Swiss Cottage - Some General Shots

Just to round off my blogs about our visit to Swiss Gardens, here are some general shots. Its a great place to visit, very calming being in the beautiful grounds. We plan to visit again next year at a time when there is an Air Show at Shuttleworth. The airdrome and museum are on the same site, in fact that's where you park some of the time.

Thanks Ann for organising the visit.

Swiss Garden - Nature

So while I was playing with Abstract Multiple Exposure Images and Upside Down water reflections, Sue and Ann where looking for Bug's and wee beasties. There was not much around by all accounts. Like a good dog I kept returning to where they where :)

Now I found the Shell Bug for them before I trotted off. They had great fun with a Dragonfly (A Common Darter, I think) they found near a lake and resting, eating a spider on a fence.  They also found a Common Hawker, it was a bit tatty. I snuck a quick photy of each. At one point the Darter took a liking to Ann's Hat.

I love taking pictures off trees, one day I may even learn what they are called :)

All pictures taken with the Olympus 12-100mm lens and post processed in Lightroom.

Swiss Cottage - Its an Upside Down World

I am quite attracted to 'Upside Down Water Reflections' and yesterday, knowing (I had been told) that there was some water at Swiss Gardens,  this was one of my projects for the day.

I certainly was not disappointed, the water and lakes / ponds where beautifully clean. The day had a real lovely autumn feel to it.

This photos are all reflection photos, taken with the view to flip them vertically in Lightroom.

Swiss Cottage - In Camera Multiple Exposure

I have been playing with In Camera Multiple Exposure  for some time, then seeing the abstract results Lynne, Sylvie and Torrie  where getting I was encouraged to learn more. Most of the learning I have done is with my Canon 5Dmk4 Equipment, I have not posted any results yet as most of the time its just me messing about in the garden.

Anyway, yesterday Sue and I went with Ann and few other people from the camera club to the Swiss Garden at Shuttleworth near Biggleswade. I only took my Olympus OMD em1 mkii Camera. It can do multiple exposures but only two at a time and there are none of blending options that the canon has.

So I thought I would have a play with multiple exposures as one of my projects for the day.

I was pleased to be able to find a work round for the 'only two combined images' of the camera. Its quite simple really, you do your double exposure and then select that image as the first image for the next  pair of exposures. It worked quite well.

The other nice thing the Canon can do is you are able to change the white balance so that you can create coloured abstracts. Now with the Olympus you can change the Kelvin (colour temperature) by using the colour wheel on the first of the two exposures and then it is then fixed.

The thing I did like about the Olympus is that I could see the first exposure overlayed in the viewfinder. On the Canon 5D mk4 I have to switch to Live View and use the back screen. This is not normally a problem except when you are in bright sunshine.

I am still very happy with the Olympus but I might just have to save up and trade it in for the new Canon R full frame mirrorless camera :) that has all the features my 5Dmk4 has but has an electronic viewfinder.

All pictures here where the in camera file with some adjustments in Lightroom post processing.
Some images where straight multiple exposures, some where with one (or two in one case) taken at slow shutter speed to give Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). The last three images I used the Olympus Live Composite Mode, something the Canon does not have.

I still have a way to go, the images I am producing are not quite as abstract as I would like them to be.