Benasque Fragments
Still experimenting with colour processing in Capture One… this time with a series of fragmentary images taken around Benasque, a beautiful village in the Spanish Pyrennees.
Three Landscapes
Three landscape images, taken in the Picos de Europa. These were shot in rather dull (and damp!) weather, so this was largely an experiment in using local edits for contrast and exposure in Capture One to give the images more punch.
Autumn
A set of images taken in the Botanic Garden of Madrid, shot in rather damp conditions with a polarising filter to give bold colours.
Salamanca Green
Some images of Ranunculus drawn out in the flow of the Rio Tormes at Salamanca. These were shot from the Roman bridge, using a polarising filter to cut out the reflections from the water and boost the saturation. The 3D-like effect comes from the variation in depth of the plant within the river. We are not entirely sure what the exact plant species is. Some of the white speckles are in reality small white-petaled blossom, but it was difficult to get close enough to inspect the flowers. However, this is almost certainly Ranunculus fluitans, […]
El Garraf
A set of images from a full-day hike in El Garraf, Catalunya. The Garraf is a calcareous range of hills on the coast just south of Barcelona, and one of the few natural areas that can be reached easily and quickly by train from the city. It is not particularly mountainous, raising from sea level to a little over 600m altitude, but lack of shade and the Mediterranean heat can make the hike harder than you might expect.
Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera
Two contrasting galleries of colourful and textured images from the Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera, in the Monjuïc, Barcelona.
A Digression by any Other Name…
A slightly belated and vaguely Valentine’s day related post, with a set of macro photographs of prize-aspiring roses. Apologies for what a somewhat “filler” post – this was shot at the annual rose competition in Barcelona last year. Unfortunately, the photography here is somewhat disrupted following several incidents that conspired to combine equipment, photographer and gravity in a rather unfortunate way. The photographs were taken using a mix of Canon 5DIII with 100mm f2.8L macro, and the Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 60mm macro lens. In practise, it is almost impossible to tell which camera took which […]
Winter Garden
A short set of images taken at the Jardí Botànic Històric on the Monjuïc, Barcelona. This particular garden was originally established in the 1930’s by recycling constructions from the 1929 World Fair, before the what is later creation of what is now the main botanic garden in 1999. The garden is quite small and shady (never a bad thing given the summer environment here), and is notable for its collection of medicinal plants.
Week 12 :: Espais Naturals
A narrative set of photographs taken on a walk at the Espais Natural along the Llobregat river between Cornellà and El Prat. The green space is very much an afterthought from the planning authorities – it is essentially what is left over after carving out several large motorways, railways, power line systems and the farmland that somehow still manages to survive in this area at the edge of Barcelona. The river is flanked by large artificial embankments (levees) which contain the water when there is heavy rain. There are large areas […]
Opportunity
Another image that is again very loosely connected to the theme of independence, taken last month in Italy and feeling strangely more appropriate than ever given the prevalence of water this week.
Seed…
Fruits of Tarassacum officinalis and the last of the natural cliches. I think that it is obligatory for everyone photoblog to upload one of these every now and then. Taken with the generally under-rated but extremely versatile Olympus 12-50mm kit lens.
Slow…
Helix sp on a rock. This is a good example of what can be done to rescue a somewhat badly lit photograph in Capture One. After adjusting the overall exposure, the snail was masked and the surrounding background significantly dimmed. This is the original image:
Bloom…
Helianthus annuus with bee, somewhat abstracted. Who needs depth of field anyway?
Stately…
Bluish Aconitum napellus flowers.
Fresh…
Macro photograph of water droplets on a leaf. It rained a lot in August… Another image somewhat experimentally processed in Capture One. Still trying to figure out the best workflow and settings.
Fading…
Slightly worn-out Rudbeckia flowers…
Transient Eye 