77 posts tagged “photos”

Here is just a sample of some of the photos which I have been uploading to my flickr account recently.

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Later on they cheered up as they got on with the afternoon's activities.  Some of the RAF were doing a command task - blindfold challenge - but that didn't stop one boy from posing as soon as he saw the camera.

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I love playing with Photoshop - mainly helping my students, but sometimes I get to play on my own stuff.  Here are some photos I've done recently.  First is a version of this sailing photo with added gradients and blends.

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The next three are all variations of some pink flowers that I liked.  Again all sorts of things have been done to the original.  I really ought to write down what I do, because I forget what I did to end up with the finished effect.  Actually, they are never really finished, I just run out of time.  The first is a gentled down version - nice and soft.

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Next a really purple version with some neon glow.

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And now a different version with the purple toned down a lot and the flowers turned white.

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Now three portrait shots, the first two rendered as sketches.  The first one had to be cut out from a very busy background before much could be done.  I should have feathered the edge of the cut-out and I think he's wearing a little too much lipstick! But I do like the overall effect very much.

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The next is a straight-forward sketch effect from what was already a good photo. I have various versions in different colours and can't really decide what colour is best.  I love the pose - it's so full of youthful confidence.

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Finally what is probably my all time favourite portrait shot - partly because of the result and partly because of the journey to get there.  The original was crooked and needed straightening; there was red-eye from the flash, a few facial blemishes, and the rest of the picture was distracting.  Cleaned up and cropped, with a bit of glamour added courtesy of layers and blends, I think the result is stunning with the flash reflected off the glass behind the model.  Perhaps I should have enhanced the eye colour a little; maybe changed the shirt colour?  I'd never be finished - there are more pictures to play with!

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Writing this has made me want to try some more.  I have lots of surfing photos I took last summer in San Diego (well Encinitas actually), for example, which would benefit from enhancing contrast and colour both of sea and sky.  And I take lots of train photos which aren't very interesting to non-train people and could do with some dramatic touches.  Trouble is I need more creative imagination; may be I can pick some up from the art I'm teaching at school these days.

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For the last half year I have been uploading photos to flickr with varying degrees of interest from other people.  I have now got nearly 7,000 photos online and have had nearly 15,000 views.  My most popular photo (a lady surfer) has had over 1300 views - my least popular photos have zero views!  And there are other sources of interest.  The photo above (of Crystal Pier, Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA) has been included in Schmap's guide to San Diego.  The photo below (or the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway at Toddington,UK) has been included in a UK and Ireland photo blog.

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Mum+Dad-Judiths-wedding-1984

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(picture from http://leucadia.blogspot.com/)
My son lives in Encinitas on the coast between San Diego and Los Angeles and was quite scared on Monday when the sky was filled with smoke lit up orange from the fires.  His place of employment was within the evacuation zone in Del Mar, but he lives just half a mile west of I5 which was the border of the evacuation zone.  It did make him think carefully though, about what he would take with him.  Yesterday he said the winds had dropped and the crisis seemed to be passed as far as Encinitas is concerned.  Although today, no doubt, he has been cleaning up the ash that has fallen everywhere.   This picture shows the ash lying over the sea.
 

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Uganda 2007 - 1

At last we've reached Uganda.  We set off from school at 4pm on Wednesday 4th July by coach to Birmingham where we found our aircraft had developed technical faults so the flight was delayed until midnight.  We then flew to Dubai but missed our connection to Uganda.  So we spent a great day in Dubai relaxing, eating and getting to know each other, and then in the evening we went Dune Bashing, camel riding and enjoyed a Bedouin barbecue.  You've never seen driving like the dune bashing!!  It was unbelievable with our Toyota Landcruisers driving up and down the dunes, sliding down the sides and generally being extremely exciting (read frightening!).  An early night and early morning followed to find that our definite flights were anything but, with half of us not able to travel.  So half went off to Uganda the other half stayed behind, this time at a very nice four star hotel,lazing by the pool and taking a a walk down to the beach.  That was Friday.  Today we managed to get our flight to Uganda although with a delay at the stop over in Addis Ababa where the aircraft managed to lose a passenger!  Arrived in Uganda, raining, with muddy roadworks and diversions on the trip to our hotel on Lake Victoria - made it by 6.30pm, with Laura and Sue arriving even later, having been searching for 3 lost bags (2 now found).  So an exciting start to the trip.

Sorry this is brief, but I'm writing it after bedtime, with the prospect of an 8 hour bus drive tomorrow to our partner school in the west of Uganda.  Please pray for us - we certainly need it. 

Check out the collection of photos by clicking on the icon above.

These were taken with my Sony DSC-H9 on 10th June.

Last weekend was the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway's Gala weekend called the Cotswold Festival of Steam - rather grandiose title since their were not the traction engines or other steam driven machines that sometimes can be seen at these gala events.  But there were plenty of engines, and unusual ones for the GWR.  I started taking photos at the Cheltenham Racecourse station where I saw the Green Arrow, a 2-6-2 tender engine from the LNER, which never travelled on these rails before - a smaller version of the big Gresley pacifics, but with the same look and in the same apple green.  Waiting in platform 2 was a Southern Railway loco, Wadebridge which took the train back to Toddington while Green Arrow watered at the temporary watering point.  There was also a Great Western saddle tank  giving brake van rides up and down the platform.

Finally I went to Winchcombe station where the Prairie had arrived and a beautiful blue engine pulled in from Cheltenham - you can see some children getting their hands dirty in the cab.  Wadebridge also arrived from Toddington on her way to Cheltenham.  Quite a busy days trains - see the latest collection of photos form more shots.

While I was down in Cornwall we went on a day trip to St Ives, which is not too far from Perranporth.  Rather than struggle with the narrow roads in St Ives and trying to find somewhere to par, we picked up the train from St Erth.  It runs every half hour and costs £4 per person, but takes you right into the middle of St Ives.  Here are some photos of the train.

Once we were in St Ives we made our way from the station just the few yards down to the beach, where there was a handy cafe which did an excellent bacon bap.  We sat on the beach and enjoyed the view.

My wife loves investigating places so next we walked from that first beach round to the harbour and then to the back beach - I forget their proper names - in the process seeing some of the tiny cottages that make up the old village.

Finally, I had a cornish pasty and an icecream and watched people doing the strange things they do.

More photos in the St Ives collection in the sidebar.

So I'm just back from a few days down in Cornwall.  Went to see my mum who is in an old peoples' home and to get her old house ready for selling.  She looked very thin - literally skin and bone - and even more confused than ever.  The house is full of the accumulated junk (and good stuff) of the last 30 years and more.  There is so much stuff it is difficult to separate the junk from the really good stuff and mostly I'm left wondering why mum collected all these things.  For example, set after set of silver cutlery - never used.  Cigarette cards and stamps - probably valuable. packets of towels - brand new, never opened - lots of them.  About a dozen penknives.  30 odd pairs of scissors.  230 mugs.  Box after box of puzzles of all kinds.  It just goes on and on.  It's very sad.

Anyway, here's some photos, first of my mum, then Cornish flowers, and finally the view across the road from the cafe where I was having a chocolate brownie and a latte.

I took these photos mainly just to test out my new digital camera, a Sony DSC-H9 which has a 15x optical lens and 8 megapixels. It also has a 1cm super macro so I thought I would try it out on some of the flowers in my garden.  I've now had the camera a week or so and like it - except for one thing, battery life.  Quoted life is 280 pictures but I managed only about 200.  With my old Minolta Dimage Z5 at South Cerney the other day I took 497 photos on one set of AA batteries.  So I need to get to the shop and buy a spare battery and charger - plus more cards.  It takes a Memory Card Pro Duo (which is a pain) but with the excellent video the camera takes (640x480 at 30fps with live focus and zoom) I need more cards so I can take plenty of video when I go to Uganda next month.