Framedlight

I have been in Scotland for a week at Mairi's graduation and, what with that and work, I have not managed to place anything on the blog. Before l talk about Scotland I thought I would put up some more pictures from Montchavin. This time including some macros done in the meadow just behind Derek's house. I really enjoyed making these - I have a Nikon 105 macro lens which I also use for portraits, obviously not set on macro!

We spent a long weekend in the Alps, staying in Montchavin in the Paradis Ski area. Montchavin is really high on the mountain and you are above the clouds when the valley is full of mist. I had a day on my own in the Vanois park shooting. As a change from England it was a really bright sunny day with a bit of a heat haze.  The scenery was so green and blue I converted to black and white The next day was completely different. I drove up to the Petit St Bernard pass, where the snow still lay and the rain poured down. It was so desolate.

Yesterday we had a fleeting visit to Stowe Gardens before taking Rene back to catch the train from Milton Keynes. The weather was very overcast but the rain held off to the end of or trip. We resolved to go back again when it is quieter - probably winter! It would look fantastic in the snow. The camera did a great job with the foliage and needs very little post-processing to bring everything out. I have only used Lightroom 4 but I am going to load Capture NX2 and see how that performs.

On Sunday we wandered down to see the local jubilee festivities. The rain held off for the afternoon and the all the participants seemed to be enjoying themselves

On Sunday, the weather being horrible we decided to go to Duxford for the afternoon to stretch our legs. It was a very dull day so the inside of mosy of the hangers were only lit with artificial light. I used ISOs anywhere between 400 (in the American hangar) and 6,400.  The bottom 2 files are 100% crops, taken at ISO 6400. The first with 40 points of noise reduction in Lightroom 4 applied and the second with no noise reduction. 

Ist June I had a call from Clifton Cameras to say that they had had 3 Nikon 800es in and I was second on their list. After a few whoops which Gareth from the shop said made him feel like Father Christmas we agreed that I would pay extra to ship it the next day, a Saturday. At 8.00am it duly arrived and it is a remarkable beast. The shot of the amaryllis is the first shot I took with it. The wasp picture was taken with a 200mm lens which I had set upon a monopod to take pictures of birds on the feeder. It has been cropped down to less than 1:1 size. The final bird picture was taken from inside the house through the window glass which was moderately clean. Again this is a massive crop. The weather has been dreadful this weekend, such a shame for the jubilee, and we also have Alan's mum with us so have not been able to do so much, although we are going out this afternoon. I have spent some time going through the manual and need to try out the video function. The pictu...

On a hot Wednesday I went down to London and walked until my feet were blistered and beyond. I saw Damien Hirst exhibition at the Tate Modern and the Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican. I managed to take a couple of sneaky pictures in the Hirst exhibition before I was stopped. The light outside was harsh but I met Hugh later on it the day and I caught one evening photo as the light was softening