Most people would think of the recorder as being an instrument that children play and as only being a way of starting music. I remember being startled and overwhelmed by the virtuoso recorder playing of Michala Petri some while ago now. At times her pure playing was so fast as that it seemed completely impossible for one instrumentalist to be doing it! I am gradually going through my list of photographs I want to make and this one has been waiting for a while - a soprano Moeck.
These leaves speak for themselves …
Still shining from a long lost autumn, and revealing rich hues and beautifully folded fields and hedges, the setting sun over Newton in Bowland.
In recent months with a greater understanding of the technology at my fingertips I have made a number of stacked images in my work. Thistle is one and Japanese Acer is another. Looking at this poppy I could only see how the shallow depth of field seems to make the stamens float in a glorious multicoloured mist.
Taken some time ago beside the Ribble above Ribchester. Astonishing beams of light illuminated the misty vapours lingering in the stand of trees. A sharp contrast was made between the gleaming particles in the air and the dark shadow of the trees. A truly wonderful moment.
This shot seemed to just materialise out of the moment and had to be in black and white. At some level I must have been thinking of this as a possibility because I had my mat which is very useful when you have to get to floor level or ground level.
Today I am amazed at how I have missed a good shot. This was taken last October when I photographed @thebentleystudio_1 while he was chipping away at a piece of stone. I duly processed what I thought were the best shots and now I am so glad I didn't press the delete button. @rachaeltalibart mentioned in her video interview with @seantuck that she puts her work in a queue and doesn’t look at her shots for 6 months. I confess I was amazed at this. I can't keep myself away from viewing and processing. There is something about refining my process here - and a little bit of a theme emerging from some of my recent posts in this respect. You can view the full length shot in the portrait section of my website, as well as the original gallery of Tony. And do have a look at his brilliant heartfelt work. Here is a link to the finished piece you see him beginning work on in the shot.
A similar image was posted on 29th June of this lighthouse. I made this photograph on the same day, and as I said in the Instagram post a few minutes ago I am more pleased now than I was then with this picture and the one I posted the other day. When I look really closely I think it may be that I have managed to control the midrange tones. Even more specifically I think that these tones have a greater contrast than in the initial processing I did in the hours and days after the visit to New Brighton. The original photographs were truly black and white in that they had the gamut of tones from black to white, but I think some of the extra punch that goes with a satisfying black and white was missing. If you want to let me know what you think of this and/or the earlier one, be my guest and write a comment or message me using one of the myriad of media available. A larger shot can be seen here
The first two videos feature ‘Sunflower’. He and his brother instead of living in a back garden are now at Preston Hedgehog Rescue. They were very hungry. Sunflower was 97g and Seeds was 92g. Hedgehogs have to be at least 600g to be able to hibernate.
In which Sunflower is first found eating sunflower seeds, before he and his brother, called 'Seeds', are taken to Preston Hedgehog Rescue!
In which Sunflower runs off eventually to find his brother who is called 'Seeds'
We finally see Sunflower and Seeds together, but which is which?