A grey day in January over at Sopley Common

I work during the week and so always look forward to the weekends when I can go out and take some photo’s. Unfortunately you cannot rely on the weather in the UK to be sunny at the weekends, in fact it seems to take a distinct pleasure in being the opposite. These shots were taken on one of those grey days, and I was looking for the detail rather than the expansive panorama landscape. I headed out to Sopley Common which is very close to where I live.

You may also be wondering why it has been so long posting up a photo, and there is a good reason for that. I finally got fed up with the results being produced by my current scanner on slide film, the Nikon Coolscan V ED. I had been keeping my eye on a second hand scanner, the Minolta DiMage Scan Multi Pro, and decided to take the plunge a purchase it. The results have been great and these 3 shots are the first to be posted. I will do a post later on about scanners and the lessons I have learned.

First up is a shot of some grass that was surrounded by an iced up pool. I liked the faint light effect to the top right along with the pattern of the ice. A -2/3 exposure compensation gave the best result. (Zuiko Olympus OM 35-80mm F2.8, F11, Velvia 50).

Second up, following the ice theme is this one of cracked ice around a small tree. Here I used a hand held meter to gain the best exposure result, my Gossen Digisix. I took a reflective meter reading, and opened up 1 stop to compensate for the highlights. The meter reading was 1/4 at F11, and I manually set to take at F8 with a shutter speed of 1/4. (Zuiko Olympus OM 35-80mm F2.8, Velvia 50).

and finally a shot of reflections. I liked the tree reflections amid the green and brown islands. (Zuiko Olympus OM 35-80mm F2.8, F11, Velvia 50).