Dumfries and Galloway Photographer

Greyhounds, Greyhounds, Greyhounds

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:25:00 +0000

So here we have some of the lovely lads and lassies from the DCGR Christmas fair.

Remember guys a dog is for life, not just for Christmas, don't eat yellow snow, and always keep the receipt.

Reaper Man

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:32:00 +0000

As stalks of wheat are we to the Reaper Man.

Except this was Winter Barley, but that messes with the metre.

Arse About Face

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:06:00 +0000

Would a portrait by any other name look as sweet?

If thine camera offends you, turn about.

When your back's up against the lens...

Having a bad face day.

Baby it's cold outside

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:18:00 +0000

Baby it's cold outside.

A little abstract number of an icy river, I took the photo, ooohhed and ahhhhed a bit over how pretty it looked, and then heaved a big rock in it to see the ice smash, because that's the law.

Somewhere in Sydney...

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:16:00 +0000

last seen in Sydney, will probably be tempted by a 50 foot carrot.

Blatant Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Me me me me me, it's all about me. Pass it on, tell the world, phone your family and loved ones,

mention it in passing to those you have no strong feeling toward, sing, proclaim, write strongly worded letters,

text, skywrite or morse code.

The Amicus Christmas promotion starts today!

Origami Nun

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:36:00 +0000

Nuns can be cool, they just need better lighting.

I made a dozen or so of these wee origami pieces for a project, and

then went crazy with the tungsten Red Heads and some coloured gels.

Brides Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:28:00 +0000

I have been asked to advertise in the new edition of Brides Magazine, there is a CDROM attached to the cover, which highlights caterers, florists, dress makers, etc and as it happens, photographers. There is only one of each for each region and I'm representing Dumfries & Galloway.

Macro Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:26:00 +0000

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common house fly taken with a Nikon D200 through a microscope and colour manipulated in photoshop.

Took me ages to persuade it to stand still.

Santa?

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:10:00 +0000

Over 10,000 racing greyhounds are retired each year due to age, injury or just not being fast enough. While many trainers and owners treat their dogs responsibly, a few are less caring and dogs have been found under horrific circumstances.

I volunteer for a charity called Dumfries and Cumbria Greyhound Rescue (DCGR) who find homes for these beautiful dogs when their racing career ends.

The trainers hand over the dogs which are then placed in a foster home, many of these dogs have no experience of life outside the track, and have never seen stairs, a river or the sea, a vacum cleaner, a TV or other breeds of dog.

We and our band of fosterers start the process of teaching the dogs how to be pets, something they adapt very well to being very lazy animals. And then finding them a permanent home where they will be loved as part of the family.

The three handsome boys above are Davy, Des and Taffy, Davy is one of my dogs, Des is the current foster dog and Taffy was a previous foster who was staying here while his owners were on holiday.

Photographing greyhounds is like herding cats, but we had a fun time and got some good shots.

For more greyhound info have a look at DCGR website: click here

A stout of no specific brand

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:02:00 +0000

A journalist once asked Thin Lizzie lead Phil Lynott what it was like being black and Irish

'Like a pint of Guinness' was the reply.

This was a studio shot taken with just one overhead flash, the hardest part was getting the head right, turns out I could have used egg white. You live and learn.

Mull of Galloway Lighthouse and Foghorn

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:12:00 +0000

This is the closest I've ever been to standing on the edge of the world.

Taken on Tri-X film on my OM10.

Perched high on top of the cliffs is the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse.

The lighthouse, with its 26 metre high tower,

was built between 1828 and 1830 when

it became operational, at a cost of between £8,000 and £9,000,

and came into use in 1830,

In the early 1900's a foghorn, with it's Kelvin diesel engine, was introduced as an extra warning to sailors to avoid the Mull's rocky coastline and was in use until the 1980's when radar became a more effective and efficient method of warning.

At one time the lamp was a combination of shining brass and sparkling crystal, turning through its two and three quarter minute revolution on beautifully made rollers - so perfect that the 5 tons of lens could be moved by hand. The lamp was as simple as the familiar tilly-lamp, lit by hand with paraffin and then pumped up, for all the world like a camp-cooking stove. But there the resemblance ended for the surrounding prisms, which gave off myriad rainbows on a sunny day, caught the light and magnified it to the power of 29,000 candles.

Patrick & Rhoda got married

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:13:00 +0000

So my lovely friend Patrick got married to his beautiful partner Rhoda, whom I only met for the first time on the day, as she walked round the corner to see me pointing a camera at her.

The shoot was challenging at first when the Vicar told me I couldn't use my shiney new and very expensive SB600 flash. The inside of the church although striking, was pretty dark, and even wide open at f2.6 and shooting at 1/50 some of the images came out quite dark, but thanks to the wonder of camera RAW and CS5 most were pulled back and the whole turned out to be a very good shoot.

Congratulations to a super couple :)

Emma Gillespie's fine Imagination

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:10:00 +0000

A big congratulations to Emma Gillespie for doing so well in Sky1's 'Must Be the Music'

Let's hope she makes it all the way to the top.

Here's some pics of her singing at 'Youth Beatz' festival in Dumfries 2009.

Castle Door and Dragon Face Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:35:00 +0000

If you have ever travelled towards England, down the West coast of Scotland the chances are you passed through Dumfries and Galloway. Dumfries and Galloway is the 3rd largest region in Scotland but for all intents and purposes we do not exist, or are kept for some reason a very closely guarded secret.

Even the road signs have forsaken us, and will show distances such as

Glasgow 10 miles

Carlisle 110 miles

So what lays between the two, wastleland, here be dragons, white space? No, it's us, Dumfries and Galloway, we have some nice castles (the pics above) some great produce, amazing coastline, stunning forests and mostly friendly natives.

Give us a try, what have you got to loose.

Dumfries and Galloway, it's quite nice really.

Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfries

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:25:00 +0000

"so strong a castle that it feared no siege... in shape it was like a shield for it has but three sides round it, with a tower at each corner... And I think that you will never see a more finely situated castle, for on one side can be seen the Irish Sea, towards the west and to the north the fair moorland, surrounded by an arm of the sea, so that no creature born can approach it on two sides without putting himself in danger of the sea. On the south side it is not easy, for there are many places difficult to get through because of woods and marshes and ditches hollowed out by the sea where it meets the river."

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:43:00 +0000

Not only is it tasty, it's pretty as well.

'Pine Mouth' & a wholly unrelated image

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:32:00 +0000

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For the last four days I have had the most foul, bitter taste in my mouth, which got worse each time I ate something. It was as if everything I ate had a liberal coating of 'Stop 'n' Grow' on it (for those of you nail nibblers out there who remember the stuff)

So doing what any NI paying member of society would do, I googled my symptoms and came across a phenomenon that has affected many thousands of people, this is the curse of

'Pine Mouth'

It seems over the last few years this has become an increasing problem spanning the whole world, I have read posts from France, Australia, the UK and the USA, and our own dear 'Food Standards Agency' are conducting research into it.

There are a couple of theories as to why this is happening but the most likely one is that a percentage of Chinese produced pine nuts are in fact from an inedible strain and are being mixed into the edible ones, either by accident or design.

Apparently the taste will wear off and may take from 4 days to 4 weeks, in the meantime I cannot drink, except tea and water (wine is unimaginably bad) and all food is like chewing asprin.

My friends think I've gone crazy, but if you are reading this and know the frustration of not being able to taste anything except bitter bitter, you are not alone and you have my empathy and sympathy.

I for one will think twice before I ever eat another pine nut.

Diva Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:38:00 +0000

A few years ago my partner was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Diva magazine approached us for an article about partnerships, cancer and the hospital system, we gave an interview over the phone from home, but when they wanted photos we were on Westray one of the Orkney isles. I agreed to do the shoot for them for a credit in the magazine, and this is the one they used.

I took the light readings and set the camera on a tripod, hit the self timer and ran for position.

My partner has been free of cancer for nearly three years now and we are both doing well.

Recently a friend called to tell me her partner had been diagnosed also with ovarian cancer, so I post this picture for her, and say one day in the future I will be taking her and her partners portraits on a lovely beach and for the both of them my love.

More Ducks in Somerset

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:15:00 +0000

hey, I can get more than one image on a post, every day I learn something new

Ducks in Somerset

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:08:00 +0000

Ducks in Somerset

Last week we were camping in Somerset, and in spite of breaking a finger in a cave related incident in Cheddar, I managed to get some shots of the pet ducks that lived on the site.

You're Nicked Sonny

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:02:00 +0000

You're Nicked Sonny

officer: you're nicked sonny

perp: it wasn't me guv, it was a set up

officer: i've heard that one before

perp:honest guv i was nowhere near it

officer:well we'll see what they say down at the station

perp:i blame society for not giving me the chance to realise my full potential

officer: they all do sonny, they all do

A Quick Chat

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:49:00 +0000

A Quick Chat

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Stormtrooper Goes to Work

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Stormtrooper Goes To Work

'It's not all running about shooting Ewoks you know, the paperwork alone is staggering, and these helmets are a bugger to keep clean.

Sometimes I'd just rather stay at home with the wife and do the garden, still it's a job and Lord knows how hard those are to find nowadays, and the pension's quite good, still mustn't grumble eh'

Lego Is For Everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Bev Walden) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:28:00 +0000

Lego TM Fully Supports Civil Partnership

'Lego TM is for everyone' a spokesperson of Lego TM Head Office stated, 'and that these two mini figures have decided to make this commitment to each other in love and respect makes us here at Lego ™ happy and proud to be a part of it'

(Lego didn't really say this, but I'm sure they support the sentiment, because

Lego is cool)