Well this ‘theme’ started by accident and then continued to show I did more than landscapes. Yet it is not so very different. The textures and patterns of nature appear in many forms, in this case a couple of pretty models, and still showing the many variations available to challenge the photographer. This was a first for me; the results are interesting if far from perfect; so a new challenge.

So after the photo shoot one of the models asked the photographers if they could send her a selection of photos for her portfolio. So I sent a small collection of which this is one.

Now I like this photo; it shows a pretty and happy girl, which I thought she was. And she wrote a quite surly email back saying how it made her look tired and haggard (apparently she complained to other photographers that I spoke to about their photos). But she said she really liked this one

Which I think makes her look solemn and tiredt; I just put it in for contrast. There really is no pleasing some people … or perhaps you agree?

As I have said before you can overdo photoshop. When I first discovered the tools and techniques I went overboard; and over the top. So I stopped and reconsidered and realised that often and image only needed a little tweak. Yet there are some images where it is fun to explore. I like this variant of the previous image; hope you do to.

Ok so it started as a bit of a joke. After all; I rarely take pictures of people, and when I do they rarely please me and are often beset by technical problems. When challenged to try more portraits my long suffering son (he has hung around icy lakes whilst I happily clicked away, hovered patiently by my side underwater whilst I got out of focus photos of a fish’s bottom) agreed to let me try some shots on him, and my camera refused to focus. So landscape is my thing, water in particular, and any photoimaginator needs to think about what really is important to them … and  then sometimes forget about it and try something different. So a small series of photos from my one and only (so far) studio shoot, but doing it my way, foregoing the brightly lit cute shots and looking for those contrasts and textures.

OK; a little tongue in cheek. As you may just have noticed nearly all my images are, or are based upon, landscapes. But just to try something different a local camera club was running a studio session with a couple of models. They were pretty girls and most of the photographers were doing full length shots, with strong studio lighting. Me being me, after a while, I found my close up shots, often taken in natural lighting, even though this created strong shadows, much more interesting. This is a crop from one of the close up shots.

In the earlier Uluru image I talked a little about the limitations imposed by a camera of modest specification; the lighting was too harsh and  with an 8mp camera of limited specification, no auto exposure bracketing and in a tour group that needed to move on before I could try multiple angles, exposures etc the  result was nice but could have been better. The moral is to try lots of alternatives on the same view; and have a great camera … well maybe. Yes it helps in difficult conditions, but this image was taken with a 5mp compact. It was a time when my main cameras were a 35mm SLR and a beautiful Bronica medium format. But I had the compact as I could buy an underwater housing for it and go diving with it.

And on a whim I took it along when climbing a mountain called Blencathra in Cumbria; not exactly diving terrain in a pond about a metre deep! And the lighting conditions were not so harsh, and when my son and I had puffed and panted our way to the top, he waited patiently whilst I took many photos. And whilst the shots on film are better this shows that even a modest camera can take a beautiful photo. What you need is an eye for composition, a brain to recognise the opportunity, oh and a beautiful model.

Well  I was going to move on from waves for a while yet a few new people have registered, so in the belief that they like my waves, this is me waving hello.

I was on a beach on the Mornington Peninsula and getting wet. I was glad to get wet as standing in the dry meant I was getting bitten mercilessly by  Aussie horseflies, and wet seemed a better option. Despite the flies and the wet I took a lot of photographs. Beautiful rollers, bright blue sky and a fresh wind … but next time I will remember industrial strength insect repellent … who says you don’t have to suffer for your art … and sometimes Gaia likes to bite a little.

This photo was taken at Uluru (the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock). It is a strange and beautiful place. Before I had even arrived I had decided not to climb it (to the aboriginals it is an important spiritual place; and it being their place they feel responsible for those who die whilst climbing it) and when walking around the rock and I got to the climb point I thought ‘good call Ash’. It is steep and with few features … once you start to fall there is nothing to stop you. Yet there are a few odd features, strange pits and holes where the imagination can see heads or mouths or eyes, and the aboriginals have woven many dreamtime tales around these features. And one of these features is this wave formation. Now as an ex geologist I know what causes this; it is torrential floods of water trapped in a gully or ravine carving its way into the sides. Only this one is weird; on one side is the rock, and though there are occasional storms, on the other side of the rock there is … well vast undulating desert … nothing to stop the water spreading out into this plain and hold it against the rock in order for it to carve this wave. So it is puzzling; and no one I have talked to can explain it. So I photographed it; not a great image; using a camera of modest specification in fiercely contrasting light; yet an image that interests me.

This image is truly hot off the press. It has been a difficult Spring in the UK; Gaia reluctant to cast off her Winter woollies and put on her pretty new year clothes; cold and grey. Yet yesterday was a good day. I drove to the Dorset coast, one of the few day-tripable places near me where you can get waves crashing on rocks. The weather was glorious, still cold but bright and sunny and, optimist that I am, a Spring feel at last. I took my cameras and went for a sprightly walk over the cliffs on the Jurassic coast. What a battering it had taken from last year; the footpath down to the beach had been partly washed away and there were huge falls of chalk on the beach where sections of cliff had fallen away. Very beautiful and dramatic, white chalk cliffs, grey Jurassic limestone outer cliffs, a beach of fine orange pebbles, turquoise/grey sea, blue sky and white breakers. Lovely. Yet a dangerous lovely; At times the wave I was photographing decided to play and I got soaked, thigh level, and it was a cold day; and the undertow will have been fierce on a steeply sloping beach. Now, from a person who has (albeit some time back) hung onto a cliff top with one hand, whilst digging out fossils with another, a warning thought.  You do have to balance, getting the image with not getting killed. Taking photographs from the car park is safe (well other than the eedjit drivers around) yet what you tend to get is safe photographs. Yet dying for my art is not on my life plan. I saw a quote on Facebook today … ‘Life’s journey is not to arrive safely at the graveside with a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘holy shit! … what a ride” ‘. Here’s to getting the mix right.