A year pass to the local zoo is a rather fine Christmas present indeed - thank you!

Sigur Rós, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

Sigur Rós, Empress Ballroom, Blackpool

Forgotten

This crumbling Welsh cottage was only accessible by climbing through ivy and a partly collapsed doorway. Well worth the liberal covering of dust I left with.

Fisherman's Blues

I would need to search deeper into my psyche than I care to tread this lunchtime, looking for an answer to where this idea came from, and more alarmingly why I carried it through. I should write something meaningful about depleting fish stocks or UK fish quotas. All I really know is that the fishmongers is definitely not going to route through their bins for fish heads for a 3^rd time. This shot was taken in the barn below.

Click image to enlarge

Cherries, wooden plate.

I might try something like this again, but using a more diffuse light and a spray of water on the fruit. I also think a wider depth of field could be beneficial.

I am getting a bit tired doing of these 'filler shots'. These are really only taken, and always in a hurry, to fill up all the blog days out in this 356 photo project. Time for a change of concept I think...

I thought this candid shot of a girl removing her make-up was quite sweet. Click image to enlarge.

WoolFest Cumbria

These images are compiled from shots taken at [WoolFest] in Cumbria this weekend. The festival was a series of lots, alternating between rare breed sheep, textile artists and old ladies knitting hats. Great fun. Click images to enlarge.

Haugastøl 1000 moh accommodation

Today it's raining. Really raining. No one is complaining after being beaten up by 30mph+ winds yesterday. Since there is little point in going outside just yet, I have used the time to photograph the family run [accommodation] here at Haugastøl. It's brightening up now though, time to get the kites out...

14th April 2008

The first broad bean shoot this year, Jiffy 7 peat pellets.

13th April 2008

Eileen and Frank, next door, at home just after the Sunday service. Thanks guys.

7th April 2008

Bacon and Eggs

Brunch, tarted-up for the camera. I am not too sure about the chives though - Attack of the Killer Green Ants?

4th April 2008

Oak Smoked Garlic, hand-fired pots.

This smoked garlic smells like those carefree days from childhood, where a box of matches borrowed from the kitchen draw led to secret bonfires in the woods, sheepishly returning home trying to hide the smell of smokey clothing from prying noses. I have no idea how to cook with garlic that smells like post-bonfire clothing.

3rd April 2008

Sue's new haircut, moody lighting

30th March

Poor man's crème brûlée.

An ever changing combination of raspberries, blackberries, vanilla pod, crème fraîche, natural yogurt, maple syrup and sugar. This was the best one yet and only took about 5 minutes to put together. I won’t be trying to hold a blowtorch in one hand with a camera in the other again though.

All of these shots following the contemporary style for in-progress, close-up food photography. The informal presentation of the food is enhanced with the very shallow depth of field, perhaps slightly too shallow in some cases here. This style seems to be a good shortcut to the desired result of making the food look good enough to eat. I think it is probably much more challenging to get satisfactory results shooting product type food shots where everything in the shot needs to be perfectly presented and in sharp focus.

29th March

Dough balls and herb baked tomatos, pretty much straight from the oven.

These shots both using natural light, diffused with cloud, worked fine without any additional diffusion.

28th March 2008

This shot breaks the best practice [guidelines] I just learned for food photography – mainly as the light here is overhead tungsten lighting, which really shows in the flat look of the photo. The preferred diffused natural light was in short supply at 9pm though, plus our guests were looking at their withheld food threateningly. The [recipe] thankfully, was a real show stopper and also really quite easy to put together if you happen to have some Scottish flaky hot-smoked salmon handy.

27th March

I read an [article] on food photography earlier this week. The condensed version of the articles goes something like this; most food wants to be eaten, not photographed, and therefore looks rubbish when photographed. The advice was firstly to undercook the food, let it go cold, photograph low and close up on a non-fussy background, use natural diffused light, custom colour balance and finally to use a shallow depth of field. This shot uses most of those techniques, and although I can see I will be able to improve on this, it is my first attempt at food photography. The final point of the article is to know when not to shoot food at all, and with anemic looking cheese as a subject, this is probably one of them. More to follow this weekend with folk to cook for.

25th March

Beer glass and water, glass 'borrowed' from Pizza Express

This backlit shot uses only a household lamp as the light source, but custom colour balancing before shooting makes all the difference. A flash, from the side of the glass, would no-doubt finish off the shot, adding more glass reflection.

13th March

Hamish - feeling very sorry for himself - he had a wound on his paw and was stuck inside for days.

21st Febuary 2008

Mother and week born child, Greenfields Children's Centre, Winsford. Thank you for letting me take your picture.

I spent a rewarding day assisting a professional industrial and architectural photographer at the Children's centre. This shot is from a series of semi-candid portrait shots of friendly young mums and their new born children, taken after the main architectural photography work was done.