More Buddha!!!!!!

Bored at the weekend, thought I would just do the usual tinkering

This was quite heavily altered post-photographing, was interesting if I could take a pure white subject, on a pure white background, and see what I can do.  I increased the shadows to the max and ramped up the contrast. Personally I quite like it, but does look a little empty on the left, but who said you had to fill the whole frame!

 

Tried doing it a little different next time, I don’t feel the white statue is as impressive as the previous picture. The other statue behind I don’t feel adds much, in fact the previous picture I thought was considerably more interesting.

 

 

 

This was the last shot with this subject, I decided to get in closer to the white statue, but this time had slightly brighter Chinese statues in the background. I like to think it gives it more energy and more life. The added colour adds more warmth, the two characters in the back [seemingly] interacting creates a story, but the focus is on the primary Buddha at the front.

 

And finally…

Because I was tinkering thought I would use a couple of my other Kung Fu statues. The focus was on the rear statue with a narrow aperture to create the blurred effect of the front one.

I reduced the colour saturation of the RAW file, and got quite a nice effect from it when combined with the white background.

Anyway I shall leave it there….

Birds…. well mostly ducks and swans really

 

Birds, beautiful, elegant, majestic, and buggers to shoot – with a camera, not a gun! As much as I enjoy watching birds doing their thing, getting a good shot is the bane of my existence when out trying to get some good wildlife pictures. This entry is about the ones which went right, and their are only a few .

 

Above is a picture of a gull I took in Llandudno, was an opportune shot when it was flying over my head. To the right is just a duck – one of the few birds which are easy to photograph –, this duck was also in another picture I took which had a more arty feel, but today I’m just after pure and simple photographs.

 

On the left is a nice little shot of a swan and an example of what can happen when things go right! The light was just right for the shot, the swan was moving nicely for me. For me this shot shows me I am capable of getting things right! Sometimes…

 

 

This one, like the last, was taken at Attenborough nature reserve. I thought the textures came through very well on this shot, and this swan was one of the very few without gross stuff hanging out it’s mouth on that day.

Swans may be beautiful, but they are also a bit aggressive if you get too close to their young.

 

The picture on the right now, looks nice and cute hey? Well seconds after taking it daddy swan decided it was time for the photographer to leave and chased me down the canal path. The lesson I learnt was, swans can be psychos!

But a rather nice picture I thought, I purposely tried not to centre it like I have a habit to do at times.

And it wouldn’t be complete with another little duck, caught on the canal while I was out and about having a bit of a wander.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to get some nice smaller, colourful, faster birds, but for now this will do.