Captured from the hip on my way up to the spectacular bell-view, previously photographed many times, next door to the cathedral, which can just be glimpsed at the top, behind the end house. I spent hours removing the electrical clutter, mostly from the right hand side of the lane and the horrible council bins behind […]
Mar 15, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: Caramel soft, France, Labyrinth, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2 | Comments Off on les visiteurs
After a bit of an Epiphany the other day about my last blog posting, I decided to work on a cleaned up idealized version. Purists might blanch, (and probably shouldn’t be here anyway!) but I’ve merged two images together and removed the cluttering couple! The council bin has also gone by simply cloning out, and […]
Jan 26, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: Caramel soft, Colosseum Sienna, France, lighthouse, Orient Express, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2 | Comments Off on jetty shadows
Back on a misty autumnal day I visited this Roman excavation site, I’ve written about it before in Pines in the Mist This image is from the top of that hill overlooking the famous l’oppidum d’Enserune, a UNESCO protected medieval cartwheel farm system, here, totally obscured by the sea mist. See Here And that’s Martine […]
Jan 21, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Caramel soft, France, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, Roman, Tex Box 1, trees | Comments Off on Life on the edge
Another AutopanoPro merge of two portrait formatted landscapes. I’ve left the base showing where I had a missing bit to clone in. Shot as the sun was setting behind riverbank trees. The first copies of the shot were treated to give a Painterly effect.. Then treated with the following textures: Apple Blush ~ opacity ~ […]
Jan 17, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Caramel soft, Elysium, France, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2, Vertorama | Comments Off on winter wheat treescape
The other day on our freezing beach. Shot with my 75-300mm zoom lens, this scene was captured from a great distance of a neighboring beach. Because its from a distance the people look much closer together than they were! Not shown on my base image are a line of fishing rods and a fisherman sat […]
Jan 16, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, beach, Caramel soft, France, grunge, Leaky Garret, lime plaster, lost void, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2 | Comments Off on the winter group
A freezing walk on our local French beach with friends and their dogs over the weekend, produced this simple image. The glow of the cold mid-winter sun warmed by applying several flypaper textures and this time, no colour tweaks!I’m typing this whilst looking out over gently falling snow flakes,Europe and this, our northern Mediterranean coastline […]
Jan 08, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: beach, Caramel soft, figures, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Languedoc, Mediterranean, mid-winter, Muscatel.cold, Necropolis, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, sand, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2, vacation | Comments Off on Homeward bound
From Jill and I we’d like to wish you all a gilded Bonne année!Its funny how the best shots are never planned!Yesterday, as it was sunny, I went for a drive in search of fresh images.Its continually maddening that all the best views are from our motorways and they are impossible to access without doing […]
Dec 31, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Caramel soft, Colosseum Sienna, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Getty, grunge, Languedoc, lost void, Mediterranean, mid, moody, moon, Muscatel, Necropolis, painterly, Paul Grand, telephoto lens, Tex Box 1, Tex Box 2, tree, trees, vacation, winter | Comments Off on Moon tree ~ Bonne année !
On the same day but taken just before the last ‘Reflected Light’ posting. This is inside our Beziers Park of the poets, decorated with many stone carved busts. Its made up of two pictures, merged in photoshop, as my Autopanopro was playing up!A more finished/textured version of this image is on my Flickr site. As […]
Nov 29, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Autopanopro, autumnal, bust, Caramel soft, Flypaper Textures, France, French, landscape, Languedoc, Mediterranean, merged, moody, Necropolis, painterly, park of the poets, Paul Grand, photoshop, poet, Raw Linen, statue, surreal, Tex Box 1, trees, vacation | Comments Off on Bust and tree
About a month ago I visited a local beach with my son, intending to take photos of him but when we looked over the sand dunes we were surprised to see this pair of NZ Sea Lions a short distance away. Naturally I rushed back to the car to exchange my short lens for a […]
Nov 20, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Tutorials, Uncategorized | Tags: beach, Caramel soft, Dunedin, Jill Ferry, landscape, New Zealand, Render lighting, sand, Sea, seals, soft, Tex Box 1, Tutorial, tutorials, vignette | Comments Off on The Happy Couple (adding a vignette using render lighting in Photoshop)
Back in early July we made a special trip to the beach at sunset just to photograph the full moon rising over the Mediterranean.The light was superbly opalescent, and I was lucky, as I captured several nice images as well as the later moonrise. This is one, a huge red container, not sure why it […]
Nov 18, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: beach, bright, Caramel soft, concept, evening, figures, Flypaper Textures, France, French, gloaming, golden hour, homeward, Languedoc, Mediterranean, metal, out of context, out of place, painterly, Paul Grand, people, red box, sand, Sea, shipping container, soft, strange, surreal, Tex Box 2 | Comments Off on red box
Sometimes the most interesting shots happen as accidents. I was playing with moving my camera during a longish exposure at the end of a beach walk and this was one of the resulting photos.My processing was simple, I used a blue toned (with a hue saturation adjustment) and slightly blurred Caramel Soft @ Overlay 100% […]
Nov 16, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: blue, blurred, Caramel soft, figure, Jill Ferry, landscape, late, lone, moody, New Zealand, night time, reflections, single, surfer, vacation, wet sand | Comments Off on Night Surf
Whilst on the way to the beach yesterday, with a slight sea mist over the vineyards.I came across this derelict farmhouse in a sea of golden vines.‘Chasse Gardee’ I’m told, means strictly licensed hunters only. Apple Blush – Soft Light Opacity @ 29%Raw Linen – Overlay Opacity @ 100%Necropolis – Overlay Opacity @ 39%Caramel Soft […]
Nov 15, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Caramel soft, clouds, derelict, distance, farm house, farmers field, Flypaper Textures, France, French, golden, grunge, landscape, Languedoc, moody, Necropolis, no hunting, no shooting sign, painterly, path, pathway, Paul Grand, poles, Raw Linen, Ruin, stakes, track, trees, vacation, vineyards, warning | Comments Off on ape
Another human for our professional readers!Taken on a professional Portrait shoot with French Artist, Martine Roch a couple of years ago. This one was never used but I now like the little surreal looking figure with a bucket in the corner!It was shot in that cold, sharp April light, the shadows being so dark, it […]
Nov 12, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: Artist, beach, blond, breakwater, Caramel soft, carrying, carrying on, concept, Contra jour, figure, figures, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Getty, golden, Languedoc, leaving, lone, man with buck, Martine Roch, mature, Mediterranean, moody, Necropolis, painterly, parting, Paul Grand, pink, portrait, Raw Linen, reflected light, reflector, Sea, single, strong, surreal, surrealist, Tex Box 1, uplighter, vacation, woman | Comments Off on Life goes on
Another misty ‘Canal du Midi’ shot, just west of Beziers,our famous local French Atlantic coast to the French Mediterranean sea connection. One of the main reasons for its being built was to avoid having to sail around Spain.Because just over two hundred years ago those pesky Spanish Pirates were quite a problem!This in turn brought […]
Nov 10, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Autopanopro, autumn, autumnal, barge drivers, bounty, Canal du Midi, Caramel soft, choices, concept, end, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Getty, grunge, horses shade, joined up, Languedoc, Mediterranean, mellow fruitfulness, mist, moody, Napoleon's marching trees, painterly, path, pathway, Paul Grand, poplar trees, Raw Linen, roads, Routs, sailers, stagnant, travel, trees, vacation, wealth, wine | Comments Off on Three routes into mist
Nov 06, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, autumn, Beziers, boat, boats, calm, Caramel soft, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Getty, golden hour, Languedoc, Mediterranean, no people, painterly, Paul Grand, Raw Linen, river bank, riverscape, sunset, Tex Box 1, tress, vacation | Comments Off on A view from a Roman Bridge
I put my wonderful but neglected macro lens on this morning and went for a quick expedition round my garden. This Clematis montana is in full bloom, and the flowers were sparkling with droplets after overnight rain. I processed this one by duplicating the background layer and then blurring it using the lens blur filter, […]
Nov 01, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: apple blush, Caramel soft, Clematis montana, flower, Getty, grunge, Jill Ferry, New Zealand, soft, Still Life | Comments Off on Clematis
Another day another beach! I took this last weekend when we went for a quick walk at Doctors Point near Dunedin. Since my family isn’t cooperative when it comes to photos I have to make the most of any opportunities when it comes to getting some human interest in my photos, taking photos of distant […]
Oct 29, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: Caramel soft, distance, evening, figures, footprints, Getty, golden hour, Green, Jill Ferry, New Zealand, sand, Sea, Shagreen bone, shore, soft, sunset, Tex Box 1, vacation | Comments Off on Family Walk
This 10th century Franco Roman tower is just outside the medieval village of Puissalicon.Its just a short 10 min drive north from my coastally situated Beziers.known as a veritable masterpiece of Romanesque art in Languedoc.Its 4.3m wide and stands at 26m.It was built as a bell tower for the church of Saint Etienne de Peazan […]
Oct 27, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: 10th century, 10th century Gallo-Romano, apple blush, Caramel soft, Flypaper Textures, Franco Roman tower, Getty, grunge, landscape, Languedoc, medieval village, Mediterranean, Orient Express, Paul Grand, pines umbrella, polarizor, published, Puissalicon, Saint Etienne de Peazan priory, Tex Box 1, vacation, vineyards, wars of religion monument | Comments Off on La tour romane
During the golden hour, I came across a vineyard bordering a pine woods, and had to stop for a quick shoot.Its a simple two texture combo, Caramel Soft (full blur) with the soft light setting @ opacity 92%.Necropolis again with soft light @ 100% opacity and fill @ 79%.A slight vignette was also used to […]
Oct 22, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: arch, Caramel soft, concept, countryside, forward, Getty, golden hour, grunge, Languedoc, Mediterranean, Necropolis, over the hill, path, Paul Grand, pines, published, rustic, summer, Tex Box 1, trees, umbrella pines, vacation, vineyard | Comments Off on over a hill
One for the guys?Found in the corner of a field, this retro tractor seemed abandoned but probably wasn’t. I was struck by its white hand painted bonnet. If you look closer at the ‘before’ image, you’ll see I’ve removed a white twig from the bottom right, as it was catching my eye too much… For […]
Oct 16, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: abandoned, Caramel soft, concept, Dangerous Liaisons, Elysium, farm, farming, field corner, Flypaper Textures, France, Getty, grass, Harvest Tractor, hills, Languedoc, Mediterranean, moody, overgrown, Paul Grand, retro, Tex Box 1, tractor, vacation, weeds, white, wild | Comments Off on Harvest Tractor
For this misty winter farm-track scene I used;Apple blush @ Vivid light – Opacity 37% Fill 34%Grosgrain @ Hard Light – Opacity 27%, Fill 28%Caramel soft @ Opacity 86%, Fill 100%
Oct 14, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Flypaper Tex Box One, Uncategorized | Tags: alp maritime, apple blush, Caramel soft, change, Flypaper Textures, France, French, Getty, Grosgrain, grunge, landscape, Languedoc, last snow, Mediterranean, melting, mist, moody, mountains, Paul Grand, season, snow, soft, Tex Box 1, vacation | Comments Off on Last snow
I spotted this wonderfully lit building whilst coming out of a Beziers art gallery one Sunday afternoon, the weather was a little washed out and everything looked bleached gray except this eighteenth century building painted a cool shade of ocher.Naturally, when I uploaded it was washed out too..:-/So out came the rich flypaper textures to […]
Oct 07, 2009 | Categories: Blog, Uncategorized | Tags: Beziers, bleak, bordom, building, Caramel soft, city, concept, depressing, Ed Hopper, Elysium, France, French, gray, green shutters, grunge, Languedoc, local, moody, Necropolis, painterly, Paul Grand, Pompeii Stucco, Raw Linen, sky, stone, sunday, surreal, Tex Box 1, winter | Comments Off on l’ennui du dimanche