Summer boat

A quick shot of a boat on the south coast of England during a recent sunny spell of weather. Shooting into the sun like this is known as contre-jour, and it can give some quite nice effects as the sunlight reflecting on the waves in this shot. This picture was an opportunistic one, taken very quickly using the automatic light meter settings. If the picture looks too dark, using the adjust setting on the camera, if you have one, and opening up the f/stop by one or two will usually give the right effect. If you are unsure and have the opportunity, take two or three shots at different f settings and select the best one later. It is almost impossible to get the horizon square and level, but of course the sea horizon is ALWAYS level, so once the shot is selected, rotaing the shot in software such as Photoshop is vital. Go to Image/rotateimage/arbitary and enter a number (in this case 2) to rotate the image clockwise or anticlockwise by that number of degrees.

Bored with photography

Sometimes it gets me that way! I am bored with it all. This year I just cannot summon up any enthusiasm for photography. I have hardly taken my camera out at all, and just not been able to find any inspiration. I have been busy studying and I guess that has taken my interest in part away from my hobby of taking photos. If this malaise affects you sometimes, then don't be disheartened! Eventually I find that I return to my hobby with a fresh creativity and enthusiasm. Still, I will be on holiday soon, so it may be that the new locations will provide me with some inspiration.

Portmerion - The 'Village'

Who is number 1?

You are number 6!

I am not a number - I am a free man! I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed or debriefed!

What a great series the Prisoner is, with Patrick MacGoohan as Number 6 imprisoned in The Village - a community whose location is unidentifiable.

And what a great place Portmerion is, the location used for the 1960's series, situated just a few miles out of Portmadoc. If the weather is fine and the sky is clear and blue, then one might be in the mediterranean instead of on the North Wales coast. I love this place, with its quirky architecture...there is a photo opportunity around every corner.

And of course there is the Prisoner shop, full of souvenirs and memorabilia from the series. Just watch out for Rover....

Southport pier

Building on the pier at Southport, Lancashire, England. I was just struck by all the the angular lines of this scene. Even the sun helps to make yet more angular shadow lines. If I was going to do anything to this picture, it would be to increase colour saturation and remove the people at the right of the shot.

Railway Sheds at Bridgnorth, Shropshire

One of the things I love about digital cameras is that they are much more responsive to low light. On film, I would have had to have used a tripod and very slow shutter speed to get this shot, or else I would have had to have used flash which would have given an artificial effect. I managed to get this picture of a Great Western Tank engine in the workshops at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway using a hand-held camera.

CONFIDENTIAL

CONFIDENTIAL,

Photomontage Spoof 1950's scandal magazine. Winter in England is a time that in the main, my camera is packed away in it's case. Unless we get some snow or bright frosty days, then the landscape to me is dull and unattractive. So between November and March, I tend to spend my hobby time on the computer, and this photomontage is the sort of project I find myself doing. I quite like those scandal mags from the 1950's, so this little spoof has been made up using photoshop. The 'Boy trapped in refrigerator eats own foot' gag is from the movie 'Airplane'.

Lyme Park

Lyme Park, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Another stark shot at Lyme Park in Cheshire. The important elements in the composition here are the tree, the tower, the figure and the rock. Positioning the horizon low in the frame gives a feeling of space and expanse. It was important to get the base of the tree standing out against the sky, as opposed to being obscured by the background landscape.