Winter woodland walk

I went for a walk with a friend early this afternoon, not a photo-taking walk . . . so the only camera I had with me was my phone. Such a pity . . . wished I'd had a graduated filter, a lens hood, more control over the whole process. But still some passable images of a beautiful afternoon.

Frosty close-ups

Christmas walks in black and white

I've taken some of the images from the two previous posts and converted them to black and white.

Christmas morning walk

Christmas Eve walk

Holly and ivy, but no mistletoe!

Autumn scenes

A brief break in the rain and out for a walk . . . not a photography outing, but a walk. But I've learned from experience and so I put the little compact camera in my pocket. And then, of course, I wished I had the big camera and the long lens - a squirrel high up in a tree in the churchyard was stripping the bark off a branch, but too high for my little camera to manage. So here are a few nearer the ground.

Later . . . a friend suggested that the first image would work well in black and white:

Experiments in black and white

I've recently attended a short course on black and white photography. There were two principal components: taking b-w photos (what to look for that will make a good b-w image); and processing b-w images. I've not yet had the time or opportunity to go out deliberately to take monochrome images, but I have been looking at some of my existing images to think about their potential for black and white.

This colour image is one that I've posted before (sunrise approaching Reykjavik).

Below is a black and white version.

I'm not sure what I think of this - the original was so close to monochrome that I'm not convinced that this version adds anything to the visual impact. I prefer the original.














This colour image (right) I posted in August, together with (below) the best I could then do for a b-w version (slightly differently cropped).


But here is another b-w version, created with the new software that I've been learning to use (Silver Efex Pro):

It's a much better quality b-w image,and in terms of the clarity at the top of the picture, it's better than the original.

Here are some others I've been experimenting with:

 Harbour church, Torshavn (Faroe Islands)

 Reflection, Torshavn small boats harbour.

 Reflections, Torhavn.

Gullfoss, near Reykjavik.

Amber sleeping