*NEW* Still Life / Fine Art Gallery

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So this month i thought I would start a Still Life / Fine Art gallery all of its own. Putting into it some images that did not look right or belong in the digital art gallery. I started with taking some pictures of dry flowers my wife collected and placed in vases we have. I then digitally cyanotoped them (like in the good old days when we used dark rooms and chemicals!) I like the results, so a big thanks to Amy here. There are also some pictures of hands (again Amy’s) holding cotton in a pictures called ‘Hands that sew’ There is another image where those same hands hold a pair of chopsticks and a moth is resting close by. The images are both a bit blurred as they were taken using a Lensbaby Velvet 56 Lens.

*NEW* Project - 'STEEL'

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This is the first of two new projects this month. This one is titled ‘Steel’ and features small details of household itens like tea strainer, garlic crusher and spud masher. Here it is …

*NEW* Project - 'RUST'

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Second of two new projects i started this month, again with Amys help. This one is titled ‘Rust.’ I have a lot of rusty tools and cutlery that has seen there best years. I have photographed these objects during the golden hour and distressed.

BANNED from Purpleport

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There is a website called Purpleport it is a site where photographers, models, make-up artist and studios can show their images and arrange shoots. For the most part its an okay site, but I have found myself banned from it.

So Why?

Well in my spare time I create images I called digital art. Its correct term is 'Compositing.' Its where you take elements from several pictures and make something new out of it. This technique is quite normal and all legal To this end I, like a lot of other people, buy the images through a subscription to Adobe Stock Images rather than steal them from Google. For example this is how I created the woman dancing with a tiger picture this month. I could go down to my local woods and wait around until a Tiger comes my way, or go to a Zoo, or fly to India and photograph one there in the wild. … or I could cut out all the fuss and simply buy one from Adobe Stock Images for a few dollars. Each image comes with a licence so I am allowed to use it. Which as I am disabled is the easiest option. This is where the powers that be in Purpleport don't like it. They claim I stole the original images and claim them as my own. - An infringement of copyright act – which is all untrue. Sadly they are so inflexible as to not even give me the chance to explain. They just BANNED me. So I shall have my say here on my blog.

Never mind, I did not get a great deal out of the site anyway, but managed to work with a few great models over the three years of being there. So for that I am thankful. Purpleport should bare in mind that like many other model / photographer sites they could well be there but for a season. I have been around long enough to see them come and go. They start, the grow, they have their day in the Sun, they fade and then they die (Remember Purestorm and Web Models anyone?). Someone else will eventually come along with a newer site and a fresh look effectively to challenge Purplports near monopoly away

Only time will tell.

Portraits

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We kick of this month with some portraits in black and white of my wife. there is no photoshop other than to turn the picture grey and crop it. I love the results. Thank you darling x

Try something New .... Fine Art Fruits

Thanks to the help of my wife we set up the small studio space we have in the house that we normally do flowers in and photographed some fruit she purchased from the market. Pears, Apples, plums and blueberries were on the menu and I think for the most part it worked. All images were taken using a Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens.

May Digital Art

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A mixed blag of stuff in here this month. A mixture of weird, romantic, horror and pop art.

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Welcome To April Covid-19 Special

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As we all know we are living in a strange world at present where everything has been put on hold. No flowers, no models, no photoshoots as I would normally do. But I did manage to do a few random things in my velvet prison.

Enjoy this months meagre offerings folks?

April Digital Art

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So with no models shoots or flowers to photograph I have fallen back to making pictures in the composite style that I enjoy. Here we have a re-edit from last months shoot, along with various elements of fantasy stuff.

The original images I get from Adobe Stock Library then re work into a new composite picture. Its fun and makes you think about what you are doing with digital manipulation.

*NEW* Commercial Images

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I know this sounds snobbish but my wife and I buy our tea from a company in London called Drury Tea & Coffee’s. We recently purchased there English Breakfast Tea in pyramid bags and they are lovely. So we came up with an idea to do a mock up couple of adverts for them. Here is the results that have since been sent to them to view. There is only a touch of photoshop on the pictures, the rest was done in camera.

April Random Covid-19 Lockdown Images

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So what’s this all about? Well you have to do something in this dystopian world so I thought I would do a bunch of things just for the fun of it. So collected here is a few of the best oil on water creations done on my dining table. Some apple blossom photographed in my mini studio after it fell of the tree. An interesting pot plant and slowed down water droplets into a cup.

Hope you enjoy them?

Welcome to the March blog updates ... and a sad farewell to Mrs Kana. x

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What a differenc a month makes. I am talking about Covid 19 or Coronavirus as its called, but before that I would like to make a mention about someone we have lost. One of my dear friends and regular model Monalisa Moyo lost her mother to cancer a few weeks ago. Her mother, Mrs Midress Kana was a sweet woman and Monalisa’s best friend in life. I would see her on the occasions when she would bring Monalisa and her son Brian to the shoots. In truth I never knew her as well as perhaps I should have done. I should really have taken the time to get to know her and have no excuses. Yet I knew her well enogh to know she was ‘good people.’ Mrs Midress Kana was in her mid forties and originated in what was once Rhodesia, now todays Zimbabwe.

God be with you and those you loved, now and forever Mrs Kana.

So the world has been swept with the angel of death, known as Covid 19 the Coronavirus. It has effected everybody and everything. Life has been put on hold with no clear idea when it will return. So with this in mind I have had to cancel April and May’s model shoots. A real pain in the neck but there is nothing else to do. I have some flower images I could edit from my collection of shoots I have put away for a rainy day, but they won’’t last long. We will have to see what happens and soon as the world is better, carry on. Take care of yourselves and hope to see you all in April.

March Digital Art

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This month is a piece of digital art I have long wanted to do. To remember one of Northampton’s favourite sons … The classical composer, the late Sir Malcolm Arnold. He created such great pieces of music, many for film like ‘Bridge over the River Kwia’, ‘Whistle Down the wind,’ ‘The Inn of Sixth Happiness,’ and ‘The heroes of Telemark,’ but to name a few. He also created opera and music for dance included here are his eight English Dances - which are some of my favourite pieces of music. Very melodic. Please enjoy the images and why not buy the music here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arnold-Orchestral-Dances-Sir-Malcolm/dp/B000027QVJ/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=english+dances+sir+malcolm+arnold&qid=1585574340&s=music&sr=1-3

Roxie Shoot

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I had a shoot all lined up with my friend Lee Henshaws girlfriend Roxie at his studio. I had to rearrange the times due to it clash with the funeral of Monalisa’s mother. So we ran a bit late. I had taken some inspiration from a shoot by Lindsay Adler in New York, but I think I got the wrong materials for the job and it proved impossible. Still I quite liked the results we got from it, sadly I don’t think the model does. Oh well … you can’t win them all …. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. …. Thanks anyway to model Roxie, to Lee Henshaw and to wonderful hair and makeup artist Karen Hegarty MUA.

March Flower Update

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This month I have rested the holga lens images and gone more for the pinhole lens takes as they look a lot better. I don’t know how long I can go on doing this as the florist is proberbly closed down with all this virus shit that going around. I do hope she re-opens and I can start again?