Match of the Day

Saturday night has been the time of day for my new blog post for 2 weeks in a row, but when else is a better time to post a picture called Match of the Day? Perhaps only the British audience will understand this, but of course Match of the Day is the national institution TV show, showing all the highlights of the Saturday's football games. It will be a bit lacklustre for me this week though, as my team is playing tomorrow (#grumpyface).

Photography is a wonderful hobby to have, but once people know you have it, it leads to many requests for picturing various local events taking place. This was a cup final that took place in my local town of Newbury in May, and I was asked to capture some pictures of the Canal Bar FC (team in red and gold shirt) in action. Sadly they lost the final, but it gave me an opportunity to practice some sports photography. I am very interested in this field, and would of course love to picture some of the great sporting events, but I think due to the cost involved, it is a field of photography you have to work your way up to (unless of course having a few thousand quid lying around is not an issue). There are lots of local events that take place though, where you can learn to take your first steps in sports photography, before you make it to Wembley!

Even for a local football match, I tried to make this picture come alive, so I used quite a bit of Topaz Clarity, as well as some cross processing (in Color Efex 4), to bring out the details of the pitch, and give it a more attractive shade of green. The Topaz Clarity gave a great boost to the details of the football shirts as well.

Tip: I am no experienced football photographer, but I do know the key to a great action shot is to have the ball as the key focus of the picture. You can see in this picture that the players only have eyes on one thing, and the struggle to get it shows in their faces.

Summer by the River

Well it couldn't last really could it? We had a fairly nice spell of weather in England recently (and hey I'm an optimist but I don't think it was quite as nice as everyone makes out, still I don't complain) and sure enough just as we thought we may get a summer this year, it leaves us again. Enough of the cynicism anyway, I'm sure there is plenty of nice weather to come.

It's one of my missions this summer to capture the British countryside in the summer weather, and while that may seem ambitious, I am a sucker for a photograph of a beautiful sunny day. Such as this scene I pictured recently within the grounds of the Newbury Manor Hotel. The river that runs through it is the River Kennet, and a drink to be had alongside this river on a sunny day is not to be missed.

This is a 5 shot HDR picture, crafted in the fairly typical, Lightroom, Photomatox, Photosho process, though like most of my pictures have these days, there is a subtle touch of Topaz Adjust in there as well.

How to add an Artistic Frame to your Digital Photos!

You can see from my last blogpost that I have gone in a different direction regarding posting my images online and I'd like to thank everyone here for the comments and responses contributed. Believe me, I do understand and realise that there is no foolproof way of protecting your images, but this is a way of turning the whole thing into a positive. It's about presentation as well, not just about putting my name on it.

So as promised, here are my steps to making a photo frame such as the one used in the photograph above. In fact, this is a step-by-step guide to making that exact photo frame. At this point I will state that of course all colours, fonts, styles, dimensions etc are entirely up to you, but this is how I do it. And as I have no right to call this photo frame my own, feel free to use it! I should also state that as you may know, I am by no means an expert in Photoshop, and am absolutely sure there are quicker ways of doing this. If there is a step you believe I can compact, please let me know!:

Pre-Step: Make sure all your regular photo processing is done. I do not do any further processing after creating the frame around the picture.

Step 1: With your finished photo, select Layer / New Fill Layer / Solid Color. Call the layer what you want and select any colour you want (it's not important here). Also make sure Mode is normal and Opacity 100%. In the Colour Picker box that pops up, take the cursor to the very top left corner until it is bright white and press OK. So now you have a new layer that is completely white.

Step 2: Make sure you swap the layers, so that your new fill layer is at the bottom and your photograph the top layer.

Step 3: Select Image / Canvas Size. Set your width as 4cm and the height as 7cm. Make sure Relative is ticked and then click OK. Your frame appears!

Step 4: Select Edit / Stroke. Set your width as 10px and the colour Grey. Also select Location as Outside, Blending Mode Normal and the Opacity as 100%. Click OK and the inside Grey frame appears.

Step 5: Select Text (the big T in the square box). As you can see, I use a medium/dark grey for the colour of my text. Select the font Trajan Pro at 24pt and write your title in the middle of the frame below the picture. Select Text again and select the font as Savoye LET 24pt. If you fancy 'signing' the frame, write this text below the title.

Your frame is now complete!

Optional Step 6: If you use a white frame like me, you may want to add a thin black border around it, so it stands out on websites that have white backgrounds such as Flickr (and this blog).

Merge your layers together and then select Filter / Nik Software / Color Efex Pro 4 (assuming you have it!). Select the Image borders filter and then use Type 13 / Spread -10% / Size -96%. Make sure Clean slider is fully to the left. Now click OK and this will take you back to Photoshop. Save your image and upload it to your audience online! (Please note, again I state I'm sure there is a way to complete this optional step without going into Nik Software, so am open to tips!)

See you all next time!

Building a Newbury Sunset

Now I had to check I hadn't posted this photo on this blog before but it turns out I haven't. You may recognise this picture, I have had it on other websites such as Smugmug and Flickr for nearly 2 years now, but looking different. You see I have given this photo the remastered process recently, as I have done a few other pictures.

I have probably discussed on this site more than any other topic, the idea of re-processing a photograph. I have traditionally been against it, but I think (as I stated on The Swan Hotel, Bibury post) that if you have pictures that were taken on a tripod, no matter at what stage of your development as a photographer, you should be able to go back reprocess and improve it. I say 'that were taken on a tripod' because these pictures will normally be the ones that are sharp, with no blur, whether you were a great photographer then or not. And when I took this picture in May 2011 I was not a great photographer, but I did take pictures like this on a tripod, giving me great opportunity years later to revisit it.

I believe I have improved it over my original (sharper, less 'irrelevant' detail, brighter, straighter!) and reprocessing old photos this way will help you realise how far you have come as a photographer. I always liked my title for this picture, and being as the cranes in the photo were only a temporary feature, it means that the photo is unlikely to be able to be taken as it is again. My favourite kind of photo!

Red Sky at Night

Returning closer to home now, this church maybe familiar to some people who visit this blog. I posted a previous picture of this church nearly 3 months ago. It is St. Mary's Church in Newbury, only about 5 minutes from where I live. Sometimes I think I shouldn't post a similar picture from the same location, but I think it's ok to have more than 1 picture from the same location and time. It's right that photographers should try different perspectives when photographing a scene, and to be honest I think I prefer this picture than the original one I posted. It gives a wider view of the scene surrounding the church but also covers more of the red clouds than the previous version.

It is a 5 shot HDR, processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and also in Nik Color Efex Pro, my favourite plugin in Lightroom/Photoshop.

The Face

Today's picture is one I took last Friday night of this piece of artwork that I believe has recently been erected outside a block of residential homes in Newbury. I have no idea who it is by or what it is called but is one of two heads that face each other (the other one is made of different material and much less remarkable). Even a local resident who was walking by with her dog was asking if I knew anything about this piece of art, as there is not even a mention of who created it, which she found very disappointing. Maybe we will find out more about it in the near future but I knew I had to take a picture of it when I was driving past this area a couple of weeks, having not seen it myself before. 'The Face' as I have called it gives out a very striking appearance when viewed from all kinds of angles. It is a fantastic piece of art.

This is almost entirely a single exposure, processed in Lightroom (beginning with the Yesteryear preset). I did however create a separate HDR version, processed it in the same way in Lightroom, and then blended very lightly, some of the HDR aspects onto the face in Photoshop. This helped it look like the face that it is, rather than just a dark silhouette of bolts against the sky.

Photo details: F/8, 0.1s, 26mm, ISO 200

Time for a Clean

Now I know very well that one of the last places you would expect to find a photographer looking for inspiration is within a sewage works plant but that is exactly where this picture was taken. It's actually looking into the sewage works (in Thatcham) as I had managed to fit my camera through the fence. Even I would not really want to wander that far into this location because you can smell it from miles away as it is. Sometimes I don't know what draws me to a particular scene such as this one. I used to naively think that photography was about all about capturing beauty in all it's forms and though that certainly is a big motivator for many photographers (including myself), what about capturing something ugly, derelict or even disturbing? That's what motivates many other photographers as well and I think I am quite attracted to the derelict or abandonment of some places. Although I'm not suggesting this cleaning facility (I think it is anyway) at the sewage plant is unused, it hardly looks like it is well looked after either.

I've mentioned before a book that really inspired me with my HDR photography and that is Practical HDR by David Nightingale. Some of the urban and derelict scenes he captured in that book have definitely influenced me with some of my photography and I think that is why I am attracted to capture pictures such as this.

Bridge 45

Recently, I've been doing a bit of soul searching with this blog, trying to figure it out what is the point of it and where do I want to go with it? Do other photography bloggers feel that? My love for photography has not diminished at all in the recent years that I have 'discovered' my passion for it but I am questioning a little if blogging is the right outlet for my creativity? There are so many different platforms out there for photographers now (which you all know of so I won't list them) and you get an incredible amount of time difference between how often some photographers post pictures compared to others. There are your daily blogs such as the incredibly successful stuckincustoms.com by Trey Ratcliff, to the post-less-frequently approach by Klaus Herrmann (farbspiel-photo.com) and many other artists on Flickr.

With this blog, I promise 3 pictures a week, which is good for me because it keeps me working on this blog and producing new photos. But in an ideal world, I do believe that like Klaus Herrmann, I would simply post pictures when I feel that one is ready. I know of all my recent pictures, that my 'Like a Setting Sun' picture has had a particularly great response on this website and other sites such as Flickr. Maybe this is the only picture I should have posted recently? The problem with promising a quantity of pictures in a certain time (and I'm guessing this must drive Trey Ratcliff nuts sometimes) is that you often find yourself not particularly inspired, but having to post a photo to not fail on your quotient. The artist in me wants not to be forced to put up with my own restrictions and sometimes plea 'Look, I just haven't got a photo today!'. But then I don't want to fail on my promises either and in the end, I'm satisfied with the fact that producing regular photos can only make me better (he says hoping).

So that brings me back to the original point, what do I want to achieve with this blog? Am I happy it being just a bit of fun and a great way to share my love of photography or am I secretly hoping it will achieve much more? Many people like myself find themselves setting up photography blogs once they have been bitten by the photography bug, because it is a fantastic and personal way to get your creativity 'out there'. But do we need to have them? Would it be more satisfying to just upload pictures occasionally, but ones that were your absolute very best work? I'm writing a lot of questions today without knowing the answers myself but that was the point of writing this blog. I thought about writing a blog on Sunday that was going to be titled 'Time for a break' and at one point had made up my mind that I was going to take a little time off and come back when I felt like (in my gut) I had a bucket load of wonderful pictures to post one blog after the next. But as you can tell, I decided to stick with it and focus on new ideas and other avenues I could perhaps think of for my photography. I don't think I really know what I do want from this blog, but at the moment, I kind of like that.

Bridge 45

I took this picture on Sunday while walking along the Kennet & Avon canal in Newbury, whilst the weather had upgraded from absolutely dismal to mediocre. I'm not an expert on canals, canal bridges or canal barges, but I think the 45 obviously means something to people who like to travel along the canal. This is actually a rail bridge that goes over the canal at this point, so that may have some significance. It's an HDR shot taken from 4 exposures (-2 to +1) and was pictured with my latest (artistic) weapon, the D700.

Olympic Fever

Oh yes, the Olympic show is coming to town and within a month, London will be swarmed with people from all over the world coming to enjoy the year's biggest sporting event (not counting the Royal Rumble). I personally can't wait to welcome all the different corners of the world to the UK, because you will all have to suffer our dismal weather along with us! Yes finally the world has to endure a UK summer as well! Of course I'm not really being that pessimistic about it, I'm very much looking forward to the games and indeed hope it is a tremendous success. 

On it's merry way to the capital is the Olympic torch itself and yesterday made it's through my neck of the woods, Newbury, and in fact even went passed the offices where I work. So we were all released from our cuffs and allowed to enjoy the Olympic torch passing us for 15 minutes or so. I did not want to waste the opportunity of seeing the Olympic flame, so took my camera along and took a few snaps. I could probably add a few more but don't want to bombard this blog with too many pictures, but still, I hope you enjoy these ones, they are the best of what I got.

An HDR snap for you all

The crowd want to savour the moment as well

Onto London (via many other places first)

The King Charles Tavern

The great British pub.....A national institution up there with fish & chips in terms of essential British culture. Ok, there are many other things such as the royal family and getting over excited about our sporting potential that also define the British, but pubs are clearly important. I must confess, though I will never be a tee-totaller, I rarely find myself in one of these nowadays. I don't know if it's settling down or being fed up waking up completely unmotivated but I just prefer not to drink these days. I hope I don't sound too boring by those comments, as I said, I would never be a tee-totaller, I enjoy going for a drink like most people, it's just I enjoy it so much more when there's a real reason such as a celebration or people you haven't seen in a long time. I'm not a beer man either, my tipple is anything vodka-based because A) I like drinks with flavour, B) I can pretend I'm James Bond for a short time and C) it helps me get along fantastically well with the Polish when I visit there!

This pub is the King Charles Tavern, commonly known as the KC in Newbury. Tavern is a word used many hundreds of years before the word 'pub' (short for public house for the non-British) was invented. This HDR shot was taken from 4 different exposures and processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop, Topaz Adjust, Viveza 2 and Nik Color Efex Pro, which I now realise was quite a lot of them.

Before I forget, hope you like the new look! More updates to come in the very near future!

Robin Hood's Roundabout

The name will probably be unfamiliar to anyone outside the Newbury area but this is indeed the Robin Hood Roundabout, probably the biggest (certainly the busiest!) roundabout in the Newbury area. You wouldn't think it was that busy looking at this picture but it was taken on a Saturday evening. In the mornings, this place resembles an angry mob of cars trying to make their way past the many traffic lights and confusing lane changes that make up this roundabout. The name 'Robin Hood' comes from a pub that used to be present on one side of the roundabout, though it hasn't been named that for many years now. I think it's a Toby Carvery place now.

The artwork you see on the roundabout by the way is a metal sculpture called 'Couple in Conversation' which has been up for the last 5 years or so. I'm not sure why they stuck it on there, perhaps it was to commemorate something (but if you thought I cared enough to look, well sadly you'd be wrong!).

It is an HDR image taken from 4 different images. The tone-mapping as usual was done in Photomatix, layer-masking, aligning, noise reduction and sharpening was then carried out in Photoshop and lastly the final look including minor tweeks was achieved in Lightroom.

Guided by the Light

On Sunday I stated that location was becoming far less important to me with my photography these days than the scene itself, wherever that may be. Now it is partly out of circumstance that I have to think like that, because I have not been abroad this year and probably won't be until later in the summer, but at the same time I am driven by a belief that great photography (which is what I'm aiming for) can be achieved by using a little imagination in your back garden (metaphorically....or not). Today's picture was one I took while out on my lonesome on Saturday evening in Newbury and of course did not plan a shot like this. I stumbled across it while walking around looking for inspiration.

Although the sunburst came out very well in this picture, it was actually the sun beams reflecting off the rail towards the bottom of the picture that gave me the spark to capture the scene. This is the kind of picture that is perfect for HDR because without bringing together all the exposures, there would be a lack of detail and colour in whatever areas you had decided to sacrifice for a normal photograph. I used 5 exposures as I tend to have to with my D700 and processed this one largely in Photoshop for a change (rather than Lightroom), though all final adjustments were made in Lightroom.

Winterbourne Church

Yesterday I had some spare time on my hands, so I decided that as the evening sky was looking quite promising, I would just go out in my car and see what I could find. In fact, a lot of my photography is achieved that way. Yes I do have day trips planned now and then, but by and large a lot of my photography (especially this year) is done by just deciding I will go out and find something to capture.

I took some pictures around central Newbury, which I know I have covered quite a lot but it's not so much the locations I am interested in anymore, rather than the scene I come across at one particular time. I used to think great photography meant travelling far to capture great scenes but I know now that isn't true. I've seen many great pictures that could have been taken absolutely anywhere, such was the scene captured rather than the location. The sky was looking increasingly dramatic, so I decided to venture out of a Newbury a bit to find a great vantage point to capture the setting sun amongst the sky. I stumbled across the village of Winterbourne, which I have only been to once before (great pub restaurant there!). I saw some signs that lead to the church that was a little bit out of the village and felt that might be an interesting place. It was a nice if perhaps not perfect location, so I took the opportunity to take various pictures while around this church and found this picture to be one of the better results.

I have talked quite a bit recently about my new D700 but one thing that is a massive advantage to me with this camera, is being able to keep lots of detail in the picture, without having to add too much noise reduction. On single photos, even in lowlight conditions, the noise is hardly noticeable, but as you add exposures together for an HDR it becomes a little bit noticeable. Tackling this with some noise reduction kit (Topaz Denoise is my preferred choice) does not affect detail of the picture though, barely at all. This was not the case with my D90.

Victoria's Lions

Having struggled a couple of months ago to find new pictures for this blog, I now find myself with a fair few new pictures to choose from. Unlike the intention of this blog, most pictures that will be posted in the near future will all mainly be from the UK. I stated this at the start of the year, when I let it be known that due to a house move and getting married in September, foreign travel this year was going to be difficult. I am visiting Poland twice in the next 4 months (once to get married), so that will provide more opportunities for 'global' pictures and if I am lucky, I plan to visit 2 more countries by the end of the year as well, but we will see how things go.

Today's picture is another one I took while out looking for Diamond Jubilee pictures to capture around Newbury last week. I have lived in the Newbury area (with a few years in-between living in Cheltenham) for the best part of 27 years and have never come across this statue in a local park before. That's rather embarrassing as the park is called Victoria Park but I never realised there was a statue of Queen Victoria within it. At least it proves there are still gems to be found near your local area if you look hard enough (or open your eyes at all in my case). This is another HDR picture taken from 5 exposures on my new Nikon D700. I added a tiny bit of Topaz Adjust to the statues and used the glamour glow (very slightly) and cross balance filters in Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

The Circus is in Town

My first HDR to have been created using my D700, this was another picture taken amongst the Jubilee celebrations last weekend. I stated on Tuesday that Newbury didn't seem to offer much in terms of Jubilee celebrations but there was a circus that rolled into town for the long weekend. I recently had a discussion regarding art with a lady during which I stated that 99% of all the photographs I take are not pre-visioned in my head. There have been some in the past such as my Building a Newbury Sunset that I already had a pre-conceived idea about, weeks before I took it. But that is rare. Most of the time I turn up to locations and events to get inspired by what is around me and let the ideas crop up in my head then. This circus box office wagon is an example of an idea that gripped hold of me once I spotted it. Having noticed there was a circus in the area (the noise from the rehearsals attracted me), I wanted to find a good photographic opportunity to capture the uniqueness of the circus. Most of the area was for the time-being closed off but obviously the ticket sales wagon wasn't and after the punters had stopped buying tickets for a moment or two, I simply took some snaps of this fantastic box office.

On an artistic note, I deliberately decided to keep the noise of the sky in the picture, though at the same time softening it. I don't normally go for a really gritty look in Photomatix but because of the rain that was coming down at the time, it worked so much more for this picture than a clean look. Keeping the noise in kept the picture consistent on all levels.

A final note; my new D700 doesn't take pictures like my D90 does in 2 stops intervals (if you want it to) but only does them 1 stop at a time. Therefore, to get the usual -2 to +2 range, I have to shoot 5 exposuress but thats ok because it gives me more pictures and therefore options to play with in post-processing. So this is an HDR from 5 different bracketed shots.

It's Raining on Jubilee

It's been a weekend of celebrations in the United Kingdom the last few days, with it being the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth's reign. I did ponder for quite a while whether to go to London or not to capture the festivities there but in the end for various reasons I decided to stay in West Berkshire and see what I could capture here. Today's picture is the first one I am posting from my new Nikon D700 camera (more about that below). It is obviously not an HDR picture but a moment I captured of Asian tourists (I think) looking a bit bewildered by the bad ('standard' if you're British) weather above all the celebrations. Being quite drizzly as it was didn't help bring the crowds out in Newbury and without having a dig at my local town, I didn't think there was a lot going on for the jubilee. I just thought there would be more that's all. I would say to end this bit 'Here's to the next 60 years!' but forgive me for thinking that's rather improbable. Being once a history student, I am very fond of our monarchy and is one of the essences of 'Britishness'. Long may it continue!

So why the D700?


This is the bit I wanted to write the other day before the bad weather ruined any chance of getting some pictures before Sunday. After my house move, I had a bit of money left over and therefore decided to upgrade my photographic equipment. Nikon has just brought out the D800, so why did I buy the camera it is to replace, the D700? Well there are a few reasons really, so where shall I start....Of course, the price does come into it. The D800 currently costs £1000 more than the D700 and is very hard to get hold of. I could have afforded the D800 but what do you get for the extra £1000? Video recording capability - not interested (even if I was, I have that on my D90 anyway), improved image quality (I'm not sure about that but will come back to it) and the 'biggie', the 36 megapixel sensor.

One of the photographic books I own is a book called 'Transient Light' by Ian Cameron (he's a good guy by the way and signed my copy before sending it to me). He is a professional landscape photographer and he makes it very clear at the beginning of his book that he still almost entirely shoots with film. He writes "Most modern cameras far exceed my personal requirements, instead offering a huge array of features that have little relevance to the way I work, and simply constitute needless clutter on a camera" (pg. 62). Now I would apply this statement to the 36 megapixel feature. I don't need 36 megapixels and in fact do not want this. The D700 is by comparison 12.1 Megapixels, which is similar to the D90 I have shot with for the last 2 years. As most photographers know (but Curry's salesman won't tell you), megapixels are not about the quality of an image but the size of it. With my D90, I print quite standardly around 75cm x 50cm, though I have printed up to A1 size. These images still look quality with perhaps only a little softer look for the A1 print I did. Unless you are a professional billboard photographer, I don't know why you would want a 36 megapixel camera. The image size is so huge that you can't capture nearly as many photographs on memory cards and I have read more than one comment by D800 users saying that their photographic software has slowed down massively as a result. I think a 18 to 20 megapixel camera would have been much more sensible for an upgrade, as I would never want any more than that.

Image quality is always the thing I care about most and if there is no difference between the D700 and the D800 here than the £1000 extra is simply a waste. I have looked at and compared all the test shots on the Nikon simulator at their website and I can't see any difference at all. I have seen some websites point the difference out if you magnify the images and start cranking up the ISO but again this to me is so minimal it becomes a non-issue. We photographers choose to pursue an expensive hobby/career, one which we are prepared to make a few sacrifices for to afford the best equipment. But we have to come back down to earth sometimes. £1000 is a lot of money for most people and when I can't notice a difference in image quality for that amount of money, then there is no way you are going to convince me to buy it. For me the D700 is a sensible choice and I look forward to using it for the next few years. I chose to buy the Nikkor 24-700m F2.8 lens with it that set me back another wad of money but hey, I saved some money with not going for the D800.

I know if I had bought the 24-70mm lens alone for my D90, it would have been a major upgrade as it is, but I have no regrets at buying the D700. I wanted a full frame camera, which I can build my equipment around in future and also have the option to shoot with 14 bit RAW files as opposed to 12 bit. In fact, the D90 and D700 are 2 different levels of camera, so all the differences aren't worth listing here but suffice to say the D90 isn't going anywhere. I still have it and will use it as backup (though I think more likely my fiancé will use it all the time). Now if only the D700 weighed less, I could say it was better than the D90 in every way, but change for bad or good always comes with compromises....

Mickey Mouse has Grown Up a Cow

Ok, so the title comes from a line in David Bowie's classic song Life on Mars? which I don't really understand but if anyone does then please let me know! There's no real hidden meaning of the title on this website, I just couldn't think of anything else to call it.

This was taken last week as I was chasing the sunset all over West Berkshire. I was hoping to come across a stretch of water such as a lake with the sun going down on the horizon but knew I wouldn't really find it. Having driven down so many endless country lanes, I came across an elderly couple watching these cows as the sun dipped down and as I drove past, my intuition said 'that's it!'. I turned the car round and parked somewhere off the road I probably shouldn't have and took quite a few bracketed shots of these cows in the field. Now I didn't use a tripod because it wouldn't stretch to where I wanted it to go anyway. I perched on a fence that quite luckily was right in front of 30mph sign and this gave me stability and a fairly steady hold as I took the shots.

It wasn't the easiest HDR to process because of the contrast in light between the foreground and background but I think the persistence has paid off. Layer masking certainly helped eradicate the movement of the cows between the different bracketed shots.

The Clock Tower

Not the famous one from Back to the Future unfortunately but the one that marks the end of the high street in Newbury, Berkshire. With the dreary weather we have had in England recently, this is one of only a few shots I have taken. I missed a potentially good shot by about 3 minutes the other day, while I was driving back to my new home in Thatcham. I crossed over one of the bridges that runs over the canal and there was a spectacular sunset sky reflected in the canal along with the silhouettes of the trees. I thought about pulling over right at that moment but suddenly remembered that despite having my camera with me, I didn't have a tripod, which would have been crucial to getting a good HDR. I quickly nipped back to the apartment to pick it up but when I returned a few moments afterwards, the moment had gone.

There are of course many lessons to be learned there but with my half glass full approach, the one that cheers me up in those situations is I think to myself 'It's better to have missed the shot, than not know it existed at all'. At least that way you can capture it another time.

Overlooking Newbury

I'm happy to accept the opinion that I'm scraping the barrel now for new photographs because it's quite true. Although being the town I live nearest to, Newbury is in my own opinion perhaps featuring a bit to much on this website. Without going into much detail today, this is an aerial view of the town, pictured from the bridge that connects the Wharf with the new Parkway Shopping Centre. The stretch of water is the Kennet & Avon canal.

I know I need to go out and take more pictures but perhaps just as importantly, I need to go back through all my pictures in Lightroom and find some gems I have perhaps overlooked. I never intend to force myself into going and getting new pictures as quickly as possible, therefore Thursday's picture will be a 'classic' picture from last year. Hope you are all still with me recently though???

I just realised, it's May 1st today. May is always a good time and generally one of my favourite months, so I'm sure good things will come...

The Wedding Party

A slight change for me today. I'm not a wedding photographer and despite encouragement from others, I never will be. It's just not for me. I have taken pictures at a couple of weddings I've been to but that is purely in the realms of art and creativity, not as a responsibility or service. The idea of being paid and therefore held responsible for capturing someone's special day is just not for me. Without being too modest, it's just in my nature to want to experiment with different ideas and pictures at the capture stage and in processing and I'm not sure this would be to everyone's liking. I recently took a few pictures at my friend David's wedding on Saturday and if you do want to see a few of those pictures, you can at my facebook page http://facebook.com/petehalewood. There's only a few there at the moment but there will more to come, perhaps even on this blog.

Today's picture was also taken on Saturday and is of the wedding party, once we were at the Elcot Park Hotel near Hungerford, where the reception was. The one thing this hotel does not lack is a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape, which I have tried to capture with this picture. It is a non-HDR shot and was processed entirely in Lightroom 4.