Photography

From Gray.co.uk

[edit] Introduction

I have had a couple of false starts with photography due to not being able to get away in My Motorhome as much as I had planned.
Hopefully this will change shortly.

I bought a Nikon D70 and 3 lenses when I bought my first motorhome. As soon as the Truck is started I will be buying a new lense and probably a Nikon D90 to help cronicle the build process.

This is the lense I am looking at getting http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-18-200MM-F3-5-5-6G-IF-ED-AF-S/dp/B000BY52NU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top. This is a recommendation from http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htm . I highly recommend this site.

[edit] What got me started again?

I am currently in France at a friends house in the middle of nowhere. I went out for a walk and for once took the camera out. I am so glad I did.
There had been a major frost and the sun had just burnt it off. The leaves had a wet coating with small dew drops on them. The colours just punched at me.
This really suprised me as I am a real techy type and don't have an artistic bone in my body, but that one leaf on the floor shouted at me. I took a picture of it and then carried on with my eyes open.

I passed a tree that had fallen and couldn't believe in the middle of winter a dead tree was budding. When I looked closer I saw all kinds of Mold and Lichen growing on the broken branches and twigs. Below you will see some of those pictures. The trick here for me was the sun was low in the sky (early morning) The frost had just disapeared, the air was clear and the sky was cloudless. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time and actually seeing it.

The Lesson I have learnt from this is that I will always carry my camera with me, I will always keep my eyes open and look for light and subjects. I will also look for the small as well as the big landscapes as the Macro (I think that is the term) is quite often as interesting if not more so than the big landscapes.

Now I am not sure if these pictures are any good and I am sure my technique is lousy but I feel these are the best pictures I have ever taken and I love them. I have used the lichen on a stick one as my Computers Desktop image. This is the first time I have wasted computer resources on an image for the Desktop :)

[edit] 23rd Dec 2008

I have taken a couple of pictures while in France that I am pretty please with. Please bear in mind I couldn't even be classed as an amateur photographer yet as I have barely used this camera. The links below each picture go to a very high resolution original version. For example on the leaves one you can see the dew drops to the left of the leaves hanging from the blades of grass if you zoom in.

http://wiki.gray.me.uk/images/leaves-in-france.jpg

http://wiki.gray.me.uk/images/lichen-in-france.jpg

http://wiki.gray.me.uk/images/new-growth-in-winter.jpg