The Loss of Something Strange

Back in 2009 I was work on a job in the Alp in the the South of France. On route to the job one morning I passed this odd looking building. On checking my watch, I realised I had to time to stop.


I got out I took some shot of this strange looking dwelling at the side of the road, to me it looks a bit like a cross between grain store and windmill (minus the vanes). I have alway liked the shot and it still sits in my portfolio (www.serenityeye.com/architecture.html).

This year I returned to this location, with the intention of shooting the building again and maybe spending a little more time there too. Sadly, this was not to be. On my return I found a building site for a new hotel.

It saddens me to think that that strange building is now gone and lost forever, only to be seen in pictures  that were taken of it.

To show appreciation for all things that are pretty and strange, I ask you to share the photo of this strange building who ever and with who ever you can. Would you also be kind enough to enter in the comments the state/province/county and country you are from, so we can see how far and many countries around the world get to see this. You can find it on our Facebook page.

POTD Exmouth Star Trails

I know its been a while since the last Picture of the Day, so I thought we would star back off with some star pictures. In my rear garden I have this weather vane attached to my garage so I decided to use it as the foreground interest, luckily for me the vane has rusted a little so is stuck in position.

Using my tallest tripod set to maximum height I managed to get my Nikon D3 and 14-24mm lens as close as I could it the vane and on the 14 end of the lens I could get a good field of view of the sky. The camera has a built in interval timer (you can get cable releases with built in timers which can be purchased pretty cheap on ebay check this one foe Nikon here). I set the time gap at 15 secs and the number of images at 200, the exposure was set at 3 secs at f2.8 on ISO 3200. I then left the camera to run its course.

Below is just one of the images, you have to try and keep the under 10 seconds because of the speed that the Earth rotates you with start to get movement in the stars.

Once I have all the images onto the computer I then used a free program called Startrails for PC or Starstax for MAC user, you load in the images and it blends the altogether. You should end up with something like the image below. I also pointed the camera at the North star to give a central turning point.

Similar as what what I said before about the speed of the Earth turning you also need to keep your gap between picture around 5-15 seconds. Below is an earlier examples of mine where I had the gap set to 30 seconds.

You can see the gaps that have appeared in the lines.

You will also notice on the stacked image a single dots that is not in the center  when I looked back through the images it only appears in one. I noticed it a bit more when I loaded all the images in Adobe After Effect and played them out on a time line.

After some discussion we think it was probably a meteorite as if it was a shooting star it was probably appear in more than one shot.

What do you think?

Picture of the Day Dartmoor Weather

Today's picture of the day comes from Dartmoor National Park, I would have liked to said sunny National Park, but it was far from it today. The rain rarely let up all day, at some points it was rally hammering it down. Stopping two bridges near postbridge the river was nearly bursting it banks, I was looking for a way of showing how full the river was. There was a very short break in the rain, so I went up onto the stone bridge. Armed only with my Nikon D3 and a Nikon 28-300mm lens, I was really missing my camera bag and tripod. Firstly for my neutral density (ND)filters which would have heled me slow my shutter speed right down and get some silky smooth flowing water and secondy my tripod to put the camera on when using these really slow speeds. So instead I had to see want I could make the camera do on its own. First, I set the ISO all the way down to 100, next was setting the aperture to f22 this gave me a shutter speed 1/10th, which was just about enough to give the impression that the water was fast flowing. To help alleviate camera shake I gently place the camera on to the stone bride and aligned my shoot using the live view.

Once I had the image onto the computer and into photoshop I adjusted the levels and contrast and the applied a Topaz Detail filter to the image before turning it black and white. Finally I used the burn tool to just bring the edge down. Please let us know what you think of the image of the day

Picture Of The Day - The Frozen Fountain

This picture of the day come from The Frozen Fountain at The Chateau Impney Hotel just outside Droitwich. Whilst on route to a corporate job at the hotel itself I passed the fountain, I checked my watch I I had some time before I had to be there so stopped.

For this picture of the day I just wanted to show how using different lens and angles can produce different pictures at one location. 

After  getting a closer look I could see that there were lots of different elements to the fountain that I wanted to photograph.

So starting with my Nikon 14-24mm lens I took a series of pictures including the one above. The lens has a minimum focus distance of 28cm which enables you to get in real close to a subject. Shooting at the 14mm end of the lens on a full frame Nikon D3 can give a slightly distorted view, but can be used to make small spaces look vast.

After working my way around the subject once I switched over to my Nikon 24-70mm lens, which can still produce good wide shots, but also zoom in the close your background down too.

Use low angle to give a different point of view to the normal 5 foot 10 inch view.

Get low and shoot at the same level as the subject. (This is also something you should do with children and pets).

Looking at the picture above and comparing it to the the first picture in the post you can see how the use of different lens closes down your background.

After working my way around for the second time, I then switched over to my 70-200mm. With this lens lens I was able to step right back and throw the background out in the pictures.

Lastly I put on my 300mm to just get right in on some of the ice, I wish I had my macro with me but unfortunately not this time.

As I was leaving the job I passed back by the fountain and just stopped quickly to get a night shot of it.

Again please let us know what you think of the posts and the pictures.

Picture of the Day - Loch Lomond

Recently we were doing some feature work up in Scotland just outside Loch Lomond. When we took the opportunity to go to the Loch and take some images. We thought we would use this to show how shooting at different angles can improve your pictures.

Armed with a Hassleblad H4D and a 35-90mm lens, which takes some getting use to after using a Nikon for so long.

Below you so a picture of of a piece of rope leading in to the water. The shot is taken from the same angle that we see thing from everyday 5'10" (roughly), this doesn't make for a very interesting picture. Taken at ISO 100, f5.6 and 1/180th

Now we have changed the angle of view to a really low vantage point you can see that the picture looks more interesting. Taken at ISO 100, f8 1/60th on 50mm

Just for one last adjustment we have now zoomed into 90mm, still using the same exposure settings but the zooming has reduced the depth of field. The rope was still position as a leading line through the image. We then turned black and white, added some contrast and then added a light layer of Topaz Detail.

Please let us know what you think.

New look website

We have been re-working our website for the last few weeks you can now check it out at www.serenityeye.com

Picture of the Day - London Skyline

Recently I was very fortunate to board the HMS Ocean as she sailed up the River Thames, the Royal Navy carrier which is being used as a support platform to house personnel who are being used during the London 2012 Olympic Games. It was an impressive feat to see the largest carrier Britain has manoeuvre up the river, but it did in turn offer a very interesting view point. Not often do you get to see the city from about 5 storeys up and from the middle of the river.

Using this vantage point I moved to the side of the carrier switching my Nikon D3s over to Aperture Priority (Av) setting f8 as my aperture to give me maximum sharpness (maximum sharpness of a lens is generally 2 stops from its widest aperture). Using the bracketing function, I set the camera to take 5 shots 1 stop apart. As I did not have a tripod with me at the time, I switch the D3s over to shoot in Continues High (CH) which allows the camera to shoot up to 11 frames per second (fps). By using this it gives you very little movement between pictures (you require a camera that shoots above 5 fps). 

Once I had the images on to my computer I used Photomatix to combine the 5 shots in a high dynamic range (HDR) I used the adjusters with the program to give the image a grungy and slightly surreal look. Once I was happy I saved it out as a tiff file which I then opened in photoshop, here I then boosted the contrast and added a crop to make it a little longer and thinner. I also used Topaz Detail 2 just to make the image pop that little bit more.

It just goes to show that sometimes it can be about being in the right place at the right time..

Please lets us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Thanks for reading.