Yes that square crop works nicely, thanks . Originally I put the bee right on one of the "power point" positions, you know, rule of thirds and all that.
Also found the square crop works with this one too.
And zooming in a bit more shows up some more of the detail on the bee :-)
I like the way he's hanging on
You got a good crowd and a band too. I would be curious to see the drone shots. I am tempted to dabble in drone photography, but the GAS has been conquered up to now.
Everything fell into place much better in the second shot, I think
Exactly my sentiments too!
The drone shots are not mine, so I can't publish them here, but you can see one of them, displayed in my orignal post with the young photographer standing next to it.
I prefer the second shot where you have centred the red out of focus patch.
I think mirrorless is still a bit behind the good old DSLR for some tasks, including speed of focusing.
As often happens, I saw this shot at the last moment. I used HDR to preserve some detail outside. Right now, no more nice Mediterranean light. We have 35°C and our nasty heat haze.
in this case, I think the speed issue is more with the lens and not with the camera. The F mount lens (with identical optical spec) mounted on the Z7with the FTZ adapter worked just fine and was as snappy as on a DSLR body.
Orher lenses on the Z7 are fast & snappy too.
...would be good to know if that lens (Z 105 F/2.8) performs faster on the newer Z8 camera compared to the Z7?
2nd one is better for me.
I my brief raid across the border last weekend, I was back on home turf this week, when I decided to visit my old friend, the long suffering lone tree of Withnell Moor, AKA the Beech tree at the former site of Botany Bay farm. I had planned to walk up via Cocker's Folly and Ratten Clough, as there's a rather nice shot of Ratten Clough to be had from the path I'd planned to take, but that plan was scuppered as you'll see later.
When I set out, the prospects for sunset were looking pretty good, but by the time I'd reached Cocker's Folly dense clouds had gathered on the horizon, consigning any hopes for stunning sunset colours (even slightly faked ones) to the dustbin of doomed desires destined to be denied (it's pretty full and really needs emptying).
It was a warm night, so I could only face the prospect of carrying a single camera, so the Nikon Z7 was my weapon of choice, but I did also decide to pack a selection of lenses, a decision which proved quite fortunate later.
All images taken handheld with either the Nikon Z7+24-70 f/2.8S or 24-200. There may have been a CPL on a couple of the earlier 24-70 shots. Processed from single raw files in Capture One 23, with additional upscaling in Topaz AI where noted.
The initial part of the walk up to Cocker's Folly is a steep slog up Well Lane, a tree lined narrow road that runs along the Northern edge of Brinscall Woods, terminating at the principal access gate to Ratten Clough and the start of the main moorland path that runs across the top of Heapey Moor, eventually leading to Great Hill. Although the lane is generally quite dark, the angled light from the rapidly descending sun hits the different layers of the tree canopy, making them stand out in relief against the dark branches below.
As I was distracted with the trees overhead, I missed the path leading off Well Lane towards Cocker's Folly and instead ended up climbing a fair bit higher onto the moors than I'd intended. Not wishing to just retrace my steps back down the lane, I instead took the next stile to my left and followed a path running back downhill through the wooded glade that runs along the Northern edge of Well Lane, this would eventually connect with the path I'd originally intended to take. As I followed the path, it took me past a set of mossy covered ruins hidden amongst the trees. I've no idea what these once were, but they are shown as unlabelled buildings on the 1888 OS map, so they've been there for quite some time.
After the ruins the path continued past these delightful birches. Both of these appear to be reaching towards the sky, which, in a sense, I suppose they are in a
quest to get as much light onto their leaves as possible.
The light was looking a bit iffy by the time I reached Cocker's Folly, so I moved up onto the moor with the intention of following this path that leads from the quarry to Ratten Clough as, on a previous visit, I found quite a nice composition for the ruins, so I was looking forward to having another crack at it under different conditions. However, my plans were scuppered when I met this herd of cows coming the other way along the path. Now, I'm not particularly scared of cows, but after a few uncomfortable run ins with aggressive bulls over the last couple of years I decided that "mauled to death by psychotic cows" would not make a particularly good epitath, so I retreated and took a different route to my planned sunset location.
I spotted this view of Darwen Tower getting menaced by some big clouds as I made my way across the top of the quarry. The moors there are pretty featureless, with just the enigmatic tower poking over the horizon in the distance. Those clouds deserved some better foreground interest, but there's wasn't much to be had, although I think this image gives some insight into just how desolate these moors can be at times.
As I neared Botany Bay farm the sun briefly broke through the clouds, illuminating the scene in a golden glow. However, this would be its final, short lived appearance for the evening before sinking once more into all consuming gloom on the horizon.
The enigmatic lone Beech tree at Botany Bay farm, is currently looking to be in fine fettle health as it stands there resplendent in its summer finery. It appears to have inhabited this spot for more than 100 years as Richard Robinson mentions it in his excellent book of collected anecdotes, remembered from his childhood growing up on the moorland farm that once stood at this location. Nowadays, with the farm long gone, it's an excellent spot to sit and lean back against its trunk, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the moors as they stretch off into the distance, eventually merging with the distant hills that crowd the horizon.
After yet another run in with those flippin' cows, which this time blocked my way back to Cocker's Folly, I was forced to leave the moors by another route and was lucky to run into this fellow minding his business in a horses paddock. He watched me warily as I swapped the 24-70 for the 24-200, but other than that didn't seem to be too bothered by my presence and was helpful enough to stand there while I ran a few shots off, muttering to myself about how much better it would have been if I'd also brought the X-H2 and 100-400 (it would probably have been more out of focus too, but that's another matter). The deer was really a bit too far away for the 24-200 to do him justice, so this has been upscaled from a 4MP crop to 16MP in Topaz AI (although, ironically, I've downsampled these back to 3ishMP again for inclusion here). It's worth noting that this was shot after sunset, so there's a bit of an ISO bump to 2000 going on too. For anyone wondering how you distinguish a British Roe Deer from other variants, it's really quite simple. If you look really carefully, you'll see there's a flag in the background, if it's a Union Jack, then that's a pretty sure indicator it's a British Roe Deer. (I'll get my coat)
That foal looks a bit funny to me. I like the way the horse in the background is completely nonplussed by this intruder stealing its grass. A further ISO bump to 3200 here as it had gone significantly darker by the time I took this shot, it's surprisingly sharp for a handheld 200mm 1/13th second exposure though. A good thing the deer stood stock still while I took it. Similar Topaz upscale from 12MP to 24ish, although, once again downsampled back to 3(ish)MP for inclusion here.
I'm always a sucker for birches 😊
Wow - excellent shots. Like those two a lot! Great colors and wonderful composition. 👍
Shot with a Schneider Kreuznach M-Claron 60 mm f/5.6 (a tiny but very fine lens):
Things falling in place... by simple.joy, on Flickr
Shot with an Agfa-Gevaert 107 mm f/4 (scanner lens):
Forklosure by simple.joy, on Flickr
Shot with a Carl Zeiss Luminar 16 mm f/2.5:
Inconclusive pollen data by simple.joy, on Flickr
Clever titles and great photography !
Good use of the OOF areas
That's a great shot - I love the colors and the crop works very well in my opinion.
Yes I prefer the second one too for composition and subject wise, but first has better colours. I dont know :)
From the set, I like this one best. I get the feeling I'm really in a darkish forest looking out toward the light ahead.
I think, if I had been processing this one, I would have probably raised the shadows a bit (not excessively) just enough to give a little bit of structure in the dark trees. But, maybe leaving them very dark, like you did, is what achieved that "feeling" I saw ?
