Lemons

The title is a reference to that famous saying by Dale Carnegie.
We cycled out to Elmstead Market last weekend, and the light was just beautiful across the farmland there - but I didn't have my camera with me (cardinal sin, I know, but sometimes marriage comes before photography... just). I therefore planned to return at a similar time of day during the week - tooled up, naturally.
Monday was busy with other stuff, so Tuesday afternoon I checked the skies, and it looked promising. However, by the time I got back to the spot in question, cloud filled much of the horizon, and the light was simply not the same - it didn't glisten across the shorn crop fields the way it had two days earlier.
But I wasn't planning to leave empty handed, so what you see below is the lemonade.

Low in the Sky

Autumn is my favourite season for capturing aspects of the Essex and Suffolk landscape - not simply because of the colours, but also the quality of the light from a sun that is lower in the sky for much of the day. The following images are from he most recent Wivenhoe Photography Group trip, to Highwoods Country Park last Saturday morning. It turned out that the sun was not the only celestial body lounging low in the heavens.

The Red, Red Vino

More play with red dye, including some basic compositing.

Dye, Oil and Water (Pt1)

The last few updates mixed oil and water. This time round I've added food dye to the recipe.
You have to be quick to react to the dye as it rapidly settles to the bottom of the glass.
Different colours also react differently when dropped into the water. Black and blue seem to sink the quickest and seem less inclined to fan out in pretty patterns than dyes at the red end of the spectrum - but its early days and some dilution may be required.

Oil Painting (Part 3)

Just received an order of food dye to play with (courtesy of my better half), but in the meantime here's another set from my first experimentation with oil in water:

Oil Painting (Part 2)

Some more oil and water images from last weekend - yeah, I really need to get out more!
These involved various backgrounds, producing a very different look to the last set. They include a letter from a utility company.
The thing I love about these is you can really project your own imagination onto the images when interpreting them.

Oil Painting (Part 1)

Something anyone can try at home even with rudimentary camera and lighting equipment is combining oil with water.
Pour some (room temperature) water into a clear-bottomed* glass container and add some cooking oil. Light from underneath and get in close with the camera - Bob's your uncle!
Ok, there's a little more to it than that, but there are already plenty of good tutorials across the web that can get you started.
Once you understand the basics, experiment with different backgrounds, apertures, depths of water, shooting distance and so-on. Its really easy to while away the whole day on this stuff.
*This is fairly important, unless you want to sign all your bubbly masterpieces 'Pyrex'.