Getting colder: Winter is on its way.

These were taken because the ice had done its work. No snow around at the moment, I'm sure it won't be long, but for now - ice does it !

The top image is of frozen hazel, on the edge of a small duck pond. Then, in the nearby grass verges, the macro photo's of ice on greenery were taken with an extension tube the between lens and body of the camera.

Triptych

A style of photo where an image is spread over 3 separate sections of the frame. Here are three examples of using a complete image for the result:- the first is a landscape of an early evening scene, followed by a hilltop landscape. The third is a late afternoon sun setting behind the mast of a moored boat. The fourth and last image uses 3 separate images to create the one photograph in itself.

I was on television !!!

Well, at least one of my photographs was... ITV's Granada Reports, the regional News programme for North West England, were asking for photographs taken by viewers, so I sent mine in of the windmill at Lytham St Annes. This photo was the first one I ever posted in this blog... and now I got a moments fame for it! Here it is again for you, one more time.... And you can watch it by CLICKING HERE

Glasson Dock

Was on my way to Glasson Dock and on the way saw these geese flying overhead - which made for a boring piccy...



Then arrived, took some shots and got this one:



Which needed a bit of work to make it even remotely interesting... So a bit of editing in Photoshop gave me a cropped image of the boat, with the aforementioned geese added to make it a least a bit more of a photo than before.



Digital photography certainly helps when you can't quite get the image you want... Who knows, the geese may have even flown over the water at some stage before I got there...

In the hills

I took the camera up into the hills and shot a few landscapes. Back in Photoshop, I tried to create the style of Les McLean who grains up his landscapes. Here are the result of a couple of them.

Preston Marina

As the sun set in the western sky, a few clouds allowed a hint of light, so I leapt into the car and headed quickly down to Preston's docks. After only 10 minutes, the sun had all but gone, and blanket clouds were filling the sky, so I changed my line of thought and found this little gem.

Food and Drink

I'm off to the camera club tonight where I am going to enter a photo in the monthly club competition. The theme is food and drink, and the results are announced in February. I could'nt think of, nor find anything original to shoot, so I chose a bunch of grapes and a bottle of wine, and then zoomed in the lens during exposure, and then converted the image to black and white. It actually looks quite effective when mounted!

I don't expect to win - the opposition are very good, but i'll be happy to score 7 or 8 out of 10.

Here is the photo:

Christmas Day

We stayed at home for Christmas this year. There were plenty of presents for the young 'un, the wife and I got some too, and TV was reasonable for when we had finished playing with the new games.

In the meantime, I have joined a camera club, and I will post some of the photo's soon from the first modelling night.

In the meantime, if you are reading this, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Wedding

Today, I took the photographs at a wedding for a mutual friend. Of course there were others there with cameras, and they will supply many options, but of the ones I took myself, among my favourites are those below from during the wedding, and afterwards at the reception, at the Park Hotel.

Congratulations to Vincent and Louise.

Out in the countryside

I found this old tree down on the marshes and when the sun was in the right place, I took the shot. It became so much more foreboding when made into black and white.



I couldn't find six geese-a-laying, so it had to be five geese-a-resting. These were in a field and the image was improved by the selective cropping.



The River Ribble at Ebb Tide. The water flows quickly in and out of the estuary. Here the water has already dropped significantly, and the exposed land soon became a haven for birds.



The marshes again, and an old bench is weather-worn, but is a great viewpoint across the empty vista. Here the sunlight breaks through the clouds across the stand of wintered trees. I used the timer on the camera and walked into the shot myself.

Sales

Well, tonight I have added 2 images to an online library in the hope that someone may want to actually buy a copy or two of my photographs. The fees they might fetch would not be great, but it surely has to be worth it - if only to see if any interest is generated. I won't bore you with the details of which photo's I submitted, after all, the point of the excercise is to sell something for a good price. Unkikely, I know, but the words "raffle" and "you never know your luck in" spring to mind. Fingers crossed. One day, it may happen.

The "Stone" Cold Shoulder

I wanted to see what f1.8 could do for a subject, so I opened the 50mm lens up wide in aperture priority, and framed these stone statues - to me its like she is ignoring the person behind her.

Layers

You can use layers in Photoshop to chnage an image. Here for instance, is a colour photo turned balck and white, and then selectively coloured by "erasing" the black and white layer off the top of the colour one.

Preston Parks and the Golf Club.

Went out and about with the camera today - autumn is a wonderful time for light at reasonable hours of the day...

Avenham Park.



The River Ribble at Avenham Park.



The Pergola in Avenham Park.



Rainbows and golf - at Ingol Golf Club.



Squirrels & Acorns, Miller Park.

Sir Tom Finney

Having just collected Gillian from a hen night party, I drove us home past the football ground in Preston, home of the legendary Sir Tom Finney - one of the greatest footballers ever to walk grace the football fields of the world.



The statue can be seen outside the football ground of Preston North End, at the National Football Museum which documents the history of football, and is well worth a visit.

City and the Park

Even a city has some greenery at it's heart. Here, Moor Park. It is adjacent to Preston's football ground. There are trees of green and even trees of red! No significant enhancement for the shots here, just a tweak or two in PS. The tree of red is by the pond, which is a rather unsightly patch of dirty water, where ducks gather for scraps of bread. The expanse of trees is by the pathway that runs parralel to the road. I may add more soon of other parkland in the city, so keep an eye out for them.







Incidentally, this is my 50th post in the blog....

Around Preston again

I saw the fields and the trees and clouds, and stopped the car. They just looked "right" (though it's lacking in a little composition). This was taken near an M.O.D site near Preston.




Nearby at Inskip, a small country village, I saw this church and stopped off to find a decent viewpoint. A bird flew into the shot as I lined this up, but notice the 'plane disappearing behind the steeple... I was gonna photoshop this out, but chose instead to leave it in.




On the Lancaster to Preston Canal at Ingol, just around the corner from me, the sun has fallen low in the sky, the moon is up, and a statue - one of 4 by Thompson Dagnall (goodness knows where the other three are) carved from a single tree trunk, entitled "Gauging The Ripple" stares wistfully at the water...





Autumn is closing down it's rich colours, and the browns of the season are all around. Here, you can see the richness as leaves from a sycamore tree wait to be blown away by the sea-breeze of the Ribble Estuary as the night closes her grip on the day.



It's been a pleasant couple of hours, and I'm pleased with the results. Photography is a great pastime... There will be more to come, you can be sure... Preston has lots of variety, it's just finding the best time to record it for the eyes of the world.

Travelling around the hills near Preston...

1st up is a long view of Blackpool Tower from Beacon Fell:



Next is a falling leaf (well, I actually held it in place - and it's my attempt at a feature in Digital Photo magazine...


3rd is in the Bleak District (up in the hills north-east of Inglewhite) looking across the wilds toward Scorton... (and yes, I knew aout the lens flare when I took the photo, but opted to leave it in).



And finally, what could be be a birch tree, but I'm no botanist... I used photoshop and selective colours to change all the leaves (not that there are many left on it) into a more autumnal yellow, and then burned back the trunk a bit more to pull the colour of the trunk back somewhat.



I think the leaf image is too false, but it was a photoshop excercise more than anything else. The other three I quite like. The rain came soon after these were taken so I packed up and headed for home, until next time...

Structured

Structures are all around us, and we never acknowledge them. This is the floodnight tower (one of four) at Preston North End football ground. I see it so often, but never thought to photograph it until today. It's just something I see and don't see if you see what I mean...

Black & White from Adobe Lightroom Beta

I have recently downloaded Adobe Lightroom Beta, and within this (what looks like it will become an excellent programme) is the option to convert your RAW files into greyscale. Having tried this out, and further post-edited in CS2, the images below lend themselves quite nicely to the black and white treatment. Whether Lightroom made the task easier is difficult to say, however, if you have not yet taken advantage of the free "beta" I suggest a quick visit to Adobe's website should be on your agenda.

I must admit to enjoying playing around with my digital images - as you will probab,y have noticed from some of my earlier photo's. Manipulation of RAW files has possibly just taken a major step forward thanks to Adobe - and I am looking forward to the full release of this new software.

Reedbeds at Leighton Moss (RSPB)


Trough of Bowland


The bay at Silverdale


Overlooking Morecambe Bay