Water is mindblowing, it can kill you yet keep you alive, destroy whole settlements and yet make them thrive.. It covers 70% of the earth’s surface, it’s in the air we breathe and the food we eat, there’s not a thing on earth that isn’t affected by water in some way, so here is a series of photos that show the beauty of water:
Closeup of lake in Camping Aritzaleku, Pamplona, Spain
A beach on the Suffolk Coast
A duck in Richmond park
London, North Bank
My first attempt at a stitch job, 5 photographs in my room – each photograph containing me in a different pose – then ‘shopped together. There is no meaning to this, no story behind it – I just chose to do similar poses – I had thought about a redux involving other poses – watch this space…
I Waited for You
Every passageway in Barcelona has shops with roller shutters, the perfect place to get a spray can out.. here’s a few that caught my eye:
I love HDR, some people hate it.. a bit like Marmite, but not at all like Marmite..
HDR is basically three photos, one dark, one light, one in the middle (underexposed, overexposed and a control…) you then layer the photos in an HDR suite and adjust settings to bring out the highlights, shadows and other various effects.
Trafalgar Square fountain - West side, near to Canada House in HDR
You can really go as crazy, or as conservative as you like with HDR, the hatred for it stems with ‘overdone‘ HDR, photos that look way too unreal..
Summer in a Different Light - HDR of the BFI in Southbank
I think HDR takes talent and skill, not even to just produce good images, but the whole process – you need a tripod and a shutter release, minimum, to make sure that all three images you take are of exactly the same scene. It’s a planned day out, you can’t really just do it on a whim.
A building in my home village Ruskington that was up for sale
Now, if you own two Canon EOS 5D’s – then the next level is video – Soviet Montage have put together a nice little video that shows how capable the 5D is for more than photography.
Clouds produce fantastic effects in HDR
What I love most about HDR, is that you can emphasise the various elements in a photo that would otherwise be lost in a JPG, or point and shoot.
Near St. Pauls Cathedral in London
Kitsy is 13, never been outside in her life, used to live with a friend of mine who died, I wanted to show her how cool the garden is:
Kitteh outside for the first time
Highly curious cat that she is, spent 2 minutes smelling one particular plant:
Curious kitteh is curious
Still had to come in (re: run in) when another cat sat on the shed roof and made his presence known:
Disapproaving kitteh is disapproving
I had to act the protective ‘dad’, she’s so nervous ‘institutionalised’ almost:
Kitteh still doesn't understand what grass is fully
When it’s hundreds of people’s photos made into a mosaic of a seal, printed onto a big board and held by two PETA interns outside the Canadian High Commission!
PETA Interns hold the seal mosaic outside the Canadian High Commission in London
The girls were there to protest the annual seal slaughter in Canada - the mosaic is formed of 2,000 images (some people’s images were duplicated)
Two PETA interns holding a seal mosaic image outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square
Sitting in the PETA office:
“Matt, would you mind taking photos of a photo-op we’re doing next week?”
“Sure, what’s the deal – different to what we normally do?”
“Yeah, we’ve got some West-End stars lined up to hold a banner outside Fortnum & Mason”
“Who are the stars?”
“Peter Egan, Carley Stenson and Jenny Seagrove… maybe others too..”
“Hmm.. let me check my workload and get back to you”
Now some of you may be unaware of those three celebs on name alone.. but I know them.. I’ve seen them in most things they’ve done and I suspect when you see their faces you’ll know them – let me give you a brief rundown:
Peter Egan
Most famously known for his role in Ever Decreasing Circles – an 80′s UK sitcom – but also a silver screen actor (he was in Chariot’s of Fire no less!)
Carley Stenson aka Steph from Hollyoaks
One of Hollyoaks’ many beautiful young actresses, sadly now dead on-screen, but managed to get the starring role in Legally Blonde – absolutely stunning girl, very photogenic… oh and of course, she wears a similar hat to me..
Jenny Seagrove
I remember Jenny most from The Guardian but that was simply because it was a film I watched and remembered from childhood.. if anyone finds a copy on VHS I’ll buy it from you – you just can’t download it anywhere.. Jenny has starred in many films in the 80′s and now does very well in the West End.
All three of them are really nice people, they stayed long enough to get the ‘money shot’ for the press – and here it is:
Carley Stenson, Peter Egan and Jenny Seagrove protest Fortnum & Mason's continued sale of foie gras despite protest
Okay, okay, shameful plagiarism of the title of the blog entry I posted for PETA, but hey! It’s a great title.. genius just doesn’t come easily!
Once again, the ‘Amazonian-looking’ beauty that is Victoria Eisermann raised the flag for PETA, this time against Fortnum & Mason for their sale of foie gras, the demonstration came just ahead of St. George’s day (hence the ‘cross’ reference.. geddit??)
Victoria Eisermann forms the shape of a cross in PETA's St. George's day demonstration
Joined either side by PETA volunteer/activist/staff members, Victoria - body painted red – had the press camera’s clicking away merrily (though in typical pap fashion the majority of the pictures were taken when the girls turned around..)
Victoria and crew outside the front entrance of Fortnum & Mason
