137. Little

This is Squeak, the American Kestrel - so little, she can balance on peoples' heads!

136. Sky high

Another of the beautiful peregrine falcon. 

135. Wings

134. Turbulent

This crow was not at all happy to find an American Hawk flying around in his territory. Cue aerial clashes. 

133. Fast

We watched a falconry display today in the grounds of Lacock Abbey. I tried to get some shots of the amazing birds as they flew but they were so fast - especially this peregrine falcon - that it was very tricky to catch them in flight, even with my motor-drive taking continuous shots per second and a high shutter speed! It was the first time I've ever really wished for a long zoom lens, as well. My 70mm just didn't cut it. As a result I've had to crop this in really close, reducing the image quality significantly. 

132. Depth of Field

I can see for miles and miles...

131. Boy

After yesterday's post of big sister, here is one of a very lovely little boy, who spent the day walking, climbing and playing with gadgets - as little boys love to do. 

130. Girl

Over the bank holiday weekend we met up with our friends and their two kids. This little lady was enjoying reading in the sun, all dressed in pink and sparkly things.

Tutorial Tuesday

This evening I had a very quick play around, after being inspired by Ashley Sisk's Tutorial Tuesday challenge. I'll hopefully give this a better go later in the week when I have a bit more time, but it was fun to experiment with something new. This tutorial focuses on changing background colours in Photoshop. 

I took this photo of my friend Litsa and changed the back/foreground colour in the field to a deep red hue. 

I wanted more of the red, however, and got a bit carried away! I copied Litsa to an additional layer and then worked with the background, using the 'clone' tool to add to the background. 

Although definitely not a polished finish, I am pleased that I now know how to alter background colours. 

Next step, cleaning up edges...

129. Rest

This weekend we visited Dyrham Park and these guys were just lounging near the path, resting and posing for photographs! 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

A little delayed this week - with the bank holiday weekend here in the UK, I've been out and about. Please do pop over to Ashley Sisk's page, where she hosts the Scavenger Hunt Sunday, and check out some of the other links.

1. Shadow

In the sunshine earlier this week, the lambs were casting clear shadows. They're getting big so quickly.

2. Keys

This one is from my archive as I didn't have chance to get a shot of keys this week. It was taken with my Lomography Spinner camera, which takes full 360 degree panoramas. This was in New York last year and the link is the street performer's piano keys. 

3. Smile

A lovely smile from a lovely little boy. 

4. SOOC

The scanned negatives from one of my analogue cameras - these were taken on a recent trip to Amsterdam and I just got the film developed. I scanned them in to digitise. 

5. Fish

Finally, my lovely other half eating fish and chips by the seaside. 

I hope you've enjoyed this week's scavenger hunt. 

Happy snapping in this coming week. 

128. Utilities

My kitchen tap, drip drip dripping. 

127. Plant

This is one of my beautiful orchids. I love its delicate, full flowers. It was a gift from some students, when I left my previous school and it has just started flowering again this month. It must love its sunny position on the windowsill. 

126. Lines

Two photos for day 126...of the same thing with different light sources.

Can you guess what it is?

For the shot above, I placed the item in a light box, with no artificial light. 

For the one below, it was held up against a window, with the sunlight shining through. the item.

It's a beautiful piece of stone that my Ben brought back from America. The lines are so interesting and beautiful. I love how it is partially translucent, so when the sunlight shone through, the grains became clear and bright. 

125. Fix it Friday // Lightness

Both the colour and the weight of these dandelion seed heads are incredibly delicate and light. So lovely. 

I took lots of photographs of them, around my garden, earlier this week and this shot was actually one I was about to discard, in favour of clearer, sharper images. In the end I thought I'd use it for a 'Fix it Friday' post. 

Here is the original shot...pretty uninspiring and flat...

However, I realised that the centre of the dandelion clock was actually sharply in focus and created an interesting contrast with the blurred background and seeds. I edited the shot using the following steps:

1. Open in Adobe CameraRaw and adjusted the exposure - by bringing this down the details became clearer.

2. Still in CameraRaw, I pulled the blacks up significantly - to about +50, as well as the contrast. This helped to define the seeds and create more striking colour. I didn't need to up the saturation as the increase in the blacks created this effect. 

3. I then opened the image in Photoshop Elements and cropped it in tight around the dandelion clock, so the focal point of the shot was the central seeds.

4. Finally I added the Pioneer Woman 'Boost' action to really make the colours pop. 

A big improvement, don't you think? 

Happy Friday everyone - and happy snapping this weekend. 

124. Fire

This picture was actually taken earlier in the year, but I had completely forgotten about it. I opened it up yesterday, looking for an image to represent the May fire festival of Beltane. With a quick edit, I thought it would do for this theme as well. 

123. Beginnings

With all the rain, we've not really been able to get down to our allotment. We have planted some seedlings on the windowsill though, which we'll be able to plant out when the weather improves. These are the beginnings of some pak choi!

122. Small

As I mentioned in Sunday's Scavenger Hunt post, this ring was my great-grandmother's. She must have had tiny fingers, because it is so small, I can only get it on my little finger!

Happy 1st May, everyone! I can't believe how quickly this year is whizzing by. We're already four months - a whole third - of the way through!

121. Imperfection

This is one of those analogue 'accidentals' I was talking about. The light has leaked into the shot here, creating a distortion of colour. In spite of the fact that it is technically 'imperfect' I still really like this image. It captures a lovely memory of breakfast with my Mum on our holiday - plus it has a really warm, vintage feel because of the light leak. 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

In spite of a hectic week at work and piles of marking (which I seem to be avoiding), I have made the time to put together a Scavenger Hunt Sunday post. I love Ashley Sisk's photo challenges - even when I don't take part, seeing the creative development of others is so inspirational and encouraging. Please do head over there to see the other entrants' fantastic sets.

So, on to my interpretations of this week's themes...

1. Yellow

This one was a bit of a no-brainer for me - the rapeseed fields are in flower everywhere round here. The landscape has become a patchwork of green and yellow. Last weekend I took my friend Litsa out into one of the fields to snap some shots. 

2. Something that makes you smile

I took this shot earlier in the week and it really did make me smile - the surreal effect of the refraction in the water droplets and the fact that I had attempted something new with my camera. I love being creative and trying new, quirky things. 

3. Ancient or Antique

Both the book and the ring are antiques. The ring  belonged to my great-grandmother and has been passed down through the generations to me. It is far too tiny for me to wear on any bar my little finger so, instead, if I do wear it, I wear it on a chain round my neck. The book is a copy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' I found in a second-hand bookshop years ago. The text itself dates back to the 1640s, but this edition, according to my research, was published in the 1880s. I probably shouldn't keep it on top of the radiator then...

4. Splash

This one is from my archive - taken a few weeks ago. It was taken on a hot, sunny Sunday in Bristol and the children were loving splashing around in the fountains in Millennium Square. Slightly worried that may be our only glimpse of summer, as it has rained pretty steadily from that point on!

5. In the sun

What sun?! Seriously, we haven't really had any since the beginning of April. It has been a very wet, rainy, grey month. I managed to grab half an hour of clear skies and a few little rays of sunshine earlier this week to  snap these dandelion heads in the garden. 

Happy Sunday everyone - I hope you enjoyed this weeks scavenger hunt.

120. Shadows

One of the La Sardina photographs I had developed from Amsterdam showed up these very clear shadows. 

119. Analogue

I love, love, love shooting analogue. My first SLR was an analogue Nikon and I loved it. Nowadays, when almost everyone has a digital camera and can take as many photos as they want without any great expense, I find something truly lovely in returning to film. It makes me very selective about what I shoot; take time and thought over composition to ensure I'm not wasting film and I enjoy waiting expectantly to get a roll of film developed, not knowing what will turn up. 

My partner and I have a growing collection of analogue cameras - from new toy cameras such as this and this, to vintage cameras we have inherited from parents and grandparents or found in junk-shops. 

While I was in Amsterdam, I shot a roll of 35mm film on this little camera - the La Sardina from Lomography. I fell out with it the first time I ran a film through - way back last summer - because I hadn't ensured the mechanism which allows the shutter to open and close was in the right place, and virtually none of my photos took. However, I thought it was about time I stopped being grumpy and tried again (there are no guarantees with analogue, but you have to go with the flow and accept that that is part of the fun!). 

I'm really pleased with how most of the film has come out. Being a toy camera, there aren't really any proper controls for exposure or focus so it's a bit of luck as to whether a shot will work. This one  is a good-un.

I would really recommend giving analogue a go, if you haven't already, or returning to it if you haven't looked back since going digital. It's a real thrill to get those developed negatives and see what comes up! 

118. Public Space

This was in the Museum Quarter in Amsterdam - crowds of people were milling around, sitting on the sign and having their pictures taken. I've been working my way through and editing these photos, so I thought I'd put this one up today. Sadly it's nowhere near as clear and sunny as this here in England right now - we've had nothing but rain for two weeks. Hopefully it will clear up soon - I'm dying to get out and about with my cameras. 

117. Technology

I have no idea what this is, or what it does. Aside from cameras, I'm not really on the ball when it comes to technology!

116. Clock

I'd thought about this theme a lot and have actually taken photos of several interesting clocks since I began this project, thinking that one of them would fit. However, as interesting as the clocks were, I felt my photos of them weren't. As I was driving home from work last night, I spotted a swathe of dandelion clocks on the grass verge down my lane. Inspiration most often comes to me via nature, so I spent a few minutes lying down in the grass - in one of my best 'work' dresses and high heels - snapping away.