Raining again!

Branches

Rained Off

It rained yesterday...

...so I was stuck indoors...

... and had to find something to photograph!

Squirrel Leftovers

Everything in my garden gets covered in pine cone leftovers after the squirrels have nibbled them. This is an old wooden table which lives right under one of the pine trees.

third thursday challenge

Today's photograph is for Brenda's Third Thursday Challenge.  Why is it a challenge for me? Well, for a couple of reasons really.

Firstly, this is the first time I've really played around with developing a photograph in Lightroom. I recently watched a video on PhotoTuts which was a bootcamp in using Lightroom. I can't remember all the tips as it was a lot to take in in one go but I remembered quite a few items that I hadn't even realized existed in Lightroom. So I did some fine tuning to the individual colours and a little burning (that wasn't too successful but I can work on my technique!). Will I ever use Photoshop Elements again! Well, yes because...

...Secondly I designed a new banner for my blog using one of my favourite recent photos. Hope you like it and hope you join in with the Third Thursday Challenge. Thanks Brenda!

tree lined lane

On one of my regular dog walks.

bleached leaf

seed launch

sailing club

Colour in the boat park.

roof textures

Took this today and played with it using my new toy - Silver Efex Pro 2. Black and white heaven!!

from wood to field

One of my regular dog walks. The harvester was in the field today so I'm glad I got this shot with the wheat.

washing up!

wheatfield

Taken from a very low angle - almost ground level.

red shed

I hope they never decide to re-paint this.

pots in the sunlight

Overexposed I think!

out early

I took my camera with me when I went out walking this morning. Lovely light

roof tiles

Tiles on the edge of my roof. Complete with lots of spider activity!

golden wheat

Colour series - gold/yellow

peeling paint

Peeling paint on the side of an old sports shed. First in the colour series - red.

angles

So, having decided to photograph colours here's a black and white picture. I liked the different angles and the contrast between the hard lines and soft foliage.

dried hydrangea

I took this when I was on holiday in Cornwall earlier this year. It was in the house we rented and it appealed to my love of dead things! It's a dried hydrangea which has faded to a beautiful soft creamy colour - I didn't tamper with the colour after photographing it at all. It sat on a window sill in the conservatory and was getting lots of light through it, giving it an ethereal look.

I've been dealing with disappointment at missing Kat's upcoming visit to the UK in October. She's holding a couple of on-location workshops and I'm going to miss both of them because I'll be away on holiday. But it's reminded me that I haven't picked up my camera enough lately and I need to do so. It's a bit like an itch that needs scratching. But I'm a little sick of taking photos of flowers, much though I love them. It's an easy non-challenging thing to do for me - a bit formulaic, and I really want to move on to other subjects. I've recently been inspired by the blog of Nichole Robertson and her beautiful book, Paris in Colour and I think I might take her idea of choosing a colour and photographing a wide range of subjects in that colour and see if I can make it work for me. It will give me focus (no pun intended!) without tying me down to a specific subject. And getting myself out of my comfort zone will encourage me to find out how to solve the problems that come with different types of photography.