How to Enlarge Your Lightsource for Softer Light, easily.

I did a little experiment this evening just to demonstrate how to make a really large lightsource and give much more even light on your subject than just blasting away with direct light.

I have two 65x65cm light boxes that are quite handy. So here is a pic of them set up pointing directly at a nice Dutch vase. The camera was on the tripod in front of the table.

From here it looks like that should make for some pretty good light on the vase, but as we can see in the next photo they also leave some not so great specular highlights on the vase and two distinct shadow areas behind the vase.

Not a bad photograph as such, but we can do much better than that! So, in order to increase the overall size of the light source I simply faced the lights up at the ceiling. Of course I also had to increase the power output of the lights because the light now had much further to travel and the inverse square law robs us of light very quickly when we increase the distance the light has to travel.

As you can see from the pic above the light has now been spread over a much larger area. So what has that done for our lovely Dutch vase?

Well the first thing you notice is that the ugly specular highlights have vanished and the light is much more evenly spread on the vase itself. The second thing is that the shadows behind the vase have also disappeared. Overall a much more pleasing result!

If all you have are two speedlights instead of the bigger studio lights then don't be disheartened because the exact same principle still holds true and will work just great. Simply pump up the power a bit and let 'er rip, it will have a similar wonderful softening effect on the quality of light.

Happy product photographing folks!

End Of Month View ~ May 2013

As May departs the sides of the lane leading down to our house are awash with a froth of cow parsley. I can almost convince myself albeit briefly, that I'm living in the country and not just off a busy main road in a town. It's a magical time of year which never lasts quite long enough. It will not be long before either himself or next door comes out with a strimmer and it's back to reality.

It's my favourite time of year in the garden with all the plants that I love the most making an appearance although they are slightly behind schedule this year. I'm about to launch a search party though for aquilegia 'Nora Barlow' who seems to have gone absent without permission. I'm rather sad not to see her and will have to replace as soon as possible. The main work in progress has been planting up the new border at the bottom of the gabion wall. There are still shrubs and more perennials to plant but so far the following have been planted - hellebores, cardamine quinquefolia, astrantia 'Gill Richardson', pulmonaria 'Blake's Silver', hemerocallis 'Catherine Woodbury', and an actaea (not sure which one). I would like to repeat the astrantia and the hemerocallis but will have to wait to either find duplicate plants or divide the ones I've got. The pulmonaria will be coming out and moved elsewhere as I noted scorch marks on the foliage yesterday. The border is getting more afternoon sun than I thought it would do. I should have snipped off the flowers of the hellebores so that the plants will put all their energy into rooting but I'm greedy and want the seeds. I'm also going to plant some of my special snowdrops in there but am waiting until at least next month to see which ones I've got enough of to plant in small groups in the ground. Finally bags of 2011 leaf mould are lurking somewhere which I intend to spread over the border before covering it with bark. Hopefully the remaining bags of top soil, the wheelbarrow and other work paraphernalia will soon disappear.

Progress at the allotment has been slow going and hard work. I think I could start a knitting circle with the yanks of marestail that I've been pulling out. This major weed issue seems worse than ever and I'm wondering whether its a consequence of last year's wet summer. The rabbits have been munching the green tops from the shallots and gooseberry sawfly have decimated the foliage of the goosegogs. On the plus side I've planted 'Douce Provenance' peas, 'The Sutton' broad beans and 'Speedy' French beans. The new strawberry bed has been planted with 'Cambridge Favourite' plants and a new variety called 'Albion'. I did not plant any potatoes until the beginning of May when a bed of 'Pink Fir Apple' went in. These have just started to break through in the last week. There is still much shuffling of plants from home to the allotment to be done including sweet peas, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, runner beans, more French beans, beetroot, leeks, onions and kale. The beginning of June is going to be busy.

I have been most restrained as far as plant purchases have been concerned with just three plants - a tayberry, sweet cicely and a begonia all bought at the garden club plant sale but June and a visit to a Plant Hunter's Fair is just round the corner!

Thanks to Helen over at The Patient Gardener's Weblog who came up with the excellent idea of an end of month view. Do pop over to see what she has been up to in her garden as well as visit other blogger's posts of what has been happening in their patches of earth.

Wordless Wednesday - Nestled Up

A (slightly) Different View of the Landskrona Citadel

I adjusted the angle a little to have a view of the bridge over the moat.

Downton Abbey Tablescaping Adventure

“I should hate to be predictable.”  Mary to Matthew at the alter.

The tablescaping teamwork adventure was such a fun experience!   We ended up in third place trailing the HGTV tables but you couldn't have asked for a more exciting and fun teamwork exercise.   Thank you to everyone who offered amazing advice, photos and blog links.  We incorporated so many of the details thanks to your suggestions.  Our team worked hard discreetly tying in many of our firm's values and culture and while I'm afraid those details were overlooked by the judges but we couldn't have asked for a better team assignment.  Everyone pitched in.

We personalized our chargers each of them reflected our work or a firm value.

Our shirts were amazing and each of us had a quote from our favorite character on our backs.

The centerpiece is one of my favorite things about the table.  I spent a week hunting down colored papers that would otherwise have been thrown away in an effort to recycle.   It took three of us 4 hours to hand make the paper flowers and arrangement.   Each of the candles, napkins and place cards were creatively written to combine our firm's core values and that of Downton Abbey.  No detail was overlooked.

Click on the photo to enlarge and view more details.

Though we didn't win, all of us enjoyed the process and the competition.  The weekend was full of lots of learning and training but it was nice at the end of the sessions to go out on the lake for a relaxing evening.  

Citadellkliniken in Landskrona

The Citadellkliniken in Landskrona is probably the most beautifully located clinic I have ever seen, nestled as it is on a piece of land jutting out into the Öresund, with a lovely beach on one side and gorgeous seafront parkland on the other. Taken at 22.37 with the sky still fairly bright from a sun that set at 21.27 it is resplendent in a golden glow that couldn't be more spectacular!

Tripod, Aperture Priority, f11.0, 10.0s exposure time chosen by the camera, ISO 200, quick run through DXO and then time spent in PSP X5 working on colour, contrast and sharpening.

Identity Crisis

It was that time of year again this weekend - my horticultural society's annual plant sale which was blessed with the most glorious weather. Despite my yearly heartfelt "never again!" utterances I had my own stall at the sale. I did not manage to assemble as much as in some previous years which was a combination of both events and the weather. With not as many perennials divided as usual this spring, there were fewer perennials to take so a good few annuals as well as veggie plants supplemented my stall. As usual the weather the day before did not exactly provide perfect weather for preparations. It was decidedly cool and most windy so both plants and humans got rather ruffled. My right hand man was excused from duties on the day this year because of work commitments but was amazed when I called upon his expertise for some serious plant identification.

You can see the plant concerned in the above photo as well as in the close ups of flower and foliage below. I think that the photo has accentuated its pinkness - it appears a softer pink to my eyes.

It is one of my favourite umbifillers and is either chaerophyllum hirstum 'Roseum' or pimpinella major 'Rosea'. I've bought both plants in the past but one plant and both labels have since departed. They are fairly similar but the chaerophyllum can be identified by virtue of hairy leaves (hence hirsutum) and by its apple scented foliage. Neither of us could see much in the way of hairiness but himself detected an aroma of apple whilst I could not try as I may. So there was much sniffing and debate but no definite conclusion. Oh what a dilemma when it came to deciding how to label the plant, so in the end the two flowering specimens I had went to the plant sale under an anonymous guise. The larger of the two was the first to be snapped up from the table followed in due course by all the perennials flowering or not. The half hardy nicotiana mutablis all went. I wish that I could remember exactly when I sowed these plants last year, as I had managed to get one into flower which I think sold the others. If the weather had been kinder they would have all been in flower but at least they were all sturdy and sizeable plants which will flower soon.

Tomato plants which I had were in great demand likewise peppers which I did not have nor did any of the other sellers. However you can guarantee that if we bring peppers next year they will not be wanted. The mints which were popular last year did not prove to be so this year so most of them came home with me. They will now need repotting now in time for the next sale in July when our allotment association will be fund raising at a local event. My respect for the professionals increases every time I take part in these events as it helps you to appreciate some of what is involved in getting plants to shows and plants fairs. They have my utmost respect especially in a spring such as this.

Now before you ask of course some new plants just had to come home with me. These were an allotment bound tayberry, a begonia for indoors and a sweet cicely - destination undecided.
P.S. If anybody grows either the chaerophyllum or pimpinella perhaps you can help solve my plant's identity crisis.

Water Tower - Landskrona

This huge water tower dominates the landscape at the harbour area in Landskrona and just begs to be photographed! ;-)

Photo Shoot Your Way to Sales Growth - from TIME Business & Money

There is an interesting article on TIME's website in the Business & Money section that says what we knew all along! ;-) Click on the link below:

Photo Shoot Your Way to Sales Growth

Why I think shooting after sunset is a good idea!

Yesterday I posted a comparison between a CPL filtered and un-CPL'd photograph and how using a Circular Polarising Filter can improve the look of your photographs during the day when the sun is shining.

But now I'm going to show you a photograph taken from the same spot (almost exactly) but that has a whole lot more "wow" factor simply because of the time of day it was taken. I took this photograh about 55 minutes or so after sunset but while the sun was still giving plenty of golden glow to the sky. The foreground is also lit by the street lights which kind of matches the colour of the sky, and also prevents the foreground from just being plain black.

Of course this required me going back to the beach much later and dressed a little warmer, but I think the results were well worth the effort!

At this time of the day colours are super saturated and beautiful. However, because the light is nowhere near as bright as during the day shutter speeds are way slower than while the sun is shining so a tripod becomes essential. I used f11.0 and let the camera choose it's own shutter speed which was a full 30 seconds in this particular case. A bit of playing with sliders in PSP X5 lowered the highlights, raised the shadow areas and increased the saturation some more until I got what I was after.

Nikon D90 and my trusty el cheapo 18-105mm kit "plastic fantastic" lens.

Landskrona Citadel - a High Dynamic Range Photograph.

From Wikipedia: Landskrona Citadel (Swedish: Citadellet or Landskrona slott) is situated in Landskrona, Scania, southern Sweden. Initially built 1549–1559 as a purely defensive fortification with two complete moats, the inner with a width of 70 metres (230 ft). The outer (complete) moat is between 40 and 70 metres (130 and 230 ft) wide, and has cross fire bastions for artillery and guns. Outside the outer moat, a third narrower moat covers the northwest and northeast. There also exist remains of a fourth moat (between the two outer moats). The fortifications and moats system surrounding the castle is known to be one of Europe's largest and best preserved.

Three bracketed photos taken 2 stops apart, a quick run through DXO 8 for the special pixie dust magic that the elves at DXO lavish upon RAW photos to make them look better, and then "Exposure Merged" in Corel Paintshop Pro X5. Tweaked the levels, contrast and did some sharpening, also in PSP X5. For this type of photography a sturdy tripod is essential because of the very long exposure times. I used my D90 and the 18-105mm kit lens, Aperture Priority and f11.0, always RAW. :-)

Comparison between Polarised and Unpolarised images.

After all these years the effect of a circular polarising filter still seems a little magical to me. First picture is without and then a few seconds later I took the second with the circular polarising filter applied. I am sure you will agree which looks best!

Like I said... magic!

This is a beach in Landskrona, the building is a clinic of some sort and in the distance you can see the island of Ven. The concrete blocks in the foreground are left over fortifications from the Second World War that Sweden built just in case the Germans invaded. They remain unused to this day, to the great relief of everybody in Sweden.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G DX AF-S, Circular Polarising Filter, M mode.

Wordless Wednesday - 22/05/2013 - Geranium Phaeum 'Lily Lovell'

Musing In May

May 

'Now children may 
Go out of doors,

Without their coats,

To candy stores.

The apple branches

And the pear

May float their blossoms through the air,

And Daddy may 

Get out his hoe

To plant tomatoes

In a row,

And afterwards,

May lazily

Look at some baseball

On TV.'

- John Updike 1932- 2009

The illustration is the from Cecily Mary Barker's 'A Flower Fairy Alphabet'.

Of course it could just as well be Mummy who is planting those tomatoes! 

Meanwhile….Back at the ranch

That is what I would do

if I had won the lottery this weekend

Pack up….move to a 100 acre ranch

This one would work just fine…

Owned by super model Tatiana Patiz

She lives on the 20 acre ranch amongst kids, Dogs and horses.

 

The sweet life.

Images from here

A (fairly) Standard Three Light Portrait

Three Elinchrom lights used. Main light camera left Elinchrom 4 bounced into a black backed umbrella from about 45° up and 45° to the subject. Fill light camera right Elinchrom 4 about 1 stop down from main shot through a transparent umbrella. Back light Elinchrom 2 right and behind subject in a medium sized softbox. Nikon D300s and Nikkor 50mm f1.8D.

All this and another light, light stands, plus a background stand, backdrop, two cameras complete with lenses, plus a tripod all fit into one large rolling case to become my highly portable studio ready to leave and shoot on location at any time. Very convenient indeed!

Church in Mellösa Sweden (another take)

I posted a black and white pic of this church last year on this page here: Church in Mellösa Sweden The pic above was taken on the same day, but I prefered this one in colour. Why? I think it has to do with the red building on the left that brings a splash of life to an otherwise drab colour scheme.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2013

A couple of blooms from my allotment this month. Firstly it's apple blossom time - the three small trees at the allotment 'Katy', 'Sunset' and 'James Grieve' are smothered with flowers. Sadly the weather has been cool, wet and windy since the flowers appeared but I'm hoping that the allotment bees have had the opportunity to pollinate. I did not realise until yesterday just how fragrant apple blossom is. I stood and sniffed for some considerable time.

Next the white currant which is dripping flowers this spring and which will hopefully provide some delicious berries this summer. I now have three currant bushes - red, white and black. The white currant is the most productive and the sweetest  ~ 

Thanks to Carol you can enjoy a treasure trove of May blooms over at May Dreams Gardens. I'm off to visit there later on this unseasonable cold and rainy day with pen and paper in hand.

Quote of the day

Waiting Patiently In The Wings ...

Not much opportunity for gardening this weekend - the weather and other activities conspired to press the hold button. On Saturday I went to a Bee Festival - yes that's a bee festival and not a beer festival. The highlight of the event for me was the opportunity to listen to a talk by the inspirational Pam Warhurst from Incredible Edible. More of that in a future post. Yesterday offered a welcome and rare opportunity for me to meet up with my younger brother who lives abroad. So apart from opening and shutting the greenhouse and some potting up on Saturday night when hailstones held me captive in the greenhouse there's not much to report.

However it's been good to catch breath and think. I've been mulling over the new area that I hope to start planting up soon. This is at the base of the gabion walls and it swallowed up some of the 4 tons of top soil that was delivered recently. The border is north facing and rather shady although it will receive afternoon sun. I am hoping to plant some hellebores in there and to start to plant some of my special snowdrops in that area too. I will wait until the snowdrops concerned go dormant before lifting them from their present pots to plant in the ground. There should also be enough room for some pulmonarias, brunneras, corydalis and other spring flowering woodland plants. You can see some of the plants that are possible candidates in the above photo waiting patiently in  the wings for me to decise their fate.

Maybe one or two shrubs at the back to disguise some of the wall but still at that can't make my mind up as to which ones stage. Himself is keen for me to make a start on planting as soon as possible, before the local cat population think that this area of soil might have been specially provided for them. I can see his point but need just a little bit more time to think. Is there any new planting up going on in your garden this spring?

Happy Mamacita Day….

Wordless Wednesday - 8th May 2013 - Mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream'

I'm So Behind But I Need Help With a Tablescape!

It's been a crazy busy spring, or perhaps I should say winter.  With the heater still going it is hard to imagine that it's spring but the calendar says May and my seedlings are up.  Mother's Day is next weekend.  Yep, it must be spring!

So blog friends, you have been on my mind and I seriously need help.   The help I need has to do with tablescapes so Susan at Between Naps on the Porch and the Tablescaper are the perfect resources.  If only they would read my post! 

We tweeked adding our building and a more personal logo

We are having a tablescape competition with some colleagues at work.  A group of us are participating in an upcoming retreat and we had to pick some of our favorite topics (I picked Downton Abbey) and at one of the dinners, our team will have exactly 20 minutes to set a table using the theme and tying it back to our workplace.  We've come up with some great ideas but we want perfection and we want to win!!!  How would you tie the show to a law firm and more specifically, our law firm culture?

We are using black, silver and white (with a touch of red) for our theme.  We've gathered some lovely items and made a few things too but our team really wants to WIN!!! We are battling teams with themes like Exotic Travel, HGTV, Food & Wine, Sports, Toddlers & Tiaras....I mean some great themes and I've heard that one table is bringing in turf! Another is building a doll house....seriously?  We've got some serious competition!

If you are a tablescaper and if you have ideas, please send my way!

Shall we?

Carry on.

Greening The Gabion

It was last May when the gabion project got underway and now a year later one of the finishing touches has been achieved. The wall itself was completed some time ago - the above photo shows but a section. The gabion wall was built after the land it is sited on had been cleared and raised. Originally the area sloped down rather alarmingly towards a small stream and was uncultivated. Now we have a clearly defined boundary and have reclaimed some land. The wall is is bigger than I envisaged and has looked rather grey and bleak during the winter. We had decided though to plant up the top with something green. Eventually the decision was made to go for sedums but we have been waiting for spring to order the sedums and then plant them. Preparation for planting began last Wednesday, when 'trays' of chicken wire lined with weed membrane were constructed to sit on top of the walls. Early on Friday morning 4 tons of top soil arrived, followed later on by a delivery of a special planting mix together with 99 sedums. As with all the best laid plans of mice and men, I had arranged to meet a friend for lunch and then had food shopping to do, so had to leave him to toil on his own. The above photo shows what the wall was looking like when I left the house. This is what I came home to :

Special planting mixture and 99 sedums all in place! It will take a while for it all to knit together and form a carpet, which will hopefully cloak not only the top of the wall but which will also then start to tumble down over the edge. However just that little bit of green has made a huge difference. Discussion on the rest of the area goes on and has proved to be rather a contentious issue. Himself seeing it as a car parking space whilst I see it as a planting place. After all there is only one driver in the household and we do have a garage. The debate goes on but in the meantime I have gained some extra planting space at the base of part of the wall. This has involved removing some of our sad mossy excuse for a lawn but no tears here. 

In the evening himself sat down to a well deserved pint then he started to worry. "What if a bird takes a fancy to the sedum for nesting material and flies off with it in its beak?" he asked. I was not able to reassure him that there was no likelihood of this. Then the wind started to rise with a vengeance and as the night wore on he envisaged the sedums flying off into the stratosphere. My idea of hairpins to keep them in place was scorned so I suggested that perhaps he should mount an overnight vigil. Needless to say he did not and needless to say that when we did a sedum count come morning all 99 were present and correct.

Cinco de Mayo requires….

A tad of Margarita Ice Cream…

:: cha cha cha ::

Anyone?

Margarita Ice Cream
makes about 3 cups
1/4 cup Triple Sec or Cointreau
1/4 cup Tequila
4-6 medium to large limes
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
In a small saucepan, bring the Triple Sec and Tequila to a simmer. Reduce to 2 tablespoons. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl and refrigerate until well chilled.
Finely grate the zest from two of the limes. Juice 1/2 cup lime juice from the the zested limes and the additional remaining limes. Whisk the sugar into the lime juice. Add the heavy cream, concentrate, salt, and chilled reduction. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions. (The mixture will be just thick, not solid.) Transfer the mixture to a freezer safe container and freeze until firm; several hours and preferably overnight. (Ice cream will be of soft-serve consistency.)
Scoop into bowls or, for effect, small dishes rimmed with lime juice and kosher salt. Enjoy!

Recipe: the galley gourmet