Grey skies, blue skies

Daft as it might seem the only pictures I liked from today's feeble attempts were the pair I made on the morning walk back from the Post Office before the grey clouds had blown eastwards. No harsh shadows, and no sky in the frame. Both made with the X10 giving good depth of focus and detail these small web versions don't come across as well as the prints.

It's a funny thing how, even when zoomed right in on the original file, small sensors produce pictures which are quite easily distinguished from those made by large sensors, yet when prints are made it's all but impossible to tell what size sensor the picture came from - save by depth of focus and dynamic range clues. When used for the right sort of picture making small sensors have their uses. I'll persevere with the camera while working to its strengths instead of trying to force it to do things it isn't suited for.

Being at a loose end after lunch, when the sun had broken through with a vengeance, I set out with good intentions to start a project I'd dreamed up. The idea being to photograph the intersections of the parish boundary and public rights of way. The sun was in the wrong position to photograph the first location I went to - and so the project was abandoned before it got going! This almost always seems to be the fate of projects I plan out in advance.

For once I took the trouble to fit the polariser I often take with me. It certainly makes a difference to photographs on sunny days. I'm not sure I like the effect because it seems too much like an effect. It can help prevent bright blue skies burning out to near-white though. While the picture below was made at a boundary intersection it's looking into the next parish - which wasn't the plan. Still, it's got a ditch in it. And it was ditches I decided to photograph for the remainder of the afternoon. Ditches, and drainage in general, being a sort-of-project I keep coming back to. Unfortunately I made a pig's ear of it and returned home despondent.

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