Ice Age (Woolly Mammoth Light Painting), Hertfordshire

Ice Age (Woolly Mammoth Light Painting), Hertfordshire, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Mammoth sighting in Rickmansworth following this weekend's drifting snow.

As always, the painting is done in camera using torch/flashlight. In this case, the mammoth and the sun are both created in this way.

It's a night shot, so the sky started bright orange from the sodium street lighting outside of the nature reserve and the "sun" turquoise from the Cree LED torch. The quality of the end shot is a little compromised by quite a bit of processing to transform that into the day time sky you see here, achieved in Photoshop using the hue slider and then layers to blend into the treeline. I also used the recovery slider in Lightroom 3 to achieve a better contrast between the mammoth and the snow.

There's a couple of errors in this one - the flare where the mammoth's ear meets its body, and my presence in the scene (also around its ear). Whilst I did gently tone these effects down, too strident a correction was unappealing. All in all, I don't think either detracts too much from the overall impact.

Hope everyone likes it and is having a superb week in the run up to Christmas. For those celebrating it, I hope you have a superb few days and a great New Year thereafter.

See Ice Age (Woolly Mammoth Light Painting), Hertfordshire on Flickr.

SOOC Version of Sodium On Ice, Rickmansworth

Coldfrontation (Bury Lake), Rickmansworth

Coldfrontation (Bury Lake), Rickmansworth, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

If you are looking at this photo, thank you! I know the thumbnail, which clips the geese, looks about as banal and flat as a pebble dash conference in Scunthorpe. So thank you for clicking through regardless.

Please do view on black!

Quick shot from this morning's wander in the snow and ice. A very foggy morning, so it's taken with the old 18-200mm Sigma lens - fortunately the misty atmosphere meant nothing doesn't resent it's softness! All ice in this shot, with a thin sheen of water which, in the stillness of the fog, created some lovely reflections.

For those few interested, the boat house is indeed the same one as in www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5184896770/, shown from the other side this time.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

See Coldfrontation (Bury Lake), Rickmansworth on Flickr.