52 Week Challenge: Week 23

WEEK 23: Landscape: Weather – This week should be as unpredictable as the weather! Feature the weather in this week’s landscape.

How difficult can this be, fer cryin’ out loud? I am still British (as well as American) so I should have a genetic predisposition to evaluating the weather for hours on end. After all, my homeland is famously described as a country that “doesn’t have a climate, only weather.”

However, this may be one of those instances when too much interest is a bad thing, since my desire for an interesting shot of our summer weather in Pennsylvania has resulted in nothing but procrastination and delay on this assignment for weeks on end.

I may have mentioned previously that I usually keep at least one camera in the car with me so, as there were storm clouds rolling in on my drive to work, I stopped off and decided to get a shot of those to support the rather surprising statistic that July is our wettest month here.

As I picked up my camera I thought I’d make the shot more interesting by creating a high dynamic range (HDR) image to bring out the clouds. This entails taking 3 identical shots with slightly different exposure settings (+/- 0.3EV) to bring out the highlights and shadows and then merging them into one image. The resulting image is technically a low dynamic range representation of the HDR composition following tonemapping, but we still call them HDR photos. Anyway, using the portable version of the superb free software LuminanceHDR I created the following image of clouds rumbling in over the trees and the communication antenna tower near to where I work.

If you’d like to see some more of my HDR work click the image above or here.

~Richard

July 14, 2016 0

52 Week Challenge: Week 21

WEEK 21: Artistic: Fantasy – Is this real life, or is this just fantasy… Your artistic inspiration this week is fantasy.

Ok, this is a bit of a cheat, as I made this last year, but it fits in with the remit and I am still playing catch up, so I feel justified in my actions.

This is a composite of two photographs, one from Bermuda at the aquarium and the other at Philadelphia zoo. After a bit of playing around in my favorite free photo editor, GIMP we have the fantastically formidable looking striped rhino fish.

~Richard

July 13, 2016 0

52 Week Challenge: Week 22

As I mentioned previously I am playing catch up with a few of these challenges. I finally got around to this exercise and also decided to make it a black and white image as I liked the subtle shadow.

WEEK 22: Portrait: Hands – Usually the face is the strongest element in the frame; with the hands being second. Make the hands the most important element in your image this week.

160711_52WK22_Hands

~Richard

July 11, 2016 0

52 Week Challenge: Week 26

WEEK 26: Landscape: Simplify – Simply the scene to make your primary subject stand out.

If you look closely at this dead tree it resembles a hand curling out of the marsh. A bird must have thought it a potential place for a nest, but it really wasn’t given the straw debris beneath its crooked fingers.

Did the nest slip, or did the tree let go?

160709_52WK26_Simplify

~Richard

July 9, 2016 0

52 Week Challenge: Week 24

WEEK 24: Artistic: Sparkle! – Shoot what inspires you this week, just make sure it sparkles.

I’m still playing catch up with the 52-week challenge. This week was July 4th and the traditional time for playing (carefully) with sparklers, so this was easy to take literally! We did some light painting, but I ended up choosing this one, as I loved the soft lighting.

160706_52WK24Sparkle

~Richard

July 5, 2016 0

Quintessentially British July 4th Celebration

Yes, as a naturalized American I am well aware that today is the day we celebrate Independence and the shedding of the shackles of tyranny from our historical overlords, however, there are already millions of web pages covering this theme today. So, instead I am going to use this post to celebrate something that happened yesterday.

Depending on the day, I have the privilege/honor/burden to curate the art group Quintessentially British on the art website pixels.com. I set up this group almost 4 years ago, on July 9th 2012, to showcase art that represents Britishness in some way and it how hosts images from over 670 members. Yesterday, I accepted the 10,000th image to the collection, which I share here.

In between hot dogs and fireworks why not take a look at some of the images from the land of the old Imperial Overlords?

Happy July 4th!

~Richard

July 4, 2016 2

Faltering on the 52-week challenge: Week 25

It all started out with good intentions back in January as I stumbled across the 52-week challenge for improving my photography. I knew it was going to be difficult, especially the portrait challenge, as that really is not my comfort area and, thus it was at week 19 (messy portrait) I faltered. In fact, I stumbled so badly as I struggled with this one that I ended up losing momentum and now I am six weeks behind! I can throw out excuses like work pressure, an extended business trip abroad and too much to do in the garden and the house but, to be honest, they’re hollow reasons. That portrait assignment simply knocked the enthusiasm out of me to complete the challenge.

Well, I’m back now! I have a lot of catching up to do and it will be a be a bit erratic but I am determined to set myself back on track. Weeks 19 to 25 may be out of sequence but I fully intend to get them completed.

So, I waited until sunset in Ocean City, New Jersey to get this one.

Week 25: Portrait: Silhouette – Expose for the background and let your subject fall into shadow. Shape is important this week.

160629_52WK25_Silhouette

~Richard

June 29, 2016 1

The Room in the Elephant

And now, for something completely different. You are probably aware of the old adage “The Elephant in the room” to describe a big problem that everyone sees but no-one wants to address, but yesterday I had the opportunity to turn this phrase inside out.

Back in February, I wrote about Lucy the Elephant, at Margate, New Jersey. This week I finally got to meet the huge pachyderm, and she exceeded my expectations!

Lucy is in a wonderful looking condition, ready for her 125th birthday very soon. We climbed the spiral stairs through her left rear leg and entered what I can only describe as The Room in the Elephant. It is a large, splendidly wood-paneled, split-level room with a glass panel in the ceiling which is also the floor of the howdah, above.

Taking the small spiral staircase in her left side we ascended to the howdah on her back and partook of the views of the Jersey Shore from atop the behemoth beast.

In my opinion, this is the sort of place where serious debates should be held and important decisions made, in the style of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories!

After all, the world is going mad!

~Richard

June 28, 2016 0

Ondu – working art

I love photography and I love my digital cameras. I also love my little kit built Recesky 35mm TLR and quirky things. So, it’s no surprise that I was smitten by the beautiful looking wooden pinhole cameras designed and built in Slovenia by Elvis, Beni and various family members and friends, with the intriguing name of ONDU.

Many months ago I backed this project on Kickstarter and have been eagerly following the trials and tribulations of the team as they sourced the wood, imported technical equipment, installed machinery, broke machinery, repaired machinery and finally produced and shipped their wonderful products. My two ONDU cameras (the 135 and 6 x 6 versions) arrived a few days ago and I have to say they are everything that I expected, and more!

Eat your heart out Apple – these cameras are a work of art: Organic, tactile and just plain wooderful to look at (intentional mis-spelling!). They even come with cloth carry bags stitched by the boys’ mum!

160618_ONDU

I have ordered my 120 film and 35mm film and am now looking forward to field testing these beauties over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

~Richard

June 18, 2016 4

Urban(e) Art?

As a biologist I have an affinity for the so-called natural world and the beauty of nature but, having said that, there is also a lot of unseen beauty in many mundane areas of our industrialized world. One aspect that I like to explore photographically when taking a trip to our cities, is that of reflection in our glass superstructures.

This was taken in Manhattan from my hotel window and there is a wonderful mix of the perfect straight lines and the waviness of the reflections in the not-so-perfect glass windows.

~Richard

June 17, 2016 1

Category: photography

52 Week Challenge: Week 23

52 Week Challenge: Week 21

52 Week Challenge: Week 22

52 Week Challenge: Week 26

52 Week Challenge: Week 24

Quintessentially British July 4th Celebration

Faltering on the 52-week challenge: Week 25

The Room in the Elephant

Ondu – working art

Urban(e) Art?

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