So you've had a lovely new D-SLR camera for Christmas - what now? By Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw

Santa has been very generous and has given you your first digital SLR camera for Christmas. You've taken it out of its box, charged the battery, inserted a memory card and attached the strap - all pretty straight forward so far. You've even worked out how to set the time, date and language. Then you've turned to the next section in the manual and probably lost the will to live after about 5 minutes! Do the manufacturers not realise that manuals are mainly read by relative beginners who don't yet know their f-stops from their focal lengths?! The manual goes back in the box (with the CDs containing some software stuff that you don't think you need) and you switch the camera to the familiar green Auto setting. You take some pictures that seem to turn out all right - isn't it nice to have no delay when you take a photo and to be using something that feels like a proper camera.

However, after a little while you get frustrated. Some of your pictures are blurred and the flash fires when you don't always want it to. You had thought that by getting a decent camera you would be able to take much better pictures. You know that you're not using it to its full capability, settling instead for the "safe" Auto setting. You also think you might need another lens too, as the one you have doesn't zoom very far, but you don't know where to start and worry that you could make an expensive mistake.

Well, don't despair, as you are far from alone and help is at hand! The quickest way by far to get to grips with your new camera is to book on a course. You don't need to embark on a year long evening course, a half day or full day workshop will get you off to a great start and you can always book another at a later stage as you progress. There are lots of courses available now and you just need to shop around a bit to find one local to you, at the right level and concentrating on the right photographic subject.

If you live in the Northwest of England then look no further! I've got a full programme of courses for 2014, including courses for parents, bloggers, flower enthusiasts, as well as general beginners. I also offer bespoke sessions tailored to your skills level, camera type and preferred area of photography. I offer advice on what kit you need and what you don't! Although the magic is made in camera, you also need to know how to edit your pictures and I can share my expertise on that too.

You can also learn a great deal from reading books and browsing the internet. Personally I've found that this is only really useful once you've done a course to understand the basics, as many books and blogs assume you already understand apertures, shutter speeds, focal lengths etc.

In the meantime, whilst you decide what is best for you, here are my top tips on how to get started with your new camera:

• Shoot in natural daylight as much as possible - it's much nicer than flash. If indoors, open blinds & curtains and sit people so they are facing the window light.

• Use the P (Program setting) instead of fully automatic, as it still does all the important stuff for you, but won't fire the flash automatically.

• Look up in the manual how to see how fast your shutter speed is. To avoid blurred pictures it should be at least 1/125th of a second.

• If it's slower than this then all you need to do is increase the ISO number. Look up how to do this in the manual and then increase it until it gives you the shutter speed you need.

• If you have to use your flash then make sure you are no closer than 1 metre to your subject and no further away than 3 metres. Don't use the red eye setting, fix it later in a free editing programme like Picasa.

• Have your camera out and ready to use all the time so that you get in to the habit of taking lots of pictures. And do take lots at this stage, as you will learn from your mistakes.

• Look at other people's photographs  - in books, magazines and on forums like Flickr and Pinterest. Don't be afraid to copy their ideas in order to learn.

Good luck with your new gadget - with a bit of practise it will soon become your new best friend!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

All the gear and no idea! Photography courses by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw

All the gear and no idea!

This made me laugh out loud when Julie and Gill announced it as they turned up for their photography lesson! They are not alone in having made the step up from compact camera to SLR and only feeling confident enough to use it on the AUTO modes. Camera manuals don’t help as they are full of jargon and are unnecessarily complicated.

Your new SLR camera will take reasonable photos on the automatic settings and you’ll still be pleased that you upgraded, no doubt glad that there’s no delay when you press the shutter and it feels like a “proper camera”. However, a SLR is capable of so much more if you take charge rather than letting it be in control.

During yesterday’s two-hour lesson with Julie and Gill I walked them through some key information, settings and techniques that will make a significant difference to their photography and how they feel about their SLR cameras.

Lenses – they had both realized that although the kit lens that came with their camera gives them nice clear pictures it doesn’t zoom very far and they needed to buy a telephoto lens. After a quick explanation of the numbers on their lens (18-55mm) and talking about some of the lenses available, they both felt confident enough to start shopping around for a telephoto lens. They also wanted to know if they needed a macro lens to photograph things close up. I think they were pleasantly surprised to discover how close they could get with their existing kit lens.

A kit lens can get this close

Auto vs P – Gill was using her camera on the green AUTO mode, whereas Julie was using the P (program) mode and I explained why P is a better automatic alternative. I’m a firm believer that there’s no shame in using the automatic modes as long you know what to do if they don't give you the picture you wanted. It should be a choice to use them rather than the only option.

Soft focus backgrounds – wanting to know how to get that lovely blurred effect behind your subject is one of the main reasons people book photography lessons with me. They have often been baffled by talk of depth of field, apertures and f numbers. By the end of the two hour lesson Julie and Gill knew how to use their cameras on the Av setting to blur the background, whilst keeping an eye on the shutter speed and how the ISO setting can help when the light isn’t very good. Our mosaic frog was an obliging model!

Soft focus background using the Av setting

Composition – it’s amazing what a big difference a few simple composition tips can make to your photographs and I shared these with Gill and Julie. They were quick to pick up the technique of Focus Lock that allows you to put the subject of your photo anywhere in the frame and not always in the centre.

Using focus lock to put your subject off centre

With all that covered in just two hours there wasn't time to cover editing photographs – that’s a separate session – but I did point them in the direction of Picasa, a free programme from Google that allows you to perform basic edits and create some really good stuff.

From their enthusiastic comments I think Gill and Julie left brimming with confidence and keen to try out all the tips and methods we’d covered. I’m looking forward to seeing their photographs on a Facebook Group that all my “students” are invited to join. I hope they’ve ditched the phrase “All the gear and no idea” now!

If you feel that you have all the gear and no idea, take a look at the course programme for 2013/14 and if you can’t make any of the dates then why not book a bespoke session – share the cost between up to four people if you prefer. 

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

50/50 Project #14/50 Distressed denim (by Cheshire Photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

Day 14. Distressed denim

:50 days with a 50mm lens

Technical stuff: Canon 350D, 1/800, f/2.5, ISO 100 Aperture Priority

After Sam's mud bath yesterday I rinsed his jeans off with the hose and left them to drip dry on the line. They are now as stiff as cardboard!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

50/50 project #9/50 A la Turka (by Cheshire photographer Jane Burkinshaw)

Day 9. A la Turka

50 days with a 50mm lens

Technical stuff: Canon 350D, 1/1000, f/2.0, ISO 100, Aperture Priority

The bright early evening sunshine was streaming into this turkish restaurant in Stockton Heath and I wanted to see how the camera coped with the very contrasty scene. I love the way the menu and glassware are lit by the sun. A few minutes later sun had moved and the menu was in shadow.

By the way we had a cracking meal there with great service. Really delicious food - starter and main course £12.95 and kids menu £4.95. Their dessert was a piece of art - complete with cherries drawn with chocolate and red berry sauce.

The bad news is that a very excited dog greeted us at home wearing a neck cone and he knocked my handbag onto the hard stone tiles. My 350d and Canon 50mm f/1.8 were in it and sadly the lens has broken :-(. So this may be its last shot.

My husband suggests I check out the 50mm f/1.4...

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

A new photography project - 50/50 (photography course Cheshire)

I've really missed doing the 366 project I did right through 2012, when I took and posted a photo every single day. It wasn't always easy (at times it was a downright chore done at 11pm at night!) but I learned so much and enjoyed swapping comments with other people in 365 forums.

I was chatting with another photographer a few weeks ago and he suggested that I do something else this year that wasn't such a big commitment but would give me scope to be creative - a 50/50 project. My brain was trying to work out how a project could be half and half of anything but he put me out my misery and clarified that it was 50 days using a 50mm lens. I was hooked straight away as I have a 50mm lens that I adore using but haven't had out the bag much recently.

(Pic taken on my lovely HTC One camera phone)

This is a Canon 50mm f/1.8 mk II prime lens and cost me around £90. To cut through the jargon / numbers it is a lens that doesn't zoom (to get closer to your subject you move yourself), it isn't very wide angle and is often used for portraits. The low aperture of f/1.8 means that you can get very creative with soft focus and also it lets in lots of light so is good in low light conditions. Not bad for £90 and a favourite of wedding photographers.

I used this lens a fair bit last year for the 366 project until I bought a new telephoto 28-300mm lens from Tamron which quickly became my favourite toy. So I'm looking forward to pushing the boundaries a little more this time with the 50mm lens.

366 photos taken in 2012 with 50mm lens

I hope you'll follow my daily photos for the next 50 days and let me know what you think of them. If you're doing a photography project at the moment I'd love to hear about it. And don't forget that I run courses in digital photography and offer one to ones designed around your needs. Find out more about my photography courses on the website.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to take great summer photos - TIP 4 (Cheshire photography course with Jane Burkinshaw)

We've done a fair bit on taking photographs of people in the sunshine, so let's look now at

HOW TO TAKE GREAT PICTURES OF LANDSCAPES

Now I'll freely admit landscape photography isn't really my bag - I can capture a half decent picture on holiday but I take my hat off to the true landscape photographer greats - like Joe Cornish, one of my favourites. They devote an enormous amount of time to searching out great shots and planning the best time to photograph them, even going back time and again to get it just right.

But for us mere mortals there's some simple ways to make our landscape photos look better and here's one:

THE RULE OF THIRDS

Imagine your picture (the one you're going to take) is divided into thirds, horizontally and vertically and put the horizon on one of the horizontal thirds. This gives a much better composition than if you put the horizon across the centre.

 You can decide whether you have more sky or more land, depending on which has more interest.

On many cameras you can get a grid to display on the LCD screen to help you divide the scene into thirds. This also helps make sure your horizon is level!

Also - see whether your shot looks better as a portrait or landscape orientation - take both to compare.

So whilst the sun continues to shine have a practise! Tomorrow I might skip ahead to sunsets as we're getting such beautiful ones at the moment!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to to take great summer photos - TIP 1 (Cheshire Photography Course with Picture It Big)

Summer is here (for the moment) and if you're anything like me you're making the most of it whilst it lasts. As I've browsed Facebook I've been seeing lots of pictures taken at the beach, at picnics, barbecues, out on bike rides and walks. They've inspired me to put together 7 top tips for sizzling summer shot.

These tips are for anyone who uses a point and shoot compact camera or camera phone whilst out and about enjoying the lovely weather. I've kept things very straight forward, there are no tricky settings*

So - here's Tip 1

AVOID BLURRY PICTURES BY STANDING & HOLDING YOUR CAMERA / PHONE CORRECTLY

• Stand with your feet hip width apart, flat on the ground. If you are kneeling, sitting or lying to take the picture always make sure you are stable on the ground i.e. sat on both buttocks, leaning on both knees or both elbows instead of just one.
• Hold your camera / phone with both hands, taking care not to have any fingers over the lens or flash.

Izzy looking through viewfinder of compact camera

• Tuck your elbows in at your sides - whether you're using the little viewfinder or the larger LCD screen. It's tempting to hold the camera with arms held out away from the body but this makes you much less stable as you take the picture.

Abii keeping her elbows tucked in whilst using the large screen on her phone to take a picture.

• When you actually take the picture, stand nice and still and squeeze the shutter or touch the onscreen icon gently - don't stab at it as this can jerk the camera.
• If it's dull where you are taking the picture, lean against a wall or column. But make sure its solid - my dad leant on a grandfather clock in a store and knocked it over - but that's another story!

This may seem like basic stuff but it all makes a difference. Tomorrow we'll look at how to take great pictures of people on bright sunny days - it can be trickier than it first seems!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

The Exposure Triangle - what is it and why do you need to know? (Cheshire photography course with Picture It Big)

Click on the image to see a larger version

If you've started to wander off the AUTO setting on your camera and are having a play with the Aperture (Av / A) or Shutter (Tv or S) setting, you'll have noticed that when you alter one, the other changes at the same time. This is because they work together to make sure that your picture will be correctly exposed.

Just in case I've already used a bit of jargon that's confusing, let's cover that off first.

The obvious question you might be asking at this point is why would you change the aperture or the shutter speed, rather than let the camera do it all for you on AUTO? Well it puts you in control of the type of image that you take, rather than pointing and shooting, you are determining the outcome and can get creative. Probably the whole reason you splashed out and bought a bridge or SLR camera rather than sticking with a compact. (Some compact cameras do allow you to set the aperture and shutter speed and all this applies to those too!)

So, first of all, why would you want to change the aperture? Have you ever wondered how you get that amazing soft focus, blurred areas in a photograph, whilst the point of focus is still completely sharp, like in the picture of the baby? Aperture, that's how! Set a low aperture like f/2.8 (which crazily is a big opening in the lens) and you'll get a lovely soft background. This makes your subject stand out nice and crisp and opens up a whole world of creativity. This is also called a narrow or shallow Depth of Field.

If you set a high aperture number like f/16+ then your image will be in focus from front to back. Typically you might do this with landscapes. And whilst you're in control of the aperture, your camera is setting the right shutter speed to get the exposure right.

So, what about shutter speed? This is how long the opening in the lens is open for and it can be anything from the tiniest fraction of a second through to several seconds. If you select a fast shutter speed any movement is frozen - anything higher than 1/500th of a second is considered quite fast. Slow shutter speeds blur movement and can be used to great creative effect. If you use a slow shutter speed - anything less than 1/60th of a second, you need to rest the camera on a flat surface or use a tripod to avoid camera shake.

I started off this blog by saying that aperture and shutter speed work together to get the right exposure. In order for a picture to be correctly exposed the opening in the lens needs to let in enough light onto the camera sensor. If you have selected a small opening, then it needs to stay open longer than if you selected a large opening - simple isn't it?!

But sometimes there simply isn't enough available light to do what you want to do. A situation I've faced a number of times is photographing a child running along a forest path, where the overhead canopy of leaves has reduced the amount of light. The camera is on its lowest aperture setting (biggest opening in the lens), but the shutter speed is still too slow to freeze the child's movement. I don't want to use the flash as it's so flattening and it wouldn't reach the child anyway. But there's another option available to me, thank goodness - the third part of the Exposure Triangle, the ISO setting.

ISO determines how sensitive to light the camera's sensor is. In the olden days of film (!) you could buy reels of film that were more or less sensitive to light and your digital camera's ISO setting is the equivalent of this. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light. So in nice bright conditions you use a low ISO number - 80-200 and in duller conditions you could use a higher one like 800+.

When you use a high ISO number you will find that your shutter speed increases - yay! The only downside to high ISO numbers is that you can get a grainy effect in your images. It depends on your camera how pronounced this is. Top end cameras handle high ISOs well, whereas compact cameras can be notoriously bad. If you leave the ISO set on AUTO the camera will decide what to do for you. Call me a control freak but I prefer to know what it's doing!

So there you have the three settings that make sure your pictures are correctly exposed:

Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO

And I've even created a handy Exposure Triangle diagram to help you remember it all!

Click on the image to see a larger version

I can bring all this to life for you in a bespoke one to one photography class, tailored to your requirements. To find out more or to book click here.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

How to make amazing picture collages (Cheshire photography course with Picture It Big)

I love picture collages and use them a lot! Ive got framed collages with holiday pictures hanging in the downstairs loo and one beautiful large one of black and white pictures of the kids as babies framed and hanging in our bedroom. Every time I look at it I spot a different picture!

Whenever I use these collages people admire them and ask me how I made them - well here's how!

1. Download a free piece of software from Google called Picasa.

Picasa is dead useful - it's a photo library that allows you to look at all the photographs on your computer, do simple editing on them and create some really fun and useful stuff. It's aimed at your normal family user so it's really user friendly and intuitive to use.

Once you've downloaded Picasa and told it which folders to look in for pictures (it might take a while to find all the pictures especially if you have a lot!) then you will see a screen like the one above. Scroll down and you will see all your pictures in one continuous stream.

Click on an image to see a larger version - you can do lots of cool edits on it here too - have a play with them all - you can easily undo any changes by pressing the "undo" button.

If you want to use this image in your collage, then press the little green button at the bottom by the "tray" to keep it there. Carry on selecting other images to include in your collage and hold them in the tray at the bottom by pressing the green button. You can select as many images as you like - I've done a collage with over 300! You need at least 3 though! You can select from any folder on your computer simply by scrolling down. Remember to hold the pic in the tray with the green button!

Once you have selected all your images you're ready to make your collage. Along the bottom of the screen there are a number of options, including one to make a collage. If it isn't shown, then right click on one of the other buttons at the bottom and you'll get this pop up window:

Make sure you add in the collage button and then press OK and close the window. If you have problems with this, you can use the menu at top of the page: Create / Create Picture Collage.

The first time you make a collage you will probably see a pile of pictures scattered randomly. I don't often use this "Picture Pile" option - I prefer the mosaic option but have a play with all the of the types of collages by clicking on the drop down arrow.

Choose what size you want your final collage to be - if you are going to print it out then select the appropriate size for your final print. You can choose landscape or portrait too (just under "page format").

If you are not happy with the layout, try "shuffle", or alternatively you can click and drag an image to a different position and the images will swap places. I've found that by playing around with the page format and switching between landscape and portrait I can get the layout I like best.

If you want to remove an image simply select it in the collage and click on "remove" just above the collage. There are a few other clever things you can do but I'll save those for a part II!

Once you are happy with the collage then go for it - click on "Create collage". It should only take a few seconds before you are looking at your masterpiece!

Have fun collaging! Watch out for the next blog on collages where we'll look at the following:

• Adding text to your collage
• Using funky colours for the borders
• Re-sizing for Facebook etc
• How to get your collage printed

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Booking your holiday? Book a photo course first! (Cheshire Photography Course with Picture It Big)

Click to enlarge

I've been sorting through and editing photographs from last year's holidays, a lovely job to do in January, banishing grey winter skies with blue ones and having all the memories of summer sunshine come flooding back (I'm talking about holidays abroad of course, with sunny days a rarity in the UK last year!).

In June we went to Florida, did Disney and Universal for the first time and then had several days in Naples, chilling out by the pool and on the beach. Needless to say it was an amazing holiday and we have so many great memories... and far too many photographs! Having decided to make a photo book and some collages for the kids' rooms I've been having a hard time deciding which shots to delete and which ones to use.

One disadvantage of the digital camera is there is almost no limit to the amount of images we take - and inevitably we take too many and I'm no exception! But as a professional photographer the vast majority of my shots are, as you'd expect, in focus, well composed and correctly exposed. This makes it hard to delete any but of course it's great to have so many lovely photographs.

I'm just about getting there now, having reduced around 800 photos to more like 300 to include in the photo book. I'm going to ask the kids to select about 50 of their favourite pictures to create a poster sized collage for their rooms. In this way our once in a lifetime holiday will continue to live on in our minds and the photographs won't be hidden away on my hard drive.

If you are planning your holidays for 2013 and would like to learn how to take better photographs, book a one to one session with me. I can tailor the training to your needs, whether you use a camera phone, compact camera or SLR. And if you would like to know how to best edit your pictures and how to create stunning collages and photo books I can show you how to do that too.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Think like a square

First stage of Project Square: to look back at existing images and see if any of them work if they are re-cropped as square rather than rectangular. The aim of this exercise is to start to train my mind to think of composition in terms of a square. I didn't realise how firmly entrenched the rectangular format was until I looked back through my portfolio of 366 images for ones I could crop square. The majority of the shots would simply not work as a square - a critical element would be lost and the picture spoilt. I automatically fill the rectangular viewfinder when I take a picture. I was reassured to find that this means I am considering composition all the time, even though I'm not always aware of it.

I did find some shots that could be cropped with interesting results. Fans of the square image maintain that it focuses the attention more immediately on the subject, as the eye cannot stray away to the left or right, or to the top or bottom. In some cases it has changed the feel of the photograph, made it more immediate. Take a look and see what you think. Click on each set of images to enlarge.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Easter eggs, tulips and...sunburn...?!

Easter was ages ago wasn’t it? It feels like it especially with wedding fever having dominated in the intervening period. But it was only less than a week ago on Easter Sunday that we went to Quarry Bank Mill http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-quarrybankmillandstyalestate for a picnic with my great nephew – that’s not my “fantastic” nephew (although he is), but my “great nephew”, as in I’m a Great Aunt (feeling old)! You’re always guaranteed a good day out with the National Trust – this isn’t a sponsored plug, just my honest view as a mum and garden lover. If you're a member it feels like a free day out too – there were six of us and we spent a grand total of £8.60 between us on ice creams, and as the photographs will evidence, we had a really great time.

After a picnic on the grass by the car park we headed down to the meadow where staff from a certain chocolate company were organising events for the kids. It was busy but not crazily so and our guys had a go at just about everything. I was majorly impressed with the face painting especially Sam’s slightly angry chicks and Abbie’s rainbow, which was done in one stroke with some great gadget. First photo lesson coming up – like any proud parent I wanted to photograph the face paints before they got smudged and the first picture I took of Abbie didn’t work because the sun was just way too bright – just look at the harsh shadows and contrasts on her face. There are two ways to get round this; one is to turn your flash on – the camera will fire what’s called a “fill in” flash, just enough to get rid of the shadows. It works but looks a bit false. The best solution is to get the person to move into a nice shady area and take the shot without flash – this looks much more natural. But of course your model might not always want to do as you ask! Luckily Abbie obliged after being blackmailed with ice cream (after the photo!).

Have I mentioned that it was a belter of a summer’s day (at the end of April!) and we couldn’t have been seeing the gardens at Quarry Bank Mill on a more beautiful day. But bright sunshine does create lots of challenges when you’re trying to take photographs of pretty much anything and you really have to think about what you’re doing if you want to get some nice shots. The camera can struggle to capture what you see with your eye and contrasts between shadows and sunlight will be much starker than with the naked eye. Case in point - just through the entrance of the garden is a path alongside a glade carpeted with bluebells and in the distance bright splashes of colour from the rhododendrons. This looked lovely but was impossible to photograph because the foreground was dark, a shaded glade, and the background was very brightly lit by the mid-day sun. Later or earlier in the day with the sun at a lower angle this might have been possible. Sometimes you just have to look for a different shot.

The garden at Quarry Bank is spread along a number of terraces up quite a steep bank (hence its name!) and at the lowest level by the river there is a path lined with the aforementioned rhododendrons (I’ve just recently found out that azaleas are a type of rhodendron so I can now stop fretting about which is which and just lump them all together!). With the sun filtered through trees and bushes to the left I was able to take a nicely lit shot of the pretty pathway. I cropped out as much of the sky as possible as it was so bright that it was white and wouldn’t have added to the shot. I also did some close ups of the rhododendron flowers as they were breathtaking, but I made sure to pick flowers in the shade or in soft, dappled light.


The deep purple tulips on the lower terraces were the real stars for me and I spent ages taking a variety of different shots, some wider angles and lots of close ups with the light shining through the petals. You can see in the collage the dramatic changes in colour caused by the light. The tulips in the shade were a blackish purple whereas those lit by the sun were a sparkling deep ruby. All were set off so perfectly by the green stalks and leaves and flashes of blue from the bluebells in between.

As you climb steeply up the terraces (or take the gentler zigzagging path) you are quickly rewarded with views across the garden to the mill in the background. I’ve photographed from this viewpoint in the autumn when the leaves have turned gold and red and it’s a lovely vista then too.

At the top of the garden there’s another area of bluebells and this time I could use the light to my advantage and get a sense of a shady glade that was a resting place for some people after the steep climb. Others chose to stop awhile under the magnificent handkerchief tree in the grassy meadow just beyond.



 
 
 
 
 

I stopped off one last time at the tulips before I left the garden - I felt as if I wasn't done with them yet. I did some more close ups, this time with my 60mm macro lens. I also collared Abbie into posing in front of them for me and this demonstrates nicely why a macro lens is often also called a portrait lens.


We didn't go into the mill this time - I've been twice on school trips as an accompanying mum - this trip is always popular as we have to go off to the restaurant for cake whilst the kids experience Victorian schooling at the Apprentice House! On a less gloriously sunny day the mill is well worth a visit - there's often some craft making activity and something to interest everyone.

So, another garden visited at this amazing time of year, when nature wakes up after the winter and announces it with fabulous displays of colour in the form of daffodils, then blossom, bluebells, tulips and azaleas. For the last few years at least we've had periods when the sun seems to shine for weeks on end and yet again I've been caught out and got a sunburned nose at Easter!


Technical Info: I used my Canon 350D and had two different lenses to choose from. Most shots were taken with the 17-40mm lens and usually in Program Mode. The close ups of the tulips and the final portrait of Abbie were taken with the 60mm prime lens on Aperture Priority. I used a feature called Exposure Compensation quite a lot as it's a quick and easy way to make shots brighter or darker. If your camera has this feature it's well worth checking out ... I feel another blog coming on for this!

This blog is also published on the Cheshire Life web site http://cheshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/community/blogs/entries/jane-burkinshaw-photographing-cheshires-gardens/id/379/

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!