OCA Landscape Project 20

Sun stars and diffraction.
We had to compose a shot looking at the sun through something like a tree and bracket 3 exposures at a wide aperture and then a narrow aperture. The sun star effect changes depending on the settings. The first 3 images were aperture 22 and the timings were 1/800, 1/640 and 1/500. The fastest speed gave the most diffraction. The next 3 images were aperture 3.5 and the speeds 1/1250, 1/1600 and 1/2000. This result is more difficult to see.

OCA Landscape Assignment 3

A search on google images brought up the image that before I moved to Asia were my view of palm trees. However, since moving to Asia 5 years ago, I have discovered that my 'romantic view' of these trees and their location is not quite so romantic! These trees seem to thrive in all kinds of locations, by roads, rivers, in the city as well as on the beach. As I was travelling through Kuala Lumpur and Melaka on my way back to Vietnam, I decided to use the opportunity to take photos in 4 locations, 2 cities and 2 places on the coast to look at the different locations of these trees, challenging the usual view.

I also wanted to explore a slightly different style of photos, and when I was in Nepal, a bookmark gave me the inspiration to think about panoramic shots. Earlier in the course I had lots of fun using stich in photoshop and cropping images to make them into panoramic images. Years ago when I had my APS camera, I often used this function and enjoyed it a lot. I originally planned to use the stitch function in photoshop but then realised the new sony TX-5 I wanted to buy had a panoramic function and so I decided to try this out for the project. I had great fun shooting, although it was hard to get shots in Kuala Lumpur that really showed the city. I went out a few times on shoots but never quite got the shots I envisaged, but often found a slight variation and am happy with the finished result. I almost changed to just photographs from Vietnam, but then decided to stick to my original plan. I noted that both Vietnam and Malaysia have colonial-style buildings which can also be seen. Some photos show plam trees in settings such as a car park, but the trees remain beautiful despite the location. I also, of course, had to include an image with the Petronas Towers. I tried to get one of KL Tower, but could never quite get an angle with palm trees included.

OCA Landscape Project 16

This project was shot at dusk, I took a couple of shots in Chitwan and the rest in Pokhara. I love the way the light goes at dusk, although I wish there had been more clouds to make more patterns and colours. I chose a view that would not go as a silhouette.

OCA Landscape Project 15

This is part of planning our portfolio, part of the seasons project. I returned to Nepal and retook some of the same photos and others to depict the change in the seasons. I was shocked, however, to discover that the lakeside in Pokhara, where I took many photos in December, had been dug up in order to create some kind of super-walkway! In Chitwan, they had been burning the land and so the landscape there had changed considerably too. It made me think a lot about how the landscape changes and how this can affect our experience and holiday.

OCA Landscape Project 14

Changing Light, Changing Views.
For this, we had to look at the light and how it changed and how this then impacted on the composition. I took the photos at Nha Trang beach, on a mainly sunny day. although in the middle of the afternoon, storm clouds were overhead! I had to change my viewpoint during the day as the light coming from the sun was pretty harsh at times.

OCA Landscape Assignment 2

This assignment was looking at a space around 1 acre and taking as many different shots as possible (landscape style) there. I originally shot in Kuala Lumpur but was unhappy with the shots when I got back as not enough open space and the forest shots were samey and dark. So I headed to Gulshan Lake Park in Dhaka - to find they were draining the lake!!!! So there was an extra challenge to 'hide' the fact that it looked even uglier than usual there! I do think I achieved this although believe me I have plenty of shots showing the real story. Oh how photographers can be creative with the truth :) I just wish I had taken my long lens for the goat - although I do believe I challenged myself to use 1 lens only as well as the small space.