OK, so a week or so ago I posted the picture of the water drops on the sepia coloured rose. I've kind of decided not to use that picture for the water round of the competition. (Not because I don't like it, more because it's a rose bud with water rather than water on a rose bud).

... Anyhow, I was playing with the picture in Photoshop and decided to raise the exposure of the right side before removing the highlights from the water droplets to see what effect it had on the picture. It's left me in a dilemma about which I prefer.

So, which is better?

Thanks to some advice from Paulo, I was able to re-examine how I was taking some of the water shots. Whilst I'm not convinced I'm up to this standard yet, I did repeat the water droplet experiment using some of the tips from his blog.

Suffice to say this is the first of lots of much improved drop shots that I got. More will follow.

It's hard to imagine that less than 2 weeks ago I was wandering around a mountain in a pair of shorts...

(f/11, 1/125sec, 70mm, ISO-400, 27/09/08)

You'd think with a water theme competition coming up I'd be happy about the rain. You'd be quite wrong.

Can you imagine the feeling of dread as the lookout on the Titanic yelled those words?

Well, that was probably a lot more intense than the dread I felt as I popped open the boxes with my latest attempt at clear ice cubes.

However, like the Titanic, it seems I too was doomed to failure.

This time I'd tried to use de-ionised water. It was the closest to purified I could find (if anyone knows where I can get some, please tell me!). The ice was clearer, but still not great. I guess for round three I'll boil the bugger and see what happens.

Anyway, after lots of fruitless cursing at it I smashed it up so it would melt faster and not lie in the sink with an accusatory glare all night. As I looked at the pieces, I decided to have a bit of a play.

(f/3.5, 1/250sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 06/10/2008)

OK, this has been toned quite heavily to give it that odd blue glow. It's not great. In fact it reminds me of the turkey giblets quote from last year. But since I share the good and the bad, I thought I'd show you my lack of progress with ice.

I think I'm beginning to appreciate the club competition on a new level now. Never really having to work to an agenda before, I've always just taken pictures of things I like or things I thought might look nice. If I got a picture out of it, that was great. If I didn't, it was no big loss, like buses there'd be two just round the corner.

However, a subject as simple or as varied as "water" forces you into looking for shots which fulfil a brief, the sense of the clock ticking in the background is ever present. It took until today before I got past the deadline doom of the competition and realised that I wasn't actually that bothered about winning or losing or even just doing OK. I was in it for fun. Even if nobody liked my stuff (and believe me, the last photo I showed them got hammered), I was doing this to try and improve.

Funnily, right around the time I had that thought, I took the picture of the rose (see previous post) and the picture below.

In all honesty, I don't know if they'll be permitted in a competition where the theme is "water", but I like them and that's pretty much all that matters.

(f/5.6, 1/1000sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 05/10/08)

(f/5.6, 1/2500sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 05/10/2008)

I've no idea if this will be allowed as an entry for the "Water" round of the competition, but it's grown on me over the course of the day so it may well get an outing regardless. Maybe the top right is a little dark, but I'm not sure.

Sometimes it's a blessing that you can enter multiple prints.

This started of life as a yellow rose, but I just really like the sepia toning on it. It kills off the yellow in the flower and lets the water drops stand out a little more. And no, before you ask, these are natural water drops!

I've noticed what WingedMonkey seems to concentrate on macro flower shots in a lot of his updates and whilst I'm still a long way from some of his stuff, I am starting to see the attraction as you can end up with some lovely pictures.

(f/8, 1/1000sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 05/10/08)

I've kind of fallen into flower mode because of that water challenge. "Raindrops on roses" and all that... I'm still just shooting flowers in available light and I wonder what difference it would make if I was to start using reflections. Honestly, light is getting ever higher on my list of things to play around with. Maybe one day...

Nothing to say about this really. I was messing with the camera and liked the colour on a Friday night was all...

(f/2.8, 1/100sec, 100mm, ISO-400, 3/10/08)

Between mountains and models, the water project had taken a little bit of a back seat the last few days, but I got back onto it again tonight and after an hour of shooting, I'm growing to hate it.

I decided to move away from the ice idea for a while and try simple things like water filling a glass. I also decided to try and use a flash to light it as I wanted something a little 'ethereal' as a result.

Well, after an hour, this is the best I've got.

(f/4, 1/200sec, 100mm, ISO-200, 2/10/08)

It's still blurred, or at least not sharp enough for what I wanted.

I think this is probably down to the shutter speed of 1/200 (which is the fastest sync speed for my flash). I did try one at a faster shutter speed with the flash on manual, but it blew everything out and I needed to pack up.

So, according to my calendar I have 2 and a bit weeks to shoot something decent related to water and get it printed. I'm not panicking yet, but I'd getting a little frustrated.

Ah well, at least I have the weekend to try a few things and go back to my ice experiments!

I've mentioned the camera club I've joined a few times now. (And every time I've forgotten to link to their site- so here's the CPA Website). It's roughly week five of the season and to date we've had one round of the annual competition, two talks by visiting photographers and the opening night talks by some members.

Last nights talk was from Jim Crone, a professional fashion and beauty photographer. He spent the first half of the night talking about his work and his experiences, being candid and helpful in the face of questions and sharing some fantastic lighting and framing tips.

Then, while we drank tea, he set lights and with the aid of a local model gave us a practical demonstration of how to take pictures in a studio environment. After showing us how the professionals worked, we were able to take some photos ourselves.

It's quite a surreal experience taking photographs of a model. You see the professionals on TV having a dialogue with them but when it's your turn you just freeze. Fortunately for me, Lisa, the girl modelling was brilliant. As a result I managed to get a couple of shots I'm really pleased with.

(f/3.2, 1/160sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 30/09/08)

The setup was pretty simple. It consisted of a plain roll in the background with two tungsten lights. The main light was sitting directly in front of Lisa at about 2 metres off the ground and contained in a soft box. Directly under it was a silver reflector to provide some reflection. The second light was off to the right, just behind her shoulder. It was shining onto a piece of the roll which had a few cuts in it to give that pattern of light and shadow on the background.

(f/3.2, 1/160sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 30/09/08)

One interesting tip Jim provided which you can (hopefully) see in these images, is the use of white balance. In the first image, the camera is set to tungsten and as a result the picture is a nice natural set of colours. In the second picture, the camera is set to Daylight. As a result, the colours are much more creamy and warm.

This became something of a mantra on Saturday while in the Mournes. Normally just about the time we headed into the wilds, got stuck in some bog or came across the skull of a sheep

With the skull being a grotesque and morbid sight, we all took photos...

(f/8, 1/200sec, 22mm, ISO-200, 27/09/08)

I think this might have been slightly better if the angle on the skull had of been higher. But I quite liked the out of focus grasses in the foreground.

Of course, if you put a Selenium tint on it, the world goes very Blair Witch.