Keep a Camera Handy - Or Just an Excuse to Show Some Snow Images
On Monday morning I awoke to be confronted by a rare and beautiful sight - snow in south east England.
This is the view from my front door taken with my trusty Canon G10 jammed against the door frame to steady a Program mode 1 second exposure, f2.8, 400 ISO. The image has had my usual post production treatment in Photoshop CS3 or 4.
TIP
If you haven't got a tripod in low-light situations you can press you camera against a solid object or even rest it on a wall to get a steady shot. I'd advise taking a few frames as some may be unsharp due to camera shake, especially if you're using a longer lense or breathing. Yes, breathing can cause camera shake during long exposures/slow shutter speeds. If you have to hold the camera, take a breath, hold it, release the shutter, breath out. With practice you can create images as sharp as the one above.
This breathing technique is not recommended for very long exposures!
If any more proof is needed, here's the deep snow covering the patio table in our back yard. OK, it's nothing like the 2 + metres overnight my family in upstate New York experience on a regular basis, but hey, this is England.
It was a tradgedy that the kids didn't have to go to school or most adults to work, with the exception of my wife who braved the adverse conditons to drive 6 miles for a 7:00 AM start.
I wonder if it was the wrong kind of snow on the railway lines? As you can see, not many commuters made the effort to wait for a train.
The local kids certainly enjoyed themselves - strange how not one seemed sad not to be at school:-)
I must confess that it's very difficult to get motivated to work when there is snow on the ground - perhaps I shouldn't admit to this? But I guess most of the adults we met on our way to the South Downs with our sledges felt the same.
With the exception of the last image, all were created using my Canon G10. The final image was created with a Canon 50D with 24 - 105 mm f4 L series lens - not that you judge the quality at 400 pixels wide. It's a shame the light was so flat and uninteresting.
The following day the sun peeped through and transformed the whole landscape. I did manage to create quite a few frames, some of which will be used for future tutorials.
Happy snapping.
Ian
This is the view from my front door taken with my trusty Canon G10 jammed against the door frame to steady a Program mode 1 second exposure, f2.8, 400 ISO. The image has had my usual post production treatment in Photoshop CS3 or 4.
TIP
If you haven't got a tripod in low-light situations you can press you camera against a solid object or even rest it on a wall to get a steady shot. I'd advise taking a few frames as some may be unsharp due to camera shake, especially if you're using a longer lense or breathing. Yes, breathing can cause camera shake during long exposures/slow shutter speeds. If you have to hold the camera, take a breath, hold it, release the shutter, breath out. With practice you can create images as sharp as the one above.
This breathing technique is not recommended for very long exposures!
If any more proof is needed, here's the deep snow covering the patio table in our back yard. OK, it's nothing like the 2 + metres overnight my family in upstate New York experience on a regular basis, but hey, this is England.
It was a tradgedy that the kids didn't have to go to school or most adults to work, with the exception of my wife who braved the adverse conditons to drive 6 miles for a 7:00 AM start.
I wonder if it was the wrong kind of snow on the railway lines? As you can see, not many commuters made the effort to wait for a train.
The local kids certainly enjoyed themselves - strange how not one seemed sad not to be at school:-)
I must confess that it's very difficult to get motivated to work when there is snow on the ground - perhaps I shouldn't admit to this? But I guess most of the adults we met on our way to the South Downs with our sledges felt the same.
With the exception of the last image, all were created using my Canon G10. The final image was created with a Canon 50D with 24 - 105 mm f4 L series lens - not that you judge the quality at 400 pixels wide. It's a shame the light was so flat and uninteresting.The following day the sun peeped through and transformed the whole landscape. I did manage to create quite a few frames, some of which will be used for future tutorials.
Happy snapping.
Ian
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