A Walk In The Woods

I may not be posting as regularly for little while as I will be traveling in Canada so when I do post it will be a bit of a travelogue with hopefully some good shots of some of the interesting things along the way. For today I will leave you with a couple of images of my last woodland walk in Delamere. 

Looking Up!

Back in Delamere Forest, how impressive are these trees with their uniformly straight trunks reaching into the sky...

I love walking in the forest.

A Little Fluff

I thought that I had run out of new pictures to share and was about to delve into some old files when I realised I had one recent folder that I hadn't been through.

I recently went to Delamere Forest for a short walk, it is always nice to visit because it is always changing and there is always something different to see. On this particular occasion I was taken with the fresh greens and soaring trunks of the trees. But for today I have chosen a couple of pictures of dandelion seed heads. I didn't post these at the time because there were lots of dandelion pictures on Instagram and other sites and so I decided to save them for a bit, and then almost forgot I had taken them.

For the first picture I was assisted by my daughter who blew the seeds. I think a faster shutter speed would have improved the shot but its still quite cool. I also really like the close up with the shimmering seeds.

A Retrospective

                             

 

Regular visitors to my blog will have seen some or all of the above pictures before and while I would not normally repeat post pictures (because I have so many unseen images to share) there is a good reason for doing so today.

I recently signed up to test a new product on the basis that I would then post a review about the product once I had received it. 

This is a first for me and probably not something I will do often because the real focus of my blog is the pictures that I love to share, and that is why I have posted a large selection today.

So what was I testing? It was a new photobook from Saal Digital. 

I have created a few photobooks in the past with very different results and so I was interested to see what the guys at Saal Digital would come up with. The pictures above are a selection of the shots I included and I had a great time creating a shortlist and finally narrowing that list even further for pictures to include. I have so many images saved digitally but they always look better in print than on the screen and so I picked some of my favourite shots or pictures that have a special meaning to me. Eventually I had a long list of almost 200 pictures and I narrowed it down to around 70 before settling on the 40 I finally included in the book.

So having made my basic selection I went to the Saal Digital site and got started. This involved downloading the design software which allowed me to upload my images to the project.

There is a range of different options to choose from for example page size/orientation, glossy or matte finish, padded covers, leather covers and the number of pages. There are also lots of good looking and easy to use templates and you can even choose to purchase a stylish gift/presentation box to keep your project looking good.

I chose the 29cm x 19cm landscape format book and I opted to keep things simple and designed my own layout rather than use one of the many templates. I also chose a matte cover but glossy pages.

The whole process was really straightforward and intuitive; adding the pictures was very easy and there is a helpful feature which assesses the quality of the image to make sure it will look good once it is printed and there is an optional grid feature which is really helpful aligning the image on the page.

It is possible to print images across a full double page spread and the book folds flat so that pictures printed in this format look just as good as those on the single page. I used this feature for a few pictures and they look stunning.

It is possible to add text and you can choose different coloured or textured backgrounds either for individual pages or you can apply them to the whole project, whatever you think shows your pictures off best.

I started with a basic 28 page book but added a few extra pages taking it up to 32 in all, I could have added more but I held back because I also opted for the presentation box which comes in either white or anthracite. It is a really sturdy good looking box with foam padding to keep the book secure. It is a really nice finishing touch and would be great if you are getting the book as a gift or for a professional presentation but at £20 I think if I were doing this again just for myself I would add more pages rather than get the box.

Having uploaded the pictures and finalised my project I received an email telling me that my project had been uploaded and from there it was easy to track its progress. I completed my book at 22.03 on a Wednesday evening, the project was released for production at 22.06 and completed by 10.42 the following morning and ready for shipping an hour later. I was really impressed  by that but to be honest I was a little anxious about whether that was too quick and what the quality would be.

A week later the book arrived (coming from Germany and over a bank holiday I thought that was pretty good too) but I always get quite impatient waiting for things so I was pleased when the postman knocked today and I opened up to see my book.

The quality is excellent and the finish is really professional. Pictures are printed on heavy weight Fuji photo paper and the glossy finish means the images pop off the page. As I said before the double page spread works really well and I think this is a great feature so if you are going to create your own photobook then I would recommend trying this out.

I have shown my book to a number of people already and everyone who has seen it has commented on how good it looks, not just because the pictures are good but the quality and presentation is outstanding.

I would happily recommend Saal Digital to anybody. They are not cheap (my 32 page book cost slightly more that £40) but the quality is so good, to my mind it is good value. If like me you take pride in the pictures you take it is worth paying to present them well.

Before and After

These two pictures are of plants that were right next to each other in the shelter of a stack of cut timber. 

My eye was caught by the bright white flowers which stood out in the forest where there was so little brightness but then I was struck by the intricate structure of the second plant where all of the petals have fallen exposing the delicate stems and succulent buds.

Skeletal Plant

After the flowers come the seeds and after the seeds ...

Although these plants have died and will be replaced by fresh new plants come the spring the structure that remains is still interesting and noteworthy, but because it is past its prime it is easily overlooked.  A closer look reveals the beautifully intricate structure that supports the flowers. I hope you will agree that it is sometimes worth taking a second look. 

Raindrops Keep Falling...

A damp day in the forest and off the beaten track I took these pictures of water droplets, the first as it clung to the end of a twig and the second where they collected on the surface of a leaf.  I used my 100mm Macro lens to capture these images and lit them with a pocket torch due to the very poor light conditions.

I like the way the hanging droplet captures an inverted image of the forest and I like the way the large droplets on the leaf magnify the pattern within the leaf, I also like the collection of tiny droplets like glitter on the surface of the leaf.

A Reflecting Pond

Winter woodlands, water and reflections, all ingredients for a good walk on New Year's day. Over the next few days I will share a few pictures from the walk in Delamere Forest.

Today's pictures are quite obviously of a fallen tree and a reflection.  Although the water is not deep the reflection of the standing tree in the first image creates the impression of great depth.

For those who have seen my blog before you will know that I like the distortion caused by ripples and so that is why I have chosen the second picture.

Natures Hearts

So today is my 150th blog post and it's Valentine's Day and I thought I would spread some love by posting pictures of nature's hearts.

The first picture is of a message I wrote as a picture message while I was in Utah, the snow was piled high on a garden wall in Park City, I hope the  home owner  didn't object.

The second picture is a heart formed from sea spray which I captured on my mobile phone on a cliff top near St David's in Pembrokeshire.

The next two images are of pebbles collected whilst walking, and the final image is of a snow heart in Delamere Forest one winter's day.

I hope that you all feel the love x

Cold and Frosty Too!

So if you liked yesterday's pictures, and I know that a lot of people did, I am sure that you will like the three pictures I have posted today.

These were taken on the same day as yesterdays pictures in Delamere Forest.  The frost created a magical atmosphere, coating every tree and blade of grass. The frozen pond in the third picture  looked firm enough to walk on but it would have been a shame to disturb such a beautiful scene.

I like the frozen spider's web.  Webs often make interesting pictures especially when covered with morning dew and this frozen one is no exception.  It is a shame that it was incomplete but i guess the freezing had made it more fragile.

Let me know which is your favourite and why...

A Cold and Frosty Morning

Having spent most of the week on the beach I have moved inland now, to Delamere Forest to be exact.  These pictures were taken on New Years Eve 2008 and were among the first taken with my canon 450D.  As you can see it was a particularly cold and frosty morning with a thick coating of frost on just about everything.  There was mist hanging in the air creating a slightly eerie  backdrop to everything and robbing things of colour.  The robin in the second photo was just about the only colourful thing to be seen.

I love getting out in all weathers and in every season and these pictures show that there is so much beauty in all conditions.  Tomorrow I will have a few more pictures from this session which I hope you will enjoy too.

Morning trees

Today's pictures are again from my early morning walk in Delamere Forest a few weeks ago.  I have chosen two beautifully coloured shots and a third in black and white.  I generally don't make any real adjustments to the photos I post mainly because I try to get things right in camera and in a way it feels a bit like cheating to do much post production work. However I have made a few small tweaks to the shadows and highlights which have enhanced the overall colours.

Looking at the pictures really brings back the peace and quiet of that morning and I'm itching to get out with my camera again.  Let's hope the weather is kind to me on Saturday.