Waterfall

 Here are four more images from my brief visit to the Black Forest in November, as I said in a previous post I had gone to see the famous Triberg Waterfall but it was closed due to adverse conditions. However that disappointment did not stop me enjoying the forest or limit my opportunity to find great photographic subjects.

The theme for today is falling water even if the pictures do not show a waterfall; in the first picture the reverse of the leaf has a jewelled coating of raindrops that reflect the little light that was creeping through the trees. I have increased the depth of the shadows to highlight the glistening droplets. This was shot using my 100-400mm lens and perhaps the focus is not as sharp as I would have hoped but nevertheless I think it is an effective image.

For the next three images I switched to my 100mm macro lens and got really close up to capture the raindrops clinging to the branches, several times I missed the shot as the droplets fell before the shutter closed. The light was fairly poor and I had no flash so I could not capture the falling droplets which is a shame but even so I think these shots look pretty cool.

I particularly like the last image, I used a small torch to illuminate the droplet from below, I took three different shots of this droplet, the first two to capture the inverted reflection of a pine tree  but of the three shots I preferred this one that highlights the shape and structure of the droplet.
 

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.

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.

Drip Drip Drop

So, not April showers but the remnant of a light shower in May but on a very sunny morning so these beautiful droplets reflected the sunlight as they settled on the vibrant green leaves.

I was amazed at the different shapes and sizes of the droplets and how they hold their shapes so well, one droplet not seen in these images was on the edge of the leaf and it had a straight side, amazing...

Dewdrops

Walking along a path alongside a meadow the grass, shrubs and flowers were all laden down with raindrops from an earlier downpour. The petals of this yellow flower were particularly heavy with droplets giving the petals the appearance and texture of tissue paper.

I was glad that the rain had stopped because it meant I was able to get some great pictures.

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.

After The Rain

Yesterday I went to Ness Botanic Gardens. I have lived in this area for almost 25 years and have never visited the gardens before so in hope that the weather would stay favourable and that there would lots of flowers to see I headed out with my camera and my 100mm macro lens (in truth I had all my gear but only used the one lens) and went wild...

Although it was quite cloudy and cold it was a nice day. It having rained heavily the night before everything was fresh and green, if a little squishy under foot. 

At first I couldn't decide which pictures to start with but thought that as I had posted pictures of water splashes for the past two days I would lead into my selection from Ness with these beautiful water droplets on succulent leaves. 

I like the first image with the tiny bubbles glittering in the large droplet but my favourite shot is the second one with the smooth round droplet and with the bokeh the droplets in the background appear like fairy lights.

Creating Rainbows

Having been walking and taking pictures for several hours I decided to take a few moments to sit on the shore of a small inlet of Llyn Llydaw. I started tossing pebbles into the water as I find this a really satisfying thing to do. I like to watch the stone arc through the air and then hit the water with a reassuring "ploosh!" and then I like to see the water splash creating all manner of shapes and patterns.

After a couple of minutes the stones and the resulting splashes got bigger and I decided to try and capture some pictures. I recalled how at this time last year I was stood on the shore of Attersee in Austria with my son doing exactly the same thing and taking pictures of the splash while my son threw the rocks, so I decided to try and take pictures but this time throwing the stones myself. It was a little tricky but I found I was better able to predict where the stones would hit the surface when I was doing the throwing.

In the first image I like the colours of the rainbow as the sunlight captures the water droplets as they rise through the air.

I really like the second image which is cropped to show some of the detail of the water droplets, I love the way they change shape as they wobble through the air, in a matter of seconds they are gone so capturing them reveals the beauty of the moment.

In the third picture there is so much going on with the ring of water expanding from the hollow at point of impact as well as the fountain rising up from the centre and the rain of droplets thrown out from this central column.

Just a Wee Drop

A woodland walk on a wet Saturday (or any other day of the week for that matter) will provide lots of great photo opportunities you just have to keep your eyes open and have an eye for what makes an interesting shot. 

If you have seen my blog before you will know that I love the small things that would easily be missed and I find things like the droplets of water in the pictures above to be really beautiful.  I love the way they hold their form and the way they cling to the minute hairs on the surface of the leaf.  I love the reflections they capture and the way they magnify and expose the patterns within the leaf. There really is so much beauty here.

What surprised me too about these images was that these droplets are on new growth on Honeysuckle, which while perfectly at home in the woodland it seemed very early in the season to find such  growth and I hope that as the weather turns to what would normally be expected from this time of the year these tender new shoots are not damaged.

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.

Ducks and Drakes

Although mallards are probably the most common ducks we will see in our parks and along our river banks but because we see them so often they are easily overlooked which is a shame because they are truly beautiful.  I am really pleased with the first of today's pictures, the clear image and the lovely reflection show this young female at her best.

I love the flash of colour in the cheeks of the drake in the final two pictures and the water droplets beading on its head is a nice detail.