Time for a Break

Yes, sorry that my announcement wasn't more cheerful (and to avoid making you come back for bad news, I won't announce an announcement again) but I have decided to take a break from blogging for a month. The day I will post again will be Sunday October 7th. I have been toying with the idea of taking a break for a little while now, simply because with my wedding coming up at the end of the month (in Poland), I cannot commit my entire energy to this blog. I have been juggling this blog up with other commitments for a couple of months now and have finally decided to take a break until after the wedding.

It wasn't easy to make the decision to take a little break, but the fact that I have been concentrating on the wedding (and everything that goes with it), means I have not been out that much taking photographs. I have never wanted to post anything on this blog I was not happy with and feel I will be breaking that ideal if I keep going over the next month. I've been committed to posting 3 times a week during this year and will continue to do that, upon my return.

The good news is though, when I do return to this blog in October, I will be more committed and determined than ever to produce fantastic photography. My love for photography has not relented even a little, in fact it is quite the opposite. Photography is dominating nearly all my thoughts (apart from the wedding of course...ssshhh!) these days and I want to progress to a much higher level with it. I have recently undertook a course with The Photography Institute and would love to post my 'assignments' to this blog in the near future. I know it's not fair to expect everyone to just come back to a blog they follow after the blogger takes a break for a month, but I will work hard to make up for my absence with great pictures from Poland and other places I happen to be over the next month.

By the way, this is not an absence from the photographic world in general. I will still be on twitter as usual, and perhaps posting the occasional picture on Flickr (ones I probably already have here).

Though the end of the year is still 4 months away yet, I have decided to post below, what I think are my best photos of the year (earliest first). This is based on viewer response (on here or other websites) by the way, not my own personal opinion. Hope you enjoy them and see you in October!

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!

Walking on the Sands

It's probably a slight misnomer to say 'sands', as Hastings beach where this shot was taken is pretty devoid of sand. Pebble/stone beaches such as this are great for photography though, as they tend to attract less attention on a nice day. Not that that was a problem anyway on the day I visited in November last year, but that as well makes the winter months a great time to visit beaches. A good thing considering we are now heading that direction. This was shot as dusk was approaching and was one of many shots I took that evening while trying to get some long exposure shots.