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“Glencoe Dawn” by Colin Homes using a Nikon D800e
I shot this photograph early one morning last week whilst on my way up to the Isle of Skye. I had stayed in a favourite b&b, Morven Cottage in Glencoe Village and had enjoyed my usual supper at the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe.
I have been to this location many times, but the light that I was privy to that morning was just superb. The contrast was very high so I decided that rather than using a graduated filter, I would shoot two frames one for the foreground and one for the Sky. I ended up shooting the sky about 6 stops darker than the foreground as the suns rays coming through the clouds were extremely bright. I then blended the two images together using Photoshop CS6. I shot both frames with a 6 stop ND filter screwed to the lens. This gave me an exposure of around 30 seconds for the foreground, just enough to blur the stream and the distant waters of Loch Leven.
my website can be found at www.colinhomes.com for other images of mine
“The Quiraing” Isle of Skye. By colin Homes
I shot this image recently together with a client on a recent workshop I was running on the Isle of Skye. The location is a bit precarious, but once you have lodged youself of the ledge its perfectly safe. I shot it on my Nikon D800e with the Nikon 16-35 f4 lens. I used a 2 stop warm up grad to control the sky and to warm up the grasses. I thought about doing a longer exposure to perhaps give the clouds a bit of a streak, but felt in this instance a more traditional look was going to be better. Now looking at the final print, I think I made the correct decision…
“Winding Road” Glencoe, Scotland. By Colin Homes
This image was taken about a month ago in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands. It was shot using a Nikon D800e and was created from thirty six individual images stitched together creating a masive 4.8 gigabyte file. At 360 dpi it produces an image over three meters long with the most incredible detail…
“Night Storm Approaching” by Colin Homes
I have just returned from a trip to Arisaig on the north west coast of Scotland. This shot was taken about and hour after sunset and the light levels were very low. It was shot on my Nikon D800e with the 16-35mm lens. The conditions were extremely testing as every thirty minutes or so there would be a torrential downpour, including hailstones the size of m&m’s. The upside was that the skies were increadible. I was sitting in my van looking out over the sea and a “what the hell” moment hit me… I grabbed my camera and walked about 100 yards out to this location. In the murk I could see yet another storm brewing on the horizon, so I carefully but quickly composed this shot and fitted a 3 stop soft grad to my camera. I set the apperture to f11 and shutter speed to Bulb. I took an ambient reading with my light meter and guestimated a sixty second exposure. The first exposure was a little unexposed, but the sky looked great. I took a second exposure at four minutes. This time the foreground looked perfect with the histogram showing great shadow detail. The storm was only minutes away, so I packed away my camera and made a dash for the van. Five minutes later the rain started. I knew that combining the two exposures I had taken would give me a great starting point for post processing. This is the final image, which I think conveys the dramatic scene that was before me…
Eyemouth at Dawn by Colin Homes
I finally decided to go for it and bought a Nikon D800E at the weekend. I had had the luxury of borrowing a friends D800 for a few days and that just put all of my reservations that I had about going for a high end digital camera well and truly to the side…
I picked it up from Jessops in Edinburgh on Saturday morning and decided to take a trip down to Eyemouth. I managed to get a few shots the first morning I was there, but apart from that the weather was not that great and never seemed to get much of an opportunity after that. I will probably head up the north west coast sometime soon, I’ll just have to keep an eye on the weather forcast…
Anyway here is one of the shots I took the first morning, using the 14-24 f2.8 Nikon lens…
North Berwick Coastline with the Nikon d800 by Colin Homes
I have been fortunate enough to be given the chance to borrow the new 36 megapixel Nikon D800. I took it out a couple of evenings ago for the first time. I used my 14-24 Nikon Lens and I have to say the two go very well together. Here is one of the images I took…
“Elgol at Dusk” by Colin Homes
Here is a second shot from my recent trip to Elgol on the Isle of Skye…
“Elgol in the Half light” by Colin Homes
I shot this in a place called Elgol, which is on the Isle of Skye off the north west coast of Scotland. The weather was very stormy, but somehow, although it constantly looked like it was going to pour down any minute it never actually rained. I spent about five or six hours there and as the light levels fell the rocks just seemed to light up. the atmosphere was very heavy with dark broody skied, which was just perfect for Elgol. I shot this around 10.30 at night on my Pentax 67 with a 55mm lens using Fuji Velvia Film. I added a combination 3 stop/81c warm-up grad to darken the sky a bit and scanned it on my Imacon scanner…
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“Tantallon Castle From Seacliff” by Colin Homes
This shot was taken recently at a place called Seacliff, which is a lovely beach a few miles south of North Berwick in Scotland. There was an increadible swell and the tide was comimg in fast, so picking a safe place to put the tripod and give myself enough time to work on my composition before a large wave crashed against a rock and soaked me and my camera was proving to be a bit tricky. I had a few close calls prior to getting this shot, but gradually I worked the composition and after having to lift the tripod to avoid a wave once or twice, I was able to place it back in the same place and eventually got the shot. It was taken on my Pentax 67 with a 55mm lens. I used Kodak tmax 100 and processed the film in Pyrocat hd for 10 minutes 1:1:100. I made the print using Ilford Warn Tone Fibre Base paper developed in PQ Universal paper developer. I have posted the print log below the image to give you an idea how I printed the negative.
