Photography

Lensbaby Trio 28 lens Review – The story of the photographs at Tyntesfield Manor

January 25, 2017

This was the biggest surprise Christmas present I’ve had! I didn’t even know about this lens, so I was amazed that not only it exists, but it fits my little mirrorless micro four thirds camera, the Panasonic GM1! One of my favourite photographers is Emily Soto – I adore the soft focus effects of her portraits, but without the equipment, I’ve had to try and emulate the style in post-processing, which I haven’t had the time yet to learn properly. Now, I have a lens that does it for me, and even better, there are three lenses in one!….

Time to organise my photos + a massive Printerpix Black Friday offer

November 25, 2016

I have to admit, I miss the days of carefully placing photo prints into a sticky photo album; cutting bits off and overlapping where they don’t quite fit. Also putting every single photo in, even if it was awful, because you paid for it, it has to go in! Then I’d write little labels and cut them out so the future me would remember where we were and who I was with and then you fold over the clear cover, making sure there were no air bubbles. I have a stack of these extra-large albums about a metre and a half high in the cupboard in the guest-room! Nowadays people’s photos sit on their phones or on memory sticks, but I can’t bare not to have a tangible copy of my photos that I can look at without having to sit in front of a screen. This is where photobooks come in…..

3 Days in Oxford – Day 3. The story of the photographs

November 9, 2016

We’ve now come to my last day in Oxford and after breakfast, I sadly checked out of the hotel and drove to the park and ride. I bussed into the city where I was dropped off near the bottom of St Aldates and began walking all the way up to a lovely clothes shop called Olivia May on Little Clarendon Street where it snowed heavily for about half an hour. Then on route to the Natural History Museum, the sun came out and it was so hot, I took my coat off (bloody British weather). Of course, I took lots of photos on the way……

3 Days in Oxford – Day 2. The story of the photographs

October 12, 2016

If you haven’t yet seen Day 1, then you might like to follow this link and come back here later. The morning of my second day in Oxford was mainly spent walking from the Four Pillars Hotel in Sandford-on-Thames along the Thames path into Oxford. I’ve already written a detailed blog with photos about the journey in this post, so I’ll begin here where I left off, entering the city by Christchurch College. I sort-of meandered my way through cobbled streets and past various ancient University buildings until I came out at a place I remembered….

The Story Behind the Photographs – Morvah mine

October 8, 2016

Chris and I took two days off work before the bank holiday weekend, and drove the camper-van down to Cornwall. We had three nights and four days away altogether and in that time we saw Jeremy Loops play at Perranporth; met up with family; took several photos for Oshun and for the blog (such as the one at the top of this page); relaxed a bit, and even found time to take some photos just for the fun of it. The great thing about wild camping is that you can wake up right next to the most wonderful wild places, including this ruined tin mine. One of my favourite photos from the day I chose to have blown up and printed onto canvas for our living room. It was a beautiful morning and the pathway towards the sea was just magical….

My Cornwall photo on canvas! Printed by Printerpix

October 6, 2016

Chris and I are very fussy about art for our walls, and we don’t always have the same taste. We compromise by never ending up getting anything! However, when the opportunity came up to have one of my photographs blown up and printed onto canvas, I was really excited by it. I have a massive 60% discount code at Printerpix for you at the end of this post. I chose a picture I took during our recent campervan trip to Cornwall. The old disused mine is easy to find on the North coast road near Morvah. It’s a popular spot for rock-climbers and hundreds passed us on the footpath towards the cliffs, lugging their gear with them. It was fairly early in the morning when we went photo-spotting, and I turned away from the sea and looked back at this ruined mine building….

3 days in Oxford – Day 1. The story of the photographs

September 16, 2016

I was so excited about this little mini-break to Oxford. I love my family to bits, but sometimes it’s nice to be alone and have a little headspace all to yourself! I also find it difficult to relax at home because there’s always so much to do there. I don’t think it helps that I work from home either, so no matter if it’s the evening or weekend, I still always feel I should either be working or doing something towards fixing the house. I was also a little bit nervous because I’m not great at driving and get flustered easily, but the journey was good; I didn’t get lost once and made it to the park and ride with no problems following the sat nav!….

Using a Prism for Flower Photography

August 19, 2016

Playing with light is a photographer’s dream, so what could be better than creating magical rainbows and mystical haze?! Chris had seen some of the effects that a prism could make, so he bought me one to play with. How to use a prism in photography? – it is simple enough – you just hold it in front of the lens, and have a play with what you get. It gives an original look to photographs, and I think works particularly well for flowers. I think it would take a fair bit of practice to actually predict the results and know how to get them though. I discarded many photos because they just looked plain weird, or had too much rainbow or too much glare from sunlight. I tried it first with a bunch of flowers on my table, just to see what it would be like; then I took all my photography gear to Lytes Cary Manor to photograph their gardens, and particularly the apple blossom. This is the result….

The story of the photographs – Glastonbury Festival 2016

July 7, 2016

You are probably aware by now that this year’s Glastonbury Festival was quite a muddy one! Unfortunately I can’t find anywhere to buy camera cases that fit my Panasonic Lumix GM1 when it has a long zoom lens attached. So, as I have a sturdy leather case for the kit lens that came with it – 12-32mm (24-64 equiv) – I decided not to risk damaging my others. It was a good decision because the cover did get quite a bit of mud on it! However it means my photography was a bit limited this year. Not just by the lens, but unless you were there, I don’t think you can ever understand what it’s like to try and get around in that thickness of mud. It is almost up to your knees in places and sucks you down like it’s superglue, so even just taking a few footsteps to the right to get the best angle simply isn’t doable, let alone running to the most photogenic field when the sun sets! So I didn’t get as many good photos as I would have liked, but here are the best ones….

Glastonbury Festival – the calm before the storm

June 17, 2016

Strictly speaking, it was after the storm as there literally was thunder and quite a lot of rain a couple of hours before we went into the Glastonbury Festival site yesterday evening, but luckily it stayed dry for the time we were there. (addendum: The day after this, there was a massive storm on Friday as well, so even though I meant the title metaphorically, referring to the festival, it actually turned out to be true to life!) I’ve been running Pilton Youth Club for a few years now, and the festival office kindly let us have a look around. I hope you don’t mind my blog being fairly Glastonbury Festival heavy at the moment! This is mainly a photography post….

The story of the photographs – a walk along the Thames path to Oxford

May 19, 2016

Duck family I was recently lucky enough to have a little break at the Oxford Thames Hotel at Sandford-on-Thames. You’ve probably guessed by now which river I might be walking next to! With no path on the hotel side of the river, I had to back-track a little to cross the bridge at the lock at the Kings Arms where I saw the cutest tiniest little fluffy duckling with a Mummy and two Daddies looking after it! This really started off my walk in a good mood, and I stayed that way all the way to Oxford, even though it felt a lot longer than the three miles it was supposed to be….

Jane Mucklow – the story of the photographer

May 11, 2016

This is my interview with Jane Mucklow – a Sevenoaks and West Kent based photographer who takes beautiful landscape and flower photographs which are great for brightening up your wall or giving as gifts. She also does corporate profile headshots and product and marketing commercial photography. So if you’re looking for some beautiful art for home, or need some pictures for your business, do go and check out her website. Here we talk about what it’s like to be a photographer and run a creative business, and she offers great advice for others who would like to do something similar: Please tell me an overview of your business – what do you do? I love to capture the beauty I see around me in our lovely local landscapes (or wherever I go), from big wide-angle views down to close-ups of flowers, and anything in between. If I can get flowers into a landscape I’m extra happy! We have lavender farms, poppy fields and lots of bluebells near here which are always an amazing colour. I sell my photos as prints, canvases, greetings cards and calendars, through my website and at local fairs and markets, as I love it when someone wants one of my images enough to hang a copy on their wall to enjoy everyday….

Photography

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