David's Project 365

[davidc]

This is part of an ornament hanging on the wall - wanted to try a closeup shot to see how it looked as a kind of sparkly blue abstract.


Blue Abstract - 186/365 by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[davidc]

This was a labour of love

I've been waiting for a day when the weather forecast was good - albeit not TOO good, I want an interesting sky - and this Saturday was it.

Woke up at 4am and picked up my kit, into the car and a short drive to the local lavender farm. To my surprise another chap pulled up alongside me and with a tripod in tow I knew he was another photographer too and it was nice to get some company & make a new contact.

Although my shooting was cut short, the cooler dawn air draining the batteries much faster than I'd have expected, I was still really pleased with the results.

Definitely think I'll be back over the coming months to get more shots from here.


Lavender Dawn - 187/365 by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[davidc]

My wife's roses are really starting to bloom and the late afternoon light falling on them as I was setting up the BBQ was too much to resist


White Rose - 188/365 by cedarsphoto, on Flickr

[Paul Heester]

My first thought was "WOW!", my second was "Noooooo!" . Ive had similar planned at the Lavendar Hop Shop in Shoreham for a sunset, is this the same place?

Aesthetically, this ticks all the boxes for me, the diagonal rows, the sunrise, the tree in positioned in the rule of thirds. I dont see a hint of HDR so did you bracket exposures and then blend later? Im very jealous and its one of my favs along with your Jedi shot.

This was a labour of love

I've been waiting for a day when the weather forecast was good - albeit not TOO good, I want an interesting sky - and this Saturday was it.

Woke up at 4am and picked up my kit, into the car and a short drive to the local lavender farm. To my surprise another chap pulled up alongside me and with a tripod in tow I knew he was another photographer too and it was nice to get some company & make a new contact.

Although my shooting was cut short, the cooler dawn air draining the batteries much faster than I'd have expected, I was still really pleased with the results.

Definitely think I'll be back over the coming months to get more shots from here.

[davidc]

My first thought was "WOW!", my second was "Noooooo!" . Ive had similar planned at the Lavendar Hop Shop in Shoreham for a sunset, is this the same place?

Aesthetically, this ticks all the boxes for me, the diagonal rows, the sunrise, the tree in positioned in the rule of thirds. I dont see a hint of HDR so did you bracket exposures and then blend later? Im very jealous and its one of my favs along with your Jedi shot.

hahaha thank you that's very kind

It's Mayfield Lavender Farm, just up the road really. Mike posted a "detail" shot from there a few days ago too but I got the impression he went there during the day.

I was really worried the sky would be crappy and there be no nice glow at all but once the sun rose above the treeline the glow arrived and made the shot - really pleased how it turned out.

It technically IS HDR in that I ran it through photomatix but comparing the before/after shots I think I made the job easy for the software - toning the sky with an ND grad meant it is pretty much just a sky/ground blend as you say. Certainly it LOOKED like that on the morning and I didn't use any HDR trickery, it's just better at blending than I am.

Cheers for the compliments it means a lot

[davidc]

The only thing that was giving me grief on the day is that to get interest in the sky, the tree on a third/junction, the diagonals etc. meant that the horizon was uncomfortably close to the centre of the image.

Trouble is there was literally nowhere else to go to get this view. Moving the horizon to the bottom third would reveal the fact the sky was dull above the scattered cloud you can see and moving it up would reveal the unattractive straw field I was standing in to get the shot. In the end I felt like the other aspects made up for the fact I couldn't get the horizon on a third.

Also, this was the first time I've downloaded and used The Photographer's Ephemeris app for my phone. I'd seen and heard of the tool before but having it on hand while walking around a field and predicting the exact angle the sun would rise while setting up my shot was really useful. I can recommend it - £6 on the app store (iOS) but it helped me get this shot and I'm hoping many more future landscape shots too. Landscapes are definitely something I want to do more of

[Mike Farley]

This was a labour of love

I've been waiting for a day when the weather forecast was good - albeit not TOO good, I want an interesting sky - and this Saturday was it.

Woke up at 4am and picked up my kit, into the car and a short drive to the local lavender farm. To my surprise another chap pulled up alongside me and with a tripod in tow I knew he was another photographer too and it was nice to get some company & make a new contact.

Although my shooting was cut short, the cooler dawn air draining the batteries much faster than I'd have expected, I was still really pleased with the results.

Definitely think I'll be back over the coming months to get more shots from here.

Good shot, well done, especially for the early start. Once the PAD is inder the belt, it frees up the rest of the day.

Did you know that the sun would rise in the position and previsualise the shot?

There is a very similar photo from their 2012 photography competition on the Mayfield Lavender website, although the photographer then has positioned the sun on the other side of the tree. I have been trying to work out the positioning and wonder whether that image has been flipped as I cannot make the angles work otherwise. Whether sunrise or sunset, the positioning does not look right until the image is reversed for a dawn shot.

http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/photo-c ... 2-results/

[Mike Farley]

Ah, I have just seen your responses to Paul which you posted while I was typing mine. It answers a lot of the questions and probably explains why the other photographer felt compelled to alter their image away from reality.

I only use The Photographer's Ephemeris on my laptop, not because it is free, but for the more basic reason that until recently I did not have a smartphone. Now that I have, it runs Windows Mobile for which there is no version of the app. Instead, I use the low tech solution of a sun compass.

[Mike Farley]

It's Mayfield Lavender Farm, just up the road really. Mike posted a "detail" shot from there a few days ago too but I got the impression he went there during the day.

Yep, I had a lie in. Until I got there and spoke to the person in the shop, I had not realised that although there is a gate to the car park which is locked overnight, the farm straddles a right of way and there is another car park nearby so that it is posible to get on site out of hours. I posted the details when I did my own shot.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=536

Definitely think I'll be back over the coming months to get more shots from here.

It might not work so well than at present as they will be harvesting the lavender soon.

[davidc]

Good shot, well done, especially for the early start. Once the PAD is inder the belt, it frees up the rest of the day.

True but when the rest of the day is DIY in the front garden on the hottest day of the year I didn't appreciate the lack of sleep!

There is a very similar photo from their 2012 photography competition on the Mayfield Lavender website, although the photographer then has positioned the sun on the other side of the tree. I have been trying to work out the positioning and wonder whether that image has been flipped as I cannot make the angles work otherwise. Whether sunrise or sunset, the positioning does not look right until the image is reversed for a dawn shot.
http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/photo-c ... 2-results/

Yes, definitely previsualised the shot though that was based entirely on having seen the place in photographs; I'd never visited until Saturday morning!

I can see two others that are similar in concept

inferior lavender field shot.JPG (23.81 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

This one will be an evening shot taken from a the opposite side of the field to where I stood but looking west.

field 2.JPG (28.4 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

This one is trickier to place but I think it's another evening shot but MUCH deeper into the corner of the field (the treeline matches) and probably a couple of months earlier - playing around with TPE it could even be as early as May which is supported by the Lavender barely being in bloom at all. I'm sure a TPE for Windows phone will be out sooner or later and having it to hand will be quite useful, especially in situations where a laptop is impractical.

I parked just in front of the gate, same as the chap I met, and we hopped over the fence. I only took the 10-22 which was a mistake as there was ample material there for macro work AND I saw a fox in the lavender which would have made a cracking shot had I had an appropriate lens!