Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been revisiting the same location (Cossington South Lakes and Meadows) - beginning with a chilly morning visit with Flickr contact John Houghton and ending with an overcast and rainy afternoon out with “her indoors” this weekend. This shot was taken earlier this week after a short, mid-afternoon snowfall.
It’s not a great composition I know, but opportunities were a little limited. However the pretty sunset and reflection were too much for me to pass without taking a few shots, of which this was my favourite.
Posted in sunsets, trees.
Tagged with cossington, reflection, snow, sunset, tree.
By Andy
February 15, 2010
One of my favourite locations for both sunsets and getting a bit of peace and quiet - although the mood was spoilt a bit by people shooting nearby when I was there last time 
There is quite a prominent bit of foreground at this location which is shot very often, indeed I’ve done so myself on a number of occasions, but this simple view across the gently rippling water as the sun sinks behind the trees is my favourite.
Posted in landscape, sunsets, water.
Tagged with cropston, reflection, reservoir, sunset, water, winter.
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My first new image for a couple of weeks
I’ve been incredibly busy with a few things recently - work, getting prints made, cleaning up and reappraising some old shots - and I just haven’t had time to update this blog. I’ve got a few things that I want to upload but it’s finding the time to get everything done. I’ve only been out once with the camera in the last two weeks - I normally go out every 2 or 3 days - but at least I got lucky with my timing and choice of location here.
The above shot was taken at Beacon Hill, near Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire. I’ve previously avoided this location (although the fact that there are a couple of other shots from here on this blog would seem to indicate otherwise) but decided to try it as I was short of other ideas (and time).
Initially I was disappointed by the mainly clear sky but moments after the sun went down a blanket of fog began to fill the valley below. The remaining sunlight lit the fog in patches as it drifted towards me. All I had to do then was try to find a composition I was happy with before the moment was gone - whilst keeping an eye on the nearby cows to make sure they didn’t get too interested in the camera bag I’d discarded on the floor.
Posted in landscape, sunsets.
Tagged with beacon hill, cokin nd8 grad, fog, leicestershire, mist, rocks, sunset, tree.
By Andy
November 15, 2009
It was about an hour before sunset when we arrived at this location, and the light had just taken on the golden hue we had hoped for. After a bit of wandering around trying to find somewhere to make the most of the light I settled on a nicely constructed platform that was probably intended for fishing and took a couple of shots of the scene above. It was quite pleasant, but a bit bright and there was no interesting foreground to speak of so, as I had a bit of time before sunset, I thought I’d give the Cokin P151 - Gradual Fog 2 filter a try.
I popped the camera into Live View mode and slid the fog filter into the P-Series holder. The fog filter is graduated - foggy at the top and clear and the bottom, fading gently between the two states - and using Live View enabled me to see accurately where the effect was going to begin. If the effect started too low or too high in the picture it wouldn’t look natural.
This was the shot as it came out of the camera…
I liked the effect but found it a little too bright and unrealistic so I just made some minor curve adjustments to improve the overall balance.
Posted in filters, landscape, sunsets, water.
Tagged with cokin, filter, fog, print, sunset.
The day before I took this I noticed just how red the clouds were as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Keeping an eye on the weather over the course of the next day I thought it looked like there was a good chance conditions might be the same so I popped out an hour before sunset to explore some local lakes that I’ve ridden and driven past many times but never walked around.
The major challenge when attempting shots like this (for me at least) is getting the exposure just right. Even though the sun has disappeared below the horizon the sky is still bright enough to completely overpower the rest of the scene. I’m sure the camera could have dealt with this in one of its automatic modes in conjunction with evaluative metering and auto white balance, but from experience I doubt I would have been that happy with the results. The shot would either have contained a properly exposed sky and little else, or more light in the rest of the shot with blown highlights in the sky.
In order to maintain an even level of light in the sky and in the reflection on the water I used my trusty Cokin ND8 (P121) grad *. It’s ideal for shots of this type where there is a nice straight, dark line across the image where the start of the graduation can be placed. Using this filter allows a longer exposure time so that we can pick up more of the light elsewhere in the shot, such as the faint light on the reeds in the foregound. Once the grad is in place it’s always a good idea to double check its positioning with the DOF preview button if you’re using a small aperture as fine adjustments can make all the difference.
Before I put the grad in I’ll usually spot meter what I think is the brightest part of the scene and set it so that it exposes at just below +2EV - I do this manually by adjusting the shutter speed (but if you are using AV you can just used the exposure compensation control to achieve the same results). Once the grad is in place I’ll then adjust the shutter speed to compensate for change in light - so if I’d settled on 1/100s before the grad I’ll change it to 1/25s (even though the ND8 makes a 3 stop difference I won’t usually adjust by 3 stops initially).
Then it’s just a case of taking a test shot and checking the composition and the histogram (and keeping an eye out for blinkies). If there are blown highlights (blinkies) then the shutter speed needs to be faster - if the histogram doesn’t look right (usually not containing data in the right-hand 5th) then the shutter speed needs to be slower **.
* It’s worth noting that the Cokin P121 does give a pink/purple colour cast so it’s not really ideal for use during the day, unless you are prepared to attempt to correct the problem either by using Auto White Balance or by fixing it later in post-production. It is however great for shooting towards the sun at this time of day
** If the shutter speed can’t be slower - because there is too much movement in the shot - then compromises will have to be made with aperture size or ISO setting. A brief explanation of exposure control and stops can be found here - http://www.andystafford.co.uk/exposure-control-stops/
Posted in landscape, sunsets.
Tagged with clouds, cokin, cokin nd8 grad, lake, leicestershire, reeds, reflection, sunset, water.
By Andy
September 26, 2009
This hadn’t been intended my location for the evening - I’d been going through some earlier shots and wanted to carry out some further experiments with the green filter and reflections in water, so I chose somewhere at random from the OS map. Once I’d been for a walk through some fields and found that the water was on private land and not that great anyway I set off to find something else to do - then I noticed the Ratcliffe On Soar power station
I watched the sun go down from another location, waiting for the light to improve to give me a good balance between the sky and the ground but it was cloudy and slightly windy. In the end I decided to head home without any particularly decent shots but, when I drove past this field with easy access and a good view of the power station I knew there was going to be the chance of a nice image. Fortunately the breeze was intermittent so after a few attempts it was still enough to get this 1 second exposure without any noticeable movement in the crops.
I used a Cokin P121 ND grad filter to reduce the brightness of the sky by 3 stops - it would perhaps have been better if I’d stacked another grad on top too, but the wide angle filter holder only has room for a single filter (and even then there are still vignetting issues between 10 and 12mm)
Technical details : P121 ND grad, 1 second exposure, f/22, 10mm, ISO100
Posted in landscape, sunsets.
Tagged with cokin nd8 grad, crop, power station, ratcliffe on soar, sigma 10-20, sunset, wheat.
The light just after the sun has gone down can make for some really remarkable shots - Ok, sunset shots can be a bit cliched, but searching around (or waiting) for a bit of foreground interest can make all the difference.
If you are lucky and have a steady hand (or a lens with optical stabilising) you can get good shots at a low ISO without having to bother with a tripod (although using a tripod is recommended for sharper images). This shot was hand held as that is just how I prefer to take photos - I like to feel like I’m involved, rather than controlling a piece of machinery
I like this location as the expanse of water makes for a great reflection on a still day but despite the colours being pretty it really needed something extra. Fortunately after about 5 minutes a swan started to come towards the shore.
Technical details:- Cokin P121 ND4 Grad, ISO200, 1/15s, f/16.0, 20 mm
Posted in sunsets.
Tagged with cokin, colour, leicestershire, reflection, sunset, swithland, water.
This was the first sunset I ever really paid attention to - and the first one I witnessed with my camera. I hadn’t previously been aware of just how much the light changes before and after the sun goes down and being there was accidental - I had actually gone to take pictures of some boats I had noticed there earlier in the week.
I’d just taken delivery of some new filters - a light blue grad and a light tobacco grad, both Kood - and was keen to try them out. After getting the shots I wanted I started to wander back to the car when I noticed that the sun had finally disappeared from view and there was a slight ripple moving across the otherwise still reservoir.
I used both filters here - the tobacco one at the bottom and the blue one at the top. Technically I should have included some foreground but the colours in this were pleasing enough for me to not mind its exclusion.
Technical details:- 0.125 sec (1/8s), f/8.0, 21 mm
Posted in filters, landscape, sunsets.
Tagged with cropston reservoir, kood, moon, ripple, sigma 17-70mm, sunset, trees.
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