The Modern Pentathlete

The Modern Pentathlete

I’ve chosen this photo of Zoe Davison as photo of the week for 2 reasons.  Zoe has just come 4th in the World Junior Modern Pentathlon Championships even though she is nowhere near the top of the age group.  Also I finally got the chance to use it in a recent club competition where it gained a seal.  The judge said “it’s great when you get to work with a professional model because they are so good at giving you a natural look”.  But Zoe is no professional model, however, she is great at understanding what the task is and delivering.  That’s one reason why I am not surprised when I hear news of her great performances.  We will be working again together when her competitive season finishes and we have some great ideas lined up.

Watch this space!

Top Dog

Top Dog

Not a new photo but photo of the week because “Top Dog” has just won another little prize on Purple Port.  This composition of me and my daughter’s dog, Vincent keeps doing well in various competitions including Creative Photo of the Year 2018 at Southampton Camera Club.  Compositions like this make fun but sometimes tricky editing projects.  A little planning before hand can make the subsequent work more straight forward.

Fishing for Prawns

Fishing for Prawns

I think I have to include this photo of a tern fishing for prawns because it was chosen by Bird Guides as their photo of the week.  I love it and find it hard to think how I can improve on it.  After getting a similar photo almost by chance I set about getting a better one.  It took me a number of visits on very still days with just the single tern fishing like this in this area it took a while but worth the effort.

Heron Landing

Heron Landing

It’s been a while since I have posted in “Photo of the Week”.  I have been very busy with the camera but where my work is spread over a range of different genres it’s hard for me to pick favourites and I also think to choose a photo routinely based on a calendar is a bit false.  However this photo of a Grey Heron did well for me in a recent club competition and I like it so much I think it deserves a place here.  Having said that I also got some cracking photos of terns too.


What to do on a Rainy Day?

What to do on a Rainy Day?

When it rains we sometimes don’t get out with the camera especially if you are going through a wimpy phase like me at the moment.  So I took the opportunity to revisit some old ideas.  There are a number of images like this I want to create but this is still a new area for me.  I started with a portrait of the lovely Emma and a photo of some typically dodgy paint work from the Dordogne.  Multiple cloning to prepare the starting image, around 6 layers, several liquefying processes and 4 hours later, this is the result of my self inflicted homework. “Now you see me. Now you don’t!” or should it be called “Chameleon”?

Chameleon