Perspective

As I expected, my visit to another country show didn't add much to my poultry collection. I got hardly enough pictures to make it worth putting together a gallery. That's partly because I didn't take many in the first place. There seems little point in repeating myself

Even so, when the chance arises to make a better example of a picture I already have on file I'll give it a try.

The odd new view did pop up, but I don't think I realised it until too late and didn't make the best of it.

Then there's pictures that might come in useful at sometime depending how the project gets presented.

The show itself was busy, both with stuff going on and with visitors. To give an impression of how many people were there I did the news photographers Hail Mary - hold a wide angle lens up as high as possible, click the shutter a few times and pray! With a bit of practice (and a fair bit of luck) it works. It puts a different perspective on things too.

Another way using lenses to mess with perspective is to use a long focal length stopped down to give greater depth of focus. If you only ever shoot as wide open as possible you won't be able to make a tiny, tiny, man stand on a heifer's back!

I'd like to say I planned that picture, but I didn't... I did plan the next one. Again a long focal length and controlled aperture were used to create an effect of forced perspective. Less extreme than before and intended to draw the Longridge Fell closer to make a flattened image.

I slipped up with the next picture, another of my failed attempts at making a portrait of a proud Yorkeshireman of 87 years. Not only did I need some fill light (flash would have done but a reflector would have been more subtle) to lessen the shadow from the hat's brim, but I should have opened up the aperture to blur the background clutter more.

I managed to do the latter for the candid shot I'd taken earlier. I'll have to write out a hundred lines: Must pay more attention to my settings. Doing this sort of stuff week in week out, or more frequently, all these things would become second nature, I'm sure.

There'll be a gallery of more pictures from the show here - as soon as they decide to upload.

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