Gamsey Wood - Multiple Exposure

Gamsey Wood is a little BCN Wildlife Trust wood between Ramsey and Sawtry.  It is not well known and access is via a farm (which seems wrong as you are doing it). Consequently, it is extremely quiet.  I visited in the afternoon on May Day, when the likes of Brampton and Waresley woods would have been heaving with people.  I didn't see a soul.  The downside is the amount of undergrowth.  There were a few nice patches of bluebells, but in much of the wood they were being choked out by cleavers.

There was enough good patches for what I wanted to do, which was in-camera multiple exposure.  The images below are 8 shot multiples, with slight movement between shots.  For some of the shots I also tilted the camera down a little during exposure.  I know this kind of image doesn't appeal to everyone.  Those who hate them included all three selectors for this years exhibition.  But I like the impressionistic result.

Cowslips

 The road verges near Haley Wood are often a good spot to find cowslips.  This years seems particularly good. 

Pasque Flowers

Fittingly, the Pasque flowers at Therfield Heath were just about at their best on Easter Sunday.  As always at Therfield, there was the wind to contend with.  So a higher ISO and a shallower depth of field were needed.  Focus stacks proved tricky.  Next year, maybe I will copy the women who arrived just as I was leaving.  She had brought a rigid clear plastic cloche to cover the flowers.  Her camera pointed in one open end, shooting through to the other, for shake free close-ups. Genius.

Primroses

 

Over Easter, I made my first visit of the year to Brampton Wood.  I was in search of primroses.  Brampton has always been a good location for primroses, although, the last few years haven't been that great.  But, what flowers were there were at there best.

 

Fairy Lights

I have not had much time for photography recently.  But on Wednesday, after work, I managed to get to Stamford Mid-Lent Fair.  It's been several years since I was last there.  I had a pleasant 90 minutes or so, shooting lights trails before rain eventually stopped play.

Pinhole Lens

I recently bought a pinhole lens for my Olympus.  I know it is possible to make a pinhole lens fairly easily.  But I have heard that, unless you are very precise when making the hole, the results can be disappointing.  So I prefer to have someone else do the construction.  I have a Holga Pinhole lens for my Canon.  It's all plastic and the pinhole is a little large.  I have never been that happy with the images it produces.  When searching for a new one, I wanted something a little better.  I found it thanks to a company called Thingyfy.

The Thingyfy Pinhole Pro is series of interchangeable pinholes ranging in size from 0.1mm to 0.8mm.  It's made from aluminium and has a pleasing weight.  The different sized holes are selected by turning a ring and engage with a very subtle click.  It can also take a 58mm filter, which might be useful for very long exposures.  Thingyfy do versions for all camera mounts and also have a single pinhole version and a multi-hole version with a zoom ring.  Their website is US based, so I ordered from Photospecialist.  It took about a week to arrive.

I tried it out for the first time while at Madingley Hall.

When testing the full range on the same scene, and aiming for the same exposure, the sharpest images seemed to be at 0.15mm.  At 0.5mm or 0.8mm the images were very impressionistic.  Not sure how often I will take photos at this end of the range, but the bigger pinholes were very handy for composing a shot.

0.1 mm, 5.0 seconds 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 0.15 mm, 2.0 seconds                                                  

0.20 mm, 1.3 seconds

0.25 mm, 1.0 second

0.30 mm, 0.6 seconds

0.35 mm, 0.5 seconds

0.5mm, 0.25 seconds

0.8 mm, 0.1 seconds

Snowdrops at Madingley Hall

On Saturday I joined other CCC members at Madingley Hall to photograph the snowdrops.  This seems to be a good year for snowdrops.  There were lots in the wood, all at their best.  As is often the case with a planned outing, the weather was rather mixed.  There were a few breaks of light, but by lunchtime it had started to rain, so I decided to finish early.