CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

This afternoon we took a trip out to Hailes Castle to see the display of snowdrops that surround the ruins on the bank of the River Tyne. Snowdrops are a wild woodland flower than comes into bloom at the end of winter.  With the mild weather of late, the carpet of snowdrops at Hailes Castle is earlier this year. Galanthus (snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell shaped flower with six petal-like (petaloid) tepals in two circles (whorls). The smaller inner petals have green markings.   Snowdrops have been known since the earliest times under various names but were named Galanthus in 1753.  Here are some of the shots I took this morning on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the XF35mm f1.4, with extension rings fitted to enable closer focusing, or the XF10-24mm f4 wide angl...

A break in the grey weather that has been sat over East Lothian for the past few days had me grabbing my camera bag to try and find some snowdrops for my stock library files before I head to the South of France on Saturday for eight days.   With it getting late in the season the chances of any snowdrops being left by the time I got back from Marseilles were slim at best, so I took the opportunity to get an early start and head up to Hailes Castle near East Linton. When I parked up and walked through the gate I was pleased to see that the bank in front of the wall was still covered in snowdrops, so I set to work to capture the dew covered flowers without treading on any in the process.  Just as I completed my first set of images the sun broke through the clouds behind me transforming the red sandstone walls of Hailes Castle, so I continued to shoot from a low point. Moving down the slope that runs down to the River Tyne, I continued to shoot the little white f...

A grey and overcast day is not the best for landscapes but with a few breaks in the clouds I did manage to grab some shots of the wildlife on the Grantham Canal near Woolsthorpe. As usual there are Mute Swans dotted up and down the canal and one pair sailed serenely past use with their wing feathers puffed up in a typical pose.  One gave me a curious glance as it paddled past my camera but carried on down to the next lock. A flock of wild Canada Geese were sitting quietly on the bank so I approached with care and got my shots before they got into the water and paddled away. Catkins are starting to appear and Snowdrops are on the ground amongst  the trees, heralding the start to Spring, which probably means we'll have snow next week. The final shot shows one of the waterfalls at one of the disused locks along this stretch of the Grantham Canal.  One day these locks might be restored to full working order but for now the...

Depth of field is a term that is used in photography that describes the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field is referred to a 'DoF' in some camera manuals or texts. Depth of field is controlled by the aperture setting.  A small aperture (high 'f' number - ie f22) will give a large depth of field or a wider area of sharp focus and a large aperture (low 'f' number - ie f4) will give a small depth of field or a narrower area of sharp focus. The images below, of Snowdrops in the Vale of Belvoir, were taken on a Nikon D800 with a 60mm f2.8 AF-D micro lens and mounted on a sturdy tripod.  The first image was taken at f7.1 and the focus point was the snowdrop on the left of the image.  As you can see the DoF is very shallow, with just the front Snowdrop in focus.  In fact the DoF is so shallow not all of the flower head is perfectly sharp. Aperture on the len...