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Saturday saw me wandering around Chester, but no photos. I was looking around for possible shots, and have seen a couple that might be suitable at some point. I may, however, wait until a Sunday morning when there are fewer people / cars around. I did, however, end up with a new (to me) lens - 100mm Macro F2.8. I bought it because I know that 100mm is meant to be a good lens for portraits, while I don't otherwise have a macro lens.
On Sunday we decided to go round Ness Gardens, a local garden run by the University of Liverpool. This was primarily to give the lens an outing, and I've got a few decent shots. Some of them might be usable within the assignment - leaves on a monkey puzzle tree for sharp, perhaps, with a magnolia plant for soft. Also, I've got a fern circle that may do for rounded although there's nothing there that really stands out for straight. There's also a tree with a very smooth bark, but the shots I took of rough bark didn't really have a sufficient depth of field and haven't come out right as a result. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy, especially as I was focussing manually rather than using AF for pretty much all of it.
Monday night was camera club night, with a competition result night. Not one of my most successful nights, to be certain, with the judge only really liking one of my photos - a hot air balloon that I was considering for rounded in the assignment but which might be better for diagonal. However, most of the comments about the others were reasonable - it is always interesting to get external views on your photos, even if you don't necessarily agree with them.
One of my favourite photos was in the competition - one of Coniston Water. In my original version the horizon was halfway up the picture.
For the competition I re-edited it so that the horizon was on the lower third. I liked it, but the judge took the view that the sky wasn't strong enough for it. One of the reasons that I liked the original picture was because of the sky, and the reflection in the lake. However, putting the lake on the bottom third does lose much of the reflection and emphasises the sky, possibly beyond what it deserves.
As a third attempt I've now come up with a third crop, with the horizon on the top third. Wish I'd tried that earlier - this time it emphasises the reflection and the lake, and I think it's a better result.
In both of the edits I have also cropped out some on the sides, particularly on the right hand side, because I don't think the trees on that side particularly add anything to the picture. That said, of the three I think I still prefer the original halfway split. That may be because I'm more familar with it in that guise, but I rather like the symmetry in that version (perhaps that's the mathematician in me).
