Flypaper Metallic

Spoon

Spoon

It’s extraordinarily warm here in southern New Zealand today. It’s still technically winter and here we are wearing tee-shirts and sandals and with all the windows open….global warming or just a freakish weather pattern? It’s lovely but I’m sure winter will return shortly!

Albatross

Albatross

At Taiaroa Head at the entrance to Otago Harbour is a breeding colony of Northern Royal Albatross, the only such colony on inhabited mainland. These huge birds which have a wing-span of up to 3 metres, nest on the hills overlooking the harbour and if you’re lucky you can see them in flight, windy and stormy days are the best for this as they launch themselves off the cliff and rely on updraughts to get themselves airborne

sunrise through the pines

sunrise through the pines

Had to get up at the crack of dawn or with the lark as we English say, with the intention of trying to catch any morning mist whilst staying at my sisters house which is situated in woodland in Surrey, England.

Tin Rose

Tin Rose

I never get sick of flowers or taking photos of them but sometimes you have to put your thinking cap on try and come up with a new way of shooting them. I’d taken some small props to our country hut a couple of weeks back and when I had a few moments spare time in between gardening tasks, had a quick photo shoot using what I had available, in this case an old tin, old mirror and a rose (which was losing its petals) from the garden.

Pear tintype

Pear tintype

Another addition to my collection of pear photos.  They’re such photogenic fruit and especially this variety with its elongated shape, a Beurre Bosc in fact. The photo was taken with the lensbaby edge 80, a wonderful lens I must add! Perfect for still-lifes like this one and lensbaby shots have a natural affinity to textures.

Medieval

Medieval

Another image from the grounds of Leeds Castle in Kent, I came across this interesting themed hillside camp-site situated beyond their large vineyard which can be glimpsed in the background, and found they’re now running a new Glamping site!
All these lovely fresh new tents with their different primary colours were glowing in the morning sun, however, some were occupied so I didn’t like to get too close!

Japonica

Japonica

This was a quick shot I took yesterday on a shelf in our glasshouse, I put an old tray behind the shelf as a backdrop, gathered some vine prunings and then picked a twig of japonica from the shrub growing nearby and voila! 

Owl Service

Owl Service

Its like Christmas even in high summer when you come across an old image that’s worth processing!
Happened to me here whilst going through old external hard drives. I shot this back in the winter of 2008/9, whilst exploring our local ancient graveyard in Beziers City center after first moving here from a nearby village.

Vintage Hydrangea

Vintage Hydrangea

I am enjoying the versatility of our new Flypaper metallics, I love the light metallic sheen that some of them give to photos depending on the blending mode and opacity of the texture layer, this adds a whole new dimension. In this shot of a single hydrangea floret on an old mirror, I combined the metallics with one of our tintype edges, they work so well together!

Indenture for a house by the sea

Indenture for a house by the sea

For this simple still life, lit from a side window with a piece of ugly cardboard behind, I needed some drastic life injecting into it to rescue it from the trash basket! Thus Nik Effex Pro was used to lighten the centre and slightly vignette the edges.The Crossprocessing turquoise tone is also from Nik color pro, and although the set-up was shot with my lensbaby optic 80, I still…