Quintessentially English

You can't really tell from looking at the picture on the net but that's exactly what the shop name in the middle of these buildings reads. I thought it would be a good title for this post. This is another one taken from Lacock village in Wiltshire last weekend and is a single RAW image HDR. I don't shoot too many of them, though don't have a problem either using one for an HDR image instead of the full bracketed set. There is so much unnecessary debate (IMHO) out there regarding what is a real HDR and what isn't. I take the line of photographers who judge it more on what the picture looks like, than the technicalities of production. Everybody knows the 'HDR' look and this is why people love HDR photography, not whether they used proper HDR techniques or not to get the shot. "Oh no, it's a tonemapped image, not an HDR!" they say. Come on, it's all the same really. I once had a guy email me on Flickr saying I shouldn't be labelling my civil war pictures 'HDR' because they were single images not bracketed shots, and that I should therefore be labelling them 'Pseudo-HDR'. Get out of here! Such a boring and pointless thing to address me with, I'm pretty sure he corrects everyone where he lives when they say hoover instead of vacuum cleaner. As I said last week though, it's extremely difficult to do hand-held HDR shots with the weighty D700, therefore more than a few of the images from Lacock (and I have already posted a few) will be taken from single images, whether they are HDR or not.

An old teenage dream died of mine last night, when I finally realised I have no more passion or want to record music. It was my ambition for many years to be able to record music for a living and have always wanted to combine music with photography, since the photography ambition came around. I had planned to create a slideshow for today's blog but a few hours recording music yesterday reminded me of how frustrating it can be and I did eventually give up. I just don't have the burning desire for it anymore and processing today's picture for 20 minutes afterwards was a much happier and rewarding experience. This is truly where my heart lies now. I may still use a couple of tracks I recorded months ago for slideshows but I doubt I will record anymore. Should I want to create slideshows I will just cut together pre-recorded tracks on Logic Express.

Talking Photo with Pete Halewood

You may or may not have noticed a change in the blog title this morning. I have decided to change the name of the blog from 'The Photographic World of Pete Halewood' to 'Talking Photo with Pete Halewood'. The original title I felt was always a bit inaccurate for this blog but didn't really know what else to call it. I love sharing my views on photography as well as posting pictures and find this often inspires readers to comment as well. Therefore, the new title is more reflective of the nature of this blog and makes much more sense. I hope you agree!

Photo details: f/5.6, 0.0005s, 24mm, ISO 200

Justice for the 96 - 2012

2012 version

This is the first time in a long while that I have done a 'Saturday Special' but with the Olympics coming to a close and the football season beginning again next week, I feel it is an appropriate time for another one! So I'll ask the question if you already haven't - why am I posting this picture again, when I have already posted it before (December 2011)? Well after seeing this picture on various websites over the last few months and having printed it a couple of times for Liverpool fans, there was always something bothering me about it that I did not really pick up on when I first posted it. Although it is natural, there was too much darkness in the Kop area of the crowd where this picture is focused. On blogs such as this one and Flickr, it was not very noticeable but as other people have used it for their blogs (which I do not mind at all) the dark areas seem to obscure the whole message of JFT96. This became apparent when I had it printed as well. I have long pondered tweaking this one to bring out the dark areas more so it stands out better on websites and you can see the difference with the old one below.

I only had the Hi resolution JPEG to correct as I had long thrown away the TIFF files I processed it with (I never throw away the original RAW files but as I have discussed before, processing it from scratch is a frustrating and ultimately disappointing method). So I worked on the JPEG in Lightroom and for all the bad press editing JPEGS get, it doesn't seem to have reduced the quality at all between the old and saving the new version. I know it would get worse the more you save it but I think editing it once makes almost no difference, which is the way I know Trey Ratcliff works (if you've seen any of his tutorials you will know he converts all his RAW files into JPEGs rather than TIFFs). Back as usual tomorrow!

2011 version

Finding Salvation

Ever since my blog a few weeks ago about where I want to go with my photography, I've been thinking about going in directions I never thought I would. Since I bought my D700 with a F2.8 24-70mm lens a couple of months ago, it dawned on me that having these 2 bits of equipment means I can become a Nikon registered professional user. I finally did my registration yesterday and am glad to say I am now a professional user but becoming this intrigued me a little. I've spent so much money on my photography (haven't we all!?) and now have professional equipment. Isn't time I started to make some money back? Even just a little? I have always wanted to be good and successful at photography doing what I pretty much have been doing, taking architectural and landscape shots, whilst being creative with them at the image processing stage. I'm in my thirties now and don't live in dreamland (my fiancé will disagree with me on that one), I know that relying solely on this approach could take years to recoup any substantial benefit, though I have sold a few pictures at exhibitions and local shops. But I am drawn now to want to make money from ways I never thought I would such as weddings and events. The idea of wedding photography never really did it for me, but having seen some stunning wedding photography out there (and I particularly recommend Catherine Hall's website catherinehall.net) I really feel that I am starting to get inspired by it. I have taken a few wedding pictures in the past (see my facebook page) but having also seen some local examples of what people pay for, I simply feel that I could offer a lot more. Just thoughts I've been having anyway, I'd be a very happy person to get paid for taking pictures.

Today's picture is another one of mine from Lacock Abbey that I visited last weekend. Having just mentioned getting my D700 recently, I have also learnt with this that I can't really get away with shots that I used to. For instance, I used to do a lot of handheld HDR (often because I would be out with other people and would not want to annoy them or slow everyone down) but with the lack of Vibration Reduction (VR) on the ridiculously expensive lens I bought and the weight of it all now, I can't really get away with doing handheld HDR anymore. The more exposed images simply come out a tad too shaky, which makes the HDR difficult to look sharp. Therefore, I think more single shot images like this one will come out of my Lacock Abbey collection rather than HDR's. The D700 I think will certainly make me a better photographer, as it won't let you take shortcuts to getting a good picture as I probably have in the past with the lighter weight equipment. I am looking at going on some photography courses as well soon, because apart from reading books, it's probably about time I took it seriously and learnt some proper photography!

Photo details: f/4.5, 0.001s, 32mm, ISO 200

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

Cloisters of the Abbey

After all the excitement of Team GB's Athletics performance at the Olympics last night, I pushed back writing today's blog until this morning (normally I write it the day before), so that is the reason it is up perhaps a bit later than usual. Amongst all the Olympic hysteria currently engulfing Britain, I visited yesterday the village of Lacock in Wiltshire, in particular Lacock Abbey. The abbey is a fantastic place for a photographer to visit, not just because it's a great place to photograph but because of it's place in the history of photography. The owner of the abbey during the early part of the 19th century was William Henry Fox Talbot and he was enthusiastically into the recent development of photography. The earliest known photographic negative dates back to 1835, which was taken by Talbot at the abbey itself. Today, there is still much information and history about photography at the museum and when I visited yesterday, there was an exhibition of Michael Palin's travel photographer's work, of which contained some stunning images.

The abbey dates back to the year 1229 (I'm guessing that wasn't an Olympic year) and elements such as the cloisters pictured above have survived since around that time. There are quite a few HDR shots on the web of cloisters from various different abbeys and monasteries throughout the world, so I was excited to be able to get a picture of my own. Some pictures have a panoramic view of both sides of the central pillar and though I have taken pictures that could make up a panorama, I'm not too sure I will attempt it yet. Although it shows off fantastic technique, if the image isn't calling for it, then I wouldn't do it for the sake of it. In fact, these are great places to try out a few photographic techniques (not just HDR), so there will probably be quite a few pictures of Lacock springing up over the next few weeks.

Pub Humour

For the second time in about a month, the good old British pub is the subject of this blog. Though at least with this one (as opposed to my King Charles Tavern post a few weeks back), I managed to couple it with an interesting sky. This scene is across the road from The Five Bells pub (out of the picture to the right) which is towards the north of Newbury. I took this picture while out driving the other night, looking for interesting subjects to capture and like many pictures I take that involve roads, there were a few people checking I wasn't a speed camera trap! As if the Police would be so obvious standing by the road with a huge camera and a tripod!

This may not be the funniest pub board anyone has seen but I still felt it made the picture fairly interesting, coupled with the road and the sky. There is a pub called The Halfway Inn between Newbury and Hungerford that used to be renowned for humorous pub boards. The Halfway Inn sits along the busy A4 road and the pub were always trying to tempt people in with boards that read along the lines off 'special offer tonight' or 'check out our new menu' when one day I think they had had enough and simply wrote 'Does anyone even notice this board?'. That then began a year of daily witty writings on that board, my favourite of which was written the day after England got knocked out of the Euro 2004 tournament which simply said 'Plasma TV for sale'.

This is apparently my 100th blog post today and though I would have reached that milestone a lot quicker if I had had a daily blog like last year, I feel much happier with this blog and can safely say it won't be going anywhere soon!

Wilton House

When I launched my 2nd photography blog last year, TheNightBoat.com (the first was the short-lived and appallingly named recordsofday.com), pictures of Wilton House were quite common from me, as I had only just visited there around that time. However, I never processed this picture, a portrait like HDR photo of the front of the house. This is indeed the first time Wilton House has appeared on this blog as well.

It's been so long in fact since I posted a picture of Wilton House, that I can barely remember anything about it! So rather than go into various different internet sources now, I will just say that it is indeed a spectacular country house near Salisbury in Wiltshire, surrounded by some spectacular scenery and gardens. Unlike when I visited Hever Castle a couple of months ago, Wilton House was not visited on a sunny day. In terms of HDR, that's not too bad as clouds can be much more interesting than a plain blue sky.

As I said, this is an HDR from the fairly standard 3 different exposures and processed in Lightroom, Photomatix, Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Just a gentle reminder, why not have a look at my new website HalewoodPhoto.com!

HalewoodPhoto.com Launch

Yes here it is, the announcement I promised last weekend, my brand new official website. Finding a website package for displaying my photography has been as challenging as finding great photo opportunities themselves. Some of you may know that as well as this blog, I do have another photography website petehalewood.com and though I have previously termed that my 'official website', I have now decided that all my efforts will now go into HalewoodPhoto.com, which I feel is the website I've been wanting to create for all these months. I built it using the Squarespace.com service, which I wholeheartedly recommend to other photographers, and though I don't want to turn this into a commercial for them, they have provided all the tools I have wanted to create a photography website. It integrates beautifully with this blog page (something my petehalewood.com site couldn't do) and I am very excited to move forward with my photography with both my new official website and this blog.

So what's unique about this new website? Well, I figure that people come to a photographer's website mainly to look at photo's, so that's what the essence of HalewoodPhoto.com is. On the home page are the 7 galleries that make up the pictures collection. These 7 galleries are all in different sub-genres of photography and reflect my best work in these fields. I will attempt to upload new pictures as often as possible but the essence of these galleries will always be my very best photos. If people like the photos so much they want to purchase them, there is a link to my RedBubble page, though I do need to complete adding all the photos at my RedBubble page at the moment. There is also a Latest page, an About me page and also a page dedicated to videos of my photography. Of course, like any website there is also a Contact page. I have many planned additions for the website, so the website will simply grow from how it is at the moment.

I would really appreciate any feedback and comments regarding my HalewoodPhoto.com site, what you like or indeed don't like. I really would like to hear any good ideas and suggestions people have, so I can therefore implement new features and functions.

All that's left to say is why not take a look at it yourself, at www.halewoodphoto.com! Then leave a comment of what you think about it on this blog.

Creaky Steps to the Lake

There are many pictures like this on Flickr, the little pier going off into the lake and I was never sure whether to post this picture because of that. Most of the ones you see on Flickr are beautifully straight, wonderfully crafted piers but I was not blessed with one of those in this case. This is in south west Poland, a region I shall shortly be revisiting twice in the next couple of months, the second time of which to get married and though I have my priorities fully in order, it will also give me an opportunity to take D700 abroad and hopefully capture some great landscapes.

I did do a vertical portrait shot of this scene, as so many of these pictures are on Flickr, but I found it much more interesting with the boats and the landscape in. I feel it perhaps does make up for the unspectacular pier. Perhaps if my Photoshop skills were better, I could have straightened out the pier a bit more, but overall I'm happy with it. It was never going to be easy with the risk of making the boats look unbalanced on the water, which would have looked obvious. Anyway, not going to bang a drum about it but I have something new to show on Sunday, so if you have a spare couple of minutes, do come back then!

The Leaning Tower of Albert

Now I never assume I will get comments on a particular picture or what those comments will be but in today's case, I truly hope that nobody says to me that this picture isn't straight. It's not me, it's the tower! Not a likely phrase but this is the Albert Clock in Belfast and does indeed have a pronounced lean. The 'Albert' it refers to is Prince Albert, as in Queen Victoria's husband who had recently died, therefore this tower was erected as a tribute to his memory. I had to go quite far back through my RAW files to find a picture I wanted to post today but I'm surprised I never did post a picture of this tower, as it was always my intention once I returned from Belfast last September.

I mentioned on Sunday having a 'major announcement' coming soon and I just want to state that I did not mean that as a shallow PR trick to get people coming back to this site. I'm not good at that stuff anyway and I know how annoying it is when websites go on about a big announcement in the near future, only to find out the announcement was completely underwhelming and of only real value to the person announcing it. So just to clarify and be specific, I will definitely have something to announce this upcoming Sunday, it's not life-changing but hopefully you will enjoy it and it won't cost you anything! I was hoping to have it ready by today but that was optimistic and saying this Sunday gives me plenty of time to finish the preparations.