Mostly gone where I am too (lots of ice left though, which is nice) - here's one from saturday which shows the remnants of snow from last week... very cold!!! (but a lovely morning)




Mat

Hello Father Ted, I like the picture - very sharp and the the overall red/amber tint seems warm and welcoming. Like the big christmas tree at the front - very christmas card-esque

If you want to use the one-click colour cast tool I think you need photoshop elements and go to 'enhance' on the top menu bar - adjust colour - remove colour cast..., and then use the dropper to click on either a black, white or mid-grey pixel, and any colour cast should be magically adjusted, although I know from experience the results can be a little variable... (probably that's just me:shock

Regards

Mat

Wow great shots so far! This is my favourite pic of mine for the year - it's a pretty straightforward portrait, but of a beautiful animal (Bengal Tiger) and I can (literally) stare at it for ages...




Taken at the wildlife heritage foundation centre in Kent, which specialises in breeding endangered cats - a fantastic place where I filled every memory card I had at the time.

Regards

Mat

Thanks Dr Mhuni! The sun was very welcome as it was a freezing cold morning, I think the park pretty much did the rest and I just pressed the shutter button

Mat

Thanks guys - I agree, John, about the last one. It was an attempt at a 'mega' close-up using a reversed 50mm lens on the front of another but hasn't really worked I don't think, although I find it quite interesting to stare at (I think I need more sleep...) The others were taken with the DA*50-135 (first and fourth) and the DA* 300 (second and third). I especially like the speed skating duck, and in fact watching a load of ducks wrangle with a frozen pond is quite hilarious! Having taken a few stags shots this year I think this one is my favourite. All in all it was a great couple of hours out with the camera (although it was cold...)

Regards

Mat

Hello all. It's been snowy and cold here in West London as I guess it has been pretty much everywhere in the UK, although we have bright sunshine as well, so I headed out to see what there was to photograph...

Here's a handful from yesterday morning.

It was early and I liked the way the low sun was coming through the trees in this shot:




This was a young stag enjoying the sun:




The ducks in my favourite pond woke up to find it turned into an ice rink and they were hilarious to watch! Here's a Mandarin having a go at skating, and whilst he's not shifting very fast, he has the classic speed skater's pose...




In a homage to the first men on the moon, here is my grlfriends 'first step' in the glassy ice:




And here is some snow... although I think it was just on the point of melting...




I hope you like them... happy for any C&C as ever.

Best Regards

Mat W

The reliefs are amazing - in fact the whole place is so stacked with incredible objects I think it warrants a few trips to truly take it all in. It never occurred to me that I might get stopped by the police for having a highly suspicious camera (in a notorious tourist hot-spot), but recalling what I have read here, maybe I should watch out for it... Next time i'll also experiment a bit more with the columns outside...

Mat

Wow - great pictures. The first is wonderful. Fantastic colours and texture - it almost looks as if you can see each grain of sand. Really nice.

Regards

Mat

Thanks folks - they are all hand-held although I had to really work hard to keep them sharp. In particular the second one I took about four times checking between on the camera screen to see how sharp each attempt was! I was also concerned about depth of focus as I was using a wide aperture, but really pleased with how they turned out. The museum does seem to light a lot of it's exhibits well (albeit dimly overall), as you would expect..., which worked really well for photo 2. I tried a couple of shots with a flash but couldn't get the effect I wanted so stuck with high ISO and big aperture.

I'll definitely be going back

Regards

Mat

Hello all. I have recently been nipping into the British Museum as it is close to where I work, and I took my camera with me yesterday and dropped in after work. Having a camera with me made me realise one thing... it's really dark! at least on a December evening it is... but here are a selection of shots. Most are high ISO (800 or 1600) taken with the DA* 16-50 at f2.8 to try and get the shutter speed up enough to keep the pictures as sharp as possible... Any C&C gratefully received...

This was taken in the portico of columns on the way in, and I think it gives a good impression of soidity (the columns are BIG)




Next up, an ancient egyptian statue. Incredibly smooth and fantastically worked stone considering it is thousands of years old:




Part of an Assyrian (I think) relief depicting a Lion hunt - very impressive (in real life at least):




A massive statue in one of the stairwells. This picture reminds me of a level in the game 'Tomb Raider', although the lighting pretty much defeated me because it spans a couple of floors of the museum, and the lower one is more brightly lit than the upper one...




And finally, the ionic capital from an ancient greek column...




The place is fantastic, and huge, and nearby (to me) so I have no doubt I'll be taking the camera again...

Regards

Mat W