And so the last month of the year begins, and with it comes Winter (a great time for outdoor photography, if a little chilly for the outdoor photographer), and time to announce my new set of photographic Challenges due for completion throughout 2012. You can find these Challenges on the their own page – over there on the left of the site.
Check back here at the end of the Month and I will update this entry to include my highlight of December (I wonder what it’ll be?) and perhaps a little Review Of The Year.
November was my most productive month yet! Starting with a trip to Paignton Zoo and ending with a Cyclocross event. I managed to take animal portraits, macros, abstracts, attempts a minimalism, and people shots all within the space of 30 days. There’s also a French Clown in there if you’re interested.
My highlight for the month is this close up shot of some grass glinting in the low-angled autumn sunlight. It was one of the first shots taken with my 70 – 200mm L Lens and one that I am especially pleased with:
Sunlight On Wet Grass
Other highlight moments from November include: buying two new lenses (a 50mm – “nifty fifty”) and the already mentioned 70 – 200m, producing two new photo books – TimeFrame 2 and TimeFrame 3 (both available from Blurb), the chance to practice a variety of photography styles (as mentioned above), and a couple of rewarding visits to the Somerset Levels.
All in all it was a busy, but productive month in photography. Here’s to next month and whatever it may bring!
October was a particularly busy and productive month of photography, for me (it works out at just over 1 image per day shared online!) From reprocessing older images (having dusted them off from the old archive) through to a last-minute trip to the zoo. One thing about the month that is abundantly clear is that my interest (or obsession, if you’d prefer) with animal photography continues unabated.
So which image is my stand-out highlight of the month? Easy. It’s this portrait shot of a rather “unconventional” looking bird – the Turkey. I know it may have a face that only a mother could love, but there’s just something about this shot, the way the light plays around the picture, the expression in the eye of the bird. Just something that makes it one of my favourite images, not just of October but perhaps since I started taking photographs.
There's just something surprisingly regal about this bird
So, what do you think? Have I gone totally mad? Or, do you agree with me – Turkeys make for fine portrait subjects. Actually, this image makes me think that I should perhaps try my hand at human portraiture? Hmmm… something to add to the Challenge 2012 list!
Copenhagen is the beautiful capital city of Denmark, and I had the great pleasure of visiting it for a few days in September. Naturally I took my camera along (my NX10 with the 30mm pancake lens attached), and whilst I didn’t perhaps take as many shots I would’ve hoped, I did manage to get a few that I was very happy with. I captured the inside an out of the Marble Church, Marmorkirken. Other highlights of the month include getting my hands on a copy of Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2 an amazing plugin for Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop that really helps make black and white images sing. It certainly helped me craft some interesting black and white images throughout September, including my highlight of the month (see below), and given that most of the uploads for September ended up as monochromatic, it’s fair to say that it became an important part of my post-processing work-flow.
My highlight for the month is of a glistening cobweb reflecting in the early morning sunlight. Through increasing contrast and deepening the already dark background, I managed (with a little Silver Efex Pro 2 help) to create a shot that is both simple and engaging. And here it is:
We could learn a lot more about life, if we studied the spider's web.
The conditions were just right for this image: the sun was low, bright, and behind the web, there had been a fine mist earlier on which left the web coated in tiny water droplet diamonds. I know I got lucky with this shot, but being in the right place at the right time for a natural shot is not just about luck, it’s about planning, perseverance, and most importantly about being able to read Mother Nature’s signs. I am no expert on this last part, but I knew in this case that low back light from the rising sun, combined with damp morning mist, would create the right conditions for shooting cobwebs.
Something of a “light” month, August still provided a couple of shots that I am very proud of. Such as the close up black and white portrait of lowland Gorilla, there’s something infinitely intelligent in those eyes. Or the re-edited (and re-posted) shot of a red-tailed Rat Snake, complete with noir-style tones. My highlight of the month, though, is not an animal shot at all, it’s actually this:
sunlight bursting through the trees
I was so very pleased with the way the sun bled into this shot. The end result is pretty much straight out of the camera (something that I am endeavouring to try to do as much as possible – in fact it should feature as a challenge in my 2012 set of Challenges… check back soon for more details).
July’s images are neatly divided into one of two camps: Photos from Scotland, or photos from my #MarwellMeet with Tom Hadley Wildlife & MrShutterbug (two fine gentlemen, and excellent photographers). The trip to Scotland was, as always, a great photographic experience. There’s just something so compelling about the landscape. And the Marwell Zoo trip was fantastic, I just about managed to keep up (and even got one or two reasonable shots – bargain!)
So, my highlight of the month? Not any easy one to call this month, but I have gone with this:
not an easy image to capture, and no mistake!
It took a little while to get this shot of a salmon leaping up the rocky river at The Falls of Shin in Scotland, but patience paid off in the end.
Aside from some more animal shots, the images from June pretty much all stem from a trip to the West Midlands of England. And in particular to an impressive ruined stately home called Witley Court. I also managed to sneak in a couple of older, reprocessed shots (of Glastonbury Tor and a Great Grey Owl). My growing interest in black and white imagery is immediately clear, from animals to architecture.
This month’s highlight is a black and white image, taken in Hay-on-Wye during the internationally renowned Hay Festival. I may not have attended any of the literary talks going on at the festival itself (on the outskirts of Hay-on-Wye), but I did manage to get this shot of a bargain-basement for book lovers:
Books, books, and more books!
Whilst at the Hay Festival I did manage to get an interesting shot of a French clown, but I’ve yet to process it and share it online – maybe one day, if there’s enough interest?
There’s very little to say about May 2011, other than it was the month that I bought my Samsung NX10 and I haven’t looked back since.
This month’s highlight is actually the very first shot I took with my NX10, and I was so pleased with the results that I went straight out and bought more lenses for this amazing little piece of kit:
not the prettiest of flowers, but important nonetheless.
There was something instantly pleasing about the focus and the blurred yet recognisable background.
TBC… check back soon
TBC… check back soon
TBC… check back soon
TBC… check back soon