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.