Sometimes the only time I have in the day to use my camera is while I'm out walking dogs so I am getting quite good at using my old faithful 450d with Tamron 18-270 whilst holding two furkids on leashes at the same time, and watching where another two are who are not on leashes
Walking late in the evening has special challenges of slower shutter speeds, but there can be magical colours if one can get all 4 dogs to the spot you want to be at the right time!
And walking in the morning can have it's own interests and also challenges of hurrying the dogs along to where one wants to be to capture the team of men cleaning up the weed from the marina before they finish up and move away
Moved Harriet in front of a wall in the dining room. Somewhat less ambient light here as much further away from any windows than I was yesterday. And also, being a white wall makes good practice for learning to deal with shadows. Much needed practice as you can see by looking at these awful headshots and the seriously bad shadows on the wall behind Harriet. Last three shots I moved her about half a metre away from the wall, but the shadows are still there, although not quite as pronounced. 1st shot in this series is direct flash. Next flash bounced off ceiling, then reflector held above her and angled down
After a few days, I think I am finally getting somewhere, although I am consistently noticing that my photos seemed to be underexposed and I needed to pull the exposure up in LightRoom, so I tried FEC +2. This is perhaps a bit too much flash but a huge improvement on previous days attempts. However, pulling the highlights down in Lightroom has resulted in quite nice tones
And FEC +1. This is perhaps a good compromise as I haven't needed to pull the exposure up in Lightroom but is still a bit bright - perhaps I need to pull the hightlights down as per above shot
And No Flash Exposure Compensation:- Once again I needed to pull the exposure up in Lightroom by 0.48 or half a stop
Well, I have to try and figure out how to make the best use of my new piece of photographic gear - a speedlite 430 ex rt ii so here are my attempts at trying ETTL flash bounced from the ceiling and from a reflector held or propped in different positions relative to the model on camera left.
This is also a good opportunity to introduce Harriet or Hatty, my patient model.
Here she is shot in natural, available light only
This is the easy bit .... She is about 2m away from the background - my lounge wall which is mostly quite dark (as in facebrick fireplace and a very large bronze picture above the fireplace. There is natural light on camera right, with french doors about 2m away providing a reasonable amount of ambient light
Oh my word. All my good intentions to keep my blog up to date once a week have come to nought. I see I last posted in March - that is 2 months ago now!
So the latest exciting happenings here are that we caught the Mole that has been causing havoc in our back garden for the past 6 months. I happened to be at the kitchen sink washing dishes one morning, and I saw it sunning itself on the lawn. I couldn't believe how huge it really was, so I called hubby to come and have a look.
In that time Max & Charlie realised something was going on outside the kitchen window and dashed out. In no time at all they had the mole on its back with much noisy barking. Hubby got the dogs off the mole and I got Max & Charlie into the house, while hubby managed to get the mole into a bucket with the aid of a mop.
I think it was stunned but not hurt. We took it to a large empty plot and released it there. My word it was angry and just wanted to attack us until it realised the futility and started looking for a place to burrow in.
I keep all my vegetable peelings to add to my compost bins. I usually try and avoid letting seeds get into it, but obviously sometimes a few still make it into the bin with the peelings. I recently put some of this lovely earthy smelling compost around my lemon tree, growing in a pot next to the side of the swimming pool.
Next thing there was a butternut plant growing out of the pot. I have left it to see what would happen, and it is providing the most wonderful source of gorgeous yellow flowers and pretty green tendrils. There isn't much space for me to photograph these flowers and tendrils without squashing the plant or falling into the pool with my camera, but I am thoroughly enjoying it while I have it. I wonder if it will ever manage to produce butternuts that grow to maturity for us to harvest and consume in this unsuitable and inhospitable environment, but I shall give put extra nutrients into this pot to support both the baby lemon tree, and the butternut plant.
Not quite as busy as bees, and I haven't found a use for ants yet, although I do sometimes wonder if they help pollinate some plants? They seem to be very busy collecting something from inside the little florets of the bromeliad and taking it off somewhere. Do they collect nectar like bees and birds? Does pollen move around on their feet? What are they doing in the flowers? So many questions....
Watching the progress of my bromeliad flower. I really do enjoy the flowers while they last, but I must admit I find it quite difficult to photograph artistically - especially as my plants are growing in the garden in amongst other plants, and wooden railway sleepers etc. So getting good angles isn't the easiest task. I love my tripod for indoor table top photography, but it is just too tall for plants that are low like this, even when I spread the legs. I wonder what good alternatives there are, other than attempting to get really good at hand held shots.
And walking in the morning can have it's own interests and also challenges of hurrying the dogs along to where one wants to be to capture the team of men cleaning up the weed from the marina before they finish up and move away 
Oh my word. All my good intentions to keep my blog up to date once a week have come to nought. I see I last posted in March - that is 2 months ago now!
I keep all my vegetable peelings to add to my compost bins. I usually try and avoid letting seeds get into it, but obviously sometimes a few still make it into the bin with the peelings. I recently put some of this lovely earthy smelling compost around my lemon tree, growing in a pot next to the side of the swimming pool. 
Watching the progress of my bromeliad flower. I really do enjoy the flowers while they last, but I must admit I find it quite difficult to photograph artistically - especially as my plants are growing in the garden in amongst other plants, and wooden railway sleepers etc. So getting good angles isn't the easiest task. I love my tripod for indoor table top photography, but it is just too tall for plants that are low like this, even when I spread the legs. I wonder what good alternatives there are, other than attempting to get really good at hand held shots.
