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, 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.

I often go for a nice stroll round Wollaton park, it seemed only fitting I would add some of the pictures which I have taken there. These are very early pictures so not the best quality compared to later ones, but still hold memories for me.

Below Wollaton Hall:

Below the Green house (The one on the left was taken using my little point and click Lumix):

It Wouldn’t feel right not to include some of the Deer there:

A few Landscape shots round the lake (the one on the left was taken using a polarized filter to add), the one on the right I particularly liked, a goose looking out over the lake in thought, such a shame the sky was over exposed in the picture:

Will add more at another date…

Below on right is a shot I took while practising depth of field with my camera. The idea was I wanted the central one in focus and the others more blurry adding a sense of depth to the photograph. For this I used a narrow aperture, and to get a nice moody scene I decided it would look nice in black and white.

The happy fellow on the the left I did essentially the same thing, this time I decided I did not want to centralise the subject and worked a little more with colour. Behind that charming chap are two other Buddha’s and in the middle is a little red vase with Chinese writing, I thought the red would make the picture more interesting. For this picture I wanted a nice close photograph with a greater focal length. I took a number of pictures with these Buddha’s, this one was my favourite. 

The Last one below I was not so happy with, but I have included for the sake of it really. The white light balance isn’t quite right, something using a white background shows up very well. I did shoot this is RAW – as with the other – but this was the best overall use of colours for the scene. The composition is more jokey than the last two, the guy in the back looks like he is taking the piss really and the guy up front to be a cheery chap.

The things you will play with when bored, all it takes is a camera, a white studio type box [thing], and what ever you can find around you. I think these – whilst not being really works of art – are interesting, even if just to me, It is also not a bad way to just practice with your camera, playing with aperture, composition, lighting, exposure, and curing boredom .