Life Observed

Sounds like a folk festival. No, it's a field of wheat waiting its turn with the combine harvester. In this case I have given the picture the Orton treatment to sprinkle some magic dust on an otherwise conventional scene. I also narrowed the depth of field with a layers and layer mask trick that I've used before to focus attention on the cereal crop.

Curious, I never noticed before. Is this stylised Angel thumbing a lift to Heaven? Actually Angels must be scary. Usually, the first thing they say when they appear are the words "Fear Not..." And this is your average stone angels environment. The Victorian Graveyard. Both of these images from film were processed using an ethereal Orton Sandwich effect I created in Photoshop...

Here are a couple of examples of nature's colours this springtime to lighten our mood amongst all the depressing and worrying news. Here's a sunlit macro of a lichen encrusted twig that I spotted recently. I'm not certain what the tree gets out of it, but the lichen seems to be enjoying itself. My favourite method for flower pictures it to get to the same level as the flower. If that means the camera has to be put right down in the grass, then so be it. Fortunately my DSLR has one of these new fangled swinging rear screens, thus avoiding the embarrassing and painful business of grovelling in the mud to get the shot....

Not just any old Bert, we're talking about Weston birt here... Westonbirt Arboretum is what you get when you put a load of fancy trees together. Its a bit like a designer forest.  I paid it a visit early one Sunday in October a few years back.  I wanted to get there early to catch the golden hour when the sun is low. They directed me to a parking field and popped my old 911 * in the corner, paid my entry fee and followed the other half dozen folks into a fantastic riot of colour. This was a first outing for my new Manfrotto tripod. This is a Big Tripod with large tubular aluminium legs, a proper rising column and support stays. I have this theory, you see. If you want people to take you seriously as a photographer, don't get a bigger camera, get a Bigger Tripod... I have to admit the era of the hard core tripod didn't last long. The thing is a solid as a rock and beautifully made, but it's so heavy it now only leaves the house on special occas...

... or Going all Soft. One of the nice effects you can make in Photoshop is this recreation of the Michael Orton slide sandwich. It attempts to replicate his remarkable technique for creating soft and ethereal images by combining two individual slides, one sharp and one soft. These days you can create and combine layers in Photoshop with great ease and there are many different versions of this method, but the result should have a hint of sharpness in with the soft look. I aim for a nice high saturation too, this gives the picture a certain richness. This is a method that works well with flowers and subjects from Nature. However, you can also apply it to man made scenes like this one, and it can add a certain nostalgia to the image. In years gone by this could have been done with a smear of Vaseline on an old filter on the front of the lens - but the Photoshop method is reversible and a whole lot less messy.. (Discarded tractor on Kerrera island, Scotland)