Little house on the lake. Belton House & Gardens Lincolnshire.

Belton House in Lincolnshire has extensive grounds which include two lakes. I’ve only found one so will have to ask imac of Photos from the minds eye blog to show me where the other one is. He has a good blog too well worth checking out, follow the link here: http://imac-photosfromthemindseye.blogspot.com/

The lake I did find has a charming little house sitting over the edge of it. I’ve framed this photo with some foreground interest to give extra depth and character to this very picturesque scene.

Looking out from the veranda of this little house are lovely views across and around the lake.

The reflections are unfortunately a little muted due to the time of day I took the photo and the overcast sky, hopefully you can still see how lovely a location it is though.

Walking around the lake from the little house you cross a footbridge that cried out to have its picture taken.

Belton House is full of surprises, every time I go there I find something new. Each season brings fresh colours and plants too so there is always something to see all year around.

Don’t forget to check out imacs blog and come back tomorrow for some more views, through the eye of a camera.

Return to my Lincolnshire Project.

As promised two weeks ago I have returned to my Lincolnshire project.

I said I would take a photo from the same location using similar camera settings every two weeks throughout the year.

Again as last time, I set the camera aperture at f8.0 giving me a shutter speed of 1/60sec.

The photograph was taken a little later in the afternoon this time and the low light has caused the sky to lose definition. Examining the scene it is surprising, even though it is late June, that the tree on the left of the frame is still not in full leaf but rather still only budding. The crops in the foreground are growing well though and are showing greener in the photo than last time.

As you can see not a huge difference since my last photograph, but, hopefully we will see subtle changes in each shot as the seasons unfold.

Follow me as we explore the changes in the seasons in Lincolnshire, England.

Lincolnshire photo project

I have decided to restart my Lincolnshire photo project.

Start date 11th June 2010.

Those of you who have been following me for a while will remember that I proposed to take a picture from the same spot in Lincolnshire, England every couple of days.

The aim was to see the seasons unfold through the various shots taken throughout the year.

Unfortunately circumstances prevented me from completing the project so here goes a second time.

This time I will take the same picture every two weeks, trying to match the camera settings as closely as I can.

Today's photo was taken on my Canon EOS digital Rebel XTi camera.

I used aperture priority setting the aperture at f8.0 it gave me an shutter speed of 1/60sec.

The ISO was set to 100 and the lens zoom was 62mm.

The tree in the foreground adds depth to the picture and the birds on the branches add a bit of character.

I will try and duplicate these settings in each picture (light allowing) to allow for a true comparison between photographs.

I have used no post processing on the Photograph either.

Follow me as the seasons unfold.

Telephoto Lens in garden

Its been a while since I did this blog properly. I've been very remiss or is it just lazy, one of them.

Anyway I took delivery the other week of a new telephoto lens for my DSLR. It's a 500mm manual focus lens with a 2x converter option as well. I thought as the weather was nice yesterday I set it up on a tripod in the conservatory with both doors wide open. The theory was to get some good close up shots of the birds which frequent our garden. It was not to be though, I sat there for over an hour and not one bird came near the feeders. In the end I let the dog out into the garden and took a few shots of him. As you can see I need to practice more as the picture isn't the sharpest of shots, but at least its a start.

Much the same has happened with this picture of the hanging down branch. The background is nicely blurred, though maybe a bit too highlighted but the foreground leaves just don't have the sharpness I wanted.

And just a couple of other shots I took whilst I had the camera out...

Top of daughters swing-ball

Corky our dog and Garfield one of our cats saying hello, they have become very good friends.

Getting close up

The native hedging that borders our property is starting to bud and burst into flower. So I thought it was an ideal opportunity to practice some close up flower photography.



Its the hawthorn that has come into flower first, with its delicate white blooms it brightens up the bare hedging.
I've taken care to keep the background blurred by using a low aperture setting.
In this case f 6.3 at 1/100sec.
(NB. High f number more of the subject in focus - low f number less of the subject in focus.)
This can often be one of the more confusing subjects of photography but I find it is often best to go out and try for yourself.
Just remember if you want all of the scene in focus from the foreground to the background you need to use an f number as high as possible say high 20's (you may need a tripod for this though).
If you only want a small portion of the photo sharp as I have done here then try for the smallest f number you can use.
Some cameras help you with this by offering a depth of field button. We will go into that in more detail though at another time.

New through the seasons photography project

Well I've started a project to see me through the year.

I will post a photo of the same scene taken in Lincolnshire, England, every couple of days.

Here is today's shot.

I took it with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Aperture was set at f/9.0 with an exposure of 1/100

focal length 74mm

Today the scene looks fairly uninteresting, though I have tried to add depth to it by including foreground interest in the form of the tree and hedging.

My hope is as the seasons unfold and the lighting changes and plants bloom you will be able to appreciate just how much nature does change around us.

By taking the same shot frequently we will be able to see all the subtle changes as they unfold.

Please, follow it with me.