Stepping stones Box Hill Surrey England
Feb, 2014Views
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Winner in Autumn Colors Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
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Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo you see here was shot at the base of Box Hill in surrey, this is my home and I am very lucky to live here. Box Hill is a very famous place which lies between between Dorking and Leatherhead in Surrey, a place of outstanding beauty at 680 feet above sea level the view from the top is amazing, and here the Stepping stones with the river mole flowing between made the shot for me on this lovely Autumn day.Time
As I was driving home from work which is about fifteen minutes from this location, the camera and tripod were already on the back seat of my car, so pulling up into the car park I was already excited about the shot, but the first shoot the day before this did not go to plan, dull overcast and not the right conditions, but being local I just had to come back. Day two, and this was much better, more light in the sky, no wind, and most of all, I had the place to myself, 5.30pm and the tripod was set up and camera ready, this was the moment.Lighting
The lighting was very important for this shot to work, as with flower photography a little tip is not to shoot in bright sun, overcast is better as flowers have there own colour, so the trees here and leafs here show well and naturale, and because this was a long exposure there was no wind, very lucky with that as the tree leafs would have been very blurred, happy days right!Equipment
At the time this was shot I was using and olympus E620, a 14mm lens set at f18, ISO100, and my shutter was a long 50 seconds that seemed open for a lifetime. The tripod is a must, and keeping the ISO right down gives you the quality you need for this kind of photography, the lens was set at f18 as I wanted the photo to be sharp from the foreground to the far side, no flash was usedInspiration
What inspired me to take this, well first of all I used to fish this river with my son, the river mole has some very large fish, the second is the challenge of long exposure photography and a well sence of just being there, the gentle sound of the river, maybe the dart of a kingfisher flashing past looking for the meal, the bird's singing, and a feeling of peace away from the rush of life, you know the great outdoors.Editing
All my photography is done in raw, and so for this image I had to use curves to lower some of the highlight in the top of the photo, also the colours were a little flat so just a touch of saturation was needed to bring out that wonder Autumn look, other than that no more was needed.In my camera bag
I have now upgraded my camera and now use the OMD e5m olympus mirrorless camera and have to say I love this little baby. I have a zoom lens 75-300mm in digital terms 140-600mm as my camera is a 4/3rd system, one prime lens of 45mm 1.8 which I use for street photography, and many other subjects this blurs out the background and is amazing to use, also a 9mm-14mm for Landscape photography this is my latest addition, and a 12-50mm zoom, with macro, a new macro is next on the list.Feedback
Step 1 If your local and there is a subject like this one, keep a watch on the weather, not like me, although saying that it was easy to go back again. Step 2 A tripod is a must, and a wide angle lens really helps but compose the subject carefully, and take your time if you can, a shutter release, or remote is also very useful, if the foreground looks good use this, if you look at the photo there are some leafs on the stone I used these to add balance and interest to the photo, the day before no leafs were used, so I learnt a lesson here. Step 3 Think about your composition, and again take your time, I often have some music playing to help me set the mood, in this case some deep chillout was also used, but of course you don't have to, it's just something that helps me now and then, and enjoy and have fun, photography should be fun, while learning. Remote shutter release is also more than useful, you don't want to touch the camera at all. Step 4 keep on clicking, get to know your camera, check your batteries as long exposure photography will drain any batteries quickly, and believe you can, and you will.
