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18/365 Tree face

Neither Sarah nor I had ever been to a Wassail before.  So we were a little curious as to what to expect.  Well, fans of ancient English traditions wouldn’t be disappointed by the St Albans incarnation.  The event started with three dances by Wicket Brood, a local morris dancing group.  Then we made our way to the big tree in the centre of the orchard.  A few wassailing songs, the tree was given cider and bedecked with toast (!).  Then we made loud noise to ward off any evil spirits, before heading for the refreshments.  Delicious local hot spiced apple & elderflower juice and many apple-based snacks!  A few more pictures below:

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15/365 Marmalade

Not quite as set as I’d like. But other than that, it’s tasty, tangy and good (in my humble opinion, anyway).   The dark colour is due to using demerara sugar rather than ordinary white sugar.

Technical notes:

Nikon D90. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF. Built-in flash. 1/60 at f/11 ISO 200

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14/365 Look what marmalade

As the chick said when he saw the hen lay an orange. Tomorrow: We can haz marmalade. Am leaving to soak overnight ready to make the marmalade tomorrow evening.

Technical notes:

Nikon D90. Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 Di 1/60 @ f/3.8 ISO 200. Built-in flash.

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Lightroom.  Software that just works the way you expect it to.  As it should be.

13/365 Tools of the trade - part 1

It could be argued that for an amateur, Lightroom is a little OTT and that I could make do with something like Photoshop Elements that is half the price.  So why is it that I think it is worth investing in Lightroom?

  • it’s just so darn easy to use.  Everything is where you think it should be.
  • Version 2 has clone and heal as well as localized adjustments so you can change the exposure, colouring etc all from within your cataloguing application.  Which means never having to fire up a separate editor unless you really want to make significant changes.
  • When using RAW photos, you get 100% control over the conversion process.  And you’ll want to use RAW because it has far more detail in it, especially if you’re trying to take pictures in low light with no flash without changing to a stupidly noisy ISO.
  • It’s lossless (no JPG is created until you export) and you can apply the same settings to every photo in a batch – in Photoshop Elements you’d have to choose for each one you import.  And talking of which…
  • … when importing RAW photos, you don’t get the standard transitions applied to JPGs (standard, neutral, portrait, landscape, vivid etc).  Lightroom 2.2 has now got the full ‘camera presets’ from Adobe built in.  So you can start with your RAW picture looking like it did on the back of the camera and work from there, rather than from a slightly bland and grey looking pure neutral image.
  • You can organize your photos every which way you like.  Want to find photos taken on a certain day, with a specific tag, that are portrait orientation, taken with your 90mm lens?  You can!

Heartily recommended if you use RAW as your shooting format on your DSLR. Read more here (including a free 30-day trial – what have you got to lose?).  And if you’ve already seen the light, a great place to learn more is this book:

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And you can pick up lots of handy hints from Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tips.

Technical notes

Nikon D90. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF. Built-in flash. 1/50 at f/8 ISO 200

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Well, not quite an addiction.  But mmmm, lovely coffee!

12/365 Feeding my addiction

Quite like this.  Going to try it again at some point but with a small amount of rear curtain flash to sharpen the foam without losing the effect of the stream of coffee flowing into the glasses.  And that reminds me, I must also descale the coffee maker at the weekend!

Technical notes:

Nikon D90. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF. 2 seconds at f/5.0. No flash.

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11/365 Wooden tulips

From tomorrow I shall hopefully be (a) marginally less busy at work, so able to take a lunch break and (b) warmer!  So you will get some outdoors shots.

Till then, an indoor shot of some wooden flowers Sarah has had for years.  Very nice they are two – a splash of colour in the dining room!

Technical notes:

Nikon D90. Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 Di 1/60 @ f/14 ISO 200. SB-800 flash.

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We failed to get Sarah a Pimm’s teapot, Pimm’s Winter for the warming of, before Christmas.  Largely because when she decided she wanted one they weren’t there!  Anyway, I ordered one for her online and it has finally arrived.   For some reason the various bits of the kit (scarf, gloves, tea cosy) were all a slightly different shade of orange. So I thought I’d try this one in Black and White.

9/365 Pimm's O'Clock

If you like normal Pimm’s then you really should try the winter variety – it’s delicious.  Based on brandy rather than gin, and served warm with apple juice rather than on ice with lemonade.

Technical notes:

Nikon D90. Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AF 1/60 @ f/4 ISO 200. SB-800 flash.