Still Life Update

in

This months Still Life images feature the dried up and dying stills from last months flower pictures. I like the quality and textures of decay. As much as rust can look great colour wise on an old piece of iron, so decay, like Autumn, can throw up beautiful hues.

Eva Mengling Pu First Shoot

in

I wanted to work with someone new to me and was approached by oriental model Eva Mengling Pu to do a shoot together. She travelled a long way to attend the shoot, so only thought it fair to put her up in a hotel for the night. So come the shoot day, she was full of life and eager to get involved with the day in front. Eva was great and a pleasure to work with. Getting some almost Halloween ish sets done, although that was not the original aim of the set. There are as well as some Art Deco inspired theme shoots. Thanks then to all involved with the shoot. To Shadrine at Kavour Beauty for all the hair and beauty. To Phil Lynam and his studio at at The Boardroom Studio in Derby. And to Amy for her help and sourcing the materials. Thank you all.

Project – 'Architectural Metaphor ' Update

in

This is it folks, this is what all the fuss was about!

The front, back and sides of our local Amazon Depot I have been asked why I take pictures of these, soulless buildings, but I like them. Its all in the lines. Note the lines in the walls and even the lines of the road markings. Lines lead the eye into a composition, and I am captivated by them. So there you have it was the lines Officer …. And to this day, they still have not come to arrest me?

There are also a few shots thrown in of a new building next to my GP's surgery. Very square, very uniformed.

Project – 'Landscapes' Update

in

On the same afternoon that we took pictures of the Amazon Depot and caused a minor stir, we also took some snaps of a Roman hill. I say it is Roman, although I have no actual proof of this, only what my taxi driver friend James said it is one. It does look man made. As well as having few interesting trees growing on the top of it. Also taken that day is another view of a tree on a small hill (first picture) that I first viewed when Amy and I were on our way back home from our parents. It can be seen through a gap in the trees opposite the local B&Q depot. I had thought for a time that I had imagined the view from the depot as the mind plays tricks on you, but yes it was real and James and his taxi took us there to capture its fleeting splendour.

Random Stuff !!!

in

On a trip into town the other week I got dropped off in a taxi as near as I could to the market place (what's left of it anyway!!) and walked the rest. This is when I took a better look at what was around me to see if I could make any pictures out of it. And I was lucky. There is a scene waiting to be captured of some beer barrels outside the back of a pub, in a blink and you will miss it corner of the lane. I stood looking at it seeing if it worked, then sat down to take its composition. It looked a bit dark and dingy, which was perfect for the image I had in mind. The results are as follows below along with a second set of pictures taken of a side of an old house, with more wall than windows and peeling of paint. I think these pictures work, but I just don't have a file they can go in on the site. So I am showing them only on this blog as extras and random stuff/ I hope you like them?

Amy's Street Photography for the 'Streets of your town' site

in

Amy is still beavering away at her Streets of your town project and website of the same name, capturing shots as she goes about her business. She is doing really well at it and I am pleased to encourage her with this hobby. She not only gets to meet new people and she also is learning how to see the world through a photographers eye. Here are here latest pictures. See them also and more at Streets of your town online.

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 …