Am maintaining two blogs at the moment so will probably only be posting favourite images with a few lines on this one. Taken on a walk at the weekend when the weather was doing mad things! The clouds were rising and falling around us and this was a moment when the sun broke through. I wanted to expose it less but the moment was so fleeting I only got two attempts. Brought some of the detail back in Photoshop though and I quite like the final effect.

More on my other blog.

It’s been a manic week of work and photography. I’m trialing some Kubota actions for 30 days to see which pack, if any, I want to get. They’re kind of annoying because there are some amazing actions but they’re littered all over the place and I wish I could pick and choose a certain number that I would actually use. Also, some of them are so tacky it’s unbelievable! And, there are quite a few I could do already, so the jury’s still out.

I’ve sorted through my archive and scans to pick out some wedding pics and children’s portraits to add to my website. I’ve just got to process them now, because some are even pre-photoshop! And tomorrow I’ve got an online workshop with Tamara Lackey via Creative Live. The more I look, the more I think I need to be in the US. There just don’t seem to be any good photography workshops this side of the pond! Let me know if you know of any!!

I’m a very honest person, too blunt at times I’m told. I don’t like to, as I see it, sugar-coat the truth because someone else can’t handle it. Today it seems as if that approach would have just been easier. How far can we go with our beliefs and integrity without just hurting ourselves? Is the stress worth the honesty when honesty is no longer an integral part of human life?

Time to image myself on a boat in the middle of the lake, letting the storm roll in. It’s one of those days where my mood and the weather are in harmony.

Over the course of the last few days, and I guess it’s been building for months and years now, I’ve realised that unless I take a leap and jump into what I really want to do in life, I’m never going to get there. What I really want to is to be able to work as a photographer, and to have the confidence to do so. But there seems to be so much to do. I would like to revamp my website but don’t want to spend money on it until the photos are representative of what I would like to do. So I need to sort through my wedding photos and choose a few to start me off. I hate the focus on my 350d kit lens, and a little scared about using my 50mm (I don’t know why!) so I’ve been putting it off until I get my new camera. I know I’m just making excuses for not starting but it’s really hard to break – especially when you’re working full-time anyway. So I need a plan, a plan to finish a few things off and get a few things started.

I need to finish: my NYC photos, because I was going to make a book for Lottie by Christmas; two big prints of Lago di Como for our bedroom – because I’m fed up of climbing around the empty frames!; module 2 of my SPI course – because I think it’s really going to help; watching Jasmine Star‘s amazing course from Creative Live – before I check out any more on Creative Live or Kelby. Switzerland is not equipped with classes that can help me and I need to find things on the net. I’m toying with the idea of contacting a local photographer to second shoot with but might need a bit more confidence still, let’s see how the year pans out.

I need to get some willing models both here and back in the UK for couples sessions, engagements, families and portraits (I might have a few guinea pigs in mind, arms to twist!); I need to work out spot metering and a better way to focus; I need to research getting perfect skin tones and crisp colours without over doing it; and I need to play more in Manual mode!

So, a few goals in hand.. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Taken on a walk near Isenau, Vaud, Switzerland. I think it is near or right next to Chalet Vieux. I couldn’t get around the fence so in the end I gave into the fact it was going to be in the picture and tried to make the most of it. The sun was coming in and out of the clouds and I was lucky enough that it came out to show the reflection in the little lake.

Inspired by another Iron Photographer project and taken as the last image for Module one of my SPI course, I knew as soon as I read ‘something that belongs outside, brought inside’ that leaves were going to cover the living room floor. Unfortunately, the day I had the idea – when the leaves were a beautiful bright red – it started raining and we ended up in a cloud for a week. So, they were not as red as I had intended and not as many as I would have liked (rotten and muddy were thrown out!). I also failed to read the criteria for the IP carefully enough and forgot to shoot through clingfilm so… it’s just a bizarre interior shot. My tutor kind of liked it – he had an issue with the plants and the blue coasters – so perhaps more simple next time.

Taken on my iphone from the car with the hipstamatic app (I love it sooo much!). I wanted to get the moody sky and the shapes of the trees – not easy with this because you never know what is going to be captured. And that’s the beauty of it. The analogue style of the app means that there is a little more mystery in the images. Not quite the excitement of waiting for the chemicals to do their thing in the darkroom but my iphone is really slow, so the tension builds up!

And, as promised, here is the second Iron Photographer I’ve been working on. The criteria for this one were: a. a fork, b. something from the medicine cabinet (interpreted as UK bathroom cabinet, and there are ducks in ours!), c. heavy vignetting. As soon as I saw the criteria, I knew there was going to be a hitchcockesque element to this. Having played with high key in the last IP, I wanted to use strong lighting and the shadows to make evocative shapes. The vignette was added in Camera RAW and I have played with some of the colour settings aiming for a primary feel to add to the tension. More great images from other Utatans here.

The clouds always fascinate me, and make me think of my dad who loves to watch them too! Although it meant shooting straight into the sun I just loved the shape of the mountains here (Col de la Croix near Diablerets, Vaud). The sun kept peaking through the dense cloud and made the spiky shapes even more pronounced. Processed in Camera Raw, I decided to keep the brightness in the cloud because it was this brightness that made me stop and take the picture.