Butterfly World

By shendyNo Comments
A couple of weekends ago I took a trip up to Butterfly World near St Albans - a butterfly conservation centre. And it was another clothes-optional thing, which was nice. They have a number of small gardens, each designed by different people, some of which were rather good, plus a butterfly house and an ant house. The main learning from the day was that I need a new macro lens - the £100 Cosina one I bought 10+ years ago isn't very good. Oh, and that photographing ants is bloody difficult! ...
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BN Photo Weekend

By shendyNo Comments
I spent last weekend helping to run a photography weekend for British Naturism - we had a dozen photographers of varying levels of experience, and we were helping them get more from their cameras, moving away from "auto" mode. I also did a piece on portrait photography (styles, techniques), while m'colleague Steve covered Adobe Lightroom and some Photoshop techniques. On the second day, Steve had arranged for a couple of models to come in and we did some outdoor portraits and a bit of studio work - all very tasteful and artistic. The grounds of the club we used (Oxnat) are a lovely piece of woodland covered in bluebells, which made for a great backdrop. ...
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Devon Break

By shendyNo Comments
A few photos from a very pleasant couple of days in Devon. We went down on Thursday after work as a friend was playing for the Exeter Music Group Symphony Orchestra at Exeter Cathedral. They played Rachmaninov's "Die Toteninsel", Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and his Symphony No 5. The 1812 is one of the few bits of classical music I know, and it was rather splendid - real cannons recorded in Plymouth earlier in the week plus the Cathedral bells and bells from a couple of other local churches piped live into the cathedral. Stirring stuff! Friday morning was spent wandering around the centre of Exeter, where I took some photos of the interior of the cathedral. In the afternoon, the sun was warm enough to go to the beach at Budleigh Salterton - the cliffs sheltered us from the cool wind and it was really rather pleasant to sit out and feel the sun on your skin at long last. On Saturday, we stopped off...
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Cumberland Basin

By shendyNo Comments
Today was the first trip out with the full new camera kit - yesterday I traded in the D200 and lenses and picked up a Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 lens to go with the 24-70 f/2.8. I headed down to Cumberland Basin in Bristol and took some pretty industrial stuff - photos that turned out really nicely in black and white. I started off around the Floating Harbour/Avon locks, then headed along the Portway where there are a couple of old jetties that are decaying rather nicely. Finally, just by Bridge Valley Road, there are a couple of old bits of rail tunnel that have been blocked up. There are quite a lot here, but I took 300 shots today and I like what I've got. I'm not sure if it's the D600 or the high-spec lensesthat's made the difference  (probably both) but these shots are really crisp and sharp. Liking the new kit. ...
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