Photowalk 19 - Alver Valley (Mosquito Hell!)

Now my Mrs may call it man-flu, but it felt like the real thing as I dragged myself down to Gosports nature reserve (for mosquitoes) - The Alver Valley. Actually it's a really nice place to walk around, woodland and open areas, just go in the mornings and preferably not on the week-ends, before the "young tear-aways" get out of bed and start riding their mopeds around....

You may have noticed that I've done the video slightly differently. I felt it was misleading in my previous attempts when you heard the click of the shutter, because what I was showing was the image after editing - so what I tried to do in this video was to show the original image, then a fade to the edited, final one. What it doesn't show is that for the HDR images, the final one was made from 3 originals, so I just chose the middle exposure ( 0ev) for display purposes. I hope its a more honest way of sharing my photos (and editing) with you all.

(Please click on the images to go to Flickr and see the larger versions).

I used my tripod on all of the HDR images in this set - and I think it shows. I'm starting to really like working in woods and forests - as long as you can pick out some interesting detail, and preferable some sort of trail too, you can come up with some nice images. A challenge is always on sunny days where the highlights of the Sun shining through the canopy can blow out - but I think you've got to embrace that and make it part of the composition, or pan down and get in close. I tried Photoshops Diffuse Glow filter in a few of these woodland shots to make the Sun-Spots look more interesting. The real problem I have is my old slow PC (my main one blew up) - try running Photoshop CS3 on a Pentium II with 512mb of Ram! You apply an adjustment, then go off and make a cup of tea, read the newspaper, then its just about ready when you get back!

I'm starting to get obsessed by paths and trails... Seriously, they are a great "leading line" to guide the viewers eye through a photograph. This is one of the HDR's where I used the Diffuse Glow filter. It exaggerates the bright areas, those brighter spots on the path, and I quite like the effect.

A macro of this odd hairy tree. Not sure if it's that interesting, but I liked the texture, the blurred background, and the diagonal the trunk made across the frame.

At this point I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes - but these two trees caught my attention, so I set up my tripod for a HDR shot. They're a good example of how different it can be shooting in woodland. Things that really pop out when you're there, in this case the difference between the curvy first tree, then the straighter one with the vine growing up it, just aren't as apparent when you get home and look at the photos on your PC screen. I had to play around with the Hue / Saturation of the different colour channels to bring the trees out from the green background, and resorted to lightening the first trunk and the vine on the second to emphasize those details.

This little guy would not stay still! I must have taken about 15 shots with my S5700 in Super Macro Mode, trying to get him in focus and in the right place! He kept ducking around to the wrong side of the leaf, and most of my shots were of a very nice and sharp forest floor....

Another of my "go to" macro shots - the view from above, shading the whole subject with my camera. I would have had a lot more, but it was just too windy, making composing and focusing difficult, so most ended up in the bin. This one turned out OK though.

You see lots of this sort of pic - a Depth of Field effect with the rest of the frame nice and soft, so I thought I'd have a go. It was windy, so the subject isn't that sharp, and the bright (if blurred) flower grouping on the right detract from the main image. I think I should have cropped tighter too, removing the other stem on the left.

Hmmm. This one looks OK at small and medium sizes, but if you look at the big version on Flickr you'll notice a lot of noise, and the remains of Chromatic Aberration (purple fringing) on the outline of the main tree, and it just isn't that sharp. I think I was a bit lazy in post-processing - if I had spent more time I could have cleaned it up and sharpened it better. Although interesting, it would have been better with a path or trail leading through the image - I could have re-framed, or burned a "false" trail into the grass, around the bush. Next time...

Even though I was feeling under the weather, I really enjoyed this Photowalk and the varied scenery and opportunities. I always wish I could visit at dawn or dusk - but when you've got kids a compromise that means I have the time to get out and shoot at all - is welcome and necessary.

Phew! Where can I go next?

Thanks, Rob.