For Those In Peril On The C, Alternative "Calypso" Version

Black & White Version of Stepwise Regression (Great Court British Museum), London

Extinction (Star Trails Over Jurassic Coast), Dorset

Extinction (Star Trails Over Jurassic Coast), Dorset, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

First of a set from Friday night down at Winspit Cove in Dorset. I almost didn't bother due to a heavy mist and sporadic rain, but after the thirty minute walk down to the sea it had cleared somewhat. The retreating cloud picking up light pollution created a nice contrast to the rising stars in the blue twilight.

I'll be uploading another few images from the same set, all with different outcomes as the twilight blue vanished very quickly and this is the only shot to feature it. The scene was very dark, and even this 723 seconds at f/8.0 and ISO400 didn't bring out anymore than the skies colour and the mist of the sea. Usually I end up desaturated images, but this one needed a boost as well as some fill light and brightness to lift it. I also tweaked the WB so the light pollution came out more pink than its starting orange.

There's a little bit of a blur to the ridgeline from wave surging around the tripod. This is another shot that relied upon my new wellington boots, as I spent most of the shot ankle deep in surf. It was quite worrying, in fact, as the roar of the incoming waves is overwhelming and the darkness conceals their size. As you hear the deafening tide thrashing towards you, you have no idea if this is going to splash your ankles or come plunging over your shoulders to drag you back into the deep.

Viewing on black does lift this one another notch. Hope everyone's had a great few days whilst I've been away and look forward to catching up now I'm back.

See Extinction (Star Trails Over Jurassic Coast), Dorset on Flickr for extra notes.

Elemental (Mill Stream & Fire), Loose Valley

Elemental (Mill Stream & Fire), Loose Valley, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Something of a post-Christmas experiment; running burning wrapping paper through a mill stream tunnel in a foil wrapped Christmas pudding tub. Just one tub, with me shuttle running it, reloading with paper and relighting for each run. The 1112 second exposure (f/8.0 ¦ ISO 250) allowed for numerous runs, though only four or five made it down the rapids without toppling and quelling themselves.

The experiment was enabled in no small part by my new Christmas wellingtons. A good hour or two in the water constantly and no leaks or chills.

By way of putting ecological minds at rest, I spent about thirty minutes clearing the stream of debris before setting up in the middle of the stream. I also built a small damn of branches to ensure none of the paper or the pudding bowl escaped. Running back and forth in utter darkness to collect the bowl, knowing I was within feet of an invisible camera on tripod surrounding by cold water and stone was somewhat tense.

The green areas were in darkness and so I painted them with LED torchlight for around thirty seconds at the start of the shot.

Hope everyone is enjoying an exciting run up to New Year - whether that is only a day or some weeks away for you. Have a good one!

See Elemental (Mill Stream & Fire), Loose Valley on Flickr for additional notes.

Skeleton Coast, Rye Harbour

Skeleton Coast, Rye Harbour, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Foggy late afternoon at Rye Harbour. This is 444 second exposure (f/8.0 ¦ ISO 200) through a 9 stop ND filter. In response to enquiry in the comments, I use the "Lightcraftworkshop LCW ND500 MC filter 77mm" which works well. It does give images a bluish cast, which I correct in LR3, but was screw in - my main consideration to keep my kit bag light.

Probably best viewed on black - which brings out enough detail to see the soft grain in the wood of the posts. The large mass on the righthand vertical third is a tangled collection of discarded ropes and fishing nets. It's my second posted shot with the 9 stop filter. So far I'm pretty happy with it, though am yet to get a result that works in colour.

Hope everyone had an epic Christmas and is looking forward to a great New Year.

See Skeleton Coast, Rye Harbour on Flickr for extra notes.

SOOC Version of Sodium On Ice, Rickmansworth

Man Made Cascade, Virginia Water

Man Made Cascade, Virginia Water, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Thanks for all the kind recent comments, combined with a busy week I'm afraid I've fallen behind with a few contacts streams. Apologies - bit by bit I'm catching up and will have a clear run at it tomorrow night. I'm really looking forward to seeing everything, as it has been a few days in some cases.

This is just a quick posting from a walk around Virginia Water in Surrey. The waterfall looked man made, and Wikipedia has kindly confirmed that it is. Indeed, it is the work of one Thomas Sandby. I took a few 200-300 second exposures using a newly acquired 9-stop ND filter, but the best of the bunch was this 13 second effort. I was after the trails in the lower section of water, and they are much more distinct here.

Further to some comments about Harry Potter to www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5233410987/, the friends with whom we were walking today have explained their relevance. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, thus was unaware of the connection, but have duly tagged that image "Patronus" by way of homage.

Coincidentally, I see some of the outdoor scenes from the HP movies were filmed by Virginia Water. So there we go. Have a good one.

See Man Made Cascade, Virginia Water on Flickr.

Field Of Dreams (Penalty Kick Light Painting), Rickmansworth

Field Of Dreams (Penalty Kick Light Painting), Rickmansworth, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Following on from www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5233410987/ and www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5022793280/ I'm really enjoying exploring the possibilities of light painting.

For clarity, as with all my light paintings, every line in this shot is drawn in camera by torch or flashlight. There were lots of kind comments, messages and questions on this front last time round, and that's all there is to it!

However, by way of full disclosure this one is a two take painting - I've used the cross, ball, goalkeeper and striker's head and legs from one shot, then editted in the striker's torso and arms from a second take. I've also had to go over the lines to remove an unwanted blue tinge which came with a white balance edit across the whole frame, aimed at allowing the night sky to come through against severe urban light pollution.

It's a 248 second exposure at ISO 100 and f/13, which has mostly worked, though the bush behind the goal has over-exposed a little due to passing traffic.

Perhaps I oughtn't to say I don't really like this image, at least not as much as the other two (which I adore). The setting was a little tricky, with traffic going by in the background and dogs rushing about in the early evening. I shot early than usual to try to catch some blue in the sky, and hadn't realised how busy it can be! However, I had the concept in mind and wanted to keep the momentum to my light painting - and unless I'm doing them and posting them, I won't be getting better!

Hope you like it, and are all having a great end to the week.

See Field Of Dreams (Penalty Kick Light Painting), Rickmansworth on Flickr.

Original Forever Ever

Alternative Hart Of Forest

Moose Light Painting

Blue (Bury Lake), Rickmansworth

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

Firstly, thanks to everyone who had a look at and shared their thoughts on www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5182134181/in/photos... - I'm thrilled with the Front Page and really appreciate everyone's contributions.

This is a three minute exposure taken an hour or so earlier yesterday evening. It's a shot of Bury Lake in the Rickmansworth Aquadrome, looking across the kayak water polo court (is it called a court if it is water?) towards the sailing club.

Needless to say, the colour is completely different from the previous shot, which I guess is down to three key reasons. Firstly, this is just before streetlamps came on - the darkness is more from the shaded undergrowth and epic mist. Secondly, it's facing a different direction with fewer light sources - not least it is not looking towards London! Finally, and most importantly, this only had a minor cooling tweak to WB, whereas I lied wholesale to the RAW on the previous shot by telling it was shot in the shade (a lie with massive warming implications, obviously!). Or it could have been a million other things I guess; any ideas let me know!

Have a good one all!

See Blue (Bury Lake), Rickmansworth on Flickr.

Sodium Cloud Forest, Rickmansworth

Sodium Cloud Forest, Rickmansworth, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Ten minute exposure after sunset today, as the thick fog slowly cleared from the Aquadrome. The fog lingered in the trees, backlit by London's no shortage of sodium streetlights, whilst the bright moon rose high enough to bathe the foreground grass in a soft pearl light. I was startled by the colours on the LCD when it had finished "cooking" - I had been stood in near darkness.

My £19 cable release remains the best piece of kit I have. Long exposures keep surprising me with their interpretation of nighttime scenes. Early winter nights couldn't have come at a better time.

Hope everyone else is having a great week too.

See Sodium Cloud Forest, Rickmansworth on Flickr.

Mirror Pool (Trafalgar Square), London

Mirror Pool (Trafalgar Square), London, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Another one from last week's evening in town, in the cold. The original version (see below) looked a little lopsided with just one fountain, so I thought I'd try this reflected version. It's maybe a little over processed in Photoshop 7.0, but as I had it loaded up anyway for the reflection and to skew the lines straight, I thought I might as well take it a little further.

I'm delighted by the detail and symmetry in the very centre of the image which only really comes out in Lightbox so, whilst I feel terrible imposing on people as to how they might want to view it, I'd really recommend firing it up full size by hitting "L". I hope you like it!

Having whinged in several posts about (supposed) Terror regulations in London and the interference of security guards and so forth, I have to say that the Police in Trafalgar Square are fantastic. They were a very nice presence after a few (as yet unposted) nights out and about terrifying myself in fields, woods and towns!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and look forward to seeing your stuff now I'm home!

See Mirror Pool (Trafalgar Square), London on Flickr.

London Night Bus, Whitehall

London Night Bus, Whitehall, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

First shot from a night series in and around Trafalgar Square. I nearly lost a hand to frostbite taking this; autumn has turned to winter. This is actually a composite - like www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5121844152/ - of my favourite takes from the left and right hand sides of the road.

There's a traffic island at the head of Whitehall where you can set up looking down towards Big Ben. As the traffic is often stopped at the lights, there are awkward moments when 10-20 cars are all parked glaring at you, thinking the camera is pointed at them alone. I was worried some MP would leap out of his mistress's Saab to threaten arrest on Terror charges. I spent most of my time therefore avoiding eye-contact, looking over my left shoulder for the buses to come.

Hope everyone is very well and enjoying the end of the week.

See London Night Bus, Whitehall on Flickr.

The Climb (Inside Asinelli Tower), Bologna

The Climb (Inside Asinelli Tower), Bologna, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

Another improvised tripod shot - this time by jamming the lens through a hole in the wooden floor above the void below. As noted above, the tower has internal floors to separate the 97.2m elevation across 5 or 6 individually housed staircases. It proved a good tripod, even if I realised after the event that my lens release button must have been depressed the whole time!

Bologna's two leaning towers were both being repaired whilst we were there, so my external shots didn't really look as medieval and authentic as I'd hoped. This one ended up being my favourite of a few different angles on them. The towers look great, so hopefully we'll get back there at some point to try something more traditional. Details can be found here; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna.

Nearly posted this as a Cyanotype for Halloween, but, what with being away, the opportunity escaped me and the B&W workings of the shot all proved a little unsatisfactory as they wash out the contrasts between wall and walker. It was interesting to see how B&W made all the walkers appear to be one, but I like the spread of colour across the top too much to make the trade-off. Shot in jpg, so the white balance is a little brutish, but there we go! All part of the fun.

Thanks for everyone's comments and thought on my last picture (another Italian long exposure - www.flickr.com/photos/flatworldsedge/5126748478/). I'm amazed and delighted it made Front Page Explore and am more than a little sheepish that a few days away from Flickr prevented me from properly showing my appreciation. I'm catching up now! Have a good one all.

See The Climb (Inside Asinelli Tower), Bologna on Flickr.

Gondola In 60 Seconds, Venice

Gondola In 60 Seconds, Venice, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

You say "bokeh", I say "water damage". This was shot in rain using our hotel bathmat as a tripod and makeshift camera cover. Bathmats make better tripods than you'd imagine, as it turns out.

Although shot with a weatherproof lens (always worried about the fact Canon commit to nothing numerical by way of definition in this regard), my six year old 300D definitely isn't. Half-covered in the bathmat, half-sheltered by my leaning hooded form, it survived. I'm delighted by it's longevity - probably 100,000+ shutter actuations and lots of knocks along the way.

What it doesn't do so well is noise control, however. This shot was a wretched thing to clean, and this posted version remains a bit ropey even after an hour or so in LR3 and PS7.0 tidying it up. The white balance was a nightmare too, with no result I was ever entirely happy with. I settled on this one, married with a not insignificant desaturation. Otherwise, I used PS to lessen the distortion of the buildings (exacerbated by the lean-inducing bathmat) and LR to bring that church tower back (somewhat) from the shadows of the sky.

Just for pedants - you're right - it's not a gondola. Sadly I couldn't think of a punning film title with "vaporetto" in the title. It is 60 seconds though.

See Gondola in 60 Seconds on Flickr.

Love At First Light (Light Painting), Kent

Love At First Light (Light Painting), Kent, originally uploaded by flatworldsedge.

First attempt at light painting having invested £19 in a remote shutter release. I took five or six attempts to get the man worked out, using a basic flashlight/torch, dressed in navy and thoroughly hooded. This was my first attempt at the couple and the hearts. I'm delighted with it! Lots more long exposure work to come.

It was taken around 2:00am last night in Loose valley just above the village. The scene is lit across the grass with light from a bright moon, with fluorescent light from Maidstone on the horizon, which is tweaked only with the camera's WB. I cropped slightly in from the left as a third heart had strayed half off frame, and gave a minor boost to vibrancy and blacks. Lightroom 3 did a great job with noise reduction - a fair number of random (single) bright green/red/blue pixels from the long exposure were pruned without hassle.

Details: 229 seconds ¦ f/8.0 ¦ ISO 100.

Update: Explored #14 and front page! Many thanks to everyone who has commented, fav'ed and viewed. I massively appreciate the attention and insights offered, and will be working through everyone individually as soon as I have a chance. Thanks to all!

See Love At First Light (Light Painting), Kent on Flickr.