Hampstead Heath, Autumn

[Jim Kuo]

Went to the local park to take some pictures today, here is a small selection.

#1

#2, this one is processed with Hamish's high contrast B/W LR filter plugin

#3

#4

#5

Seeing the yellow leaves and empty branches, Autumn is really here. I probably should utilise the remain short weeks to take more yellow Autumn pictures, Winter will be here soon...

 

[Davie Hudson]

very very nice set , number 3 freaked me out a little lol

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Davie. With the perfect reflection in #3, I felt I had to turn the sky up side down and see how it turned out .

 

[Hamish Gill]

Very nice mate,
Number 3 is indeed one of those .. "eh.... Arrr I see whats going on here" shots ...

 

[Brian Moore]

Love the toadstools. Also #3--surrealistic! (Number 2 didn't show up for some reason.) Very nice set, Jim,...all of them.

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Brian.

Strange, I am looking at #2 right now (new browser session with cleaned cache and everything...), it appears fine. Maybe try again later?

 

[Darren Bradley]

My old stomping grounds! I haven't been back in ages, but it was a nice trip down memory lane. Thanks, Jim! Love the mushroom shots, especially.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That #3 is a bit special - makes you stop and think, which is a great thing in a photograph.

Love the light through the leaves in that last shot - lovely colours

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Darren, Chris.

With leaves turning yellow everywhere, it was a bit difficult for me to decide what to shoot to capture the feeling of changing season. Took a number of yellow leave shots, and #5 one seems to work for me.

I had to lay on top of wet leaves/ground and soiled my trousers/coat to get low enough to get the mushroom shot. Using a manual focus lens (photos all shot in Zeiss 50mm) wasn't making it any easier... Luckily, the 10x zoom of 5D2's liveview allows accurate(ish) focus .

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Love number 3!! I thought I was trippin, I thought to myself, how the effing hell did he get that...... Oh yeah!! Love the first mushroom shot too. Very well excicuted, nice set.

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Dan!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Jim - I didn't think I'd use Live View, but since buying the camera, I've really come to like it.

I have it set to show the 'rule of thirds' grid, and the live exposure histogram as well - not sure how I lived without it now!

That Zeiss lens looks very nice

 

[Paul Lange]

I think 3 & 4 are very enigmatic images and have a wonderful sense of mystery about them.

 

[Jim Kuo]

Yes Chris, I was exactly the same, I used to laugh at the idea of having a digitcam like liveview LCD display on a DSLR, until I've tried it for real.

It's great for lining up the shots on a tripod without having to see through the viewfinder and suffer a twisted neck in the process. Also, it's invaluable for shooting at difficult angles such as very low near the ground or high above your head.

I am really pleased with this 50mm Zeiss, its super long focus ring rotation + the 5D2 focus confirmation, make the manual focusing process quite pleasant .

 

[Jim Kuo]

Thanks Paul, I am pleased on how #4 turned out as well.

Priya was urging me to go the other way. I liked how the building looked through the gaps between branches, so I went closer (the 50mm wasn't long enough), took that shot and double back to join her.

It was a windless day, hence the almost perfect reflection on the rippleless pond in #3 .