A Triumphant Return...?

Hello you.

Guess what...blog's back! Bring out the champers!

And yes, that is my own champagne. Consider my student loan thoroughly blown (Big discounts at Sainsbury's - thanks to HM for having been married a long time the same weekend I had my final exam). Yes, after a long exam break, I'm announcing that I hadn't forgotten about this place at all! It may be a month since I last put any pictures up, but never fear - you can subject yourself to many more of my photos over the next few months! Altogether now, Three Cheers...!

I don't hear cheering. I'll let you off.

This time.

Anyway, seeing as my exams are gone now, you may have guessed that I've finished at Southampton University - awesome place, it must be said, and many thanks to the awesome people who awesomeised my time here. Awesomely. Ta very much.

Next year brings pastures new up north int' Durham...until then, lots of photo time awaits...get in. Meanwhile, here's a tribute to Southampton, and 60 years of having done something - I really should find out what all these posters dotted around are...

 

Enjoy. More to come tomorrow from Sunny Sidmouth.

J

A Very Desaturated Recap

So, following yesterday's horsing around one of my friends suggested trying the second, very mediocre, horsey picture in black and white as a high contrast thing. I don't want to give away names, so I'll call him  "Mr. Wood". No, that's too obvious. "Callum", that's better. Well I thought I'd give it a go and here's the result:

If you missed the first attempt, you can see it here (hopefully.)

It's still not amazing, but I think it works better than yesterday. Obviously the main difference is the colouring, but to be honest that bright grass only pulled the eye away from the horse. Now it stands out boldly against the darker trees, but the cloudy sky has gone from overcast to white. Nice. Thanks "Callum"!

I thought this might be a good opportunity to go back and look at some other mediocre shots to see what I could do if I blackandwhiteised them. Yes, that is a word.

First, this shot from the New Forest back in march. This DEFINITELY works better in black and white - I'd kept it in colour before because of the movement captured in the red flash, but actually if anything the train looks even faster in B/W, probably because the door and windows are all less defined.

Finally, the rubbish boy next to a lake on a misty day. I tried this one in black and white at the time, but wasn't a big fan because of the way his jumper contrasted with everything else. This time, rather than going for full black and white I figured I'd try just desaturating everything apart from the red. It definitely brings out the contrast a bit more, but I left a hint of colour still which you can in his skin tone and in the grass. The heavy mist stops the trees on the other side of the lake looking coloured, as they were fairly desaturated anyway. So still not a stunning image, but better than before I think.

Anyway, now I should really do some dissertation. More photos soon - feel free to stick your email address in the box on the right hand side if you fancy getting a wonderful automated email after the morning after I've posted something. There are worse things to wake up to, honest! It's near the top on the right somewhere, if memory serves.

Right, work.

J

Trains

I went to the New Forest on Friday, partly in the hope of getting some stunning pictures and partly in the hope of getting a stunning pub lunch. At least one of these things happened...

If anybody wants to know a brilliant food pub in Brockenhurst, do let me know.

Unfortunately this isn't a blog dedicated to the amazing Ringwood beer-batter, so you get to see some patchy shots of a train instead. Sorry! 

Misty

I've never really taken photographs in heavy mist before, so when I went over to Southampton common this weekend it was with somewhat mixed results. The three pictures below are fairly representative though - very drained colours, detail lost in the background, but with the opportunity for some interesting effects.

Photographing this path from the middle of nowhere allowed me to get a lovely, strong line. I don't do an awful lot of black and white shooting, but the colours in this scene were so muted that I felt they only served to distract from the other elements. I especially like the way that the perspective draws the eye towards the couple on the path - you move from the distant, blurred background down the path to reach them in perfect clarity. This picture, for me, is all about the way that mist wraps around you, and leaves you in your own little world.

Southampton Common, 1992

Old things are interesting. That's a fact, especially in photography. And, even though 1992 isn't that long ago, there's something quite fascinating about this old marker slowly eroding in the corner of Southampton common. It marks the capping of an attempted well, which eventually reached some colossal depth (which I can't remember) over the course of about 80 years, without ever finding the water they were looking for. And after all that effort,  the well was capped over and sits forgotten under a lot of long grass and a very heavy slab of rock.