5000 Years Ago!

I was supposed to be going to the Scilly isles this week. For no good reason other than they are there and I've never been! Unfortunately the ferries were cancelled due to severe weather warnings.......... So on my way back home I decided to do some English history sites. I found a few stones in Wiltshire and some more in Little Rollright on the Oxfordshire / Warwickshire border. Apparently people used to hang out in these places 5000 years ago? Blimey! And also I'm not the first to find them, I've been told they're are famous!

Finally NYC Hits the Blog

OK I should have got these up a while ago. Slap wrist etc... But with Ironman Lanzarote and now the Outlaw triathlon coming up, spare time has been scarce. But here they are. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

it's been a while!

Ok Lot's to upload, lots to see. Let me get this site up to date. Double click on any of the images to see them full size.

Warwick in Winter

It's been a while since my last post. I've some NY pics to post from my trip to the USA, but this picture of Warwick Castle has taken preference due to the snowy wintery feel outside.

I took this picture 06-01-2010 with lots of snow on the ground (not much on the castle though). The lighting was great, a clearish sky, no wind to ripple the river that runs past. And very little passing traffic to spoil the light local to the camera lens.

This was shot in raw format (google it if you need too) and the tones were played with before development. There has been a little blurring addedto the edges due to some lense flare occuring with the long exposure (I think I've hidden the most of it). A quick canvas size border was added to frame it. I hope you like. Comments always welcome.

New Car

Working in the automotive industry has tainted my exitement regarding cars. I used to love them, aspire to drive them and really got a thrill from driving them. My new car (The 2010 Model Year Range Rover Sport) Has revitalised my passion for great cars. The old RRS wasn't a bad car, But the new one is just amazing. This is how it should be. Powerful, greater stance, LED lights, fresh interior, no key, cameras for parking, digital radio, Ipod..... The list goes on and on. This IS a great car. One I've looked forward to getting and am loving driving it.

This pic is meant to be an agressive representation of the beast. It was taken with a 12mm lens at a strange angle. Photo shop added some radial blur and using a mask layer I cleared the blur from the front edges. No I didn't get run over in the process!!!

Gone Walkabout

Two hours of walking around Leamington and an hour of playing on the computer. Bish Bash Bosh and here we go!!!

Upper Boddington

The countryside where I live went generally unnoticed until I started cycling. Getting out and about and you see some great places. Makes you wanna move to a village.

Todays image is another adventure with HDR photo processing, Warwickshire countryside and spare time = another digital episode with Nikon, Photoshop and Photomatix.

Warwick Town Centre Cycle Race

This sunday saw the return of the annual cycle race around warwick town centre. The elite's are lapping at around 30mph! With right angle turns and only railings for run off areas. The pace is frantic and I hope I managed to capture some of the atmosphere. I certainly enjoyed the Guinness!!!

Pics have some Photoshop tomfoolery and some slight adjustments, nothing devious just a little boosting and borders for effect!!! Comments welcome.

English Countryside

I've been pondering for a while whether to move to the country or not. The arguments are strong for pro and con. Pro: I love cycling through warwickshire, the vale of Stratford, the cotswolds. Whilst out I constantly see lovely villages miles from urban troubles of lager louts, graffiti, drunken louts and general degenerative behaviour. Con: Miles from population, coffee shops, general population and restaurants / convenient facilities. Todays pics were taken after looking at three country properties and were taken in a village called Farnborough near Banbury. The area is spectacular for scenery and it is so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The question is AM I READY for this? I can't make up my mind. One thing I'm sure of is that I'll never tire of the beauty of the English countryside in the season of summer.

These pics were taken at various exposures and combined to add depth to the composition. Photoshop is great, but taking the pics and taking time out in these beautiful places is even better. Until I post again....

Spikey Posing

Two posts in two days! Photo overload!

The sun came out whilst I was in the back garden and Spikey (the worlds most spoilt cat) was posing as usual. The portraits were taken at 200mm zoom with a moderate aperture and the images are pretty much "As Shot". It's important to capture a clear focus zone in any portrait and as can be seen here it's often wise to make this point the eyes. More obscure or artistic images may choose other depths of focus, but generally to capture a representative portrait i'd advise to lock onto the eyes.

So these pics just needed a quick crop and the work was done.

Cheers,

Sam.

Leamington Spa

Following two Ironman events in 6 weeks I kind of lost track of my photography. Having taken some weeks of rest I ventured out into Leamington and decided that no matter the light conditions I would take some shots and just see what could be done. For no particular reason the theme turned out to visions that encompassed distance? Tunnel vision perhaps? Three frames of each image were taken at different apertures to affect the available light. The raw images were processed using a technique called High Dynamic Range (HDR). This technique merges the contrasts available between each image and creates quite a dramatic effect. I hope you like it and I'm glad to have got my camera out again. Let me know what you think.......

Sam.

Fun with Scarecrows

In a village on the edge of the cotswolds there is an annual event which fundamentally demonstrates the available spare time some people have! And what a result. The whole street was cloaked in various entrants to the scarecrow contest. Here is one of my favourites, a period race car and unfortunate driver!

Bordered, desaturated and contrast adjusted. Simple!

Bike Bling

I love exploring the Warwickshire countryside on my bike. This Sunday I couldn't resist taking a pic of my bike (well part of it anyway) as I was out and about. I hooked it over a hay bail and took this with my phone. A quick crop, some colour mods and bobs your uncle another post for the blog!

Warwickshires Countryside

It's been a while since the last post. I thought I'd lost the photo Mojo for a while. But it seems that I just had a postponement to complete some other things in my life.

This weekend I cycled for 5 hours around the warwickshire countryside. It never ceases to amaze me with it's beauty. I decided that I would come back and take some photo's of the views that I see regularly. Todays pic is taken just outside the village of Brailes and shows the track of one of the many marked public footpaths. The picture has a little brightness and contrast modifications, a tactical crop to send the footpath to the horizon. The colour was desaturated to enhance the tones and a border added. Simplicity, but beautiful.

Old English Gent

The roads have become over run with modern machines that do everything perfectly. We take for granted air conditioning, cd players, heated screens, 10 years of rust proofing. The list of requirements for modern cars is quiet staggering. This blog pic celebrates a legend from the past. When GT meant Grand Tourer and not VW Golf! The GT6 (Pictured) was a 70's great that had performance, style and a wonderful exhaust note. I thought the only setting for a pic with this car was outside an old english building in the middle of an old english village. The colour / black and white effect is supposed to bring a sense old with new. The low down and rotated composition give the car stance and presence, something hard to imagine when you stand next to it and it doesn't reach your waist!

The Open Road

What a feeling. Whizzing along the open roads on a summers evening. Cows, horses, sheep and the odd tractor for company. It can be very relaxing this working out!

Todays pic has had a bit of wind effect added to the background, and also the bike frame to help with the sense of motion. The picture angle manages to hide most of the subject whilst retaining the inatantly recognisable business parts of a cyclists engine!

Self Portrait 2

Two self portraits in as many weeks. What's going on? Am I getting vain? Brave? Or just plain stupid.

This weeks pic was taken with an incredibly clever piece of camera support equipment (as you can see both of my hands are on the wheel!) It was also taken with my phone! Thisx type of quality was unimaginable a few years ago.

Answers on a postcard as to how this picture was taken and what has been done to it. I've resisted the urge to vanity afflict the lines and blemishes so think harder than that for the digital tomfoolery. I hope you enjoy and as always I'd really like some feedback.

Capturing and processing has once again been fun. I think I just got my photo mojo back.

See you in a week.

Sam.

Self Portrait

Self portraits are always tough. They are a chance to show yourself to the masses in any way that you wish. As I don't consider myself to be photogenic it was a relief to solve the conundrum by just capturing my shadow. Hopefully tall and adventurous are the impressions taken from this one?

The picture was taken using my mobile phone. The levels have been changed in PS3, but aside from minor contrasts and colour enhancement the picture is "as shot". The picture was taken on a mountain behind the villa we hired for Ironman Lanzarote training camp. The views were amazing and I just took the oportunity of being in the right place at the right time of day.

Dom (2)

Just a quick post this week. I've been so busy getting ready for Ironman Training in Lanzarote with my teamates (http://www.teamsoutherns.com/) that I've not had a chance to pick the camera up and plan a proper new topic. This weeks pic was taken at Dominics house a few weeks ago and has been chopped and shopped today in CS3. The black white and colour thing can sometimes be really dramatic and cause the onlooker to wonder what it is that doesn't look right. In all honesty it's pretty easy to learn.

So with 500 bike miles and 12k of swim ahead of me for the next seven days I will say goodnight and will make time for more of an effort next time. Suggestions for the next topic or photo process on a postcard please (or just fill in the comments below and I'll pick them up).

Cheers.

Recycling

This weeks blog is different for two reasons.

1. As the more astute will notice this blog is going out on a Monday (Last night was spent investigating why my bathroom had flooded my neighbour downstairs!)

2. This weeks photography blog did not require me to get my camera out...... Read on.

Today's blog is an experimentation with scanners, photoshop and the recycling aspect is the attempt to resurect an old photo of my Dad when he did national service. The original picture is signed on the back by all the people in it. I wonder what they are all doing today? One thing I'm sure of is that they wouldn't expect to stumble accross it on the internet. The picture was given to me by my late Aunt a few years ago and I've always wondered if I could get it repaired..... And this is where the task began. I've played with photoshop before in most of my pictures, but never have I tried to mend an old picture.

Todays pic shows the before and after. You can see the creases across the left hand picture that obscures three seperate paths accross the people (Four legs, three chests and two faces to be precise) And for the more observant I'll include the shed and the barracks wall too. Needless to say this picture required lots of clone tool (where you copy other parts of the picture to reconstruct the original). If you look hard you may be able to spot who's pockets / tie / boots and even an eye and a smile have been transplanted. This pic took some time to complete, but it was a really interesting project. And I even get the benefit of having a rendered copy of the original without the creasing. So it just goes to show that photography skills and attaining results is not always about whet you point your camera at.........

Until next SUNDAY. Job Done.