The end of British summer time
Yes, it’s the end of British summer time this weekend. We move our clocks back one hour and get up an hour later! Officially, the clocks are changed at 2am on Sunday morning. Unofficially, mine will be changed when I get around to it. It was cold getting up at eight o’clock this morning, it will be worse tomorrow.
Neodigital Art | Step by step edit
As I write this I can see blue skies and sunshine. It wasn’t like that when we went out to take photographs on Sunday, it was dull and cloudy. It looks nice today, but the wind is a cold Arctic wind. I might still try to take a few photographs later. This picture is after I did the edit, take a look at the before picture, very dull.
Neodigital Art | Forge Mill
Last week I did photos of various types of transport and you can see more canal photos on a zillion ideas. I went back to the locks and there were two narrow boats negotiating the locks on Sunday afternoon. I used those pictures for today’s blog on a Zillion Ideas. Yesterday, we went to Forge Mill Farm in Sandwell Valley which is the site of a Victorian water mill and now a community owned farm. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Aging photos
It was Bank Holiday in England yesterday and as is the tradition; it rained, persistently. I did lots of writing and edited photos. We did take a few photos on Sunday in Sot’s hole which is a nature reserve famed for it’s bluebells but the bluebells were lying flat washed out by the rain. I used the ‘vintage’ option on Fotosketcher to edit this photo of Forge Mill farmhouse and i think I have the right effect. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Blue skies
Light is very important when you’re taking photographs and I haven’t had very good light so far this year. This month has been typical dark skies and April showers. In this photograph, you can see a little blue sky, white clouds but some darker cloud too. You can see that the sky if reflecting lots of light and that light is creating a reflection on the water. If you’re a regular reader, you will have seen photographs of the lake that I often take pictures of; that is behind those trees. You can marvel at the way they have built that canal, it dates back at least two hundred years. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Sketch Art
I’ve gone even more artistic than usual today with this photograph of Forge Mill Farm shop converted into a ‘sketch’ using Fotosketcher. Then I opened it with Windows Live photo galley and converted it to sepia! (more…)
Neodigital Art | Spring photos
I took this photo on Sunday and we have the colours of winter, the first signs of Spring, great light and sunshine. The trees that don’t yet have leaves silhouette against the sky. The sun was behind me when I took this shot, but still quite high in the sky. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Light and Locations
Sunshine at last
As I finished yesterday’s extraordinary blog, I noticed the sun shining; a welcome change from the dreary days of winter. It didn’t last long, it was soon overcast again as I cooked lunch, but the sun came out again later and I was determined not to miss the light. I needed a location that I could get to quickly. This is a favourite location because I get good pictures and it’s close by. You can see the effect of the winter sun, low in the sky casting shadows across the ground. Patterns make a photograph interesting. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Editing tutorial
Neodigital Art is about using your computer to make something artistic; in my case from a photograph and so this means editing. I prefer Windows Live Photo gallery rather than the more complex Photoshop. I opened this photo in Windows Live Photo Gallery. I took this photo of the lake frozen over in December. The light was quite good and in the afternoon I had the light behind me. I was shooting down the lake rather than a cross it to get depth. The trees also add some depth to the picture. At the top of the page you can see an option to click to edit, organise or share; obviously I clicked edit. I chose this picture again. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Editing
This photograph was taken by Simon James and I did the editing. The original picture was too dark and I added some contrast which made it even darker and highlights and then made it lighter. This is the original photograph: (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update 25
Photo edit
I’ve started this week with a screen shot to show the photo edit in Windows Live photo gallery. You can see all the tools you have for editing. I’ve cropped my photo for widescreen, increased the contrast, gave it more ‘highlights’ and increased the colour temperature adding warmth. I took this photo on Saturday with a wide aperture after the rain. (more…)
Frugal Friday | DIY
Kitchen
In my kitchen, I have plain walls and easy to clean tiles. I hope the plain walls will make it easy to redecorate next time. The fashion for some years, since the 1980’s has been for textured wall paper, that you can just emulsion, when it needs redecorating. It’s good, but you need some pictures as well in the living room and perhaps the hallway. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update 23
Picnic place
This isn’t a great photo but it was intended as a picnic area and so looked interesting. Some idiot had lit a portable barbecue on top of the table provided and burnt it! There wasn’t that much of interest there. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update 20
Where the fairies live
If you read last week’s Neodigital Art blog, you will remember these pictures that I took in woodland near Walsall (England) last week. They are really magical because of the green algae on the water. Incidentally, if you use Windows Live writer and Live photo gallery, you can alter the picture to make the trees ‘warmer’ with photo gallery. Then I import the photo into Live writer and I click on the corner of the picture to make it bigger and line up with the text that I have applied full justification to. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update Eleven
I take most of the photographs that I use on my blogs and I used a photo very similar to this one on Monday. I call it Neodigital Art and my artist friends recognise it as art. This photograph has been altered as usual and it is taking the photograph and manipulating it; that is the art. (more…)
Neodigital Art–Update Nine
Before
The photograph above is ‘before’ I altered it and the ‘after’ photo is below. I’ve used a picture of this bridge before and this isn’t a great photograph. You can see the river in the original picture and the small bridge it goes under and the bigger bridge that carries the aqueduct and canal over the top. The photo looks a little washed out with the bright sunshine and so I increased the contrast. (more…)
Neodigital Art Update Seven
The first picture is a simple bridge. I crossed this bridge and was a little confused about what it was for. I worked it out eventually; the river runs at the side of the bridge and when it floods the flood water goes under the bridge. The white flowers in the background line the river bank and this was an important river a few hundred years ago supplying power for water wheels. It’s interesting to look at the geography and history of the places we go. This bridge looks modern but there are eighteen century bridges nearby carrying the canal. The canal too was an important piece of engineering at the end of the eighteenth century taking around fifty years to complete. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Update Five
This was taken at Aberdaron in Wales.
I’ve started today’s blog with a photograph taken by Simon James at Lake Vyrnwy, Monmouthshire,Wales. I’ve been there and I don’t remember that little castle. It looks cool though; I’ll have one of those built in my garden when I win the lottery.
I edited that picture; I cropped it to clearly show the castle and tried to bring out the texture of the stonework. (more…)
Neodigital Art Update
Neodigital Art - A simple bridge can make an interesting picture
My first picture today was taken locally. You don’t normally have to travel far unless you live in the middle of a desert. This was just a bridge over a railway and I added some contrast and cropped the original picture. I think the blue railing make the picture look more interesting. (more…)
The Secrets of Success
Success means following many small steps. One step at a time.
The secrets of success
“Be a dreamer; for a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight and then see the dawn before the rest of the world.”- Oscar Wilde
I would like to thank Robin and Judy for bringing that quote to my attention. They started following me on Twitter today; I have no idea who they are; but they must be smart! 
(more…)
Social Media – Cascading the portals
Neodigital Art being democratised by social media
I get my horoscope every day, emailed to me with the weather. It’s been spookily accurate this week. This morning it advised I should only confide my worries to someone I could trust; otherwise I could talk about something confidential and it could lead to gossip. Gossip can be destructive and it’s information or misinformation passing from one person to many and they keep on passing it on. It spreads like a virus to a whole community and sometimes beyond. You can spread gossip or information using social media like Facebook or LinkedIn. When it spreads like a virus this is cascading and the portals are Facebook, LinkedIn, email, Windows Live, blogs and every communication method on the internet. These portals of information are important and very powerful. (more…)
Spooky!
Neodigital Art - this was taken at a nature reserve a week ago - a hidden treasure
Spooky!
Horoscope Aquarius
Sunday 03 April
Keep a pen and notepad handy, and a camera and your mobile. Today is all about thinking and having the most brilliant ideas you have ever had. Make sure you write them down, photograph them, talk them into a recording device and keep them to hand. Your mind is really operating at the very top of its gearing, and this can see you quick-witted too.
Isn’t that spooky! I had just finished writing some notes in a notepad and I checked my email and got this horoscope. I am planning to go out this afternoon to take photographs for my Neodigital Art blogs and so I checked my mobile (cell phone) was fully charged. Actually it rang, it was still on GMT and the alarm went off; that is my emergency alarm in case I sleep through the clock. It went off a hour late because I hadn’t altered it to dreamless time. I feel constantly tired since altering the clocks an hour; I wish the dreamless ones would leave them alone. You cannot save daylight! I say it every year, twice a year; it makes no difference. (more…)
My Exhibition
I wanted to have my exhibition here - it was handy for the supermarket
Victorian Art Gallery
If you have been following my Neodigital Art blogs, you will know that it is an art form based on photography and the finished images can be printed out for an exhibition or they can be uploaded to a server to be viewed online. When I thought about an exhibition, I thought about my local art gallery. It’s a traditional Victorian building and has the grandeur that the Victorians were so fond of creating. (more…)
Neodigital Art – Update Three
Neodigital Art can be found everywhere - this was a nature reserve.
Nature reserve
In previous blogs I have said that anyone can be a Neodigital artist who has a computer and a digital camera. We took these photographs two days ago and they were edited with Windows Live Photo gallery which you can download with the Windows Live suite of programs for free. The first picture was taken in a nature reserve and it was quite sunny. The intense light made the colours quite muted and so the software was used to adjust them later and bring out the reds, oranges and more interesting colours of winter. The very early signs of spring were apparent and people were fishing in the pool. We don’t have lakes, we have pools and canals. I also took photographs of the canals and even a demolition site. I’ll send the demolition photographs to my artist friend. The photographs have been commented on because uploaded lots on to Facebook and the ‘pretty’ ones like this one aren’t always the most popular. I do like this one though. (more…)
