Night Boat To Cairo

DV3E9205, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

I suddenly realise that yesterday’s blog was totally unrelated to the normal photo/nature conversations we have, Dear Reader, and was all about me! Sorry, that was very selfish but I do hope you understand I was excited in anticipation of seeing Madness play at the Festival. The problem with anticipation is it can often be left wanting, with expectation exceeding the experience. Well, that wasn’t the case with Madness and I’m still smiling at the thought of their performance – such good, happy music… and even the sun came out so things were perfect.

Yesterday’s image (and today’s) were both taken at the Eden Project and of all the photos I took there (and I did take a lot – but then you’d expect that of me by now wouldn’t you!) this is the one that I WILL be having printed on canvas … I might even find time to hand it on the walls here somewhere!

Today’s image was a bit of a revisit for me. When I first visited the Eden Project back in 2003, I saw my first Californian Poppy and with my then trusty (it’s still trusty, it’s still in my camera cupboard, it just doesn’t get used now) Olympus E20p I managed to take a great photo of it (even though i didn’t know as much then as I do now). I wanted to take the same, but better image, and whilst the flower isn’t as perfect as the last one I’m pretty pleased with the whole photo, the colour saturation, sharpness, depth of field – all straight off the camera and carefully crafted (yeah yeah).

I did use a tripod this time, whereas last time I could only handhold the camera – with the focal length of the macro lens (150mm) and a small aperture (I’ll save you the calculations) – camera shake (in other words – unsteady hand!) is a real issue. Even with a tripod you can get some movement and a cable release is preferable. I tend to brace myself against the tripod and then hold my breath which works as long as I remember to breath again.

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