Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my Blog

I started writing posts in January of 2019 and have now added over 30 more. I have published these under the title My Journey to become Visual Literate. 

This link will enable you to access this blog

https://visualliteracyjourney.blogspot.com/

I do hope you will enjoy reading this, the second year of my journey to become more visually literate. I would  encourage you to add your comments or questions to the individual posts. I will try to reply in a timely manner.

The Google Blogger application prints out posts in reverse order so the first one you will see is the last one I have written. If this is the first time you have visited this blog it would be best if you could read the posts in the order they were written. If you look on the  the right hand side of this page you can see the dates of all the posts so you can select those from January 2020. All the post titles include the name Post 1 Post 2 Post 3 etc

I look forward to hearing your views in the comments section or by email to chrisc2055@gmail.com

Post 16- Bits and Bobs

I have taken very few photos in the 5 weeks since my last post. Coronavirus restrictions have limited outdoor time and the house and garden have been uninspiring.

I created a Calverley Family photobook for my 94 year old Mother who lives alone and has not seen any of her family all year  due to Coronavirus restrictions.  I realised that I had no new images of Moy or myself so had to take some. Taking images that include me is not without challenges but I am happy with the resulting image.

I also created a digital Christmas Card by adding snow to an image of a Robin taken earlier in the year. This necessitated creating an using a special snowflake brush in Photoshop. I learned a lot from the process which may come in useful for other projects.

I have spent a lot of time trying to understand how to change colours in Lightroom and Photoshop and have started to try and use this knowledge to re-edit images from previous years. The image of a woman playing in a coal heap at Papplewick Pumping Station yielded an improved result. I still have a long way to go.

Before

After

The Ockbrook Photography Club have been meeting regularly on Zoom and had a presentation from David Keep who is a member of the Rolls Royce Camera Club. David  creates award winning images of sporting activities and shared his methodology with us. He unashamedly improves his original images to make them more likely to do well in competitions. Our club's monthly challenge a was to use similar techniques to improve some of our own sporting images. Here are two examples.

Before

After

After

As I write this blog we are still in lockdown so will not be able to leave the house to take photos for at least the next four weeks. Plenty of time to improve my understanding of using colours to make my images have more impact. Wish me luck!

Post 15- Colour Blind

 I have been trying to increase my visual literacy for nearly two years and believe I have come a long way.

My journey has been interrupted by the continuing restrictions made necessary by the Coronavirus Pandemic and the arrival of Winter. It has been difficult to get out and about and there has been a big reduction in the amount of eye catching subject matter. I have continued my studies of Photoshop and Lightroom but have rarely been inspired to make new images using the new skills.

A recent update to the Creative Cloud programmes Lightroom and Photoshop have included major changes to the colour adjustment capabilities. This has made me realise that I rarely utilise any of these techniques when developing my images and have concentrated instead on adjusting the tonal values of my files. I rarely attempt to "tweak" the colours because I have no understanding whatsoever of how colours interact and contribute to the attractiveness of an image. This is a major gap in my knowledge and something I must work hard to rectify.

Talking to Moy, my wife and Mentor, I realise that she has a natural feel for what colours go well together that has come from years of being a watercolour artist, something I have never tried. 

YouTube is a fantastic resource and I have started to explore the subject of colour theory. I have come across numerous techniques for colour correction and colour grading and have started to "play" with the latter. Colour Grading seems to be used to modify an image by adding colours to the shadows and highlight areas to create a different "look". There seem to be many conventions and fashions in this area that come mainly from the movies but they can also be seen in fashion photography. I  quite like some of the still images I have see that use these techniques and have started to experiment.

I have no idea why adding Teal to the shadows and Orange tints to the highlights of an image is commonly used but quite like the "look". I have so far just played with one image and quite like the way very subtle adjustments to tints and tones change the overall image. I have posted a before and after shot below.

 

I clearly have a lot to learn but the Covid restrictions have provided me with an unrivalled opportunity to study this massive subject. No excuses!

Post 14- The end of Summer and the Second Wave

 The abundance of insect life is coming to an end and we are slowly moving towards Autumn.

The weather has still been dry enough to get out. Covid Restrictions have meant we have made a larger number of shorter trips to places closer to home. The rule of six has made mixing with fellow photographers more difficult. Despite the difficulties we have still enjoyed our trips and produced worthwhile images. Here is a selection.

We are hoping to go to Northumberland next week but there is a real risk that our holiday may be cancelled or curtailed by the imposition of travel bans made necessary by the Second Wave of Covid 19 infections. Fingers crossed.

Post 13- Butterflies and Bugs and a little creativity

 The good weather has provided an opportunity for Field Trips and I have greatly enjoyed organising them. We have been on at least one Field Trips each week, many with camera club colleagues, others just Moy and I. We are fortunate to have many nature reserves within a short drive of our home.

The easing of restrictions has resulted in an alarming number of people going out into the countryside and the behaviour of many of them has been appalling. Piles of discarded camping, picnic and barbeque litter have been abandoned and left for volunteers to clean up.

The opening of Pubs and Restaurants has led to spikes in Coronavirus infections as many of the patrons fail to follow social distancing advice. The campaign slogan "Don't Kill your Granny" has unfortunately NOT resulted in a reduction in this type of behaviour and has increased our concern. 

We seem to be the only ones still being careful. We plan to keep out of shops, pubs and restaurants for the foreseeable future and are choosing outdoor venues that are not attracting crowds.

We have both become quite adept at finding and photographing Butterflies, Dragonflies, Grasshoppers and Crickets. Putting names to these creatures is a challenge as there are so many varieties.

Here are some of my favourite shots from the past four weeks.

 

A visit to Calke Abbey provided an opportunity be a little more creative. I am quite pleased with these  images.

 

Post 12- 100 days in lockdown and restrictions are easing

The Coronavirus lockdown has been going on now for over 100 days and as infection rates reduce the government are now easing up on some of the restrictions. All around us we see people young and old apparently ignoring social distancing measures and this makes us very nervous. We have seen packed beaches and massive demonstrations on the TV and are very apprehensive. The Pubs are allowed to open tomorrow and this coincides with a match between Derby and Nottingham Forest.  We are anticipating a very difficult day for our three family members in the police force who will have to try and control those fans who choose to cause trouble.
The easing in restrictions has had some small positive effects in as much as we have been able to go out taking photographs with members of Ockbrook Photo Club and the Macro Photography Group. We have been very careful to keep our distance and have all enjoyed getting out and about again.

All my recent photographs have been of wild flowers or insects and I must admit I enjoyed taking these more than I ever thought I would. The insects particularly are rarely still and present a real challenge.

I was quite please with the upward view of poppies made possible by taking a mirror with me.

I also made an interesting kaleidoscope effect using Photoshop to modify an image of gorse berries.

Post 11- Zoom Zoom!

Without the opportunity to meet up face to face with fellow photographers we have been forced to develop new methods for sharing ideas. This has led to the discovery of the Zoom programme that means we can all join together using our Computers or Tablets and have discussions and share ideas. Both the Macro Photo Group and Ockbrook Photo Club have been holding regular meetings and it has been really nice to "meet" with the many friends I have gained through membership of these organisations.
Both Clubs have arranged to have guest speakers and it has proved to be a surprisingly effective way of watching presentations.
The Ockbrook Club have been doing a series of technical demonstrations using Photoshop and Affinity and we have learned a number of useful techniques that will facilitate to production of composite images. I have been working on composite images for some months but am learning new ways of combining elements and hopefully the quality of my work will improve.
Here are a few of my recent images.

 I was also challenged by Valda Bailey to produce images that evoked the Coronavirus and I produced a couple of ones that might be suitable as Public Information Posters.