gloop!

So much good weather lately and so many missed opportunities to get out with my camera I haven't felt too motivated to post anything for a few days. 

I thought today however that having finished work I would get creative and mess about with a few more of my water droplet images. I hope you like the results. 

When a drop of water falls and hits the surface it happens so quickly and there is so much that the eye cannot see in that moment. I love the way that freezing the moment and making a few adjustments with highlights and shadows you can capture the texture of the water and in the second shot I love the bubbles or individual droplets that are forming within the spout extending from the top of the main element almost like extruding glass.

Apple Blossom Time

I only have a small garden but there is room for a couple of fruit trees which are a real joy all year round.

Today's blooms are apple blossom from the espaliered apple tree that borders one side of the garden. It is a James Grieve variety a variety that dates back to 1893. The first year the tree produced just one apple and it was quite an event harvesting it and sharing it around at home. Each year there is a growing crop and the fruit is nice and sweet. But I think the apple blossom is really beautiful with a very delicate fragrance. Its lovely to think that each of these blooms has the potential to develop into a delicious apple.

Montana

So after a week without posting anything I decided to get creative again and I spent a little time over the Easter weekend. First of all I went into the garden and took some macro shots of the early spring blooms before heading indoors to take some unusual shots of household items which I will get to later in the week.

For today here are some fairly standard shots of the stunning Clematis Montana var wilsonii that forms a colourful and fragrant border to the garden. It is amazing how quickly the mass of buds has exploded into a mass of delicate pink flowers with the chartreuse and white stamen rather like tiny boiled sweets at their hearts. It is beautifully fragrant and later in the year it will be replaced by the delicate colours and scent of honeysuckle.

Creative with Cordial

So although I have several more cool images from this lockdown photo shoot these are the last ones I will share, for now at least.

After quite some time practising with positioning, lighting and shutter speeds I was really pleased to get some nice sharp droplets as in my posts from the last few days I went on to add a drop of colour to see what different effects I could achieve. 

I said yesterday that I used a mystery substance but there is nothing really mysterious about it, it is Vimto a sweet cordial. I had no idea whether it would work but I am really very happy with the results.

I went on to experiment with food colouring but it didn't work very well, it was perhaps too concentrated and dispersed quickly in the water so I think something thick and sticky like Vimto keeps its integrity longer.

In future I might try with different coloured syrups or even different coloured reservoirs  using juices or even milk so watch out. This lockdown period could bring out even more creativity.

Red Bubble

Two more water droplet shots 

For the majority of the session I was using plain old water dropped from a syringe and with a few adjustments it creates a nice metallic effect.

Towards the end I switched things up and used a mystery substance to add some colour. I wasn't sure how it would work out because I thought it might just get diluted instantly but happily it didn't as you can see.  I have a few more of these for tomorrow. If you want to know what the mystery substance was I will tell you tomorrow.

Drip Drip Drop

Here are a few more shots from my experimental macro/flash shoot yesterday.

Today I have also experimented with some of the settings in Lightroom, mostly just adjusting highlights and shadows and in the first image raising the temperature.

I am pleased with these and hope you like them too. I will be back tomorrow with some more.

Lockdown Fun

Although I still have lots of pictures I could sort through and share from past shoots I thought that today I would try something I have never tried before and I am really pleased with the results.

For these shots I used my 100mm macro lens and my ring flash and I set up a mini studio on my dining table with two small spotlights to add extra highlights. I hadn't really used the flash properly before so my first challenge was working out how to synchronise the flash so I could use a fast shutter speed (1/1250ms to 1/2000ms). Once I got that sorted I used a medicine syringe to drop water into a bowl filled to the brim. It was a case of trial and error to get the droplets in the right spot and to fire the shutter at the right time.

I was able to create a lot of interesting effects; I will share a few more over the next few days but for today enjoy these. I think they are really cool!

Jump Off

I had mixed feelings about this group of lads, I was impressed by their skills and the confidence with they pulled off their tricks in the centre of Vienna however their disregard for pedestrians was less impressive. 

Anyway I took advantage of the situation and snapped a few shots...

Inside Out

It is almost two weeks since my last blog post and I think today is the first time since then that I have actually turned my laptop on. That is not because I have lacked the time but more I have lacked the motivation. 

I had great plans to visit family and even go camping for a few days and take hundreds of photos during a week off work. But then we had the lock-down and suddenly all of that went out the window and doing this seemed less important.

I am lucky in many ways because I am able to do most of my job from home and so I can stay busy but having been in self-isolation for a week I am keen to get outside and I decided to review some of my photos and reminisce on times not so long ago when i could enjoy being outdoors.

I have selected these two pictures taken in February in Vienna, this is the Schottentor U-bahn station with a view towards the magnificent neo-gothic structure of the Votivkirche which stands just beyond Sigmund Freud Park. I like these images because they reflect the situation I and that many others are at present find ourselves; inside looking out...