A little evening trip to one of the local parks today, for me and the girls whilst Holly went to the gym.
Bikes loaded into the car, along with my camera bag and we set off; all three of us in a muggy “late” (7pm is late to be taking the girls out) evening mess. It is so “close” at the moment, and I can feel a storm in the air – I just hope it doesn’t hit tomorrow, because it’s due to be Livvy’s sports day.
I love going to sports day, Livvy is always so proud to show us how good she is! She’s assured me she is going to win the egg and spoon race, and I have no doubt she will.
Not far from the park, is a canal, and again I found myself draw to it; I am really missing my fishing at the moment, I haven’t been for months. I think that might be why I’m gravitating to any water I can find at the moment.
We found a little closed off road, that held a bridge over the canal. It was a good place to stop and try and get some photos; the girls would be safe as no cars could get to where we were, and the view was really cool down the canal, and over to the woodland in the distance.
I tried a few different things, but again struggled with the sky – I’m not sure why but I can’t pick the detail out like I have done in the past. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve adjusted a camera setting somewhere without realising it! More likely, is that now I’m using my tripod I’m not exposing for the highlights like I used to, which is something I need to find a way to do with the camera on its tripod, and get back into the habit of doing.
I tried some “straight” shots, and some exposure bracketed shots; again it didn’t pull the sky detail through as much as I’d like, but the detail in the trees and shadows is amazing.
What was cool was capturing the reflections in the water, almost perfect mirror images of the tree lined bank on the left.
Learnings – main thing today, was that I’ll give all my settings the once over, but mainly I’ll make a conscious effort to expose handheld, then set the camera on the tripod, and see how that comes out.
I think what’s happening is that because I really like to bring the shadow out, my “new” way of exposing the shot is at odds with it, so I have a battle to get the feel I want in post process editing.
Tomorrow I think I’ll try a handheld shot and a tripod shot, see how I handle them differently in terms of exposure.
Onegav 