Fine Art

  • Abstract,  Architecture,  Black & White,  Bokeh,  Composition,  Creative Photography,  Fine Art,  ICM,  Landscape,  Macro,  Mobile,  Movement,  Snapseed

    Worcestershire Open Studios is nearly here!

    The final preparation for this weekend’s opening of my exhibition as part of Worcestershire Open Studios (WoS) is pretty well done!  Images are up, lights are installed and tested, mounted prints are in their display boxes, greetings cards are sorted, and signage is all done. Even the sun is getting in on the act and saying, “Here’s where you need to come to”! If you follow the directions that are found here, you should see a house like this one – only the right way up!  There will be signs and green bunting to help you find it. This one of the key images in my exhibition.  If you want…

  • Bokeh,  Creative Photography,  Fine Art,  Macro,  Mobile

    Happy Christmas!

    As it’s less than a couple of weeks till Xmas Day I thought I would take the opportunity to wish you all a “Merry Christmas and a Phabulously Photographic New Year”. It’s been an interesting year for me, with lots of in-person and Zoom talks and well-received Macro workshops.  I’ve already got talk bookings for 2026! This is a macro bokeh shot of an Xmas tree bauble.  Not only is there foreground bokeh but there’s also wider background bokeh.  It’s like differential focus, but it’s all actually out of focus! Our neighbour over the road has a log-burning stove.  One quite windy day it was smoking quite a lot, and…

  • Abstract,  Fine Art,  Mobile,  Travel

    There’s a storm a brewin’…

    We recently had a one week holiday down in lovely Cornwall.  As our plan was to do as much coastal walking as possible, it was somewhat weather dependent.  Luckily, all except one day was pretty good, and a few days were marvellous.  The bad day was the day of Storm Agnes.  For a few hours in the afternoon all manner of wild wind and rain happened.  Going across the River Fal on the King Harry ferry was entertaining. While the storm was developing the sky began to look very ominous.  It was clear that there was a lot of air movement.  It was fascinating to watch.  I took a shot…

  • Abstract,  Bokeh,  Fine Art,  Macro

    Sharpness is overrated

    Now that Autumn is very much here we are getting dewy mornings and low-angle sunlight.  Photographically that combination is too good to miss, so today I popped out into the garden with an unusual lens combination on my Olympus E-M5 Mk3; a Sigma 30mm f1.4 and a 10mm extension tube.  My idea was to set the lens on f1.4, completely defocus and see what happened. My first subject was a lovely red maple tree.  The sun was shining on the water droplets on the leaves, and the defocusing gave fabulous complexity to the highlights, especially in the lower half of the frame.  I’ve bumped up the saturation as bit to…

  • Abstract,  Fine Art,  ICM,  Movement

    Curses, foiled again!

    Yesterday I fitted some foil insulation to the ceiling of our cellar.  It’s a 200 year old house so yes, we have a cellar.  The foil is to help stop the room above it being so cold. I popped the roll of foil down on the kitchen floor and it caught a ray of morning sunlight.  I loved what the sunlight reflections from the foil did to the kitchen floor, so it was out with my phone to capture it.  The rays look a bit like the rising sun.  A touch of editing to taste in Snapseed and it was done. Whilst I had the phone out I tried a…

  • Fine Art,  Movement

    Bob Harris’s Shutter

    I recently gave my “Movement in Photography” talk to the Facebook Camversation group. It was great to talk to about 100 photographers from around the world. One subject of my talk was the “Harris shutter”.  It’s a technique developed by Bob Harris, a Kodak engineer, and involves taking a three exposures on one film frame using three coloured filters; red, green and blue, and with one exposure per filter.  The idea is that where no movement has happened the colours come out normal, and where movement has happened you get red, green or blue colours appearing.  You also get the additive colours where these primary colours overlap.  It’s a fun…

  • Abstract,  Bokeh,  Fine Art,  ICM,  Movement,  Snapseed

    It’s show and tell time soon.

    In August I am taking part in Worcestershire Open Studios (WoS) for the first time.  In WoS artists of many types open their studios for everyone to come and look at and to talk about their work.  I’ll be open from 11 am to 5.30pm on the 19th/20th and the 26th-28th.   It would be great to see you there!  Take a look at the WoS website here. I’ll have examples of my Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) work, (like the image above), my Bokeh work (like the image below), and many more.  ICM is a method of producing images that are abstract and impressionistic.  I’ll be more than happy to talk…