Andrew
Maybe not, but it's fun trying
Go on have a go no one will ever know if you were right or wrong.


You don't have to use the same headings just go back over the year, photographically, and post your thoughts

As it’s nearly the end of 2013 I thought I would take a retrospective look at my photographic year.

My favorite photographic buy:
Pentax K5iis

My best photographic experience;
(Nordkapp, Norway, 28th June, photographing the midnight sun)



My most used bag;
Tamrac System 6

My favorite landscape:
(Norway a campsite inside the Arctic Circle)



My most used filter;
Hitech ND soft grads

My favorite child portrait



My most used lens;
Pentax DA* 16-50

My favorite adult portrait



My most useful bit of kit;
Velbon Ultrek UT-53D travel tripod

My favorite cityscape;
(Trondheim riverside)



My favorite software;
Lightroom 4

My favorite architectural shot;
(Trondhiem Cathedral)



My best bargain;
Photoshop & Premier Elements 12 for £35

My favorite HDR image



Best learning experience;
Barrett & Coe Potrait Course

Most moving image;
(Names on the Menen Gate)



Things that I learned;
Too many to mention

Now how about you?

Thanks for the nice comments.

Bill, unfortunately there are very few places in Norfolk where the light pollution doesn't effect some or all of any night time shot. Horsey is near to the coast so at least one point of the compass gave me a dark-ish sky. Good luck with the 'friendly' street lights. Hopefully it will inspire people to get out there with their tripods, thermals and bobblehats. I have set myself a challenge of expanding my portfolio for a new website (and venture). I am pushing my comfort zone (in this case literally as it was bl**dy cold), deliberately trying new things and have plenty more areas to.

So far I have tried car motorsport, still life, landscapes and star shots. I am studying portraits and aim to try product shots, architecture and motorcycle motorsport in the next few weeks/months.

We should all try a little challenge every now and again

redbusa99, Rightly or wrongly, I always run with the NR turned off as I prefer to address any noise issues in PP.

I used to have an Olympus E520, which was notoriously noisy at even moderately high ISO. Consequently I always had the NR on its highest setting. A few years ago I shot my nieces wedding, along with my sister-in-law (using a Canon)when we compared the shots afterwards mine had lost a lot of the detail because of the NR. Although they were okay-ish I was always upset with the results. From that point on I switched it off and would rather have the control to apply as much or little as I want in PP.

I have been trying to get these images for ages. Horsey Windpump is a 30 minute drive away and I have gone there several times only to be beaten by the clouds.

Tonight it all came together

Although the light pollution from Gt. Yarmouth and Norwich was unavoidable I tried to make use of it rather than crop it out.

All images taken with K5iis and DA 12-24 with PP in LR4. Most exposures f4, 20 seconds ISO 1600.

As always C&C most welcome.

1.



2.



3. A little B&W



4.



5. In this one a friendly car's headlights have 'painted' the windpump.



6.



7.



8. And finally; straight up to try and catch the Milky Way.

Welcome to another Norfolkonian.

Slightly jealous as I will have to wait a few more months before I can get a K3 but I shan't hold it against you

I'm sorry

I should realise that we shouldn't let realism get in the way of our PP

It might help to know that the main building on the far left is not actually white. It is, in fact, a sort of cream colour

Link to a full frontal : link

Mmmm interesting. I tweaked the sliders in LR and played with lightening the foreground before I posted but preferred it darker. However looking at it again, it doesn't seem so bad.

It just goes to show that we all see thing differently, even at different times, and there are many, many different ways to 'serve up' the same image.

Smeggy what did you mean about using a grad on the foreground to bring it out. I already had a 0.9 (and in some cases a 0.3 as well) grad on the sky to match the exposure. Surely putting one over foreground would darken it?

+1 more

Thanks for the lovely comments. I did think about cloning out some of the lights and signs but decided to keep it as near to reality as possible. However if I planned to put these on the wall I would definitely take your advice.

It was pretty close to pitch black by the time I had finished and some of the compositions were more guesswork than artistic endeavour

The panoramic crops are a 'marmite' thing but IMHO added some drama to these couple of shots as the bits I cropped off didn't really add anything and probably detracted from the overall image. I don't do it much but I don't believe in being restricted to the standard proportions if I feel it can benefit the image.

It was as I packed up the tripod and filters that I realised I had a mile long walk back up a muddy lane and I hadn't bought a torch Thank the stars for the iphone