Lesson 3 - 30th April 2012

So lesson 3 came around fairly quickly and we were greated by Mark at the front the college and I was informed of the sad news that the learning centre can no longer be used and will soon be knocked down, it's kind of sad as I was there 12 years ago when I first left school!

After taking the class register we jumped in our cars and headed up to the Courts car park, the scene of lesson 1.  The idea behind today was to head down to the River Dee to try and pick up some pictures of Herons and hopefully skylines and landscapes if the sky is looking clear. Once the light starts to fade we will head back up to towards the roundabout by the Courts.  We are hoping to pick up the lights of cars during to show the trail the light leaves.

So we headed down to the banks and Mark was trying his best to get us notice pictures that we (as beginners) may not notice and the first example is the way the light reflects on the court building, this photo is shown below:

The picture to the left shows the light reflecting on both sides of the building as well the interesting textures in the sky







As we headed around the side of the courts an interesting oppotunity presented itself, the alleyway we were in was dark but at the end of the alley it opened up into the Courts Car Park where the sunlight was beaming.  Mark took a position in the archway as we tried to photograph him as best we can, my results are below:

I can see from this picture that the better angle would have been straight on using the Archway as the photograph order, this was a rushed photo as the light faded straight away which meant the contrast didn't work.







So we headed down to the River Dee hoping that the light and texture would produce some great photographs.  We spent some time on the Handbridge bridge overlooking the River Dee and I tried to listen to what Mark was saying.  Mark made good points about how you can use the sky as a good lead in, not just objects on the ground. 

Mark has a go with my camera as well and showed me by changing the Aperature to F8 (the highest you can go with my camera) he showed me how to make the water look blurred.  What makes the next photo even more remarkable is the fact Mark was able to pick an area of the running water that had a colour reflection, something I hadn't even had seen:


The type of photo will come to me with practice!











I spent some time taking pictures down the River Dee hoping to capture these before a Heron caught our eye!  We followed the Heron down the banks of the river trying not to scare him away!

My favourite Heron picture is this one:


I like the the picture makes it look like the Heron is ready to pounce in the wild, the water is sharp and makes this photo for me.  This photo was taking in 'A' or 'Av' Mode on F4.  I tried the the picture on F8 also but the water was just a blur








We finally headed ack up to the Courts and Mark got us to set up our cameras on the Tri-pods, I must admit I now know how to use it properly!!  We set up next to the round-a-bout and started to snap the traffic going past.  We were after a blured effect on the lights and by doing this we set our camera to 'A' mode and I set my F rating to F8 and started taking pictures.  It took a while as timing is key but the effects are amazing and I didn't realise it was that easy! The location could have been better but what I didn't realise at first was why we were there.....  The first photo shows what I believe is my best attemp to this, the second photo shows the sunset reflecting from the building across the road, now it was clear why we were there!!

I really like the blurry effect of the traffic passing but it's still too light

It's a shame this photograph isn't in focus, the sunset looks absolutely amazing though and it's this type of photo I need to look out for, possibly an evening trip to Liverpool is on order as the light on the side of the Echo Arean would be awesome




So during lesson 3 we mainly learnt how the Aperature feature on the camera effects on moving objects once the F rating is high.  Mark also continued to get us to look for lead-ins everywhere as well as trying to get us to appricate landscapes and features.

Overall I didn't think I learnt alot from this lesson but I came away with some good ideas and some interesting photograph techniques which I know I can work on.  I plan to pop along to one of the bridges over the M53, M56, A41 or A55 and try to practice with a bigger Aperature rating, higher F rating on the camera.  I will post the pictures up once I've done it.