The review: Local community and events
I’ve had a strange week. I did finally manage to get to the hospital for my blood test. I was in and out in 10 minutes, which left 20 minutes on my 30 minutes parking. At a pound for 30 minutes, it seemed a shame to waste it. The car park was quite full though and so I decided not to join the Costa Coffee crowd, although the Taste Cafe was a little tempting. (more…)
The Review: A week of floods
We haven’t been affected much by the floods here in the Black Country. The River Tame flooded a little and I managed to get a photo. It probably flooded a bit in Sandwell Valley Countryside Park too, but the excess would go into Forge Mill Lake. Maybe they need a balancing lake on the Thames?
Photography: Preventing blur
Today’s photo isn’t particularly interesting, but there is a lot of detail. You can see the fine branches of the trees and the ripples on the water. The image could have been much sharper, but I managed an interesting effect with a filter. I also kept the camera very still and used quite a fast speed. (more…)
Photography: Sandwell Valley
The Black Country isn’t known for beautiful landscapes, but I only had to go about a mile and a half to take this photo. I added a border and title with PhotoScape. The winter colours were interesting with the sun quite low. (more…)
Photography: Competition Photos
I took this photo yesterday when the sun came out. It looked like a great shot, but it was into the sun. The tow path was damaged and uneven and I was on a very narrow part next to the water. You need to be careful in such locations! (more…)
Living life in a balanced way
The present and the future are connected to the past and partly determined by it. If we have prepared for the future, we will have a better future. That might mean guarding against the bad things that might happen in the future by driving carefully, taking precautions and saving for the future. We just have to find a good balance between our present and future needs, so we can enjoy both. (more…)
Photography: Trams and trains
I took this photo on my last outing, the weather since has been terrible. The camera speed was too slow for a fast train, but I like the effect. The train and the station in the same frame! (more…)
Photography: Slow speeds.
At first glance this photo looks good, but it’s slightly blurred. It would have been good if I could have held the camera perfectly still. The other option is to use a faster shutter speed. You can see the frost on the tow path of the canal, so I was shivering a little! A faster shutter speed was the obvious answer. (more…)
The Christmas review
Are you thinking about making New Year resolutions? Setting goals in life, whether it’s to lose weight and keep fit or something even more challenging can be useful. Try writing some things down and thinking about what is achievable and how you might achieve it. I have a few goals that include more photography. (more…)
Photography: Calendar photos
I need some photos for a waterways calendar competition, so I was out in the freezing cold on Sunday taking photos of the canals. The sun came out a little for this one, but there were still dark clouds. It’s a nice picture, but is it good enough for a calendar? I would have preferred more light and camera shake is also a problem when it’s that cold. You shiver! (more…)
The weekend review
Today’s picture is of the canal bridge over to Moorcroft Wood. I am still looking for a suitable photo for the Waterways calendar competition. I might go back there tomorrow and take another shot of that bridge at a higher resolution. (more…)
Photography: ISO, aperture and speed
This isn’t a great photo. I took it out of the window, trying to get my settings right before taking photos in wet cloudy weather. This was taken with my Nikon D3200 DSLR. It has a larger sensor than a bridge camera or compact camera and so is better in low light. Bridge cameras have a good zoom, but if you double click this picture to make it larger you can see that the definition is such that I can zoom in and read the number plates on those cars easily. (more…)
The weekend review
I read a really good article yesterday about how to take night pictures. They say you should consider the exposure triangle to set your camera for this type of picture. That is set the ISO, aperture and speed. While I was doing all that and setting up a tripod, I would probably get mugged for the camera. (more…)
Neodigital Art and photography
We want the Black Country to be represented in a 2015 Waterways calendar and so I’ve taken some canal pictures. The light wasn’t good when I took this one and despite the editing and fancy frame. I don’t think it’s interesting enough for a calendar. The tree silhouette against the sky is artistic though. (more…)
Grandiose schemes
I photographed the Midland Metro yesterday, that was a grandiose scheme meant to bring wealth to Birmingham and the Black Country. They want to extend it to Merry Hill, another grandiose scheme that started with a tax free enterprise zone. They always want grandiose and iconic schemes. (more…)
Hypothermia in Wednesbury
Officially the winter hasn’t even started yet, we’re still in Autumn; but the sub zero temperatures are here. I went to the switching on of the Christmas lights in Wednesbury yesterday. It was cold. The temperature was 0 C and the wind chill factor made it feel like –10. I’ll probably use the photos of that tomorrow.
Photography and Art: colours
I lost a few of my pictures when my computer crashed, so I don’t have so many new pictures to choose from this week. The weather hasn’t been very good, but I have managed to take a few autumn photos. I have used the gradient border to make some photos look more artistic. Here I’ve used it to obscure some houses on the right of the picture, you can use that gradient on either side.
Christmas is coming
Christmas is coming and it’s getting colder in the UK. The energy companies are increasing the prices of gas and electricity as usual. If the people running these companies or the regulators had any morality at all they would at least increase prices in the spring or summer. Like the government they are immoral.
Photography: Using colorize
The weather tends to be dark and dismal now and so I did some edits on Sunday because I couldn’t have my usual day out. How does this edit compare to the original. The original was a nice photo and more colourful, but this is artistic and I think the frame and the text adds something.
Neodigital Art | Creative editing
I’ve been doing more creative editing this week with PhotoScape. I like combining words and pictures and doing unusual things. Here I’ve combined my photo of this bridge with a perforated ‘stamp’ border and added a word to describe the image. It’s different!
Adding to my bucket list
One of the things on my bucket list (things I want to do before I kick it) is to have a picture in an art exhibition. It could be a summer exhibition and so I’m thinking about what kind of picture might be suitable. I think local art galleries should be encouraging me. Don’t you? What do you think of today’s picture?
Halloween photography and art
I’ve been photographing graveyards and Gothic churches for Halloween to get spooky pictures, but this one isn’t at all spooky and one of the better ones. I used the ‘cali’ 8 border in PhotoScape and gave it a vintage look with colorize.
Neodigital Art: creative photography and editing
I took this picture in a park and it’s not very interesting. The important thing, with a lot of nature pictures in parks and woodland is the separation of the different colours. Most of the picture can be different shades of green, so you need the difference to show, rather than all blend in together.
Neodigital Art | Inspired by galleries
I went to the Bilston Craft Gallery on Thursday and Walsall Art Gallery on Sunday, so I had a lot to inspire me this week. I took this photo when I came out of Walsall Art gallery and thought the bikes in the foreground would give it a lot of depth. The building are unusual too. I did the edit with PhotoScape.
