I'm enjoying getting to know the latest version of paintshop pro, Photo XI. I like the way the command history is now located on a palette which allows you to toggle and jump across previous commands rather than just linearly, though I can get a bit lost. Eventually I get down to comparing two results where I can't choose which one I prefer - too much green, too little green? I found getting satisfactory rendering of the red on green difficult: I find red is often awkward to get to look natural but if you tweak the green and blue too much the background begins to look fake. It doesn't help to know that the palette of greek greens is slightly different to those of english greens. There is a temptation to go surreal at this point but I remind myself it's not what I'm after.
As it turned out Image #2 had the minimal amount of curve adjustment and I think I prefer it the best. Sometimes you have to trust the camera.
These poppies were growing in an olive grove in front of a zakynthian house near where we were staying. Unusual as we didn't see any other poppies growing in such profusion anywhere else.
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ian russell"s photoblog
cream of tomato
Most of these were taken on a Canon ixus400.
I've had it for four years after noticing how much fun others were having with pocket-sized cameras. It's a bit arthritic now but it's still my little favourite.
About three years after getting the ixus I bought a digital SLR and one of these days I'll learn how to use it.
chicken soup
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inspirational minestrone
Mulligatawny
cullen skink
mock turtle
There's a few references to photoshop. I avoided using photoshop in the beginning, it's a moot point whether it's still photography and not merely computer graphics. This idea changed when my friend and pro photographer, Anne, urged me to ''push'' my images to get the best results. Now I feel it's all about the finished image; the end justifies the means. In a way this implies photography has been devalued, and it has, but then no one has been using box cameras and silver nitrate for a while - it's progress. As long as the spirit is alive, it's still photography.
Very nearly all the images involve some photoshop but I've only tagged those that used more photoshop than photography.
Technically, I still don't use photoshop. It's Paintshop Pro Photo XI. At one tenth the cost and able to do everything I need it to, I can put the half-grand saved towards another lens.
animal crackers
- abstract (2)
- animals (5)
- architecture (10)
- bichrome (1)
- black and white (18)
- collage (1)
- colour (49)
- EOS (27)
- flash did not fire (2)
- geometric (5)
- Ixus400 (35)
- machines (8)
- monochrome (21)
- movelet (1)
- movement (4)
- nature (18)
- pentax 35mm (1)
- people (12)
- photoshop (9)
- portrait (3)
- scanograph (6)
- scenic (16)
- still life (9)
- symbolic (13)
- town (12)
- water (7)
- womad (4)
- zakynthos (12)
filé gumbo
Art is both creation and recreation. Of the two ideas, I think art as recreation or as sheer play of the human spirit is more important.
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
What is art? Art could be how you view life and not necessarily tied to the production of objects.
Hamish Fulton
Hamish Fulton
If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man or woman grown, set down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds, above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind would be filled with its glory unable to grasp it, hardly believing that such things could be mere matter ... too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away.
Richard Jefferies, from 'Wild Flowers'
Richard Jefferies, from 'Wild Flowers'
Photography needs more anarchists.
Anne de Haas
Anne de Haas
In our creativity, we should endeavour to make mistakes. There is nothing wrong in making mistakes; in fact it should be regarded as a creative virtue. After all, success is just an accident that occurs while we are making mistakes.
potager's proverb
potager's proverb
Actually, I'm not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I'm not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren't cooks.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
walk slowly,
take your time
and smell the roses...
take your time
and smell the roses...
pea & ham
Being a blog, photos get posted in chronological order not always in the order they're made, and never in an order which represents my own favourites, whether it's artistically pleasing, a fascinating learning process, an enjoyable day's hunting or just bloody amazing that anything turned out better than I hoped!
Also, as every picture tells a story, I thought I'd select a few images which mean more than the majority I've snapped and place them to a sub-blog, which I call Short Back & Sides, and I'll record some notes and memories, motivation and inspiration, and any other mumbles that come to mind.