26 August 2011 - Hipstamatic

Littletown, Dornoch, Highlands

I have been playing with an app on my iPhone - Hipstamatic. It is a camera that you get with a couple of lenses and films built in, however you can purchase others within the app.

Shed, Skelbo, Highlands

These images were all tinted in Lightroom, but otherwise just have their Curve adjusted to increase contrast. The texture, degrading and vignetting are all added by the app. I love it's effects.

The road to Skelbo Castle, Highlands

The main thing I have learned is that you should have a main feature in the image to get the best out of it. Although I include no portraits here it is good for these, but you have to experiment as the effects are not entirely predictable.

Skelbo, Highlands

Dornoch cathedral, Highlands

21 August 2011 - Return from 2 weeks in Scotland

Skelbo farming
Taken with the Canon G12 out of my cottage window at sunset

Just returned from 2 weeks in north east Scotland. The weather was good - changeable with sun and rain, fog and mist.

I have a lot of images and concepts to process and will be posting regularly to the blog, website, Flickr and photo.net. Hope you like the new projects as they are posted.

17 July 11 Photo of the day - Cayton Bay

Cayton Bay sunrise III

On the sands by 0315 this morning I watched it get light and then there was a super sunrise. This is a panoramic stitch of 3 images blended and cropped in CS5.

16 July 11 Photo of the day - Scarborough rocks

09 July 2011 - Why do we do it to ourselves?

Filey Brigg sunrise

A landscape photographer has to take advantage of the golden hour, or so the books say. Today I got up at 3am and drove to the coast 5 minutes from my house. I then descended the cliffs and walked out to the end of a rocky promontory to watch and photograph dawn and sunrise. I spent time looking for the shot I wanted and then was watched myself by a grey seal and a flock of common eider that I could almost have touched. There was silence except for the waves, the gulls and the occasional oystercatcher. I did not see another human being until I was walking back to the car when 3 fishermen walked passed me.
So why did I get up so early knowing I will be tired for the next couple of days? Whilst getting there I asked this constantly, especially when the alarm clock went off, but once I was there I knew the answer and returned fulfilled. Then when I viewed the images on my computer I knew that in a couple of days I will do it all again.

Peeping over the horizon

21 June - an excursion into colour

Scalby Rocks I
Canon 5D2 24-105L

A rare excursion into colour. The light was poor this morning but a trip to the sea and a while stood watching and the sun broke through. It was diffused by cloud, but I thought it may be good for a long exposure. The clouds were moving in different directions and this was the result.

19 June 2011 - Dalby Forest

Staindale Lake

The family and I spent a day at Dalby Forest and after lunch took a walk around The Bridestones.

Path to Bridestones

Power of trees

 Whilst walking in old woods one cannot help but be awed by the size and power of the trees. I wanted to capture this and I am reasonably pleased with this Lensbaby single-glass lens capture that has been turned into monochrome in Lightroom. I get the impression that power emanates from the trunk of the front tree.

Bracken breaks through

The Bridestones I

How do you like your coffee?

Watching IX
Sheringham, Norfolk

Taken with a Lensbaby Composer with single glass lens on a 5D2.

Having just spent a week away with the family allowing 7 days in a row of image making I have to say that I still enjoy my photography, despite having moved genres and moved through several styles.  I take pictures first and foremost for myself, and my pictures give me pleasure. In the past I wanted my pictures to be appreciated by others and generate income. I used to sell bird and nature photos all over the world, then I changed to insect photography and still achieved a reasonable amount of sales.

Since then I evolved into landscape photography and got up at ungodly hours to try to create Cornish pastiches. The sales continued and yet I was unhappy. Finally I moved through intentional camera movement and tilt and shift to the expressive artistic photography that I now enjoy.

I do not take pictures I think others might prefer to see.  

Your photographs are unlikely to please everybody, so why try when you have to please your hardest critic - yourself.

Beach XXVII
Cromer, Norfolk

Taken with a Lensbaby Composer with single glass lens on a 5D2.

Remember I like my coffee with black, doubtless others prefer theirs with milk and sugar. So if you find yourself not enjoying your photography ask yourself why you are doing it and make images that you enjoy!

In the next week or so I will be uploading a set of the latest shots taken with a digital SLR using various lenses, but mostly Lensbabies or Diana lenses. I know some will love them, but most will be indifferent or hate them, but most importantly they stir the correct emotions in me!

So how do you like yours?

Fascination with the edge

Now we are getting to the silly season. The tourists have flocked to the beach and we locals cannot get near, so early mornings and late nights rule and not due to the sunrise and sunset times. That is why I love inclement weather.

I love the effect the backlit rain has in this image.

The other alternative is to incorporate people into the coastal shots, but not being too keen on portraiture I like to find a way of minimalising the human element. This has been the mainstay of my beach project, depicting man's use of the beach. In many of these shot I try to silhouette the people so they are not identifiable.

The above image was taken with a 'normal' lens ie a 24-105LIS. This has recently been unusual for me as for the last 2 months I have almost uniformly used a Lensbaby - the Composer and the plastic or single glass lens. I shall post on the Lensbaby system on another occasion in the future.

New project uploaded - The beach

I spend a lot of time at the sea as I live near it and it fascinates me. If I have a bad day at work or I want some peace and quiet I go to the coast, however there is often someone else there. Luckily, as a landscape photographer, I am often there at times that are prohibitive to most.
However as I have two young children as a family we spend time on the beach and I have been observing the vast array of different ways that we as humans utilise it. I am trying to capture our use producing fine art black and white photos of the different ways man and his friends occupy ourselves there.