Day at the Museum

The museum in this case being the world famous and historic British Museum in London. This is a photograph I took many months ago, while in the capital for a Christmas bash last year. It is a 3-shot HDR image, but at the very last moment (as I was preparing this blog), I decided to see what it would look like in Black & White, as the colour version just seemed a bit 'normal'. I began processing it further in Silver Efex Pro 2 and thought it's best look was this drawing-type, vintage look. I finished it off by adjusting the shadow colour in Lightroom.

I have an announcement to make on Thursday this week, so hope you will all come back to the blog then!

Ambitions for 2012

First of all, I’d just like to say a big welcome to my new blog ‘The Photographic World of Pete Halewood’! I consider this blog page an extension of my new website petehalewood.com, so hope you get a chance to visit there as well. Today is the official launch of both sites, though they are both work in progresses. More about that another time though...

So 2011 is gone and 2012 is here. Despite 2011 ending on a rather sour note for me with the loss of my previous website (thenightboat.com), in all it was a great year and of course I want to build on that in 2012. My first priority which I am about to do is buy a long overdue tripod and a new lens - in this case the very popular Sigma 10-20mm one. It’s perhaps an oldie now but it’s always been highly rated and if it does the job I need it for then I won’t mind. I spent most of my photographic investment in 2011 on buying software and now that I am happy that I have all the tools I need, I must concentrate more on the photography itself. I’m a firm believer in getting the picture in the camera, not on the computer. Get that right and the post-processing element is a lot easier and a lot more fun.

My plans are bigger than just a new lens though, the Sigma lens is only 1 of several lenses I’d like to own, and if I start to sell more pictures (far from easy) then I will invest this straight back into photography. I will have to check my dates but I have another exhibition booked for a single day in Newbury Town Hall on Saturday 2nd or 3rd March. It will be a smaller affair than my last exhibition at The Bear Hotel in Hungerford, but will still give me a great opportunity for people to see my work. I am getting married this year in September, and with saving for that and a house, traveling abroad might be a rarity this year. I’m ok with that as I believe you can get some stunning pictures if you get to know your local landscape but it will be sad I that I don’t get to go away much. Oh well, might have to plan the honeymoon somewhere inspiring....

I should say at this point a big Happy New Year to everyone! I don’t intend the blog posts in future to be this long but hey, it’s the launch! Today’s picture is of the British Museum in London, somewhere I got to walk round a little while in London for the company I work for’s Christmas Do in December. Wouldn’t say I came with many (if any) great pictures that weekend, though after a while processing this one, I was happy with the look I got. Next blog post on Thursday! As with my previous website, I welcome all comments, feedback, discussions, issues etc...What’s your photography ambition for 2012?