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.