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.

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.

Donkeys at the seaside

donkeys, originally uploaded by foto-art.

I love the emptiness and slight bleakness of this shot, which sums up the coastal resort of Blackpool in Lancashire on a cold, windy autumn day. This was taken while out for a walk on the beach and little has been done to it afterwards: It was rotated slightly to get the horizon level; It was slightly cropped to remove a group of people in the background on the extreme left; Colour saturation was also increased slightly. Notice again the rule of thirds and the formality of the composition.

Fence and sand dune at Formby Point

Fence and sand dune, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune and fencing at Formby Point, England. Winter storms and high spring tides had taken their toll on the landscape at Formby Point, and the in some places the dunes had been considerably eroded since I was last there only a few months ago. This area is owned by the National Trust and they were working hard at conserving this area of Britain's coast.

Sand dune tree

Sand dune tree, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Wind swept tree on the beach at Formby Point, England. I love these stark and barren images though I must admit that I am getting ready now to see some leaves on the trees to give a splash of colour and to soften the landscape.

Dune fence and wire

Dune fence and wire, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Dune fence and wire at Formby Point, England. late March saw another trip to Formby Point near Southport in England. It was an unexpectedly sunny day so I managed to get a few more shots of the sand dunes on the beach here.

Sand dune grass

sand dune grass, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune grass at Formby Point, England. This shot is about texture as well as shape. Notice that the main tuft of grass is positioned one third in from the right. Its top is one third from the top and the main horizon in one third from the bottom. A red filter was used for this shot with the camera on black and white mode. This helps to give the grass that 'wispy' feel against a darker sky.

Sand dune fencing

sand dune fencing, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune fencing at Formby Point. This is a shot that worked equally well in black and white and colour, and therefore it relies almost entirely on strong composition.

Dune tree

Dune tree, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Tree in the dunes at Formby Point, England. Definitely a competition entry for me. A combination of red and polaroid filters was used for this shot taken in black and white mode. I love the stong shape and texture of the tree against a minimalist plain background. The bit of tree trunk or stone lying on the ground in the distance on the right acts as a counterpoint to the tree, (and was there, honest, I did not place it there). Even the vapour trail of the plane in the sky adds to the shot.

FOOTPRINTS Tutorial - Camera details

FOOTPRINTS, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Footprints on a sand dune at Talacre beach in North Wales, U.K.

Most of the photos on this blog are taken with a Samsung Digimax V4 digital camera. It is now a few years old and has a resolution of 4 megapixels. It was was my first entry into digital photography, having used 35mm for some years. I chose it becuase of its low to mid range price and because of the features that it has. In the end I have only used some of its features, the most useful ones I have found to be are:

Night mode - for night shots

The +/- exposure control so that I can override the metering system when taking shots in difficult lighting conditions such bright sun on snow, or sand, or into the light shots.

S or shutter mode - if I want to freeze fast moving action. The ASM control gives me complete manual override over the automatic metering system which is sometimes useful.

The camera has automatic focussing and also close up or Macro mode, which I sometimes find useful for the ocasional close up shot.

The camera also has automatic flash - the flash works in poor light conditions, and again, it useful to be able to turn this off in certain situations.

The camera also has 3x optical zoom. Since I tend to do landscape photography, I often use the wide angle end of the zoom - I am a big fan of ultra wide angle. So much so that I still use my 35mm camera for some shots because I have 24mm and 18mm ultra wide angle lenses for that camera, which enables me to get some shots that I cannot get with the digital one. I rarely use the digital zoom, it just lowers the quality of theimage, though I may just use the lower end of the digital zoom very ocasionally.

Of course the great advantage of digital is the instant feedback of results and no film to load. So I can take lots of shots to make sure I get what I want, without worrying about film cost and wastage. Those shots that don't work can be instantly deleted.

LIFEBELT 2 Tutorial

LIFEBELT 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.

I love these more austere, minimalist type of photos, so put me on an empty beach that runs for miles and I am in my element. These kinds of shots depend upon strong simple shapes and colour. here, the bold colour of the lifebelt is the point of interest in this minimalist shot and is enhanced by its strong orange colour. This is as the photo was taken except in photoshot I clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto contrast, and then I increased the colour saturation by using the slider in Image/Adjust/Hue and Saturation. I increased this to about twenty. Cropping this image to reduce some of the foreground would also enhance this picture

DUNE AND FENCE

DUNE AND FENCE, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dune and fencing at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K.

LIGHTHOUSE 3

LIGHTHOUSE 3, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds and bold colour.

DUNE AND DRIFTWOOD

DUNE AND DRIFTWOOD, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Sand dunes and driftwood at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K.

LIGHTHOUSE 1

LIGHTHOUSE 1, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. A minimalist shot making use of the rule of thirds. The column of the lighthouse is about one third from the right of the frame. The other point of focus is the red top to the lighthouse, which is about one third down from the top frame. The shape is simple and bold and the colour saturation has been increased also.

LIGHTHOUSE 4

LIGHTHOUSE 4, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. When using a wide angle lens, the depth of field is usually quite deep: items are in focus from about one or two feet to infinity. This can be capitialised on by having smaller items of interest placed prominently in the foreground to counterpoint a more distant item. In this case, the remains of a small concrete structure partly buried on the beach counterpoints the distant lighthouse. Notice that the horizon is not in the middle of the frame: this is a common mistake and serves only to divide the picture in two. Using the rule of thirds, the horizon has be placed on the lower third to maintain a feeling of space.

LIGHTHOUSE 2 - tutorial

LIGHTHOUSE 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds. The horizon is placed on the bottom third to maintain a feeling of spaciousness...there is twice as much sky as land. The wide angle lens enables the use of the foreground rocks to lead the eye into the picture from the bottom right of the frame to the line of the vertical third from the left. The lighthouse is slightly more than a third in from the left: it is not in the middle - this would split the picture in two. But it is not on the third because it competes with the figures on the beach. Thus the end of the rocks at one third from the left, lead the eye into the picture to both the people and the lighthouse, the average point of interest between them being at about one third from the left. Auto contrast and colour saturation in Photoshop were used to further enhance this picture.