Free Dandelion Wallpapers
I've recently been making a series of photographs available to you free as desktop wallpapers. Previous wallpapers include Motor Racing Wallpapers, photographs from Venice. Today I want to share with you photographs of some Dandelions.
Yes...Dandelions! Finished in monochrome. Best viewed in full screen (or saved as your desktop wallpaper of course :) ):
You can download all of the Hi-Res files in a Zip file right here (9.4Mb), or you can view each photograph in full size by clicking each photograph below. (Just click the download link beneath each picture to download them individually). Alternatively, you can click to enlarge, right click on the image and then choose 'Save As'.
All of these photographs are 2560 pixels on the longest edge (suitable for most Macs and widescreen laptops and monitors).
All of these photographs were made using an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Micro Four Thirds Mirrorless Camera and the Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
2.3Mb - Download Here
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1.6Mb - Download Here
1.7Mb - Download Here
Copyright Notice
Please enjoy these photographs. But be kind: Do not edit these photographs and claim them as your own. Don't sell them without my permission. Do not use commercially without contacting me @ michael@rammellphotography.com
All works are Creative Commons Licensed:
Monochrome Dandelions by Michael Rammell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at www.michaelrammell.com.
Better Late Than Never - Our Labour Story
One of the best things about starting this website is that I can write about more than just weddings here. Over on my wedding photography website I felt very much compelled to only post & blog about wedding-related things rather than this...
Better Late Than Never
My wife and I are currently expecting our second child - a boy! We're over the moon because we've already got Zahra, our 2 year old daughter. Having one of each really is a blessing for us; it's what we have always wanted.
Our son (whose name I'll reveal once he's here with us) was actually due to be born back on December 23rd, 2013...but just like our daughter it seems as though he's going to take us all the way overdue. So tomorrow on January 4th we're booked in for our induction to wake our little man from his slumber so he can greet us and the world.
Our children definitely get their lateness from their mother!
Aishah (my wife) and I were talking about our previous labour with Zahra a few weeks back and it occurred to me that her recollection of the events were 'hazy' to say the least. Aishah wasn't sure how long we were in labour for, couldn't remember when the contractions started or how long they lasted for. When we tell our birth story to our friends it's very much a case of:
Me: "No, that isn't what happened"
Aishah: "Yes it was!"
Me: "No it wasn't, we were sent home first and then went back to hospital that evening"
Aishah: "Oh yeah!"
It can be funny at times to hear Aishah recalling her version, but in truth there was quite a lot about the event that she has forgotten. Perhaps Aishah had tried to put it out of her mind and forget about it, labour was quite stressful for Aishah (and I can see why!). She was utterly amazing the entire time. What Aishah went through to give us our daughter is something I thank her for every day.
I also thank her for the sore knuckle that she gave me when she hit me with the metal gas & air valve! (which she also can't remember doing - coincidentally)
But, this got me thinking - I need to document the labour this time around. I need to have a record of events to show what happened at every step.
Mr Rammell
Mrs Rammell
Live Pictures As It All Happens
I'm a member of a couple of professional photography associations and groups and I'd seen a few other members sharing and mentioning that they'd actually been hired to photograph births! It was something I'd never heard of myself. In fact the idea didn't sit well with me at all at first. However the more I thought about it the more I saw the value in the idea: having one of the most intense, intimate and special moments in your life photographed. Why not?
Why Not Indeed! Well, it is extremely intimate for starters and it is obviously something that you can't have done if you're embarrassed about being seen giving birth, but in our situation it's different because I just so happen to be a photographer. So that solves the problem of having someone else we don't know in the room photographing my wife in extreme pain and high on gas & air
I proposed the idea to Aishah and showed her a few of the more 'tame' photographs that I'd seen from other photographers and Aishah liked the idea. So we're going to do it.
The deal is that I won't photograph anything we don't want other people to see and I'll put the camera down when it all really starts to happen. In between contractions I'll make a photograph or two, but when I'm needed to be sworn at or to have my hand crushed: i'll be right beside her...
So How Will It Work?
When we arrive at hospital on January 4th at 10:00am I'll begin documenting everything both on my DSLR and my iPhone. All the details, the room, the contractions, the monitors: everything that will tell the story of our labour and delivery of our son.
I'll be posting the iPhone photographs to a private & secure gallery right here on the website and sharing the details with anyone who wants to keep up to date with the goings-on. Don't worry, you will not see anything 'full on' as per mine and Aishah's agreement. But you'll get a feel for how far along we are, how long we've been going and what state we're both in. It's a little better than frequent text messages to Mum's and family members!
If you want to follow the progress simply sign up below with your email address and I'll send you both the link and the password to the gallery so you can check back frequently throughout the day:
An Audience With The Deer At Richmond Park
I've been working extremely hard on the Ready, Steady Podcast recently meaning the blog has been somewhat neglected. I've got 6 posts almost-finished, just needing some last minute attention so that they can be published. So, keep an eye out for some exciting upcoming projects and photowalk photographs here on the blog.
I've got a review of the Drobo 5D coming up, i share my thoughts on the cliche that is 'That's a wonderful camera, it must take great photographs' comment, I talk about why photographers won't (and shouldn't) give clients ALL of the photographs they take. I'm just putting the finishing touches to my FREE eBook, entitled 'The Wedding Day Planning Guide' - 3 tips to help your big day run smooth. I've also got a series of photographs to share from Donna Nook, where Neil Graham and I went to photograph the grey seals. On top of that I've got a whole batch of photographs from the Guild of Photographers London Street Walk / Photography Meetup.
That all is of course, in addition to the podcast that I record and produce on a weekly basis for public consumption AND weddings that I'm shooting. So, as you can imagine, I'm busy at the moment.
Oh, and I have an exciting project coming in the new-year that I'm calling 'The Art of Expression'. But for now that's top secret and I don't want to reveal too much.
So, Onto This Weeks Post
Back in September (Yes, that's how far behind I am with blogging) Neil Graham from NeilGrahamPhotography.com and I took a trip to one of our favourite places for a walk, some banter and a bit of photography: Richmond Park.
We always seem to strike it luck there, either finding large herds that don't run off, or being able to get very close to Stags to get some beautifully detailed photographs.
Well this trip was no exception and it seems that Neil and I just have way with the Animals.
I'll keep the writing for this blog post short and just talk about each photograph just a little bit:
Not long after parking up and walking into the ferns, where we usually find the stags grazing in the morning light with their herds we stumbled across one heard all relaxing and grazing in a small clearing amongst the ferns. As soon as the heard spotted Neil and I all but one of them darted off into the bush to never ben seen again. Not this Stag though. He decided to stay and stand his ground. Not that Neil or I were being confrontational or aggressive at all though. We sat back for a long time, always keeping something between the stag and ourselves, whether it was a tree or a fern or something else.
A few times this Stag decided to give off a shout, just to remind us who was the Alpha male and who's patch we were on.
Neil and I remained passive for a long time. I'd actually sat down at this point and was just watching the Stag graze and enjoy a leisurely Sunday Morning. After a short while though the Crows that were at first on the ground, picking up scraps and anything else they could find, found the confidence to jump onto the Stag's back and hitch a ride. The Stag himself didn't seem to mind them being there either. Someone suggested over on the Martin Bailey Photography Community on Google+ that there could be a mutual relationship between the two species and that the crows could in fact be picking things off of the Stags back or something?
Although the Stag didn't seem to mind the Crows being there, there was a feeling that the Crows were a little nervous and twitchy about standing on the Deer's back. Each time he'd move or turn the crows would jump down or fly off for a minute before coming back. That is of course except one Crow who was clearly far more brave that the others. The Crow you see here (above), seemed very confident and remained perched on the Deer's back for quite a long time. Again, Neil and I were still sitting back at this point, just watching the Deer do his thing and the Crow go about his business.
One of the disadvantages of being a photographer, I will admit, is you're nearly always the one making the photographs and never really tend to appear in many. It's for that reason that when I go out on a walk with another photography I do quite like to capture some of them in action too. It's something I do very often. Here, in this little slideshow above you can See that Neil was trying, ever-so carefully to edge closer to the Stag without disturbing it. I decided to catch the moment. You can see in the last few frames that as Neil got as close as he dare and posed for a few photographs the Stag once again set about reminding us (well, Neil) who the boss was and let off a rather loud shout. Needless to say Neil jumped...a little but...as you can see in the final shot of this above gallery :).
So we got to a point where we thought it was only fair to leave that Stag well alone now. He was kind enough, and confident enough to allow us nice and close and stuck around for some photographs, rather than heading into the bush with the rest of his herd. On the way back however we stumbled across a smaller herd containing some beautiful albino fawns. They were very skittish though and ran away any time we got to within a distance to make a decent photograph. Whilst squatting down, trying to remain relatively incognito I spotted this huge Mushroom! Having my 70-200 L IS USM f/2.8 MKII on with Extender meant that I'd have to swap lenses, which is something I wasn't keen on doing in such long and wet grass. So, I made the best of the situation and gear configuration I had and snapped this shot of the mushroom. Good fun!
Having failed to stalk the Albino fawns in the smaller herd we've come across, and having had so much luck already with the Stag you've already seen, we decided to head back to the car and call it a day. On the way back though there were more confident Stags hanging around, playing the Alpha Male.
We stopped again for some photographs. This time there were two Stags. I got low down to the ground for this one and shot upward to give a regal and more majestic feel to the stags.Of the two stags that we'd come across on the way back to the car, only one was brave enough (or, stupid enough) to stick around for some photographs. I had to time this one well as there were runners in the background, constantly going. The Deer wasn't patient, but we really needed him to be do we could make some photographs.
I sat on the ground and watched this one graze for a while.
Whether or not he's poking out his tongue, or, just licking his lips I don't know. But i got the moment on camera anyway.
Of the two stags that we'd come across on the way back to the car, only one was brave enough (or, stupid enough) to stick around for some photographs. I had to time this one well as there were runners in the background, constantly going. The Deer wasn't patient, but we really needed him to be do we could make some photographs.
I sat on the ground and watched this one graze for a while.
Whether or not he's poking out his tongue, or, just licking his lips I don't know. But i got the moment on camera anyway.
Abbotsbury Swannery
Over the weekend (31st August – Sept 1st), My wife and I took our daughter and made for the South coast here in the UK. Namely, to West Bay in Bridport (in Dorset). West Bay was the first place in the UK that my wife and I went on holiday together around 4 years ago, we fell in love with it from the moment we got there and go back quite often each year. One day we plan to move there and make a home.
Seeing as the trip was a bit random and last minute, we hadn't really made plans to do anything when we were there. We just thought we’d wander around on the beach, enjoy the local tea rooms and take it all in. But, when we woke up on the Sunday morning my wife had the idea of going to Abbotsbury Swannery – a local swan sanctuary. Needless to say I was very much up for this. As you may know I've photographed swans plenty of times before and I was very keen to photograph them in a purpose-built sanctuary!
So, today I would like to share with you a few photographs I made on the day and talk about the challenges of shooting brilliant white subjects in harsh, bright sun light.
After you enter the swannery you have to walk a few hundred yards to get to the sanctuary. It’s a little odd as the shop and the car park are actually quite far away from the sanctuary itself. Once there you follow the signs and can walk various routes around the sanctuary. We made a bee-line straight for the area where all the swans were rather than choosing to go on one of the smaller walks around the sanctuary. I knew that the sanctuary had some 400 swans, but it’s not until you see them that you realise exactly how many 400 is.
As you can see here in this photograph, one of the first of the day, this swan seems perfectly relaxed and at ease, both with the hundreds of other swans around him and my presence there with the camera.
We were separated by a short, wooden fence. I’m sure the swans could walk beyond the fence if they wanted too – it’s more of a rail really that is just a little lower than waist height. I think they are there more or less to keep the visitors to the swannery away from the area where the swans bath in the sun, like this guy was here.
Speaking of sun – it was a scorching hot day. It was about 25 Degress celcius with no cloud cover at all. By this time it was around 11:15, so the sun was pretty high and very bright. Whilst this made the day enjoyable as it was mild, it made photographing perfectly white swans a little more of a challenge.
The first thing I noticed after a little chimping (constantly checking the LCD on the back) that my camera’s sensor had successfully done what it was programmed to do: turn everything to 18% grey. This was because the scene was mostly white, with the sun glistening off the bright water in the background. When I metered the scene (here I spot metered) the camera saw the white and instantly thought that it needed to darken things down a little. This grey and dull result was not what I wanted at all.
So, some exposure compensation was needed. I started by adding +1 stop, but I found even this wasn’t enough and that the whites still weren’t as white as they should have been, so, up to +2 stops of exposure compensation i went.
That gave the result you see here. Whites are white. I did have to use the shadow brush in LightRoom just a little to bring out some of the detail in the Swan’s black beak, but otherwise this is pretty much as-shot.
The next shot I made, and one that I’m really pleased with, is an extreme close up of another sleeping Swan. This time I’ve cropped it a little differently. I’ve placed the eye in the third and used the flowing lines of the swans’ neck as a leading line. This time the emphasis is on the great detail you can see in the swans feathers.
Shot at f/4 – the depth of field is still fairly shallow as the swan was only just about 1 metre away from me (1.5 at most) giving me a depth of field of about 14cm. Whilst this may seem like plenty, the swans are larger than you may think. In hindsight I should have stopped down to about f/11 to give me more like 40cm of depth of field to allow for more of the swan in focus.
Again, no cropping here and it’s pretty much as-shot albeit a little shadow. recovery in the black area and a slight push on the whites.
With this photograph, and the first one too, you can probably tell by looking at the shadows that the swans were between be and the sun. This made shooting in the harsh light even harder. If you do the same be sure to have your lens hood on to stop flare and also to stop the sun from washing out the image and creating an almost bleach-like look.
Just behind me, where I was photographing these two sleeping swans, were a few pens where some cygnets were being kept with their mothers. They were born some time in May this year so at this time they were between 4 – 5 months old. To me they were like over-grown children; despite being fairly large in size and looking quite well developed, they were definately a little more skittish and almost immature in comparison to the wonderfully white swans. They moved around far more, they moved far more quickly, they just seemed to have far more energy and to be less content to just relax and enjoy the sun like their larger, white elders were doing.
I came across this little guy next. I spotted him as he was continuously dunking his head under the water, looking for scraps I imagine. The reason he caught by eye though was because the sun was hitting the small water droplets that had formed on his head. I think it looks really cool:
Again, this is another shot where you can really make out the detail on the swans head, with the small water droplets sitting there being hit by the direct sun. This little swan was actually quite hard to capture as he just kept moving around and going back under water. It took a few attempts to get this photograph. The key was to train my camera on him as he came up from underneath the water and make a few frames before he went back under again. This method wasn’t the exact science I wanted it to be, but it did mean that when he came back up and he was looking towards me the water that had beaded up and was quickly dripping off of him was still there. Having waterproof feathers means that they remain dry, as you can see in this next photograph.
This little swan was over in the the recovery pen. I’m not sure quite what was wrong with him, but the information board said that the swans in this pen had injured themselves in some way. Looking at the pen the swans inside were all younger cygnets. Like I said above – they're all far more energetic and certainly a little more lively – I imagine this to be a contributing factor to them being more injury prone than the fully grown adults.
As I was saying: the swans all have a waterproof, oily-like membrane on their feathers that makes them waterproof. Whereas a dog or an animal with a coat would sort of soak up, or hold onto the water, water tends to roll off of swans instead. The same can be said for many birds that dwell in water, such as ducks. I guess that’s where the saying “Water off a ducks back” comes from.
When the Cygnets are dry though they tend to ‘fluff up’, just like this. When they look like this, for me, it’s a reminder that they are still only young. Like a little fluffy chick. Very cute
My wife and I are planning two more trips back to West Bay and Bridport this year before our son is born in December, but I also have one eye on a a trip in next May when the cygnets all hatch. If you think a 5 month old, grey fluffy cygnet is cute, wait until you see the newborns after a few hours. Adorable!
The last photograph I want to talk about today (there are more in the gallery below) is this one of this swan with what appears to be highlights in it’s hair. Like the David Bowie of the swan world:
There are a few things that I like about this particular shot, if i do say so myself: I managed to actually photograph the orange beak of the swan this time as it nestles into it;s own feathers, as it they were a large plush pillow. I also took off the 1.4 extender at this point and decided to shoot at f/2.8 to get an extremely narrow DOF and a dreamy look. Although i will admit I would have achieved a better shot at f/4 of f/5.8 to get all of the head in focus right down to about halfway on the beak, I love that the eye is perfectly in focus and that because they eye is a deep and brilliant black, it’s reflecting everything it see’s. I also quite like the way that the ‘hair’ on top of this swans head goes from out of focus gradually back into focus where it’s tack sharp.
For me, that’s all I wanted to talk about today: The exposure compensation was the key to getting these swans to remain vibrant and white and because I could get so close I feel I was able to get some lovely detail shots that I’m really pleased with. One last thing I’d say about my own work is that for the past 6 or so months now, more than ever, I’ve been getting the composition right in camera, which is something I’m really pleased about. Shooting on a crop sensor camera (18Mp Canon 7d) really does mean I’d rather not crop in post if I can help it – I want to keep all of the details in and not lose any of that information.
So, for now here are a few more shots from Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. A place I’ll certainly be going back to time and time again each time we’re in West Bay.
Please do leave a comment below and ask any questions you like about my settings, exposure compensation, gear or even the swannery. I’d gladly answer.
Enjoy your weekend. Good luck if you’re out shooting.