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Re: [OM] Four shots from winter-time down-under

Subject: Re: [OM] Four shots from winter-time down-under
From: "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:11:55 +1300
Thanks Russ for your kind comments.

Actually I'm never quite sure how things will turn out. Suck it and see I 
guess, is part of my modus operandi.  And also for these shots; take it now; 
you are here, it is here, and tomorrow all will be different or not here at all.

Top shot at   http://www.brianswale.com/zuikoholics/

I'd never photographed sunflowers before. The son of my g/f had buried a 
whole seedhead in the garden and this dense patch of enormous plants 
grew up.
It was late afternoon on a scorching hot, cloudless day. The sun was coming 
through a line of Port Orford Cedars (Cupressus lawsoniana, for the 
initiated) about 30 ft (10 m ) away (hence the good bokeh - there's nothing 
quite as good as a healthy distance to improve bokeh), giving strong 
backlight. HOWEVER, behind me was a large, freshly painted titanium-white 
house wall in full sun, acting as a huge reflector. That, I realise now, was 
the 
saving item, lighting up the flowers which otherwise would have been quite 
dark with blown-out highlights. 
Camera on tripod, decide to include some leaves which could always be 
cropped out if need be, aperture priority, camera angled up to look into the 
flowers at a good angle, chase away the huge bumble-bees from the 
flowers, avoid the worst of the patches of blue sky, and shoot !

Dublin Bay rose.
Same time of day or later, but the other side of the house in full shade. NO 
clouds, only the blue light of the sky. A howling NW gale was just abating, 
and eddies were swirling around me. Two nice blooms on a group of four 
were in the end of a very long branch which was swaying wildly, so I 
steadied it with a handy large garden fork.  Zuiko 100/2 on E-3 at minimum 
distance of 70cm. Tripod. Bokeh of this lens is always good if there is some 
distance to the backdrop - in this case about 1.5 m. It took me about half an 
hour to get this shot, listening to the wind gusts, feeling the eddies on the 
hair of my arms, watching the subject movement in the view-finder. No 
cropping or other manipulation except some mild sharpen. f/11 probably. 
Not a sharp shot, due to subject movement despite my precautions. That's 
my story anyway.

I actually don't like this shot much, and it is in the nature of an experiment. 
The total absence of white light ( you can see blue sky reflected from some 
petals) means that the best range of colour of this rose could not be 
obtained, nor were the petals illuminated to their bases. Interesting.

The wheat harvesting shots. A real case of "do it now, or forget it".
I had chosen to take the long way home on a stinking hot day with heavy 
traffic on SH1, and was just north of Glenavy. The header was nearly at the 
road, so I did a swift U-turn, stopped and got out, fitted the 35-105 to the 
"new" OM4Ti and grabbed a couple of hand-held shots before all was lost.

I decided to wait for the header to travel to the other end of this rather 
large 
paddock (not in the same scale as Canadian prairies !), and return.  I waited 
at least half an hour.  No cloud, hot sun right behind the camera - so little 
modelling possible. I don't know why I didn't use the tripod - I had it in the 
car -  need a swift kick!. But that possibly explains why this set of shots is 
not as sharp as one could wish for..  I took 6 - 8 shots and these are but two 
of the set. Aperture priority. What you see is what the E-3 took.
No "golden grain" wheat in this case; wheat and oats CAN be shining and 
light in colour, but not this time. Don't know why.

My first shots of a wheat header / threshing machine in action.

Brian Swale. 
-- 
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