September flowers - having fun with florals

Where has this week gone?! It's been quite warm and sunny and I've enjoyed seeing two new species of dragonfly visiting my pond. More about that another time as for now I am sharing a selection of flowers taken over the course of the month, some with bugs on them but that's more because there are always insects about, rather than I was specifically trying to capture them. Many of these photos I have had fun with, either with the shooting or the processing - with bugs I want them looking natural and lifelike, but with florals anything goes, so I am trying to make myself push those sliders and press those effects buttons, go garish or muted or add textures, or all of the above! And shooting towards the sunlight in the early morning when it's all misty and dewy with autumnal light produces some great effects and bokeh.

Bidens and a spider.

Bidens and a Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus).

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' and Golden Oregano
(the latter has flowered really well and for ages, thanks to the rain in August).

All the purple leafed Sedums are flowering late, having survived an early attack by Ermine Moth caterpillars.

Zephirine Drouhin. Images taken 3 days apart, in different light and with different processing.

A Dahlia, one of several which I inadvertently grew from seed last year,
thanks to a packet of mixed flower seeds for attracting butterflies.

This one looks better viewed large as the little ant doesn't show up very well here; however the
crab spider was a really tiny one and I couldn't get a sharper shot than this.

Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'. I know the name of this one!

Mating Flesh Flies on an annual Coreopsis.

Coreopsis again, also known as Tickseed. This one is my favourite annual.

Veg patch this year - there are veggies in there too!

Sunflowers are fun and the bees love them.

Pollinator Meadow year 3 in the early morning light.

Same view taken from behind a Dill plant.

Dewy Mirabilis jalapa, before the flowers close up for the day.

A Dahlia with a spider waiting for an unsuspecting pollinator.

A Grasshopper amongst the Rudbeckia 'Goldsturms'.

Cosmos in the veg patch.

Borage with a Honey Bee and on the right, a Heineken Hoverfly (Rhingia campestris).

This is a strange year! Verbena bonariensis is usually my main butterfly nectar flower but this year
hardly any have been attracted to it. Here's a Green-veined White (Pieris napi) having a drink.

Looking towards the garden through the trees early in the morning.

From the other direction - I still don't know what the tall yellow flowers are!
They spread like crazy just like the Bidens next to them.

Then there is ICM, which stands for Intentional Camera Movement, an effect you can create in camera by moving it whilst on a slow(ish) shutter speed. My friend Marianne has been trying to teach me how to do this and it requires a LOT of practice! I'm still mostly getting duff pictures but it's great fun trying.

ICM - the stems top left are my Bronze Fennel which hosted so many
Swallowtail caterpillars and there's also Sedum 'Autumn Joy',
the pink flower in the background (which is usually covered in butterflies,
but not so this year. Sob).

And a few harvest pictures that didn't fit in with other posts....

Thanks to heavy rain in August I actually got some edible peaches!
They doubled their size although they are still much smaller than
the commercially available ones.

And everyone loves rude veggies. :-)

And now I am awaiting the forecasted thunderstorms and heavy rain which the garden sorely needs, yet the sun is shining outside, I can hear a Robin singing and I'm torn because when this mini heatwave is over, that will truly be the end of summer. But roll on autumn! :-)

My Graduation Challenge album

My course is over but I'm still feeling my way along because I've switched to using Lightroom and it's taking me twice as long to deal with my photos now. Not to mention the fact I've started shooting them in RAW in the last week! Anyway here are the photos that I shared publically on Google Plus as my Graduation Challenge album. We were given themes and had to share one to two photos for at least three of the following themes: Nature, Silhouette, B&W and Flash (or Creative Lighting). 

I wanted to challenge myself further so decided there and then I would not take any florals or macros! It meant getting out and about as I couldn't take all these pictures at home but luckily the weather changed for the better mid week. All my photos are taken in manual mode which is what the course was all about after all - teaching us how to use our cameras properly!

The photo below was my first attempt at longish exposure with a tripod. I went there late in the day to practice taking photos of the chateau which overlooks this lake but it was overcast which was a bit of a shame. Suddenly the sun peeked out and shone further along the lake, hence this picture which I reckoned I could sneek into the category Nature! Click on the photos to open them up larger by the way, as the landscape ones don't show the details this small.

Combourg Lake (Nature)

You may wonder why I've included a bird photo as a challenge. That's because I wanted to have a go at bird photography using a 75-300mm lens and my dslr in manual mode. It's a lot heavier than my SX50 which I use in shutter priority when shooting birds. Capturing them in a natural setting is hard anyway, particularly the little flitty birds, so I'm quite pleased with this one.

Blue Tit (Nature)

At first I was horrified when I saw one of the themes was B&W. I've never liked B&W at all and didn't have a clue how you are supposed to process it. So I googled and read up a bit about B&W and learned how to process it in Lightroom. It's quite a skill and I have learned to appreciate B&W and monochrome now! I chose the tatty old chicken shed door due to the textures of the peeling paint, rust and lichen covering it.

The Chicken Shed Door (B&W)

I was looking all around for some trees that I could shoot as silhouettes and finally found this nice view late in the day. This one is my favourite.

Breton Countryside at the End of the Day (Silhouette)

We spent a week learning about flash which was nowhere near long enough as it's a huge subject. But I've learned about diffusing light and bouncing it off other surfaces rather than directing it straight at your subject. I could practice this kind of stuff forever and probably still learn new things. We learned straight off in week one how important light is and when you add another dimension, a secondary main light source, it gets all the more complicated!

Tomatoes (Flash)

My OH came in handy during flash week as I needed a model, and other times even when I was trying selfies he came in handy so I could manually focus on him and then get in front of the camera myself. I'd got a nice picture of him at home with a sunset behind but this time I wanted to try night shots in a town with some lights. It was bloody hard and the poor guy posed for me for about 3/4 hour before we gave up and went home. I learned tons about what doesn't work! This was my last shot and thankfully it came out OK as I took a lot that were fit only for the bin!

Portrait of a Husband in Downtown Combourg (Flash)

So here I am, I have come out of the other side after an incredibly intensive six weeks, that were worth every minute, and got out of it every bit of blood, sweat and tears that I put into it! But now the garden beckons and I need to spend time in it as spring has sprung with a vengeance. :-)
 

Photography course outtakes

Nearly finished week two of my photography course and it's been a steep learning curve and keeping me really busy. With very mixed weather many of my exercises have been done inside (but I learned how to use a tripod at long last so that's not been a problem). But every time I could get outside I practised on anything I could get my hands on. So I've a huge selection of rubbish photos some of which I'm going to share here with you! 

We were learning about shutter speed and capturing motion, either to freeze motion or to blur it. I practised on all sorts, including the chickens. Only I forgot to change back the white balance so this odd coloured picture is set on Tungsten! Hens, like cats, are not really ideal subjects as their movements are far too erratic but it was a bit of a laugh.

Andrea running away from strange woman with camera.

When the sun came out last weekend I had the bright idea to use my OH as my subject and wanted him to sit in a chair and wave his arms about, so I could try to capture him on both fast and slow speeds to see what effects I could achieve. However after setting up the tripod along came two nosy parkers who wanted to know what the chair was doing in the middle of the lawn. Of course they became unwitting subjects for me to practise on.

"Oooh a new toy!"

"No idea what mum is doing over there with that strange contraption, but let's play anyway!"

See? I can capture motion blur!

At this point I realised I didn't actually need my OH at all, but could set it on the timer
and use myself as my subject, thus officially creating my first selfie.
Here I'm waving at you and that blur IS intentional!

Capturing water - fail. First time I've used a hose pipe in February though!
Now what are those blurry green things top left?

Who else would use watering cans to do a depth of field exercise? :-)
Actually decided this was a total fail as well so did a much better one inside!
Arty though, non? OK, no. I agree.

Nothing to do with my exercises but I've noticed the boys have discovered the cat mint -
the poor plant is only about 1cm tall, but Bertie doesn't care!

Harry, just because he sat still for a moment. Can you see the reproachful look in his eyes?
"Mummy, you took my you-know-whats away!"

Hallie wanted to get into a picture too.
This sort of thing happens often when I'm taking photos!

Finally a picture I did submit as part of an assignment,
one of my PSB plants with a nice bokeh of purple curly kale.

I have taken loads of photos of flowers and just things around the garden today because it was sunny after 2 days of non stop rain, although of course it's started raining again and we're due for more storms this weekend! My gardening jobs are piling up and it's getting rather frustrating. But let's be positive here, all those photos I took today were in full manual mode! :-)

Beating the blues

My mood has been really up and down during this last week. I think it's a touch of the SAD syndrome after a week of sunshine then a return to the gloom. However it's been a cold gloom with a nasty wind making working outside rather unpleasant. At the same time I know that the antidote to the blues is to get outside, get some fresh air and do things, so I have been trying hard to do this. I will not be beaten!

Whilst the cold snap has meant that no daffodils have yet started to bloom, at least the Hellebores are still flowering and new flowers are opening up adding a little bit of cheer. 

Saturday we were surprised to see the lake had frozen over - the lowest temperature was (only) about -4C and it normally takes days of cold weather before this happens. My newest ducks were in for a shock as I had bought them last year after our last freeze so this was a first for them. As the day wore on they found plenty of patches under the trees which hadn't frozen solid so they still had water to play in, and by the next day it had all melted.

Whilst I was standing around taking photos here I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye in the conifer on my right, and noticed that there was a Goldcrest right close to me. Try as I might I could not get a decent photo of this tiny and not often seen bird. Goldcrests are about the smallest European bird, smaller even than a wren and really cute, but they are one of the most flitty of all birds and never stand still, so out of about 10 shots as the bird made its way higher and higher up the tree this was the best I could get. Many of my shots were either blurs, or the bird wasn't even in the photo at all as it had moved so fast! At least it (just) shows the stripy marking on the bird's head, although it looks a bit odd from this angle.

On Monday I was really pleased to spot these out of my bedroom window! I love seeing the newborn lambs and watching them gambol about in the paddock across the lane. These are twins and I expect there will be more to come as there are three ewes in the paddock.

They are still living in the same field as the new neighbour's renovation job, which is coming along well. We cannot get over the size of the spoil heap now which is just enormous. I wonder just how deep they dug down inside the house before the cement mixers moved in. I must go over and have another nosey!

They are rebuilding the chimney stack and I'm glad to see they are actually doing a nice job with real stone work. Thanks to my Powershot SX50 I can zoom right in and look at the work in close up!

The time came to let Hallie outside for the first time; that is, the first time since she came to us from outside as an abandoned kitten. I wondered how she would fare out there but she was just as I had imagined, a mix of curiosity coupled with wariness and fear. She has been getting the hang of the catflap through from the kitchen to the cellar/laundry but then there is another catflap to outside - and she's a small cat and this is a large cat/small dog size one which we needed for Smokey who was a huge cat.

You can see my daffodils almost ready to open up here! All my euphorbias are oblivious to the cold and are coming along nicely, opening up their flowers slowly and adding a bit of interest to what is still a very wintery looking garden.

On Monday my neighbour came around to collect eggs and she said she'd been digging her veg patch as the soil was just lovely now after a week of dry weather. I had been pathetically cowering indoors due to the evil wind but after she left I decided I had to brave the cold and out I went for a dig. That was really good therapy as I soon warmed up! The veg patch is a mess of weeds so it is a bit backbreaking from the constant bending over to pick up the weeds, but at least it means I've got lots of green stuff to add to all the straw and poo to mix into the compost bins. 

I didn't get very far! But I really don't want to stuff up my back. My OH usually does the digging but he's been having back problems lately so I thought I'd better get on with it. I've done a bit more since. Even the strawberries have shrivelled up and they need a good sorting out too. So much to do!

On the upside, the same neighbour who keeps horses offered us some half rotted horse poo so we went over and filled our trailer full giving us nearly 2 cubic metres worth. I'll be letting that rot down fully over the summer but a bit of it can be used mixed in with the soil where I plant hungry plants like pumpkins, squash and courgettes which should appreciate it.

Next to the Purple Sprouting Broccoli on the right is the patch of 'Wildflowers for pollinators' meadow that is left from last year which I'm leaving in place. These are the biennials and perennial plants. I had forgotten that I had bought another packet of similar seeds, this time flowers for butterflies, when I was in England, so I need to find some space to sow a patch of those too.

The blurb on the packet doesn't give me any indication as to the species of plants, only a photo. I see no Verbena bonariensis which is my butterfly magnet but that's probably a good thing as I have so much of it here already. The only flowers that are recognisable from the packet are some marigolds and possibly hollyhocks, which I shall be pleased if they are as I'd like some here as I know that bees love them!

There's one other thing I love to do, which is an indoor job. In previous years when I've had the blues I've knitted, but this year I haven't even picked up my knitting once. That's because I am far more into photography now. Sure, I can't wear a photo but at least I don't have to sow up the side seams of a photograph!

So I've had a a macro feather shoot. This is my 'studio'. My desk with few props. The feathers of course come free from the ducks - I use a mix of small feathers and pure down. It's hard to see but there is a tiny bit of duck down on the purple thing.

Sprinkle with drops of water and I can come up with fun shots like these. You can see how the props add the colour. The blue thing is just a cardboard file and the purple thing is a strange holder for a multicoloured pen with a magnet in it so the pen just looks like it's floating.... but it was handy for collecting all the excess water that tends to get flung about. :-)

This one I just lightened up a bit to brighten my mood. :-)

So, it's March now so hopefully spring won't be too long arriving. We have daffodils to look forward to, and towards the end of the month, the return of the Swallows, Chiff Chaffs and Black Caps. :-)