Wide angle experiments (3) - in the woods

This turned out to be a challenging outing: bright autumn sun through the tree canopy and deep shadows cast beneath. I was hand-holding, not using a tripod, so I couldn't use bracketing to deal with the high contrast. Also, the overall light level under the trees was very low, so I ended up with very high ISO, wide aperture, then under-exposing . . . all in order to get a fast-enough shutter speed not to have visible camera shake. And, of course, the processing was then difficult! 

So, here are the few that, in the end, I think 'work' well-enough.

Wide angle experiments (2) - autumn trees

Wide-angle experiments

Not long ago I bought (second-hand) a wide-angle lens for my Lumix G5. After it arrived, the weather was poor so I've only just been able to try it out. Last week I had a day when I wanted to go to Compton Verney to see their current exhibition, and I thought that the grounds and parkland there would enable me to have a bit of a play around with the new lens.

I had no 'intention' (that key photographer's word!) other than playing with the lens to get a 'feel' for it. Here are a few of the images I made - none of them all that brilliant, but giving me some idea of what's possible, and some sense of subjects that would be particularly enhanced by using this lens. 

With the clocks about to go back, winter approaching, and lowering, wet weather forecast, it may be some time before I have the opportunity to take this further.

Grand Union Canal, Hatton Locks (2)

Shapes, patterns and reflections:

Grand Union Canal, Hatton Locks (1)

Canal views on a bright autumn afternoon, with the light slowly fading towards tea time.

Early morning spider

 . . . that's on my scale of 'early', by the way, which is by no means 'crack of dawn'!

Autumn in unnatural colour

Fragments of early autumn

Sunday in the park

These images are from my regular Sunday afternoon walking route. If you see this blog often, the scenes will be familiar . . . this time with hazy autumn sunshine.

Deer Park at Charlecote

It's been difficult to process these images of fallow deer. Deer are orangey-brown, darker brown and white. They're against green grass and green trees - should be straightforward, yes?  But of course deer are camouflaged for dappled shade, and the tonality of their brown is somehow, it turns out, very similar to the tonality of foliage green, so it's been a challenge to make the photos 'work' either in colour or in black and white.

The deer were so interesting. Many of them were skittish and I had to move very carefully around them. 

One of the stags was wonderful – clearly the ‘top buck’ and master of all he surveyed, just so chilled-out and unconcerned. He let me get to about 5 metres from him, and would stand, or sit, or graze unconcernedly with me at that distance. If I took a tiny step closer he would just step languidly forward in his grazing, preserving the distance. He’d gaze straight into the camera, and look straight at me – it was me who averted my eyes so as not to seem the aggressor! But he wouldn’t let me closer than 5 metres.