The reasons are many-fold, but mainly I believe it’s because;

a) I am cynical about everything (evvvvverything) and I make sure everyone knows about it.
b) I am très sarcastic.
c) I respond to almost every single situation in life with humour; the more serious the situation the more compelled I am to become Eddie Izzard at the Royal Albert Hall. (Oh, and I laugh at my own jokes, and sometimes do a piggy snort because I’m so pleased with my own hilariousness).

OK, so none of this sounds particularly horrendous – and it can be reasonably entertaining if you catch me on a good day. If though I was sent on a U.N. mission to me (in a purely observational capacity) I would report back (probably in PowerPoint form) about someone who was hard work to spend time with, majorly ‘full of themselves’, possibly a bit on the insane side and a total show off. The truth is I am, I’m all these things (and more – believe me I have many, many more ways of annoying you than the three I’ve mentioned above).

I’ve found many, many articles out there with helpful advice for introverts, which is great, but they all seem to imply that us extroverts have it easy, that we always succeed, always get the happy ending. Uh, firstly, no we don’t! Secondly, it’s not always easy being like… this. Half the time I feel like I have some sort of brain disease – my mind races and races and I can’t keep up, I feel physically giddy with ideas, thoughts, possibilities. I talk out loud to try and help me focus – sometimes there are people within earshot to hear me ramble on, often there are not. I very rarely finish a train of thought before I’ve moved onto a completely different topic, I feel a bit bewildered when the people I am conversing with seem to be having trouble with the five conversations at a time we are having and I’m totally impatient about EVERYTHING. it’s all about broad stokes, I struggle with detail. Oh, and I can only really get on with people who are clever, funny and friendly (in that order).

So why am I mentioning all this? Well, I have realised after (almost) 43 years that I feel more alive and more ‘me’ when I can forget the social niceties and just ‘be’ like this. I have a scary suspicion that I am turning into a shouty old person…. but NO not old! Man alive, I don’t feel old at all. Just shouty.

I don’t plan on being deliberately offensive or anything but you have fair warning that I’m going to experiment with leaving the safety-latch off my personality for a while to see how much trouble I get into. I’m going to stop listening to that voice in my head that bangs on and on saying “shhhhhhh, people might hear you”, “people might not ‘get you”, “I don’t think they like you standing on the tables in this establishment” and just get on with things, with life. I think it will help me be more creative and more ‘me’.

I’m going to unrepress myself. (I may swear more, too).

1. New York Model?, 2. 16:46, 3. “This is London calling Bokehistan. Will you accept the charges?”

Whilst I believe the main reason for inventing this lens was to help compensate for converging lines when photographing such things as skyscrapers or cathedrals, one of the side-effects of this was an ability to ‘minaturise’ scenes when shooting from above (at least I assume it wasn’t deliberate – would anyone really design that on purpose)? When you first see this effect it’s quite a novelty and lots of fun, but that fun can die pretty fast when it’s over-used .

These aren’t the only two reasons for using a tilt and shift lens though – you can create some wonderfully dreamy and stylish effects by using it to throw the focus away from certain areas of your image and concentrate interest onto another. It’s great for portraits and I love how this effect looks when applied to rippling water or points of light.

1. _IGP2726, 2. untitled…, 3. Lauren & Poss44

So, pretty cool huh? There’s one problem though – these lenses are NOT CHEAP. Far from it. There are some ways around this though:

1. Hire a lens – especially if you’re a Canon or Nikon user, you should have no problem renting one of these to try for a weekend (I intend to do this soon – I can’t wait)!
2. Make one. No, really! I’ve seen some very do-able tutorials for creating you very own tilt and shift lens.
3. Try a Lensbaby – the principal of these lenses is very similar to a full-on tilt and shift lens – I have an early model and you do indeed get some lovely effects and they are a lot less expensive than a full-on tilt and shift lens.
4. Check out your point-and-shoot camera, you may well have an ‘artistic’ mode on there that attempts to emulate a tilt and shift lens – on my Canon G12 it’s called ‘miniaturize’. Obviously this won’t be anything like as good as the real thing but it’s a reasonable substitute.
5. Equally there are apps out there for your phone which will also create a tilt-and-shift style effect – i.e. Instagram allows you to place a round or linear area of focus (which you can re-size or twist).
6. You can apply a filter in post-production – below are some instructions on how to do it with Photoshop but the principle should be easy to adapt to most photo editing packages. Speaking of which…

How to get a tilt and shift effect using Photoshop

1. Open your image, re-size it to the size you want to output and covert it to a Smart Object (right-click on the layer in the Layers Palette and select ‘Convert to Smart Object’.
2. From the top menu choose ‘Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur’ and adjust the slider until it’s as blurry as you want the blurriest bits to be.
3. You will see on the ‘Smart Filters’ layer there is already a layer mask (the white box) – click on that so it’s highlighted.
4. For a circular point of focus: first choose a big soft brush and paint a black blob over the area of the image you want in focus, then change the opacity of your brush to 50% and paint a slightly larger blob over the same area (so you don’t get a hard line).
5. For a linear point of focus, choose the gradient tool from the left hand menu, along the top menu you’ll see 5 style of gradient, you want number four (it goes dark to light to dark again) – on the image drag from the centre point of where the focus should be out to where it should be blurred.
6. At any time you can double click on the ‘Gaussian Blur’ layer in your Layers palette and adjust the strength of the blur or you can start again with your mask by filling it all with white.

Hopefully this all makes sense! I’m not so much trying to create the miniature effect here – more the artistic shifting of focus.

Have you ever been lucky enough to play with a tilt and shift lens (of any description)? Were you pleased with the results? Let me know too if you’ve seen any great examples of tilt & shift in action!

The sun only lasted about an hour but I rushed out, camera in hand, to the nearest place that was vaguely photogenic and snapped like crazy. It was somewhat surprising to see that nature was still on schedule even if the weather was lagging a couple of months behind.

All taken (very quickly) with my Canon 5D MkII and 135mm f/2.0 lens

A hair tie
Obviously this is only really applicable if you have longer hair; even if you do manage to hold your hair out of every shot, it’s still very annoying!

A spare memory card
I keep an old 2Gb card in my purse (I’m English, I mean my wallet) ‘just in case’. It’s been used more than once!

An energy bar
If you’re in the middle of a shoot and everything is going perfectly, the last thing you want is to have to stop and eat (or start getting snippy with people because you skipped breakfast).

A bottle of water
See above but for drinking. The water is also useful if you need to add some droplets of water to something to give it an extra dimesnsion.

A macro lens
Even if you’re out with the intention to shoot a landscape or a wedding; a macro lens is great for an alternative view (and can be a great way of overcoming difficult lighting conditions such as harsh midday sun).

Business cards
You never know who you might meet when you’re out shooting with your camera – even when it’s just snapshots with the family. You don’t even have to go to the expense of professional printing – I’ve seen amazing ones done using a home printer (and a dozen cards at a time is plenty).

Coins
I’m often screeching to a halt in the car because I’ve spotted something I have to photograph and and as such need to use arcane parking meters – having some coinage to feed them is very helpful! (And you can always use it to buy sweeties if you don’t end up parking anywhere).

GPS/map
Chances are you’ll either a) need to know how to get to somewhere or b) want to know where it was you were when you took that amazing photo, so a mobile device with GPS enabled, or even a paper map will be very handy.

Notebook/pen
There’s all sorts of scenarios where you’ll wish you had a way of writing something down – the email address of that photogenic stranger who you promised to send a JPG to, the name of the street with the cool graffitti that would make such a great backdrop for your next portrait session, George Clooney’s phone number… you just never know!

Another camera
Just. In. Case.

Can you think of more? Is there something you just can’t be without when you’re out with your camera?

It was in a park by the waterside so I tried to convince myself we’d made it to the seaside…

Especially as there was an ice-cream van…

And even a seagull…

After all that <sarcasm>excitement</sarcasm>, on the drive home I managed to get a few snaps using my iPad (oh, did I mention I HAVE AN IPAD!!!!) – the camera on it is pretty awesome, actually…

So, not a total washout today – it’s Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow which usually means rain but I’ve been hearing wild rumours about the possibility of sunshine. I’ll believe it when I see it!

Photos taken with Canon PowerShot G12 and Apple iPad 3 (Instagram)

So yes, I am feeling a bit grumpy and sorry for myself – and then there’s the mucus… oh, the mucus!

And don’t get me started on the weather! (Am peppering this post with my sunniest photos because I’ve forgotten what it looks like).

I’m going out tomorrow though, no matter what [stamps foot] – it looks like it will be the least rainy day of the four and I want to take some photos!

Oh, look – every paragraph here has finished with an exclamation mark. If there’s one thing more annoying than someone banging-on about how poorly they are it’s people who over-punctuate!

I am a wife to one sweet and supportive man who loves me unconditionally and mother to one sassy teen, one sweet boy and one crazy toddler who have helped me to know the greatest love ever imaginable. I love my munchkins they inspire me daily and being able to preserve our family history through my lens fulfills me. 

I am a self taught Hobbyist photographer who is still learning and growing. I shoot digital for now but eager to also shoot film I simply love the overall “filmy” look, the bright, clean colors, the soft muted tones, and grain. Photography is my creative outlet and here to share with anyone who wants to see it.

You can find me here:
Photo Blog | Facebook | Portfolio

Your top five photographers?

1. Annette Pehrsson
2. Annette Wilson
3. Sally Mann
4. Tara Whitney
5. Yan Palmer

Your Top five Movies

1. Sound of Music
2. Gone With the Wind
3. What Dreams May Come
4. Spirit
5. La Bamaba

Top five things that make you laugh

1. My husband break dancing & thinking he can still do it!
2. The things my two year old says
3. Any Will Ferrell Movie especially Step brothers
4. Being tickled
5. Family Guy

Your top five photos you’ve taken

Your top five drinks

1. Coffee – when I need to be fully awake and run after the munchkins (which is everyday)
2. Chamomile tea – when I want to relax
3. Ginger ale - when I need a good burp
4. Beer – when I’m feeling like a wild teenager
5. Red wine – for a goodnight sleep ; )

Firstly, my favourite wedding/engagement photography blog ever is ‘Twin Lens Life’ by The Brothers Wright - they have a unique style and some wonderful film cameras resulting in amazing photos like this one – do check them out!

Here’s my favourite restaurant I want to visit. Just wow! (No idea what the food’s like but just look at it)!

My favourite gadget – it has to be my new iPad! I love it so much – it’s the thing I never knew I really needed until I had one – I’ve been glued to it for four days solid now! One of my favourite apps is Unstuck; it walks you through things you find yourself struggling with in life and helps you sort things out… and it has an amazing user-interface…. and it’s free!

Another favourite photographer I discovered during April is Andrew McGibbon from South Africa – his whole portfolio is amazing but I especially love these photos of horses.

My favourite thing I want from etsy.

My favourite TED talk is Brené Brown: Listening to shame. So inspiring!

Here we go then, I’ve saved the very best for last. Some dude, some absolutely awesome dude has scanned in every single page of the Argos catalogue from 1976! So many memories of things I saw around me growing up I am particularly loving the camera pages though – not least because they include a Polaroid SX-70 (and wasn’t everything expensive back then, relatively speaking)…

Hang on, where’s my time-machine, there’s the 1985 catalogue too!

(Interestingly, Polaroid SX-70 film back in 1976 cost £3.85 which is the equivalent of £25.45 in today’s money – something worth remembering if you’re considering buying Impossible’s new Polaroid film – a comparative snip at only £17.00).

1. Untitled, 2. Reflections, 3. ., 4. Untitled, 5. wind advisory, 6. Islam Punk