September Flower Updates and the *NEW 'Quirky' gallery

in

Well I asked for constructive criticizism and I got it.

Reliable sources asked if I could produce more quirky flower images. So I did …. or like to think I had a try at it. So with this in mind I have created a new section in the flowers folder called appropriately 'Quirky' I looked up the meaning of the word and if I have understood it correctly its something a bit unusual. So this month I have made several images featuring the odd looking gerbera that I obtained and mixed it with some of the other flowers like the wax plant as well as putting them with a collection of dried leaves I have in the studio. You can see the results below with the last five pictures, after the square black and whites. So mixing it up and trying to keep it fresh.

Thanks then this month to our friends, Chris and the laddies at Brambles Florist and Flowers to yours for all their help. Thank you also to Amy for her input and help on the day

Thats it for this month … I hope you will return next month for Octobers update.

X

August Updates, Amys Birthday. Muniras return and a welcome getaway to a (not so) sunny Northamptonshire

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the web.

We got away from the same four walls we surround ourselves with. I would do it more often if I was fully mobile. So we had our escape to the wilds of Northamptonshire to visit my Mum and Dad. It was so good to see them and spend time with them again, chewing the fat and visiting places. The weather was not as warm as it sometimes is and looked a bit threatening at times, but it did not rain until we were on the journey home.

August was the fifty seventh birthday of my long suffering wife Amy, although I am sure she told me she was twenty one again? So happy birthday sweetypie x Hope we have many more birthdays to share with each other to come.

Has anybody heard of how its possible to stalk a building? …. No, me neither …. but we went out the other day to do some photography and that accusation was levelled at me. I will tell you all more next month as it happened in September and the pictures for display at the end of the months blog. Watch this space.

Look out for awsome model and beauty Munira in this months fashion piece. Certainly worth a look. There is a shoot coming up on September 11th at the studio in Derby with a new model to me. A Chinese model called Eva from Bristol. Its planned to do some high fashion shots in black and white as well as using Art Deco as an inspiration. I am looking forward to it as its always good to work with someone new. So that's about it for a brief round up of things. I touch more on the trip to Northampton over the course of this months blog so please read on and enjoy.

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy the show. x

NB. The wound has healed up nicely.

Commercial

in

Just outside and around the corner from Sywell Aerodrome near Northampton is a huge garden centre called Beckworth Emporium. Its an awesome place with a farmers market area deli and really cool restaurant. They serve this ice cream called Spaghetti Ice cream, that despite its name is not made using pasta, but is truly to die for. Every time I eat the stuff I fall in love with it and serious thought to settling down with the ice cream, marrying it and starting a family with it (?) Its that bloody good. So here are a few commercial food pictures of the Ice cream add a first course, some cheese and spring onion sandwiches. Lovely !!

Still Life Update

in

There is a bit of a fruity feeling to this selection of Still Lifes. Amy and I set the camera up to take a snap of one of my fathers big tomatoes. Then giving it a highly saturated look in photoshop..The tomato was taken using only natural light and textured wallpaper as it backdrop.

Here also are snaps of pairs and a vine of tomatoes, once again made to look more in your face with colour and loosely inspired by Andy Warhol's pop art pictures of Marilyn Monroe and the such.

Project – 'Landscape' - Updates

in

Going down to Northamptonshire is one of the few chances I get to explore the countryside and practice landscape photography. Its quite a flat county, not being a million miles away from the flat lands of the Fen country in Cambridgeshire. But if you get lucky, there are still some views worth venturing out for. All black and white, I hope you enjoy this offering and thanks to Amy for her help and Mum and Dad for taking us around.

Project – 'Infrared' Update'

in

Seeing as how its Summer, it was a good excuse to brush off the cobwebs from my two Infrared Chipped Nikon's and have a go at taking some strange picture colours. Some of the views are taken of my parents garden, as you can see their conservatory in the background, but most were taken of the Northamptonshire countryside. One of my favourites is the colour Infrared picture taken of a stream running under a bridge, from the bridge looking down. You can see the read moving in the current and its has an unearthly beauty about it. I have put the image as the first one to see in this gallery. I made a cock-up with the black and white infrareds as I had not got the camera set to RAW, only jpeg. So limiting what I could do in post editing. Never mind. I will not make that sloppy mistake again.

Munira Model Third Shoot

in

Coming close to the end of the month for a shoot we were blessed to have lovely Indian model Munira in the studio with us. This is our third shoot together and was based on inspiration from the Paul Weller song called 'Amongst Butterflies' which I hope you have just listened to on the slide show above. The butterflies are not real of course, but they are colourful and with hair and makeup by Shadrine at Kavour Beauty they look great. Thanks then to all there that day at The Boardroom Studio in Derby.. Munira will be back again in December for a two model fashion shoot with Mercybongo. Cant wait !!!

Project – 'Abstract' Update

in

Abstracts taken mostly in my parents downstairs toilet, as well as a prop from the Boardroom Studio in Derby. Can you guess what they are?

Project – 'Architectural Metaphor ' Update

in

Just a few of the back end of Beckworth Emporium (the place with the spaghetti ice cream to die for) in the garden centre bit with an angry looking sky behind it.

Project – 'Noir et Blanc' Update

in

Something new for this project gallery with a theme we have already covered before, but what the hell … I wanted to do it again. The coffee and teas and food on the table at Magazine Heaven shop and cafe in Rushden Lakes shopping centre. Sitting behind us was the old disgraced ex Tory MP for Wellingborough, who normally has a lot to say or just likes the sound of his own voice. Mr. Peter Bone, He looked all forlorn and rejected. I don’t like to kick a man when he is down (after all, we have all been there at sometime or another), but in hindsight he probably should have kept his trousers up and not been such a bully!

How the mighty fall.

Random Stuff !!!

in

Just a few random things I snapped while being at Mum and Dads. It got to the golden hour and this beautiful light was streaming through the front window, gently lighting up the scatter pillows on the settee. It seemed to pick out the fabrics textures and subtle colours which I liked. There for a fleeting moment, then gone all to fast. I also took snaps of a glass of orange juice with metallic straw against a black glass outdoor table and a riot of colours from the garden in the background.

Flowers – The Garden 3

in

Both Amy and I took a whole lot of images from my parents garden this month. I never normally get to see it in August as its June that Amy and I normally visit. So its great to see the garden in its late Summer glory. And here they are for you …

August Flower Updates

in

We got a bumper crop of good flowers to photograph this month, which took a longer time to do it but I was able to put some away for a future showcase (banking the images as I call it) if times get hard again like Covid. So thanks then to our friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers to yours for all their help in picking out interesting specimens. Thanks also to Amy for her assistance.

That's it for this month, I do hope you have enjoyed this Augusts offerings and come back for more at the end of September

Bye for now X

July Updates,

in

Welcome back to my piece of the web for July 2024, I wish you well and pray that you enjoy this months offerings.

Its only been a matter of two weeks or so since I last updated this blog, but this month I am on cue with everything. Trouble is that not really very much has happened in the intervening weeks.

I have however been working on new ideas for shoots coming up for the second half of the year. Leading the way will be a shoot idea called 'Amongst Butterflies' featuring Munira Model in August. It will be a beauty shoot with lots of creativity and makeup. Mercybongo will also be back with what I will call the 'Gold Shoot.’ We also have a new model that I have not worked with before to be announced for the September fashion shoot. So watch this space, things are cooking as they say.

My wound is scabbing over nicely, the EVRI man has not been at my door since his last fake chirpiness self popped up. And America looks like its having amnesia and forgetting about the last time they let the anti Christ loose on the world. So for all our American cousins with bad memories, look over this great video and song from Barbara Streisand called 'Don't Lie To Me.'

Its not too late people …...

… And on that all it leaves me to say is please enjoy this months blog.

Still Life Update

in

In this months Still Life there are a mixture of fruits and vegetables like sweet potatoes and cherry's with satsumas. Most of the images have a distressed overlay given to them to make the impression of an old appearance to them. There is also the Arum lily from Junes flower shoot in a vase, interesting I think because of the kink in its stem. I shall hopefully do some more this next month.

Digital Art – Update

in

This months Digital art based picture is an odd one. I made what supposed to be a ghostly face using the bottom of the drinks holder from McDonalds. I normally get a milkshake on a Saturday as a bit of a treat and because we have to carry them, the staff give us a double cardboard holder to put them in. If you turn it upside down and look at it, it can look like something out of a horror movie. So adding 'Monster lighting' from below and a textured overlay in Photoshop, I made the picture..

Its not really scary like a picture of something demonic or a life sized picture of my fat hairy arse, but its a close enough.

Project – 'Abstract'

in

Here are a few bits and bobs I photographed around the place in an abstract manner. Most of them should not be too hard to guess. There is one odd one, think Dr. Who and the …. to get it.

Please enjoy.

Model Sin Yu Chan Photo shoot

in

This month I went for a couple of hours for a shoot with lovely Asian model Sin Yu Chan who had popped up for a shoot at the Boardroom Studio in Derby. I had none of the team with me that day so it was a one man show. Originally from Hong Kong I believe, Sin Yu Chan was great, with some professional moves that set the shoot apart from just a simple stand and smile job. I would be happy to work with her again, and hope that she might come to a shoot at my parents house next Summer (If they permit it!!). So please enjoy these shots from our session together.