PPC Photonews - The Lockdown Diaries Vol 8

Photonews Celebrating the Postal Photographic Club and its Members

The Lockdown Diaries - Vol 8

Š Dave Whenham

We have featured Twirls in a couple of earlier issues of the Lockdown Diaries and to show that I actually read what I edit and present here is one of my own efforts.

In keeping with the theme of this issue though this started life as a Tulip!

Lockdown Diaries - Volume 8 Welcome to the eighth extra edition of Photonews to commemorate what PPC members have been doing in Lockdown.

This issue is a riot of colour and a floral feast courtesy of Barry Roberts and David James. I didn’t plan a floral-fest but by coincidence both submissions came in on the same day and I thought that was a sign for me to go all flowery.

Finally, I have run out of submissions, so this will be the last volume of Lockdown Diaries for now.

All the best - stay safe!

Dave Whenham Editor email: davewhenham@aol.com

Page 4: Lockdown at home with Barry Roberts Page 19: Some tips on shooting flowers from the world wide web Page 20: David James buys a bunch of tulips.

ON THE COVER: From the INJECT COLOUR project Š Barry Roberts The full image is on page 18, you will notice that I took a liberty with it for the cover.

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Lockdown at home - Barry Roberts

Inject colour project

Lockdown but not Shielding

Let’s be honest, we are getting on a bit in years now, we don’t get out as much as we used to but with the additional restrictions of “that virus” my photography has been limited to in and around the house.

In addition, I have not been doing any gardening, apart from cutting the grass occasionally, so the rest of the garden has just run wild with various new plants shooting up which were not there before.

So here are some of the images I have taken over the last few months, some table top but mostly around the garden, sometimes cutting the plant and setting up a table top composition to control lighting and background, sometimes just putting a board behind with the plant in situ to hide a fence or other distraction.

I enjoy photographing flowers, looking at them from different angles, so I quite enjoyed myself in spite of the lockdown. I have included a couple of pure table top creations which I did rather as an experiment; as you can imagine, a lot of images were taken to produce these two.

Barry Roberts ARPS.

Lockdown at Home

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Bought flowers, April 2020

Barry Roberts

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June

Lockdown at Home

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Caption

June

Barry Roberts

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June

Lockdown at Home

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April

Barry Roberts

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Aquilegia

Lockdown at Home

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From the Seed Factory project

Barry Roberts

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June

Lockdown at Home

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June

Barry Roberts

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Both images June 2020

Lockdown at Home

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April - bought flowers

Barry Roberts

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Snowdrops

Lockdown at Home

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May

Lockdown at Home

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Inject Colour Project We have two images from Barry’s Inject Colour project, one on the cover, so I asked Barry how they were produced: They were produced by using a small glass tank 3/4 full with water then injecting food coloiring from a syringe (without the needle). I had to experiment with injection force, quantity of liquid in the syringe and height of syringe.

The difficult part was timing the shutter release to capture the exact time the stream entered the water. Even with fast motor drive the critical event was usually missed. Special electronic droppers can be bought but that would make it too easy, I like a challenge.

After several goes the water in the tank needed changing because it became discoloured, here I used an old garden waterfall pump to empty and refill the tank, previously I used to syphon the water out by sucking on a length of hosepipe and spitting out what inevitably ended up in my mouth.

There are endless opportunities to produce interesting images using water and food colouring, just give yourself plenty of room because it can get messy!

As many of you will have realised, some more quickly than others, the inject colour images have been turned upside down to give a more interesting composition.

Inject colour project Barry Roberts

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Photographing flowers Hopefully Barry’s portfolio will have inspired you to have a go yourself with some garden photography over the coming months; and in the unlikely event that they haven’t then David James’ tulips should draw you in. If this had been a normal issue of Photonews I would as a matter of course have asked Barry to write a supporting artticle but being a kind soul I have instead scoured the interweb for some online top tips.

1. Photograph flowers on an overcast day The soft even light of an overcast day compliments the delicacy of the flowers and there are no shadows and no harsh bright spots, which makes it easier to get a good exposure.

2. Backlight will make your flowers glow Try to capture backlit flowers late in the day when the sun is close to the horizon which will cast nice warm light on the rest of your image too.

3. Beware wind (no sniggering at the back) When it comes to photographing flowers, wind is most definitely the enemy. Clearly a calm day is best but most days have some air movement so consider using boards to shield the subject (and perhaps bounce some light into shadows too - see 5).

4. Get close Everybody loves a big bold close-up of their favourite bloom.

5. Use a reflector If your subject is in the shade, you can use a reflector to bounce some light back towards your subject.

6. Avoid a cluttered background As with every photograph, the background can make or break the image. Try to change your position so that there is nothing distracting behind your flower.

7. Use a shallow depth of field That needs no explanation for PPC members!

8. Make it sharp Even if you are using a shallow depth of field, it is essential that at least part of the flower is sharp. Use a tripod, a cable release or your camera’s two second timer, and the mirror lock up function for the best results.

9. Change your point of view Move around and try some different angles for more interesting images.

10. Focus through another flower Try positioning yourself so that another flower is in front of your main subject and very close to the end of your lens. This secondary flower will become a foreground blur of colour.

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Tulips! - David James I bought a bunch of tulips on one of my shopping trips to Sainsbury's (other superstores also sell flowers). I wanted to brighten up the house and, if I’m honest, I also wanted some more still life opportunities. As it happens I now have in excess of ninety shots of them on file.

Mostly taken in the kitchen using the roller blind as a background then all played with in Lightroom and Photoshop. Four of them have had the background replaced or a texture added, I shall leave you to determine which!

All were taken with a Sony ILC6300 and 55-210 mm f4.5 - 6.3 lens.

All images pages 4 - nn inclusive: Š David James

Tulips

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David James

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Tulips

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David James

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Tulips

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David James

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Tulips

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David James

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Tulips

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David James

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Photonews Celebrating the Postal Photographic Club and its Members

Photonews is published four times per year.

All rights reserved. All materials copyright The Postal Photographic Club and/or their respective authors. Any opinion or statement expressed by the author of any article published in this magazine does not necessarily reflect the views of The Postal Photographic Club, the editor or its members.