Nikon Snap Bridge – Jennie Meadows MA Photography

AGM62 Bushy Park 14 December 2020

As I was still waiting for the prints to arrive and feeling a bit restless, I took a walk in Bushy Park. My main aim for the visit was to clear my head. The second was to try a few things out.

The previous day I had been looking at camera settings and using an Atomos Ninja V viewing monitor on the camera. Frustratingly, this monitor is better suited for shooting video rather than stills. However, it will be a useful tool for future projects. It is exceptionally good extracting high-res stills from the video footage recorded using the monitor. As it can record in ProRes RAW, this means the still has more range for colour correction. Something to explore in the future.

My first port of call was the tree I now call “Crazy Larry”. I still can’t get the light quite correctly on this one.

Next I returned to this, as yet, un-named, tree.

I then took a shot from the opposite side.

These are the two images together.

Next, I took close up shots from the same standing position. The thought behind this was to piece the images together in Adobe Photoshop to see if I could create a cohesive compound image.

This was my initial result. Definitely still needs work.

I also wanted to carry out a couple of interval timer shoots with the a hawthorn as the centre piece. The sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing them across at a steady pace, so this could work well.

These following shots were recorded as JPEG Fine files and taken at 3 second intervals. I used the tripod so there wouldn’t be any movement with the camera. The tripod was at quite a low level. In order to work out the composition, I used the Nikon Snap Bridge app on my phone. This was ok, but it seemed I still had to use the camera to set up and activate the interval timer sequence. This is something I should have practiced at home first.

I also tried to set an Adobe Premier file to create a time-lapse. Then I realised it’s been a year since I last did this. Time to return to my notes to jog my memory on the method.

As for the subject of time, this concept in relation to trees was starting to bubble.

AGM62 Bushy Park Hawthorns 5 December 2020

The intention behind today’s shoot was to try out the tripod and different aspect ratios. I also wanted to experiment further with the 85mm lens. The light wasn’t the best, but after three days of being stuck inside, it felt good to get outside.

I initially set up the tripod quite low to get the right aspect, but it was proving difficult to the see the screen. When using the camera in portrait, the viewing screen at the back of the camera doesn’t articulate vertically. This means the screen can’t be seen easily at that angle. The aspect ratio for the following is 5:4.

Despite this frustration, I tried the other aspect ratios settings from one position.

Note to self, if I change aspect ratio, change the camera position and recompose. Also, looking at the 16:9 image, I need to keep an eye out for passing birds and planes in the sky when taking a shot.

I then set the camera back to 5:4 and took the following using the tripod.

What struck me about these particular trees is the missing branches. In hindsight, what could work is composing the image as if these missing pieces were actually present.

I then focused on one of my favourite hawthorns. This is the first time I used the 85mm lens and tripod capturing this tree. Again, trying to find the right horizon using the tripod at a low angle was getting to be frustrating. As such, I removed the camera off the tripod and took some close up shots.

By this time I was starting to get a bit disheartened. I took these shots, but I didn’t feel particularly inspired. What I was starting to realise that there was no spark of ‘Jennie’ in my shots. Nothing that would ‘identify’ these images with me as the photographer. I also wasn’t experiencing that surge of excitement that I get when being creative. Time to stop and have a cup of tea. Only one place to sit…

While contemplating what I should do next, I remembered that I had installed the Nikon Snap Bridge app on my smartphone. This enables the camera to be connected to the smartphone via WiFi, so you can see what the camera is viewing. The shot is then taken by pressing the smartphone screen, not the camera button. These are the shots I took while sitting on the bench.

I started with a conventional composition then tried different angles just to see what would be the result. One thing I did notice is that there is a slight delay between moving the camera and this adjustment appearing on the smartphone screen. This does help in slowing down the process.

Next, I went for a wander in the Woodland Gardens to finish off my flask of tea with some ginger biscuits. After this break, I went back to the line of hawthorns nearby and took the following shots.