Comparing my work to Heather Angel

These Heather Angel images come from websites:
'Heather Angel Wildlife Photography Photographer, lecturer, author' and
'Plants-Heather Angel-Wildlife Photography-Photographer'.

For my research I also watched a Heather Angel presentation when I attended the Photo Imaging Exibition at the NEC this year, where she showed some of her macro work of flowers.  Some of her work presented there was also where she hadn't used a macro lens... she said, but had included them for their close up properties anyway, and this is where I am relating my close up work in nature to hers, because I will not be using a full macro lens.  My lens when zoomed to its maximum is considered 'macro' on the lens barrel.  In order words 'macro' just means getting close, but my lens is not a dedicated macro lens which get very much closer to the subject.

This image of a Lightning Strike taken in Sherwood Forest by Heather Angel shows details of bark Oak, so I compare it to my 'Pieces' of bark (see previous blog) in Tree Story, and Rockface below.

                                                               taken by Heather Angel
                                                                     Lightning Strike

The image here tells the story of what happens to the bark of a tree after nature has played a hand in the way of a lightning strike.  It shows damage, colour, texture and pattern.  My 'Pieces' image also shows the story of how nature's weather effects bark with flaky peices,  though these platelets also serve towards protecting the tree.  My images again show colour, textures and pattern.

                                                                          Rockface
                                            shutter 1/s640 aperture 7.1 iso 200 focal L 105mm

I like this close up  of a piece of bark I took with the sun catching the surface here and there just as it looks to have done in Lightning Strike.  The textures and colours stand out.  It appeared to me to look like rock rather than bark, and wood bark can give this effect,  so I wanted to capture the edge detail too.  Again it shows weathering in the shadows.  The blue top background of the sky may be a little distracting though.  I wonder now if next time I could have taken it from a higher level that would not show that. I am pleased with it however.

                                                             taken by Heather Angel

This image to me is all about the water brightness from the sun's reflection with animals passing through, it looks like elephants, and the contrasts of the dark and light, with shape and form (siluettes).  It shows warmth even though they are in water.

I took this image of reflected bright sunlight  with a duck passing through, again shows contrast of light and dark though my duck is not as obvious to see as the elephants.  The duck does not take on the siluette look either, so my reflections come from the trees. The duck has recently landed so the water shows the movement just as the water of the elephants shows in the ripples. It is a cooler looking image than that above even though the sun is there brightly.  This is a crop of the full scene, see below.  It is not a great image but I did like the bright water reflection where the duck lands.  I didn't like the way the same bright reflection is too bright in the foreground of the scene so is best cropped. Next time I would want to wait until the ducks came closer and take the scene from a different angle.

                                           shutter 1/50  aperture f7.1  iso 2oo  focal L 105mm

Planning:
Both images were taken at Calke hand held because I had not taken my tripod on this journey, wanting instead to do a long walk around the wooded areas and so from a health and safety point of view I did not want to carry a heavy load.  I had prepared by ensuring my camera was clean and had a full battery and empty flashcard. When holding my camera to take the images I stood still with legs slightly apart to give steadiness and hold the camera firmly with its strap around my neck.