Pastel blues

One of the annual borders at Harlow Carr Gardens lent itself, I felt, to a soft pastel treatment.

River abstracts

I enjoyed finding patterns in the river as the water rippled in the breeze.
Then I enjoyed playing around with them in processing, to see what else I could do with them. In the images below, I just added a layer of texture and soft colour.

How much is that kitty...?

Spotted a rather sleepy looking cat sitting on a windowsill in the sun. It put me in mind of that song: 'How much is that doggy in the window?'

Then I had a little play with the photo, adding layers and textures. I don't like the effect of the glazing bar down the middle, but I had some fun anyway.

A rainbow and a memory

I've been following a few photography projects that I've seen online. The inspiration for this image came from a photographer called Paul Sanders, who teaches 'mindful photography'. He says: "I, like many of you, will have seen the rainbows drawn and painted by people and then placed in the windows of shops, homes and offices to acknowledge support of our health service heroes. This got me thinking and playing. Remember that I spoke about approaching things with a child's mind and that photography is really about playing anyway, so I played. Get your camera or phone and photograph things with the colours of a rainbow - remember the verse from school? Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain - Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet - simple or you can sing the song that goes "Red and yellow and pink and green, orange and purple and blue, I can sing a rainbow" it really depends on how much playing you want to do! Fill the frame of your phone or camera with the colours, doesn't matter if the images are out of focus, remember we are playing and there is no judgement. What you are effectively doing is photographing abstract colour. It is a celebration of gratitude, not only of the power of observation but of the key workers and front line health services battling to save the lives of those affected by the Coronavirus."
A dear friend of mine, also - coincidentally - called Paul Sanders, recently passed away, having been infected with Covid 19. My rainbow is dedicated to his memory, as well as to the NHS heroes who looked after him and continue to care for so many other people.  Paul was a warm-hearted and very kind man, who will be sadly missed by his family and friends. Sending my love and prayers to his family. 

Tiny planet Saltaire

One unexpected bonus of the current crisis is that the car park in the centre of Saltaire has been completely empty for days. It means you can get a panoramic view of Salts Mill's long frontage without cars in the way. I remembered my phone has a pano setting too. It gave me the photo I've used as my new blog header. Then I remembered that there's a way of converting a pano into a 'tiny planet' so I had a go at that. It proved quite difficult, mainly because I was working with such a large file that my computer was struggling. There's an art to them. For one thing you have to have an uncluttered foreground (which becomes the centre of the planet) for it to look right, and that is often difficult. You also need the edges to be blended to avoid a hard join and I haven't quite managed that here. Still, it's quite fun - and an undoubtedly different view of Saltaire.

Project 'Inside' 1

Given the current constraints on being outdoors, I've been trying, without much success, to interest myself in some indoor photography projects. I had a little play one day with my iPad and a glass vase I've had for ages. I like the colours, at least. It's good to experiment - and then push yourself to experiment some more. The first image I came up with is below and I do quite like the simplicity of it. With a bit more thinking and inspiration I created the image above, marrying the vase with a sprig of fake blossom that I keep in my bathroom (don't we all?!). The more complex study is, I think, the better of the two, though it will no doubt be down to personal preference in the end.

An abundance of blossom

I love the frothy abundance of white spring blossom but sometimes a straight photo doesn't do it justice. Here I've played with layers and blends to try to recreate that full, blossomy feel.

Swansong?

As the global coronavirus pandemic gathers speed, I wonder how much longer I'll be able to keep up a flow of new photos on my blog. We've been asked (we may be ordered) to stay at home where possible. Attractions are closed. The countryside is 'open' so far but, as my own emotions rise and plunge in hope and despair, I may not always have the motivation to make the effort to get out. I will do what I can and I guess, anyway, that others are in just the same boat. Stay safe and well, everyone.

Talking of boats, there were none on the canal when I walked down there recently, apart from the ever-present ice-cream boat in the distance. I haven't seen that open yet this year and I suppose it will be a long time before it can trade again. There were two swans gliding around hungrily. They were chasing me in the hope I'd provide food but I didn't take any with me.

It's a long time since I did a texturised photo of Saltaire, in this case the classic view of the two mills: Salts on the left and the New Mill on the right. I've added a coloured texture layer and a bit of 'glow' to lift the scene as it was quite a dull day and the original image lacked a bit of oomph. Now, I quite like it.

An unimportant object

The project for my online group in October was a bit of a challenge. The theme was 'an unimportant object, something that a burglar would probably leave behind but that to you is actually significant'. That in itself wasn't too hard. I chose a tiny snail shell, no bigger than my pinky fingernail. I find I am drawn to natural objects, so around the house I have a few small collections of water-smoothed pebbles gathered from various beaches, feathers I've picked up on my walks and some little shells like this one. Nothing of use to a burglar! I enjoyed the challenge of capturing the exquisite shell with my macro lens.

The second part of the brief was to render it in a manner inspired by a photographer called Ray Spence, whose work is definitely 'edgy'. (See HERE).  (I can't say I really like much of it, but that's just a personal view and I do like that he is doing something different and thoughtful.) He often uses the wet plate collodion technique, an early photographic methodology. Thankfully we weren't expected to do that! But we were invited to use a square format, monochrome and to capture something of the spirit of that technique in our photos.

I don't know if I succeeded... I did have fun playing, using a texture layer and a border to try to achieve the right feel to the image.

Creative London

I've been continuing my adventures into creative photography. This is a multi-layer composition based on some slow-shutter speed images I took in Spitalfields in London. I guess you either like this kind of thing or you don't. I think it's a step forward from my earlier attempt in Saltaire (HERE).

Lacy

Another photo montage using layers and blends. 'Salty Pumpkin' asked yesterday about flowers. so this is a flower one. I quite like its delicacy. I'm a great fan of alliums anyway, and these white ones (at Burton Agnes Hall) were so pretty.

Too much red wine?

I bought myself a book on creative photography techniques recently and have been trying out a few ideas. This was my first attempt at an impressionistic multi-exposure. I think I need to be even bolder with the technique to avoid it looking like camera shake, an earthquake or too much red wine. (I hadn't touched a drop, honestly!) Still, it's such fun trying out these ideas.

It at least gives a slightly different view of the much-photographed stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal between Saltaire's two huge mills: Salts on the left and the New Mill on the right. The boat was nicely placed for a photograph too. You have more chance of seeing one in the short-term day moorings here in the summer, when there are more hire boats around. People often want to stop and explore Saltaire.

Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head juts out into the North Sea between Bempton Cliffs and Bridlington. It's a chalk promontory, cut with little bays like North Landing (above) and crowned by a lighthouse - in fact, two. One dates back to 1674, the oldest surviving lighthouse in England, and was designed to have a beacon burning on top of it. Apparently it was never lit. The current lighthouse, powered now by electricity and still in use, was first lit in 1806 and originally had two white flashes followed by a red one.  Now it has four white flashes every 15 seconds.

It was cold walking on the headland but we had time for a few photos of the puffins on the cliffs and plenty of close-up shots of boats, ropes and flaking paint. Then it was into the café for a warming cup of tea. Aaah!

I tried a few in-camera multi-exposures too (as below), since my new camera has the facility to layer two images. It's quite fun trying but there is clearly a knack to it that I shall have to practise to achieve really pleasing images using the technique.

Ten years of reasons to be glad (iolus)

This is another image I produced in Photoshop. I've used layers and some motion blur to give an impressionistic feel. It's a bed of gladioli, stately blooms with long colourful spikes of flowers, that were growing in the allotments in front of Salts Mill. They're kind of old-fashioned; I remember my grandma used to grow them in her garden. She used to call them 'gladdies'. Plenty of reasons to be glad... not least that it's my birthday today!

I also realise that I have now passed the ten year milestone for this blog. Ten years! How did that happen? When I started it in June 2009, my aim was simply to challenge myself: to take more photos, to take better photos, to take more notice of and learn more about my home village (Saltaire, which had recently been designated a World Heritage Site) and to learn how to compose a blog. I had not expected to fall in love so completely with the process and discipline of blogging. Nor did I foresee just how passionate I would become about photography or how that would open up the world to me, to learning and exploring. Nor did I realise that I'd make friends through blogging and through photography, some of whom have become really special to me. It's been (and still is) a genuine pleasure and a wonderful hobby. One day too, I guess, I'll be glad to look back on what is effectively my personal journal. It'll make me smile and remember all the good days. And if, as it seems, in the process I am making a few other folk smile sometimes, well, that's well worth it too, wouldn't you say?

Going dotty

Here's another layered image. It started out as two pictures of the pierced metal sides of a pedestrian walkway over a nearby road. My original images just look like the grey steel it is made from but by layering them and then boosting the saturation, subtle colours within it become much more vivid. It's fun to do but it makes me think that designing curtain fabric or wrapping paper must be a complete doddle these days. It only takes a few minutes to create something like this. Dotty!

Salt and his mill

Just playing again, with layered images. I thought I'd put Sir Titus guarding his mill.

I'm wondering who, if anyone, future generations will look back to with gratitude? There seemed to be quite a few Victorian paternalists who had wonderful vision and really made a lasting difference. But then again, maybe it was easier to see what was needed and to provide it (if you had money), when so many lived in utter poverty and deprivation. The late Jonathan Silver, who rescued Salts Mill from dereliction in the late 1980s, must also get a mention as a very visionary man. Solutions to the world's woes are much harder to find these days, I think, and making a difference is not so simple. One might even argue that the Victorian industrialists built the capitalist system that ultimately has been found wanting. Perhaps we need more initiatives along the lines of co-operatives to shift us to a more equitable, shared prosperity and a more sustainable future.

Not a landscape...

Sometimes when I'm on a wander with my camera, I collect textures and abstract shots to use in the future. Then when it's raining and I'm bored, I can sit at the computer and 'play', combining them and using special effects. I never know what is going to result but it's really fun to experiment.

This image started off as two different shots of old, fading paint on a canal boat. Combined with a plaster texture and a coloured layer, it ended up looking rather like a landscape - reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales, perhaps?

Neon reflections

I've a couple of apps (Enlight, PhotoSplit) that do interesting things with multiple layers, mostly using actions pre-set by the app developers. You can do much the same thing with Photoshop and with a little more control, so I set myself the task of learning to do it 'the hard way' (not using pre-sets).

Here, I was using a couple of images of reflections in the river (actually people standing on the terrace of the Boathouse Inn, with their colourful clothing reflected in the water). Cropped, blended and with the saturation boosted a little, it produced quite a pleasing image, I thought.

Triptych

Here I took a really boring image of seeds and dead leaves, cropped it several ways, played around with coloured layers and the saturation sliders and framed them as a triptych. Mad but quite fun.

Tlaloc

Tlaloc is the Aztec god of rain, water and earthly fertility. It seemed a good name for this image, again one I produced in Photoshop. I took an image of grasses beside the canal, then duplicated, layered and blended it, and played around with the saturation. I never know quite what will emerge from the process so it is quite a fun and relaxing thing to do.