Bram

My dog died last Friday. He'd been showing his age, and his back legs had been getting noticeably weaker over the last six months. The dog that could clear a four foot high wall from a standing start now had to be lifted in and out of the car. On Friday, he could no longer stand, so it was time to say goodbye.

As well as being a great pet, and until recently a very effective way of keeping fit, he was a great photography subject.

Star Shot

Ok, these aren't actually stars. It's Jupiter and Venus, shot from the decking at the back of my house.

Rose

The GLW bought herself some flowers (she must have done something to upset herself), and the sun was falling nicely on the roses in the kitchen window. Ran this through photoshop, and added some hard light to increase the contrast.

Durban 2

Similar shot, but this one picking up some nice reflections off the buildings. Increased the lighting in the foreground to pick up some detail there.

Durban

One from a recent trip to Durban, making use of a setting sun and the shadows it cast. Took two exposures from the RAW file, and used one to lighten the foreground.

High Contrast

A bit of a tweak thanks to a magazine I picked up, turning a pretty ordinary portrait (taken by my 8 year old neice) into something with a bit more character.

Probably did a bit too much, but it's something to play with later.

Sunset

One thing I've been wanting to do more of is really long exposures, particularly of water. I took the camera, tripod and dog up to Harlaw reservoir at the weekend, and took a few pics of the sunset. Despite stacking two ND8 filters and a graduated ND filter, and winding the F stop as high as it would go, I still couldn't get above 6 seconds. With hindsight, the polarising filter would probably have helped, but I didn't have that with me.

I'm still quite happy with this - it's benefitted from a bit of tweaking in Photoshop, particularly getting the horizon straight! Next time I'll get there a bit earlier, and take some with the sun behind me maybe.