This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s prompt is optimistic. Hoping: warm sun remains, dispelling bleak darkness, setting winter to memory. Eager. We’re having a very weird, wet, windy yet warm winter over here in England. Daffodils in January. Need I say more? The picture above I actually took right at the beginning of January – it was … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Optimistic
This post is for the first month of Jude’s Garden Photo Challenge, where for January we’re asked to share photographs of a winter garden. Those of you who’ve been following my blog over the last year may recognise that these aren’t from the garden that I usually photograph. They were all taken around my sister’s when … More GPC: January’s Winter Garden
This is my entry into Cee’s Black and White Challenge. This week’s theme is Anything that Starts with the Letter S. All of today’s pictures were taken around Hartsholme Country Park in Lincoln, UK, back in November. I hope you all like them. Do you have a favourite?
This post is for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is yellow or orange flowers. I hope you all like them.
This post is for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s prompt is weightless. Tumbling thistledown Catch a fairy, make a wish Dreams take soaring flight When I was a child I was told that each floating thistledown was actually a fairy in disguise. I’m not sure exactly who told me this – I have several relatives who told magical … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Weightless
This post is for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is white flowers. I hope you all like them.
This post is for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week’s theme is red flowers and so I decided to revisit a few of the flower photographs that I’ve taken over the last year or so. The poppy pictures were the main things to catch my attention as I wandered through my archives but I also found a few red … More Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Red Flowers
Here’s my final October edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. My main aim for this month was to learn how to layer images to create a composite. I also wanted to build up to a really spooky image for the final week. I’m feeling quite happy with everything I’ve achieved but I’d love to know what everyone else thinks! This … More One-Four Challenge: October Week Four
Here’s my October week three edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. I’ve been playing around with this week’s image so much that I’m really not sure what steps I took to reach the final version – but I’ll try to remember as best I can! I began with the week one edit which I opened in Camera Raw where I increased both contrast … More One-Four Challenge: October Week Three
It’s time for my October week two edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. This week I wanted to focus on the spiderweb and bokeh. I also wanted to give the image a slightly a magical or spooky appearance. Hopefully I succeeded. To create this week’s version I first opened the image in Photoshop Elements 13 where I cropped … More One-Four Challenge: October Week Two
It’s now October and so time for a new image for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. I took this image just last week when out for a walk around the village. I’ve always found graveyards fascinating places to walk around – I always wonder about the stories of the people buried there. Here’s my first edit: For this first … More One-Four Challenge: October Week One
This post is in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Change. Don golden garments Dance through the spiralling year Winter soon will come I love this time of year – as summer shifts into autumn, greens fading into gold. With this week’s theme I thought I’d capture that change in progress. I hope you like them.
It’s time for the final September edit of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. I can hardly believe it’s week four already – this month has flown by! For this week I wanted to create a soft look of an impressionistic painting for the image. This week’s edit was actually the first one I created, as soon as I … More One-Four Challenge: September Week Four
It’s time for the third September edit of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. This week’s edit is in response to Joanne’s suggestion that she’d like to see a black and white version of the image. I again began by opening the original image in Camera Raw where I made these changes: Temperature: +20 Contrast: -100 Highlights: -19 Shadows: -78 … More One-Four Challenge: September Week Three
It’s time for the second September edit of Robyn’s One Four Challenge. I wanted to create an image this week that was very different to last week’s highly detailed version. Stacy of Lensaddiction suggested that I crop some of the rocks away from the bottom, whilst Ben Rowe of Aperture 64 said how he’d like to see it … More One-Four Challenge: September Week Two
After taking August off from Robyn’s One-Four Challenge I’m now back with a new image for September. The picture I’ve chosen to edit this month was taken a few years ago at Corfe Castle in Dorset, UK, and has languished in a folder since that time. I’ve always dismissed it as being too dark but decided it would be a good one to … More One-Four Challenge: September Week One
Riverboat idling Amidst the harvest sun’s glee Youthful dreams recalled The child’s wants expressed In wildly scattered glitter River flowing on It took me quite a long time to decide what to write to accompany these pictures. I knew that I wanted to express at least one of the ways in which they fit the Weekly … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Connection
Transfixed in disgusted fascination, you can’t help but watch as the grotesque figure dances. It twists and turns, bows and leaps in a skin-crawling parody of life. The eyes stare, a piercing gaze filled with eerie intent. Boring deep into your mind it sets its strings to your psyche. Dance, puppet. Dance. This post is … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy
I’ve been considering using this set of pictures in a post for a while now. With one of them being used for this week’s FFfAWs prompt, I thought It was about time I shared them all. These pictures were taken last summer at the Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbrian Lake District in the UK. The circle was constructed in … More Inspirational Castlerigg
This is in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Close-up. To have a look at the other entries go here. I know I’m a little late with this – there’s probably a new theme up by now! – but I didn’t think I was going to post anything until I went out for a walk … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Close-Up
It’s time for the final week of Robyn’s One-Four Challenge for July. This week’s image was not an easy one to produce – I had absolutely no idea what to do with it! At one point I had several different versions on the go, none of which I was happy with. In the end I decided I wanted … More One-Four Challenge: July Week Four
It’s time for week three of Robyn’s One-Four Challenge for July. For this week’s edit I began with last week’s black and white image and using Photoshop Elements 13 added a pen and ink filter. I shifted the levels slightly to bring out more detail in the boat but then found I was left with a very … More One-Four Challenge: July Week Three
It’s time for week two of Robyn’s One-Four Challenge for July. For this second edit I decided to go black and white. I began by opening the week one edit in Photoshop where I removed the filter from the sky and the adjustment levels, keeping the crop and clean up. I then added a black and white gradient map. … More One-Four Challenge: July Week Two
After a long week of no internet I’m finally back on my blog. Yay! My connection is still very dodgy so I apologise in advance if I suddenly vanish again. It’s a hazard of living in a small village. I had intended to post last night but no such luck. My plan is to visit everyone’s blogs over the … More One-Four Challenge: July Week One
It’s the fourth week of June and so time for the final edit of this month’s image for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. The picture was taken last year in Hartsholme Country Park in Lincoln, UK. For this final edit I wanted to create a dreamy effect. I began by opening the original image in Photoshop Elements 13 where I cropped it … More One-Four Challenge: June Week Four
Here’s the third June edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. The picture was taken last year in Hartsholme Country Park in Lincoln, UK. For this week’s edit I decided to give it the appearance of dusk. I’m not sure exactly what I did to reach this final stage – I added and removed so many layers I’m afraid I lost track. There were … More One-Four Challenge: June Week Three
Here’s the second June edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. The picture was taken last year in Hartsholme Country Park in Lincoln, UK. This week I decided to create an old photograph effect to emphasise the age and history of the boathouse in the picture (built in 1881). I’m ignoring the fact that the bridge is only a year old… … More One-Four Challenge: June Week Two
Its now June and so time for a new image for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. For this first week I wanted to keep the edit quite simple. I cropped it and used the clone tool to remove the remaining branches in the top right corner. I then used the levels adjustment tool to boost the shadows and highlights, added a … More One-Four Challenge: June Week One – Boathouse and Bridge
Here’s my May, week four edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. I spent most of this week playing around with an idea for this edit that I just could not get to work! I wanted to add a bright light coming through the crack in the door. Unfortunately I eventually had to abandon it as beyond my current … More One-Four Challenge: May Week Four – The Lock
Here’s my May, week three edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. I wasn’t really sure what to do with this week’s edit so I spent quite along time just playing around, seeing what I liked. Because of this there were a number of changes that I’m not entirely certain of. Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus … More One-Four Challenge: May Week Three – The Lock
Here’s my May, week two edit for Robyn’s One-Four Challenge. For this week’s edit I decided to use a really close crop, shifting the focus away from the lock itself to the looping connections of the hasp and staple. I then added a black and white gradient map and fiddled around with the settings until the … More One-Four Challenge: May Week Two – The Lock
After having April off from Robyn’s One-Four Challenge, I’m back with my entry for week one of May. It took me quite a long time to decide which image I wanted to use for this month – even though I thought I knew until I actually started editing. Five or so pictures later I finally land on this … More One-Four Challenge: May Week One – The Lock
I was out taking photos of views and flowers around the village when this colourful lad on a motobike whizzed past me. I few years ago that would have been me, until I traded in for a car. I don’t miss riding down these lanes in the middle of winter. This is in response to … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion
Finale As the year draws to an end, exploding in an exuberant display of vibrant reds and golds; as the day fades towards night, bathing the world in a gentle glow, the beasts stand in line with no awareness of their fate. This is my entry into Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. I’ve never taken part with this one … More Finale
Emergence Clad in umber tones, arising from winter’s sleep with the promise of a young sun’s caress, with tentative steps the maiden begins her dance upon the eternal spiral, embracing the innocence of snowdrops in fresh bloom. I’d not originally planned this to be for Cee’s Which Way Challenge – I knew I wanted … More Emergence
This is my entry for January week 3 of Robyn G’s One-Four Challenge, which asks that you edit the same picture in four different ways over four weeks. To begin with this picture was again edited on PicMonkey. First I increased the shadows, highlights and contrast and added a faint green cross-process. I then slightly … More One-Four Challenge: January Week 3
Each nook and cranny around the yard is home to a woodpile, the contents collected through years of beaver-like industry. Dead trees, old tables, builders off cuts – all meet their fate beneath the blades of chainsaw and axe. Once decimated they are laid out and stacked in funereal precision, awaiting their time … More Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Wood
Shadowed What secrets lie hidden within the shadowed corners of history? With gazes drawn to the bright vistas, the carefully chosen points of focus, we view a scene shaped by the victors’ hands, by those in positions of prominence and power. Seek with a careful eye amongst the shadows: the secrets of the dispossessed may someday … More Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadowed
Here’s my entry for January week 2 of Robyn’s One Four Challenge, which asks you to edit the same picture in four different ways over a month. For this week’s edit I used the online photo-edit site, PicMonkey. I increased both shadows and highlights before desaturating the picture to full black and white. To finish off, I … More One-Four Challenge: January Week 2
It moves like a great beast: slow and steady as it trundles along lanes dry and dusty after the weeks of summer drought. I watch it pass, see the sun glinting on dirty paintwork, and I try not to choke on the clouds of dust disturbed by its passage. Soon it has gone and only the faint haze … More Cee’s Which Way Challenge: 2015 #Week 1 – Beast
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Amanda Tuke - nature writer and urban nature champion
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