Winters are well and truly here in the United Kingdom. The weather changes in a matter of minutes going from bright blue skies to dark thundery clouds and cold winds to rain. These pictures are from last friday near Hinxton, Cambridgeshire and show how the weather changed in about 20 minutes.
A fallow field near Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.A tree precariously hanging on. River Cam (or Granta) near Hinxton, CambridgeshireRiver Cam (or Granta) near Hinxton. Using a soft-focus post-processing filter.Changeable Weather. 10 minutes after the last picture.Time to get indoors and escape the rain!! Hinxton, Cambridgeshire
All pictures shot with an iPhone 4S using the Camera! Awesome App. These images were then post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 4.1 to adjust white balance and contrast as necessary.
As I wasn’t close to my computer today, I decided to post a picture of stuffed red pepper that was my dinner yesterday. I am also posting this via the phone so I’ve no idea how this may look on a larger screen.
Image originally taken using iPhone 4S, then processed in snapseed and camera awesome. The contrast between the reds of the pepper against the steel and black of the over made it an interesting exercise.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the recipe – you can find it here.
October gets over today, and cold rain and winds lash Cambridge. The nights come early. In the midst of all this, a single rose valiantly blooms for the last time in 2012.
Autumn mornings offer a great chance to see myriad spider webs drenched in the early morning dew making a million natural necklaces of tiny pearly dew drops. I took these pictures on just one such day. The industrious spider had built this web on the clothesline overnight.
1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash
I am constantly amazed at the persistence of the spider to continually attempt to make a web in the most unlikely of places, day after day. Maybe there is a lesson in it for us all…. Technical details
I seem to have forgotten to post this photograph of a British butterfly to go with the other two I have posted before. The picture is that of a common blue butterfly. The males are bluish in colour but the females have varying amounts of blue.
Common blue – female
Seems like a good way to remember the summer gone by and the dreary winters yet to come!
Last week I had this really nice bunch of gold-coloured roses and I wanted to try out my photography skills using a remote flash on commander mode. I placed the flash on the tripod and right angles to the photograph with some interesting results. One of two of these are with the flash on the camera, but can you tell the difference?
head-on flashexternal flash behind rosesexternal flash behind rose to the rightexternal flash at right angles to the camera. Light coming from the left.External flash right angles to camera from left. Longer exposure.external flash about 45 degrees to camera in a V arrangement
The main advantage I found to having an external remote flash was to be able to play with the colours and backgrounds. No post-processing carried out for any of these pictures. The roses too look different depending on the light source.
What do you think? Click on any image to see a full-size view.
I think sunsets are beautiful. They mark the end of a day, promises of rest and a new beginning with dawn the next morning. The geographical location of Visakhapatnam means that sunsets are always on the side away from the sea, and I’ve never been an early riser to capture sunrise on the sea in the morning.
Sunset over Visakhapatnam as seen from Kailasagiri Hill.
The sunset seen from the Kailasagiri Hill in Visakhapatnam was particularly stunning.
Eastern ghats looking north of Visakhapatnam along the Bay of Bengal.
A beach road runs along the coast from Visakhapatnam to Bheemunipatnam for 46km, a stretch of which can be seen in the photograph above. Bheemunipatham has evidence of early Buddhist culture dating back to the 3rd century AD (photographs of Bheemunipatnam in a future post).
Sunset over VisakhapatnamPalm fronds, sunset and Visakhapatnam
Kailasagiri has huge statues of the hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati and a small mountain railway that offers scenic vistas of Visakhapatnam and the coast north towards Bheemunipatnam. Kailasa or mount Kailash is the abode of Shiva and Parvati according to hindu mythology. One of the mountains in the Himalayan range is the mountain called Kailash (6638 msl).
Shiva and Parvati statues at Kailasagiri, Visakhapatnam
But all good things must come to an end, and it was with a heavy heart that I left this beautiful place. I could not, however, resist taking one last shot of a glorious golden sunset.
PS: As always you can click on any of the pictures above to see a full size view.
This lovely photograph is from a close friend of mine who sent it to me a couple of weeks ago. I think this picture covers everything that is beautiful about a rose. I share it here with you with her permission. I have post-processed the picture to get a perfect dark background and remove noise from the photograph.
Juridicious 