CLA Game Fair

We managed to get to the CLA Game Fair, which was held in the grounds of Blenheim Palace this year.  A very large and busy event with lots going on - starting with the queue to get in (a cool £56 for a family ticket).

Then, of course, there is the inevitable battle of the sexes.  Note the obvious differences between the waiting times for the Gents' and Ladies' loos.

Who could resist a couple of Basset Hounds?  Totally endearing to everyone, including to a young child who had a close encounter...

I found myself photographing things with a dogs' eye view - of which more later.  This included the obligatory green wellies.

There were some pretty bizarre things on sale at the show.  These included a rather some rather expensive decoy hunting targets (too deer for me [sorry!]) and a rather spooky mask.

More wellies, of varying hues.

My personal interest in going to the show was the fly fishing stalls.  There were several live demonstrations, some of which were being filmed.  The elongated stretch of water is a casting pool, and the chap with the rod is demonstrating a Spey cast with a double-handed salmon rod.  The final image is a fly-tying demonstration, the details of which were shown on a big screen.

People watching is a good pastime at such events.  I presume the guy inspecting the Bentley didn't have to ask how much it cost...

Other strange things spotted during the day, including a sign which is bound to come in useful sometime along with some microscopic tweeds for the land-owner-to-be.  Mustn't forget the beer tent, of course, or the surreal sight of a 20 foot giraffe and a blimp representing the back end of a dog...

More pictures of dogs (or taken with a dogs' eye view).

A couple of a jazz trio who were playing their hearts out.

Not forgetting the "leading artificial turf" company, the AA (no joiners),  or the "not so sushi" bar.

It's exhibition time again

If you're in the Grantchester area this weekend, why not drop by at our exhibition and say hello?  Even if you don't like any of the pictures, there will be plenty of tea and cake available...

Visit to Monach Farm

Enormous thanks are due to Roland Randall and his wife, Dreda, for allowing us to wander around Monach Farm on Saturday afternoon taking pictures.  A wonderful place, and the Caprilatte ice cream is to die for!

These are some of the horses being moved after a heavy day at the Riding Stables.

The goats were endearing, and great characters.  These two had been banished into a barn along with a couple of tractors.

There was an opportunity to photograph the goats being milked, but it was much more fun to take pictures of Homo photographicus instead.

Some more goats, along with a "wannabe" goat: a Highland calf called Buzz Lightyear who is being hand-reared.

 Does my nose look big in this?  Also, it seems like Buzz wasn't the only goat wannabe...

Roland showing us Paddington, his stud boar, who stole the show.

Monach Farm is a great place, and well worth going to one of their open days.  There's always one on August Bank Holiday Monday.

Last gasp before my HDR Efex Pro trial runs out

The more I use HDR Efex Pro, the more I like it. Initially I thought that Exposure Fusion (something which Photomatix does) would be the solution for natural-looking church interiors, for example. After playing with it for a couple of weeks, I'm convinced that careful use of the Nik tone mapping is more than capable of producing a highly natural and realistic looking result. Anyway, judge for yourselves based on the last set of images I was able to create before my evaluation licence expired...

Yet more HDR (but am I getting any better?)

After experimenting with four different HDR programs (Photoshop, Dynamic Photo HDR, Photomatix and Nik HDR Efex Pro) I keep coming back to the last one.  The user interface is so much more intuitive than the others, and - just as with Silver Efex Pro - is designed to be used by photographers in very much the same way as things used to work in the darkroom.

The following images were all processed in HDR Efex Pro, and I was deliberately attempting to achieve as natural a look as possible (given the limitations of the medium).

I also couldn't resist going for a surreal interpretation of some work taking place in the Triforium.  I'm not normally a fan of OTT processing, but this image really seems to work.

Before the 14 day trial runs out on Monday (sob) I've also been experimenting with some other examples of HDR work.  The first is a three picture set, two stops apart, which was hand held.  The auto-align feature of HDR Efex Pro is pretty astonishing (Photoshop made a complete dog's breakfast of the job).

I also tried a couple of "single image" HDR examples, starting from a single RAW file rather than a bracketed set.  Both a bit surreal, but certainly more interesting than the originals (not saying much).

The final example is a bracketed sequence from my Infra Red camera, just to se what the result would look like.

I now need to break the world record when it comes to learning and HDR processing before my trial period runs out.  Either that or break open the piggy bank...