New work on the cards...

Its been an interesting couple of weeks:  a hard working day with the fabulous baker Linda Anderson of www.filledwithlovecupcakes.org to photograph some of her amazing cupcake creations.  

Selecting backgrounds and dressing shots - learning - again - just how unforgiving the lens is both to the quality of the cakes, and to the precision of the image.

Then a lot of hours at the computer shortlisting images, finding the right crops and processing to show her creations to best effect.  If only the taster on the right could bring you a real taste of her culinary work.

And it has all been preparatory to the launch of a new range of greetings cards to be sold alongside her cupcakes and elsewhere.  Linda will be rolling out the cards on her website and facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/FilledWithLoveCupcakes?fref=ts over the next few weeks, but if you can't wait, you can start to buy now on Redbubble too - just take a look at the cupcake gallery - and pop back to see new images being added over the next few days.

To celebrate the launch, I have reorganised all my images to display card options on Redbubble too - so please do take a peek.

See the beginnings of the cupcake collection at www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp and don't forget to browse the rest of the card collection!  Thanks for stopping by.

To B (& W) or not to B...

I can't really argue that my dilemma is quite on a par with Hamlet's moment of indecision, but I want to risk the slings and arrows of outrageous opinion on this pair of images: not sure it its particularly noble, or even that I find myself in a sea of troubles.  In fact I hope you agree the sea in the harbour looks particularly untroublesome!

Taken last June in Boston MA, (a discovered country from whose bourn this traveller returned), and taken  later than the normal witching hour when there is still that good light in the sky that can make a great twilight image,  I pressed the shutter, expecting to be converting to black and white.  But then I looked at the original and found more of a wow factor than I anticipated.  So much so, that I published the original on Redbubble where it has had 165 views (at time of writing). ( original redbubble post here)

But I kept returning to my original intention: the picture in my head when I composed the shot: the black and white.  To convert or not to convert, that is the question.  So as a little experiment in digital dynamics and crowd sourcing of insight, I thought I would ask you to share your view: should I be offering this image in colour or black and white?  Which - if either - has the 'wow' factor for you?  Would either find their way to your wall? 

So, with apologies to the Bard for the liberties I have taken with his most famous soliloquy, help me end the heartache.  Tell me what you think: tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Its easy to add a comment to the blog: please do!

For those who like the techie stuff, this was taken on a Nikon D90, showing off its great low light, low noise capabilities with 16-85 lens at 22mm (33mm fx equivalent), 20 seconds at f14, with a dab of over exposure to allow the capture of the foreground detail. ISO 200.

On the Monet?

Photographs can inform, challenge, inspire.  They can bring excitement or moments of reflection. And sometimes they just tease. One of the photographic teases I enjoy is to set up the conundrum: is this real?  This shot is one of those.  I am often asked whether it is is photoshopped.  And barring a mild colour / contrast boost, it's not.  The Monet-esque effect is pretty much straight out of camera.  (And, for those who know I post-process with Aperture 3 not Photoshop, there was no more tweaking there either!)

There is a second tease element here too: what way up should this be displayed.  In fact, what do you think the camera 'saw'?

  

Well, the picture was taken in early Autumn at the wonderful Stourhead ( nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/ ).   The lakes here often offer the possibility of great reflections. My usual thought would be to capture both image and mirror-image.  But here the height of the trees were challenging from the narrow path and anyway, the real interest was in the reflection on the so-slightly disturbed surface of the water.  So that's what I framed.  In a way it was an easier shot than to try to include the trees and brighter sky: I was able to concentrate on getting the exposure right - and balancing shutter speed against the movement in the water.

When I saw the final image it was a Monet moment, reminding me of his waterlilies.  So which way up would you hang it?

I was delighted to sell a 16x12 print of this at Christmas.  The gift was for a Monet fan. I understand she hung it the way it was shot.   Available as print, card or canvas over at Redbubble.com/people/colinkemp

Thanks for stopping by - do let me know what you think.

Peachy: to cure butterfly eyes

Take a moment to do something we so rarely find time for in our lives.  Take time to look.  But not just to look. Take time to really see.  

Look at a rose.  Take a while.   Can you feel the velvet touch of the petals? Almost smell the delicate perfume? It's sumptuous, its sensuous. It is beautiful.

I love this type of photography - that an image like this can capture more than our eyes usually see.  Last time you glanced at a rose, did you really take in the texture? Did you want to touch it? To feel the soft velvet? Our senses are so intertwined, so inclined to prompt each other,  that if you didn't, then perhaps you didn't really look.

Because that is what we do in our daily lives: we glance.  Our eyes are butterflies flitting from sight to sight, resting just long enough to record an impression, to snapshot a scene.

And if I have an aim, a desire in the pictures I share here - it is to encourage you to go beyond that butterfly moment, to rest your eyes in one image for a few moments, and to really see what is there.  Then next time you pause to admire a rose, you may look closer, to seek what you previously discovered in a photograph on my website or in a picture on your wall, and to savour a moment that you may otherwise have missed.

If I have tempted you to do that - come back and tell me what you found.

Thank you.

Colin

Sonning Creatives

For cards, prints and canvases of this image please visit my page here: 

http://www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp/works/10020437-peachy

Be mine, Columbine

Valentine's day is coming fast and roses are everywhere.  But whether it's my cheesy alliteration  or the sheer joy I got when I saw this on the camera LCD - it's this shot of a Columbine with which I want to say 'Be Mine'.

So why the passion?  Well, sorry to be a camera geek, but this was taken within 10 minutes of unpacking my first proper macro lens - the trusty Nikon 105.  Bought on ebay, picked up by a relative in Hull, brought down to 'sunny Southend' where it was unpacked on a beautiful June evening.  Not being blessed with the proverbial green fingers, my garden is not well endowed with luscious blooms.  But this Columbine was  in flower,  and it was back lit by the evening sun.  What's more, the area behind it was in quite deep shadow.

Metering so that I exposed for the bloom, hand held despite this being the non-VR version of the lens, I was blown away by the outcome.  So blown away, that a good proportion of my work is now close up or macro.  I love the fine detail we can pull out with close ups, detail we may not even be aware of with normal vision… just look at those fine, back lit hairs along the petals!

So be mine, Columbine.  Or perhaps, what I'm whispering those sweet nothings to… is Nikon's Micro 105 f2.8.  Gorgeous! 

Oh… sorry Mrs Kemp!  You are gorgeous too!

You can get closer to my Columbine as a card, a print or even a canvas, over on Redbubble where this my most viewed image:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp/works/8533760-you-are-mine-columbine

Photography: feet can be as important as hands

 Photographs are taken with the hands - right?  Well, perhaps not!  Sometimes the photographer's feet are just as important!

In November I visited Snape Maltings - a gentle, reed-girdled river just in from the Suffolk coast.  It was a perfect Autumn afternoon, the river showing a classical mirrored stillness.  The colour contrast between river / sky and the reeds was glorious and I couldn't wait to get the camera out.  
This part of the east coast always offers huge skies, but with no cloud, the interest was in the landscape.  My first shot showed that big sky and good reflections.  But the image lacked something.  It had no pizzazz.

So I walked on a little … no more than 30 or 40 yards… and suddenly the vista opened up, revealing a beautiful S-curve.  The final key to the shot was to engage knees too and take it from a lower position to provide some foreground interest by emphasising the reeds on my side of the river.

The final image needed very little post-processing - a judicious crop, and a little detail boost was about it.

This shot makes a great canvas - but you wouldn't give it a second glance if I hadn't moved my feet!

Available as canvas or print at http://www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp/works/9731016-autumn-in-snape

Kennebunkport

It was late afternoon at the end of May 2012.  We were on our first visit to New England and had just one night in Kennebunkport.  And you know how it is: just when you want pristine, puffy-cloud scattered skies for the perfect sunset over the marina - that's when you get overcast skies, drizzle and lousy visibility.  But as we wandered across the bridge at the head of the harbour, I knew I had to capture the view.  And I wanted it in black and white.

Looking out over the lagoon from the bridge you can't miss a fabulous large residence or hotel.  The woods behind were shrouded in mist, and the lagoon was still enough for pleasing reflections.

It was so damp I did not want to risk changing the lens - Nikon's excellent 16-85 DX was on the camera.  The first shot was nice and wide - but there was too much grey sky, too much grey lagoon.  Zooming in to bring the building to prominence at an effective 75mm produced this shot. It's OK in colour, but it's in black and white that I see what I had hoped to capture.  It's a timeless image - nothing to suggest 2012, or indeed, the time of day. Perhaps, like me, you can rest your eyes here - and contemplate life overlooking the lagoon… Nice glass of bourbon on the porch, anyone?

 PS: Do you know Kennebunkport?  Please let me know what this building is on my feedback page.