Watching the World Go By

Watching the World Go By
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

An ND110 (10stop) filter can turn a mundane garden scene into a spectacular array of streaky clouds on a windy day.

@f/22 this was a 1/15 second exposure but add the 10 stop ND110 and a 2 stop polariser and it added up to a 3 minute exposure in broad daylight.

Just Chillin

Just Chillin
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

More fun with a borrowed wide angle lens. It's a Tamron 10-24mm. I attached a circular polariser witht eh deliberate intent of getting a close up portrait to distort the legs, making them look even longer and having a super satureated blue sky and grass (courtesy of the polariser) I used some fill flash to lighten the harsh shadows from the direct sun.

Valley Gardens, Punch Bowl Panorama.

Valley Gardens, Punch Bowl Panorama.
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

I've been meaning to get this shot for the last 3 years.... but have always been foiled by arriving too late in the season or bad weather. I'd have liked a wider angle lens to have done it more justice.... but resorted to a stitched panorama.

This is a panorma stitched from 7 shots. The "Punch Bowl" in Valley Gardens (Windsor Great park) is full of amazing colours at t he moment as you can see.

The stitch was done in Photoshop and then the blown out white sky was replaced for a more dramatic sky from a streaky cloud shot with an ND110 filter.

The sky was replaced using alpha chanel layer masks and a refine edge plus multiply layer blend mode to ensure the detail around the trees, leaves and twigs was not haloed. I'm quite pleased with the result.

I also added a velvia film effect using the channel mixer upping each channel individually to 130% whilst compensating the other two by -15% to give a balanced tone with no colour cast.

Surreal Santa wishes You a Happy Fractalius Friday ... Ho Ho Ho

Surreal Santa wishes You a Happy Fractalius Friday ... Ho Ho Ho
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

I've recently been playing with a new Photoshop plug in called Fractalius. It has many different effects to pull out the natural "fractal" nature of many things. This is a shot of Father Christmas that I reworked with the plug in.

“The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are socommon. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be themost startling event in the world.”

“The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world.”
Originally uploaded by Mark1970Vintage

Despite Dandelions being the bane of any lawn they are pretty to photograph... and I took pleasure in plucking out the seeds to leave only one using tweezers. (does hurting flowers/plants make me a masochist ??)

There are several quotes I liked about Dandelions that didn't make the title. “Oh, hardy flower, disdained as weed,
Despised for head of feathery seed,
Your unsung virtues rate a ballad,
Choice roots for wine, crisp leaves for salad.”