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.