OK. So, to state the obvious, not Cumbria. That will be next. This image comes from the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne. The base photo was taken much the same time as ‘Gathering Storm’ and ‘The Other Side of the Pier’ (below) but they were taken bay side and this was taken ocean side. The wind was so fierce that you could lean into it at an angle of 45 and not fall over. Holding a camera steady in the gusts was a nightmare, even using fence posts did not help; not even sure if a tripod would. The only option was to point the camera in vaguely the right direction, press the shutter; then, after every few shots, wipe salt spray (eek) and wind blown sand (eek eek) from the lens otherwise everything looked like it was shot through a soft focus filter. Quantity worked; some shots looked like she was having fun. Gaia dancing frenetically indeed.  I pushed and tweaked the photo, nudged the colours a bit; though not as much as you might think … there really were turquoise and indigo swathes.  Gaia is lady enough to like a bit of makeup sometimes. Hope you like.

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I decided to add these immediately after the last post as I wish to complete this theme (for now anyway) and move onto the next. Coming next … I think I will post a few images from Cumbria, Gaia at her finest

Continuing the theme … I visited my favourite hulk on a very stormy day. Very Noah’s Ark I thought.

For a while at least, rather than posting random images that appeal to me, I will post a few on a theme, and then move on to the next theme. So, having started with my favourite rotting hulk (see below) I will post a couple more. The lessons to be learned from this hulk are that one object/view/whatever can provide many images. The hulk has the textures of the wood, the rusty ironwork, the old ropes; all weatherbeaten by wind, rain and waves. All contribute, you just have to look and see the potential and I am sure others will see things in this hulk that I have missed.

There is an old rotting hulk on one of the inlets of Chichester Harbour. Some scallywag has daubed ‘HMS Victory’ on its bow. I find the textures and patterns (often the case with me) of the weather-beaten and rotting wood intriguing. Equally intriguing is the thought that this was once the centre of many peoples lives, for a while anyway; the people who built it and the people who used it (for leisure or commerce, who knows). It was important to them and now it sits there neglected and rotting; yet there is also a sign on it saying ‘private property. Keep off’. Who knows, maybe someone still loves it; heh, I do too.

I have been taking photographs for 50 years, but only went digital 5 years ago when planning a holiday to Botswana and realising that the cost of a new digital camera was much less than the cost of buying suitable quantities of 35mm film, then having it processed and printed. Even then it took me some time to realise the potential of the digital leap; firstly not to horde each shot as though eking out my film supply but to buy large memory cards and shoot lots. Then there is Photoshop, and I only started using it this Summer, some self taught, some aided by my daughter. At first it was just a nip and a tuck here and there, then, as I discovered more features, I went berserk … converting to water colours, line drawings, twirling and whirling and waving. Then I calmed down, deciding that many of these features were just gimmicks creating same old same old images; and went back to more advanced nipping and tucking. Then I started to learn a more disciplined approach to the ‘gimmicks’. They really can, when used selectively, create some stunning images. The images in this post were based on the thingummydowhatsit (see previous post). Don’t ask exactly how I did them as I do not know the precise combinations, they were the result of much trial and error experimentation. I like them; I hope you do to.

Well I said that most of my images are from the natural world but most does not have to mean all. I have no idea what this thing is called, it’s from a 19^th century warship, so I will call it a thingummydowhatsit. I just enjoyed the shape, the reflections and the warmth of the brass. Very little photoshopping required. The original was taken with my usual Canon 60D, 55-250 and a wide aperture to blur the background. And somewhere in there is me, I mean an actual reflection of me not just the input of me the artist.