Artificial Light

Well this was a really difficult one for me. I’m mostly a natural light photographer. I can probably count on one hand the amount of time I’ve used artificial light. 

In the beginning of my photography journey I brought all the lighting gear, I had no where to put it but I thought I needed it to be a proper photographer. I had umbrella lights, off camera flash, a Gary Fong light sphere….you name it, I had it. I really couldn’t get to grips with it all.

I started quite early on realising that actually all I needed was natural light. A nice big open window, outdoors or even a torch (phone torch) could bring decent results. 

My photography journey has come on leaps and bounds since those first uncertain years not knowing my style or where I fitted in. 

I think I certainly appreciate the need for artificial lights if you have a studio space or anything like that but i have never had that. I tried cramming sessions into my tiny home but with all the equipment it got cramped very very quickly.

I will share with you some of my earlier images where I tried out studio lighting and then a few recent pictures taken using phone torch lighting on a dusky evening. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. This blog is part of a blog circle where a talented group of photographers share their work on the subject. Next up please go on to read my good friend Janet’s Blog post and see their take on artificial lighting

https://jandouglas.weebly.com/share-six/share-six-october-artificial-light

If you’d like to share your artificial light pics head over to the share six Facebook page or tag #sharesix or #sharesix_artificiallight on Instagram.

This photo goes back quite a few years and I really didn’t understand lighting at all. I have used a back drop and umbrella lighting to photograph my daughter. 

Again taken a few years back but with this one I used a flash unit with a Gary Fong light sphere. I still had little understanding of how to use artificial lighting. 

One more try with my nephew here and the umbrella lights and then I gave up. I realised that I much preferred natural light and probably outdoors work. Studio photography wasn’t for me. 

This is my most recent work. Taking photos on a dusky evening with some faint lighting from a torch. You can create some amazing looks with artificial lighting and once I understood lighting a bit more it became easier and easier to manipulate images to look the way I wanted them to. 

When using something like torch light you can get a very yellow looking image. This can easily be fixed in photoshop and you’re then left with a beautiful looking image. 

And finally this is a photograph of one of my black chickens wings. With the light shining straight on them they become this beautiful iridescent green.

FACES

The theme this month for this blog post is faces….a theme I chose. During my photography journey I discovered that I absolutely adored photographing faces. One photo can give you so many different feelings when you’re looking closely at someone’s face. The emotions you can pick up from that photo are amazing.

I’ve gone back into the archives to pull out some of my all time photos of the different people that I have photographed.

Street photography was one of the first places where I realised you could pick up on the different emotions of a person in one photo.

I had a go at doing some indoor portrait photography but ultimately decided it wasn’t my thing as you don’t really pick up on true emotions which is what I like. When someone is posing for a photo it’s hard to get that natural look in their eyes. I did have a go though and these are some of what I captured (mainly my children, again from the archives).

My nan has dementia and we visit her as often as we can. She has no idea who myself or my mum are but she enjoys our visits. I took my camera a long to document her time with dementia and I adore looking at the joy in her face when we are there.

I adore photographing children to. There eyes are so amazing when they are staring into the camera.

And then here are just a few of my all time favourites.

I hope you have enjoyed reading through and seeing my photos. I am part of a blog circle so please pop over to my dear friends page and check out their take on the theme.

https://lupji.photography/2024/08/06/capturing-the-essence-of-bartabandha-a-hindu-coming-of-age-ceremony/

Vibrant

Hello my lovely friends.

This month the theme for the group is ‘vibrant’

This is right up my street. I LOVE colour and vibrancy in nature, in my crafts and just all around. When it comes to photographing people my preferences are black and white but nature…well that’s different. All those beautiful colours that create such different feeling and emotions.

Throughout the seasons of the year you can find so many different colours and different vibrancies of colours. I love it. I love the differences you can get in the same scene throughout the different seasons. The different colours of the same flowers when they’re alive and when they die. Natures amazing.

So here are some of my photos that I have captured throughout the year.

First off we have flowers from my garden.

These are some of my artworks. These are all Gel Prints which I absolutely love making.

Spring in my garden.

I hope you have enjoyed my images. Please pop over to my dear friend Janet’s page https://jandouglas.weebly.com/share-six/share-six-june-vibrant and take a look at her take on the theme.

We are all part of a blog circle and appreciate your support.

Upside Down

Well……I really enjoyed having a go at this concept.

I had to try and figure a way of doing this theme. I don’t have a glass ball so i looked up another way to try this and came up with using another lens to achieve the upside down look.

I have been unwell recently so i haven’t really picked up my camera so doing this really was a lot of fun.

I have 6 chickens who free range during the day in the garden. i sat out side with them for a while enjoying the first bit of sun we have had in a while. They were very curious as to why i was sticking a lens in their faces! They happily clucked about as i happily snapped away. Even the local pigeons wondered what was going on and joined in by sitting on the fence, I had to of course get a picture of one of them as well.

I also had a go at taking a photo of myself in the mirror through the lens. I don’t know why but in my head i thought the image in the mirror would then be flipped back upright but that didn’t happen. I was still upside down.

Here are the images i managed to get. I hope you enjoy them.

I am part of a blog circle. Please head over to the very talented https://lupji.photography/2024/05/08/upside-down/ and take a look at their take on the theme ‘upside down’.

Thank you for reading.

OUT OF FOCUS

One of my favourite things to do in photography is to take photos that have an element out of focus. I love to use my lensbaby to create this effect or take photos in the fog or some other way to create the effect I desire.

One of my favourite all time photographers is Julia Margaret Cameron who was a pioneer in her day as she was not only a female photographer but she was the first to PURPOSEFULLY take photographs with an out of focus element.

‘ Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and women, for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature, and for sensitive portraits of men, women and children. ‘

She inspired my love of the soft focus/out of focus photography style.

I don’t photograph as much these days as I should but I do take my camera out into the garden and photograph the flowers and the plants and just play around and see what I can come up with.

These are a few of my flower/plant out of focus images. Mainly I have a soft, out of focus background and a focal point in the foreground.

Along with taking plant photos I enjoy taking photos outdoors of people or trees or just scenery. Here are a few of those.

If you’ve enjoyed my images I’m part of a blog circle, please continue onto my very talented friends blog post by clicking here https://itsstilllifephotography.wordpress.com/2024/02/06/out-of-focus-2/

Painterly Effect

A few years ago I really got into the whole photoshop idea of trying to make my images look like paintings. I was something I really enjoyed as it involved learning more about layers and textures and lighting.

In my photography journey I’ve tried pushing myself to try different ideas and techniques and because of that I’m not renowned for a particular style when it comes to my photos.

I’m fascinated though by the techniques that can be used to change an image and manipulate it into whatever you want it to be.

Not only did I try the effect of making my images look like paintings on my children but I also tried it on flowers and even animals.

My parents dogs are proudly up on their living room wall displayed on canvas and people have asked in the past ‘who painted that?’

I think that means job well done to me 😉

I hope you have enjoyed looking at these images.

I am part of a blog circle with some incredibly talented people. Please continue on reading and taking a look at the images of my friend https://itsstilllifephotography.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/painterly/

Vintage

vintage adjective (FROM THE PAST)

There are a lot of things about ‘Vintage’ that appeal to me in many many different ways.

I love to look through museums showing things from all the different ages. Living in England means we have a lot of history so there are a lot of museums holding the most extraordinary vintage items.

Where I live there is a big army barracks and a lot of army/war history and my family love to go and walk around admiring all the old things weather is be old army vehicles or vintage knitting patterns. Every time we go to the same museum we spot different thing that we hadn’t seen before. So for my first lot of photos that I’m going to share I will show you my views on vintage military history.

The second part of vintage for me is vintage photography.

I have a huge love for the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft focus close-ups of famous victorian men and women, for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature, and for sensitive portraits of men, women and children.

She was one of the first people to deliberately take out of focus photographs.

I had a go at mimicking her photos on different occasions and although they certainly don’t stand up to Julia Margaret Cameron’s amazing work I enjoyed trying.

So these next photos are some portraits I’ve done in her style (or tried to).

We are a group of photographers taking part in a circle blog and we would love you to continue on reading each persons take on Vintage. Please carry on by popping over to the page of the incredibly talented https://sharleenstuart.com/2023/12/06/share-six-december-2023-vintage/

Thanks for reading.

Beautiful light

Summers of beautiful days gone by. 

My children are all growing up extremely quickly. I know everyone feels this way but you never quite believe it when someone else tells you that it all passes by within the blink of an eye. 

I’m going to miss the days of water fights in the garden and paddling pools and laughter. It already feels strange not having my son around these summer holidays, this is the first summer since he moved out. 

Summer is definitely a time for the beautiful light created by the glaring sun and you can capture it in so many ways and colours. I’m a lover of natural light and will always seek it out whenever and where-ever I can. 

Thank you all for taking the time to read my post. Please continue on by reading the next blog post by the incredibly talented Lupje. Their work is absolutely gorgeous and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. 
https://lupji.photography/2023/09/06/beautiful-light/

Beautiful Light

Summers of beautiful days gone by.

My children are all growing up extremely quickly. I know everyone feels this way but you never quite believe it when someone else tells you that it all passes by within the blink of an eye.

I’m going to miss the days of water fights in the garden and paddling pools and laughter. It already feels strange not having my son around these summer holidays, this is the first summer since he moved out.

Summer is definitely a time for the beautiful light created by the glaring sun and you can capture it in so many ways and colours. I’m a lover of natural light and will always seek it out whenever and where-ever I can.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my post. Please continue on by reading the next blog post by the incredibly talented Lupje. Their work is absolutely gorgeous and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. https://lupji.photography/2023/09/08/beautiful-light

Double Exposure

I had never attempted a double exposure until recently.

A double exposure is defined as ‘the act or process of recording two superimposed images on a photographic medium, usually done intentionally to produce a special effect’.

I have seen quite a few amazing results produced by people, mine on the other hand are not wonderful. I lack the skills in Photoshop to be able to produce something mind blowing and my camera unfortunately doesn’t have the function to do it in camera but I enjoyed trying all the same.

I am not sure if I will do more double exposures but it was fun trying.

I am part of a blog circle with some very talented photographers so please pop over to http://www.ceriherd.com/2017/10/06/share-six-blog-circle-october-2017-double-exposures/ and read their take on double exposure. Continue to follow all the links to complete the circle.