Poinsettia

This is a picture I took some time ago when I first started this blog. I don't know why i didn't post it. Any way - It is a year-old poinsettia (I don't know how it is still living) against a grey sheet background lit from below. I can't remember the setting on the camera so I wont try.

I am hopping to go to both Bristol and West Sussex which may offer some good opportunities. The Clifton Suspension Bridge, Millenium Square, @ Bristol, Scenic wood in West Sussex and steam coming off an early morning lake.

Chinese New Year

I'm sorry I haven't put up a post for a while. This is an enhanced photo I took at the Chinese new year celebrations at the Chinese supermarket in Poole. The colours were amazing and the the people inside the lion were doing a very good job of giving it a personality. I took some video but it is to big to upload to my other site (and would take to long to load).

At the end, the lion opened its mouth and...

It was a very good event to take photographs, and the colour of the lion was fantastic!

The Dividing Hedge

I took this on the same walk as the cultivator. It was straitened and cropped using photoshop, but apart from that, completely untouched. I took this shot because I thought the black hedge dividing the sky from the field would make a good horizon. the tramlines in the crop also lead your eye up to the center of the picture. It also gives a slight sense of curiosity, what could be behind the hedge?

I welcome your comments on this, and all other photographs on my blog. Also, if you spot any errors, spelling or grammatical errors, don't hesitate to e-mail me at the link on the right - Contact.

The Cultivator

Apart from the accidental graininess of this photo (due to the 400 ISO setting), it is, in my eyes, quite attractive. I enhanced it a little with photoshop element 4.0 and lightened the shadows and darken the highlights. I think the red of the cultivator contrasts well the lush green grass the neutral sky. I only had a few second to take the photo before the sun went behind a cloud so i seized the moment and pushed the shutter button..., and the camera took a 15 sec picture (I accidentally nudged the setting dial to aperture rather than auto). It was another five minutes before the sun came out again, and the time to take this shot.

For the Birds

I took this photo threw a window so I am surprised that the result was so satisfying. And of course, it is another one from the calendar I made. For this blog I put up the best pictures I have taken (and can find on my computer!), so I find them in chunks, so there would be lots from a walk, then lots from a trip.

Back to the photo-graph, I am pretty sure I took it with a large aperture, macro mode and tripod on the windowsill. The EFIX (?) tells me that the camera was in auto mode and I cropped it to 0.3 mega pixels. But a picture says a thousand words, and I haven't got time to write all that!

Grazing Cows

This is a photo I think I took in August, it was defentally in the summer. Any way, I entered it into a competition and i am hoping to win. It is on my farm again, but this time, just across the road from my house. I can't think of anything else to say.

What do you think of the picture? Good, bad, just not your cup of tea? I want your comments!

Pumpkin Flower

This is another photos I chose for the calender, may.

Last year I decided to grow pumpkins in my patch of the garden. it turned out to be a big success, £24 it total (I sold them in on a stall out side my house). Any way, this photos was taken with the macro and automatic modes on to get the best effect possible. I would say it was good, but not as good as a photo a friend took of a little black bug in a white flower with the macro mode on and the result was brilliant.

I would also like to draw you attention to the links on the right →. They are a few of the best blogs I have found. If you would like a link, just ask!

Floweres

I'm not quite sure what this flower is, but it does make a good photo oppo-rtunity. I took it in the automatic mode with the macro mode to give a very small depth of field. I took this photo as part of large set, but this was by far the best. I used this and other of specially selected photos for a 2006 calender. I have sent it to people in Scotland, Tokyo and a bit closer to home in the south.

More of the photos I chose for the calender will coming to this blog soon, so keep checking for updates.

"Stupid" Robot

Now, this is a not really a creative photograph, and it only looks good because I used the auto mode on the camera, but it is a robot I was commissioned to build for "Stupid" (BBC) by one of the designers. I was going to be dropped to show its indestructibility but the filming ran-over and the scene never got shot. It was, however, used a background dressing in another shot.

The background is just a grey sheet flung over a corner sofa, lit from the side. I had the camera on a tripod with no flash.

The new Logo

The new logo! I designed it in Photoshop with just a piece of text, natural brush and a graphics tablet. I am very proud of it and i think it looks brilliant alongside the new theme of the site.

Spot the Difference

The two above pictures were taken from exactly the same place at on;y a few seconds apart with the same settings on the camera. The only difference is that the top one was taken with a polarizing filter attaches to the camera which greatly enhances the colours.

Alcoholic Reflections

For this photo, I lined up some bottles and shone a light through them to cast interesting shadows. The background was an un-ironed gray sheet. The creases in it trow around the light a bit and make the picture more dynamic. The bottles are sitting on a coffee table and the sheet is supported by a curtain rail and three pegs.

The bottles I used were those of gin, whisky and Antiguan rum. The light shining was the 60w table lamp at a low angle to shine through the glass to give the reflections in the right directions.

Land rover

Now this, this is not just a silly little effect, oh no. This is painted from a photo I printed out from the net. I used a rough brush to give the painted look and referred back to the original for colour, size and details. It also helped that I was using a graphics tablet and stylus. I did cheat a little bit by loading the picture into Paint Shop Pro to get the colour codes.

I don't know where the original photo was taken, but I presume it was in the Sahara on a trail or race. I you want to see the original, click here.

I cant think of much more to say than the picture took me hours and enjoy your day :^)!

Parallel Lines

On the same walk as the one I took the ripple photo on, I came across this great shot. Once again with no enhancing, it was taken on a cloudy, overcast day with a small aperture to give a huge depth of field. The shot "High Voltage" was taken just a little north-west of this position.

I was lucky to get any photos of that flood, as it was only up for a day. And apparently people had to be rescued by helicopters on other stretches of the same river. The field pictured was later invaded by an escaped flock sheep from elsewhere on the farm and nearly destroyed it before being rounded up.

Ripple

I took this picture when i was on a walk last year. It was flooded and the water was unbelievable deep. I took this picture from half-way-up a hill as the bottom was completely submerged. It has not been enhanced in any way and was taken in B+W mode with a 1/210 sec shutter speed. 100 ISO made the picture not too grainy and the 46mm zoom makes it as I saw it.

Fruit & Veg

This isn't really a photo, but I did create it using Photoshop. I was searching through the default shapes and different effects and decided to make a poster. It was just using the neon inner glow and hard shadows. The text is using the same idea but with a very soft shadow.

Thinking Finlay

This is a photo I took of myself using a ten second timer and attaching the camera to the TV. I accidentally used the 400 ISO setting which gave it a grainy effect. It was dark originally but I brightened it using Photoshop Elements 4.0. It was at 1/25 sec shutter speed and 7.5mm wide-angle lens. That's all I can think about saying about it at the moment so bye!

Plucked off the Sheep's Back

This is yet another picture from my walk. I clearly depicts sheep's wool caught on a barbed wire fence. Although the aperture was small the blurred background was achieved using the macro mode on the camera. Had the aperture been wider, the background would have been just green and taken away the feel of the countryside.

Feel free to comment on all my pictures and tell you friends about this blog. Thank you.

Reed Bed

This photo I took on the same walk as high voltage. I used a very wide aperture and focused in on one of the reeds and took the photo.

Due to the fact that I had a polarizing filter on the camera at the time, the colours in the picture are a lot more vivid and vibrant. I also like the fact that the background it blurred. Not too much so you can't see it, but just enough to understand what kind of day it was. The aperture was at f 3.1 which made even the surrounding reeds out of focus giving emphasis to the central point.

The Toolbar

I would like to inform you that I now have a toolbar for The Art of Photos blog. It can be found at artofphotos.myblogtoolbar.com. With it you can search, get to this and other sites by the click of a button ans even customize it. It's free and takes only seconds to download and comes with an RSS feed to keep you up-to-date with my photos.

Murray

Now this a is a "Painting" I created using Photoshop Elements. I took the picture, loaded it onto the computer and applied the pallet knife effect. I think it made a very good end result.

The dog shown is a stuffed toy sitting on an unfitted grey sheet lying over a corner sofa. This gave a good backdrop as it provides a more dynamic background than just white. To light this scene, a 60w table lamp was used, it gave an unusual yellow tinge. I used the quick fix tool to correct the problem before applying the paint effect.

High Voltage

This Photo was taken on the only sunny day so far this winter. I used the same camera as last time, the S5500, but this time fitted with a polarizing filter. This enhanced the blues of the otherwise very dull picture.

No editing was done to this picture as none was needed. Over all, I'm am very pleased with this snapshot of modern architecture.

Pideon

This is the first photo I have decided to post on my new blog. as you can see, it is a pigeon sitting in a tree. It is quite a recent photo taken with a very nice camera, the Fuji S5500. I was sitting desk doing some work and saw the bird land on a tree and remain for some time. I whipped my camera out and started snapping away. The picture I have decided to show you is of course the best of the seven. I recently bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0, I just loaded in all my photos and mucked around with them. I found a very good effect called "Cutout" that really simplified the picture and made it look almost like modern art.