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Day 1 of a trip to Dorset, featuring Swanage Pier and Durdle Door



Last week I took a quick sojourn down to Dorset, I hadn’t been there for quite a while so I was looking forward to getting some, hopefully, decent coastal shots. I was meeting my occasional photo chum, Sarah, down there for a couple of days of photography, before I returned home and she began one of her workshops. I drove down Wednesday evening without incident, save for an unfortunate happening in a car park in Poole.

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The opportunity recently came up for a quick break in the wonderful Lake District. I would have had to be a fool to turn it down, and I'm no fool.



It was only for a couple of days, but my camera and I managed to pack quite a lot in, as is our way. Along with the usual visits to Derwentwater, Buttermere, Ashness and Castlerigg, I also managed a trip to a disused slate quarry which was a first for me, but well worth the effort, it was quite a place.

So to see a few photos and read all about it, just click your mouse right here.

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Last weekend I took a trip to Batsford Arboretum to see what autumn colours were on display in this Cotswold cornucopia of flora. As it happens, not a great deal, autumn is running pretty late this year, but there were very strong winds predicted for the next couple of days, so I wanted to catch what there was before it all blew away.

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I recently spent a very enjoyable week up in Scotland.



I was camping in Glen Coe, up in the Highlands of this very scenic country, and wouldn't you know it, I just had to put a blog post together.

You can find an itinerary of my travels, featuring the escapades and images I managed to capture, including the mighty Buachaille Etive Mor, Glen Affric, the Cairngorms National Park among many others, right here.

I'll be adding a new gallery of Scotland images on this very site, so check back to see them in their full glory soon.

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I was after something a bit different from the usual shots of sweeping tunnels of lavender stretching off into the distance.

So instead of setting up the tripod and carefully composing each shot, I was a free spirit, or loose canon, depending on your point of view, flitting between from one place to the next.

I was using extreme apertures to create some different view points and you can see what I managed to get right here.

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A Photoshop tutorial using a couple of the Blur filters on traditional flower images to achieve some interesting, abstract results.

Just a bit of experimentation and some basic filter use can yield some eye catching images.

Read the tutorial here.

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Not so long ago I spent an enjoyable afternoon in the company of a very patient daffodil. I was experimented with focus stacking, as a way of increasing the depth of field in macro photography.



It was something I'd not tried before, but was actually pretty straight forward, so I though I'd blog a brief posting on how to maximise that depth of field utilising the dark arts of Photoshop.

You can read the full tutorial right here.

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I recently, thanks to the superior quality of light that was knocking about, spent an evening shooting views over the picturesque town of Burford in the Cotswolds.

I was out for a while and ended up getting some shots spanning the golden hour of sunset, which left me with a selection of images that captured similar scenes, as they changed in colour and tone beneath the waning sun.

So here they are in all their shining glory, in this homage to the evening light.

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A couple of weeks ago I made my merry way up to that beautiful part of the country known as the Lake District, or The Lakes, or Lakeland, whatever you're most comfortable with.

I was up there with a friend of mine who was running a workshop for a few days, so I took the opportunity to re-acquaint myself with this most impressive of locations.

The weather was changeable to say the least. It changed from bad to worse very regularly, but seriously......ahem. It did get better as the week went on so I had plenty of opportunities to get out and get a few snaps.

These can be found in my new Lake District Gallery.

Or if you wish to find out a bit more about my travels around this splendid area, see more photos and much more besides, then you can also check out my latest blog posts here.

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My image, taken at Lynton in Devon of a lonely boat sailing under storm clouds, has been selected as a nominee in the 6th Photography Masters Cup competition in the Fine Art category.



The Los Angeles based International Color Awards, Photography Masters cup is the leading international award honoring excellence in colour photography, and this year attracted over 8,500 entries from around the world, so even though I didn't get a top spot, it's quite an achievement to at least get nominated.

Billing itself as the worlds most watched photoshow, the awards ceremony was streamed live on February 16th and attended by photography professionals and fans alike from 86 countries.

Unfortunately I was not one of them as i'd forgotten about it, but it looks like standing in the rain and wind on a bitter afternoon, while those of a more sensible nature took cover, has finally paid off.

Plus, to top it all, my entry was free, as was mentioned in a previous post.

Hurrah!

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Those good people over at the International Loupe Awards have given my image, taken from a particularly scenic vantage point on Chateau de Quéribus in Languedoc, France, a bronze placing in their esteemed photography competition for 2012.



This international competition receives thousands of entries from around the world, so in the scheme of things, a bronze position is pretty good going.

Taken from one of the more famous Cathar castles in this historical region, it shows the blossoming of an approaching storm as it traveled towards me over the mountainous landscape.

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This picture, taken whilst out on a walk in the Cotswolds, near Batsford, I think, using the popular photo app Instagram on my phone, has been selected for display at 3rd Space gallery in San Diego.



It will also feature in the book of the same name, which will be published at the beginning of 2013.

Not bad for a quick snap taken whilst traipsing across a field, while trying to work out where the hell I was.

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In this Photoshop tutorial we look at what to do with a washed out image.



Once upon a time when an image looked pale and uninteresting it was all to easy to consign it to the picture bin and forget all about it.

But that needn't be the case, if the photo has some inherent quality to it, or even if it doesn't, i'm not going to judge you, it's a pretty straightforward job to give it back its sparkle and convert it into black and white in the process no less.

So for a peek at a couple of Photoshop plugins and a plethora of keyboard shortcuts have a gander at the following post.

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Here is the first in a new series of Photoshop tutorials.



This one is looking at autumn colours and more specifically what to do when, thanks to that redoubtable cad nature, your camera can't capture the full dynamic range of contrast in a scene. It goes over what can be done in post processing when the photographer is unable, or too lazy, to use a set of filters at the time of shooting.

It looks at how to combine exposures that not only bring out the best in the image, but by thunder, also in a way that brings some feeling and depth to the photograph.

To see the blog post click here

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Recently I took a trip to Westonbirt Arboretum, that world famous collection of trees in sunny Gloucestershire to see what I could get in the way of autumn colours.



While I was there I realised that despite the abundance of reds, yellows and oranges, it's not quite as simple as pointing the camera at the nearest clump of astonishing pigmentation. Yes I know, as a photographer, you'd think I would have grasped that a long time ago, what can I say, i'm a slow learner.

So in all my wisdom I decided to put together a blog post on how to get the most out of the autumn colours, to see what works and what doesn't, and more importantly why.

So sit back and prepare to be positively underwhelmed by the photographic sagacity at hand.

Enter the enlightenment

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Took a week off and traveled to to southern Portugal with my Dad and Brother, which I haven't done for about about 20 years. Gone on holiday with them that is, not just gone on holiday to Portugal, we had never done that before.



It was primarily to do a bit of relaxing, but of course I took my camera with me, so I felt duty bound to get some shots, and who wouldn't in such a beautiful area.

So to celebrate my going away and feeling duty bound to get some pictures at the same time, I have put together a few posts on my never popular blog.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed the local vino tinto, which is to say, rather a lot.

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Well that sounded grander than it was, but I was lucky enough to have my tree image chosen for an Honorable Mention in the Photographers Forum 2012 Best of Photography competition the other day.






Selected from thousands of entries from around the world, it was quite an achievement to get that far, even if I didn't get one of the top spots.

Still, it was nice to be included. Especially, as thanks to the atmosphere of the shot, it's an image I really like, so that makes it a bit sweeter.

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In a bid to recce the Exmoor National Park, in advance of the first Exmoor Image Seen workshop, that is taking place there on the 15th & 16th September, Sarah and I spent a few days trampling through the heather in an effort to find the best places to go.




The weather was, shall we say, changeable, which is unusual this year, but it didn't do the views any harm, as who doesn't love capturing a dramatic sky, whilst being soaked to the skin. No one, that's who.

So after negotiating many winding lanes, annoying many Exmoor ponies, dodging many showers, consuming many cups of coffee and throwing in the odd cream tea for good measure, we returned with a deep and irresistible understanding of this part of our great land. Or at least a vague notion of where it is.

So in recognition of this Herculean undertaking and to celebrate our accomplishment, three blog posts have been created that detail those glorious days - the highs, the lows, the successes, the failures, the good cups of coffee, and the bad ones too. Along with some sage photographic wisdom for all mankind, and it can all be found here.

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This time last year my photo of an incoming wave, taken on the north eastern coast of Italy was nominated in the Photography Masters Cup, and I had no idea.






I got an email from them the other day, saying I was getting two free entries into this years competition thanks to my achievement at last years awards, which was very nice of them, if a bit of a surprise.

Better than a kick in the nuts though, as it's £20 a pop to enter normally.

The competition closes beginning of September so I shall be sure to get something over to them, and who knows, sometime in 2013 I might find out if I get anywhere.

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I'm pleased to say my image of trees, I took in South Africa last year has been selected as a finalist in this years Photographers Forum 2012 Spring Photography Contest.






The photo of a stand of trees, taken at the top of Signal Hill in Cape Town under low lying cloud, was selected from over 12,000 images submitted from 60 countries to get through to this stage.

As a finalist it will be printed in their Best of Photography 2012 book, so now I just need to keep my fingers crossed it goes forward into the final placing stage.

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