Reflection

Waiter setting a table in the dining car of the steam train. I think that's me in the reflection!

Cars and Aeroplanes

These are the last photographs taken with my Sony NEX-5. I collected my new Canon 550D today and as I write this the battery's charging up!

These were all taken at the Goodwood Revival meeting. For those of you who don't know, this is held annually at the Goodwood racing circuit in Sussex, UK. The three-day event features racing cars from the 1940s, '50s and '60s. There are also vintage aircraft from World War II, some of which take part in flying displays and 'dog fights' over the circuit.

This photograph of a flying boat was taken from the rear, looking up along the fuselage to the twin engines. I was shooting into the sun and was a bit worried about exposure but I think it looks fine after a couple of small tweaks in PSE.

This is a bonnet ornament on the water tank cap of an old car. I wish I could tell you what it was but, stupidly, I forgot to take something to make notes in about my photos. I think my husband who was with me might have been a bit cross if I'd taken too long over my photography too. It's best to try and do serious photography on your own, especially when you're on a learning curve!

This is the famous Jaguar bonnet ornament, instantly recognizable. I quite like the reflections in the headlight. I took another shot straight on which had a nice symmetrical arrangement of lights on and around the grille but it did't work out as well as I'd hoped.

It was a great day out - not too hot but mainly sunny. I found that shadows got in the way of a lot of the shots I wanted to take - there were a lot of people there and the shadows confused many of my attempts.

The next photos I post will be taken with my new best friend!

Experiments with reflections

I've been experimenting today with taking photographs of reflections. Nothing very arty yet like reflections in water. I tried that yesterday but it was so overcast and dull the photographs were too dark.

The reflections theme is in response to Kat's challenge on her wonderful blog. It's also part of an exercise I'm doing on bracketing which is where you set up the camera to take three quick shots of the image, one with the settings you choose and the other two +7 or -7 (or +3 and -3). Then you can compare the different exposures and choose the best picture. I'm really chuffed to say that my manual setting was the best of the three for this shot.

I love the colours (or lack of colours) in this photo. It's almost black and white but not. It's a corner of my bedroom which is in the loft so the light comes in strongly and is reflected round the white walls. The strong frame of the mirror makes a good composition I think.

I'm a little embarrassed about this experiment because I hate having pictures of myself taken - I'm totally un-photogenic! But sticking a camera in front of my face makes me a little easier with including it.

Getting the exposure right was a bit of a balancing act which inevitably ended in a compromise. I wanted to be able to show the intricate carving on the little mirror (which I love) but unfortunately doing that made the image in the mirror somewhat over-exposed. This was at the other end of my bedroom, next to another window and the sunlight coming in was very strong. I may try it again when the light's less harsh.