Lavender fills the air...

early

mid summer

morning

peachy pink

sky

burning brightly

inside

warm

winds

lingers

the scent

of sweet lavender

bees

buzzing

gently

gathering

the nectar

so very sweet

tranquility

surrounds

the garden.

~by me~

"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept." ~ Ansel Adams

I'm addicted to Bokeh.....there I've said it out loud!! Actually I’m known for my love of it, almost every picture I take features it some way or the other, I can't get enough of it!! So what is Bokeh?....Bokeh in general is mostly understood as the out of focus parts of a picture (blur). The Japanese word "boke-aji" (ボケ味) is what "boke" is derived from. This means "the quality of blur". The "H" got added by the west. In literal translation, boke basically means "the out of focusness".

So how do you get it? That was your next question mark, right?.....Well, I won't be over technical, unless of course you want me to be, but simply put the easiest way to get a nice bokeh shot or at least something that you could recognize and describe as a bokeh shot is to use a lens with a large aperture, focus on something rather close and snap a picture. The shallow depth of field of these lenses will have your main subject (more or less in my case) in focus and everything else in the shot blurry and out of focus..... There simple, no? Well not totally, this will not work with most zoom kit lenses, simply because the aperture is too small (usually something like f3.5-5.6), not because you've done something wrong!!

One of my all time favorite lenses regarding image quality and bokeh is the Canon 50mm 1.8 II although I now use the f1.4 but that's another story !!

I get asked about the "bokeh-bubbles" in some my shots: They are not a texture or photo-shopped into the pictures, they are mostly caused by the combination of water, light, angle and the right moment to press the shutter button.... Like this

Light is the most important factor when it comes to shooting in general. You can find novels about that so I won't say too much about it. I try to shoot with available natural light only. I like to shoot into the light a lot but I try to get an angle where everything is illuminated and glows. If you're shooting into the light your pictures probably won't look very good straight out of the camera. They often look washed out, maybe even over-exposed, hazy and have very low contrast. But the light is great and pretty much everything else doesn't really matter to me.

One thing I've noticed for myself is that it takes a bit of experience to get it right ~ and believe me, I still blow it a lot of times too! If you keep trying you will develop a feeling for distance and your intuition will guide you. It least that works for me most of the time.

Just be patient and be playful with what you do. It's supposed to be fun!

S =)

To process, or not to process, that is the question...

When I first started shooting with a digital camera, I must admit I was very anti-Photoshop. "Hmph," I sniffed, "Photo's shouldn't be manipulated that's just plain dishonest to the viewer." And then I would turn on my heels with a flourish and vanish in a cloud of self-righteousness, while secretly lamenting the fact that every photo I shot didn't look anything like I thought it looked like when I first framed it in the viewfinder of my camera!
Then one day, the penny dropped, I don't know why it took so long, after asking myself the question mark "Why don't my photographs look like that?", the answer came.....Photoshop, you simply have to use it if you want your photography to progress.
There's nothing wrong with Photoshop. It's just processing - similar to what we used to do with chemicals, back in the olden days. I mean, do you really think Ansel Adams really shot those beautiful pictures without dodging and burning and manipulating the processing of the photograph?".   As soon as this  realisation hit me,  I felt the clouds part, and angels singing on high. Of COURSE. Photoshop isn't a tool of dishonesty and deception, after all -- it can actually be used to convey what the photographer saw through the lens. 

Like this image, through my viewfinder I could see the magic of the warm summers day.  Yet felt disappointed when I looked back on the captured image, so it was only with the help of Photoshop that could I recreate that initial feel for the viewer to see as well.

Since then, I've become a huge fan of Photoshop, and find myself seeking out the work of other photographers who use Photoshop -- some are true artists with the software,  and I'm always on the lookout for more.

So how do you feel about Photoshop?  Have you yet been enlightened or do you remain a 'purist'?...

S =)

What would you do if you could do anything?...

"What would you do if you could do anything?" Have you ever stopped long enough to ask yourself that question mark?

Like this little leaf, it's made a leap from the tree, it started it's journey, but now it's clinging onto a fence, which is surely holding it back, but it's what the little leaf knows now.....  Would you do the same?  Do you do the same?

Afterall leaving a steady job and a substantial paycheque and benefits is scary. The wider view that leads us to a necessary leap of faith into the blur of bokeh, certainly isn't an easy thing to do. But surely remaining fixated on the close view of a narrow mind doesn't make the heart skip with happiness?

The complicated texture of the moment, an unidentifiable reflection, the fear of failure... of getting burned, stops us from achieving what we would really desire. 

So do you get fixated on the narrow view of today? What holds you back from the wide angle view?  What would you really like to do if you gave yourself long enough to ask that question mark?...

Mother Earth sustains all her living forms...

The Chalice Well is among the best known and most loved holy wells in Britain. Many legends are attributed to its chalybeate waters, which flow ceaselessly at a steady rate and temperature that never varies.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the well has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 gallons per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give water a reddish hue, as dissolved ferrous oxide becomes oxidized at the surface and is precipitated. Like the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities.

Wells often feature in Welsh and Irish mythology as gateways to the spirit world. The overlapping of the inner and outer worlds is represented by the well cover.  The two interlocking circles constitute the symbol known as the Vesica Piscis.

To be at the well head, to drink the water and absorb the atmosphere in the gardens can be a truly inspirational experience.

Frequent events are held in the grounds of Chalice Well including annual celebrations for the winter and summer Solstices, World Peace Day, Easter, Michaelmas and Samhain (Halloween).

Summer Solstice

"Summer Solstice is one of the great turning points of the year, when the sun is at its peak and the days abound with the promise of life’s fullness. It is a serenely powerful time in which the beauty of the natural world can infuse our spirit, bring us alive to the present, and perhaps awaken a deeper sense of relatedness to the community of life, to the Earth, and to the cosmos.”

 ~ Paul Winter

How do you plan to spend your time today. This: sun standing still day. This: shortest night of the year....enjoy this most beautiful solstice!

It's hard for me to see a sky like this and not run to grab my camera and when my camera's not around there's always my trusty iphone!.



A sunset this beautiful almost seems too good to be true,  I need to capture it to prove to myself that it actually happened, though it never seems so magical once captured on camera.

Isn't it amazing that something that happens everyday, like the sun going down, that we all take for granted can still manage to produce such a spectacular scene, if we only take the time to stop and watch.

It's ordinary and extraordinary at the same time...