I went to Instow beach today for a walk looking for interesting things to photograph. On the way back to the car I saw this cigarette packet in the sand. The colours grabbed my attention in huge contrast to the sand. I like to shoot beach litter as I feel it tells its own story, maybe its the sense of wonder, some items could of be dropped by a local and others could of been washed up after travelling thousands of miles. As a bonus David Nightingale (Chromasia) has done a lot to promote beach combing / litter as a good photography subject.

I processed this shot by using curves, solid colour and black and white overlays with opacity and sharpening, finished off with another black and white layer using opacity to mute the colours a little. The few shots I took of this were quite cool, at 100% zoom on the full images you can see the grains of sand blowing everywhere as it was windy. Over several minutes you can see a difference in the shots where different parts of the packet are hidden / revealed.

As the November light fades on the low lands, Dunkery hill clings to the fading sunlight highlighting the fabulous colours in the heather. I took this photo the same day I shot this.

I like the dreamy vibe I get from this photo. I guess sand dunes and blue skies carry a certain amount of romanticism. It was quite a windy day so there was a fair amount of sea spray on the horizon and the dunes were almost fluid as they seemed to ripple in the wind.

This is Porlock Weir. I tried to show some of the characteristic boats and buildings in one shot that I felt portrayed the place to me. I used pseudo HDR in the processing of this photo, as I just couldn’t get a result I was happy with, although I did try to keep a realistic feel to the image. I would of posted this a few days ago but I have had some issued with the blog that I have been working on. Hopefully, (fingers crossed) it should all be right with the world for a while so that I can concentrate on trying to get some nice photos.

This is one of the shots of Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse I took yesterday. Adjustments were a slight crop, curves, colour overlay and colour tweaking via a black & white adjustment layer. Oh and cloning out a darned phone cable. I’m glad I got some OK photos as I am paying the price for my trek yesterday in the form of aches and sunburn.

I took a trip to Somerset today to try and photograph new surroundings. My main aim was to visit Porlock Weir, but I stopped off in a few spots along the way including trying to get a shot of the Lynmouth Foreland Lighthouse. I set off thinking it was a short walk and got to the point of no return as I saw the path disappearing around the hill across the valley. Once I eventually got there, I have to say I was pretty disappointed. I couldn’t get a decent framed shot, hopefully I can salvage one. The walk back to my car nearly killed me! It took 40 minutes to slog my way up the very steep hills in the peak of the day. To top it off I now have sunburn on my neck and arms.

Anyway, the shot. This is Porlock beach taken facing west from Porlock Weir. As I was about to press the shutter the man started to duck over the ridge of the shingle beach which is a shame, I thought he added scale. I still like the image even though it’s not exactly as I had envisaged. I used curves and a black and white adjustment layer at part opacity to get the colours I wanted. I hope you like it

Dave

This boat is one of those boats that everyone with a camera has probably shot. It does lend itself well to a beach composition.

This photo of blackthorn was taken at Venn quarry. It’s one of my favourite spots for macro photography, normally plentiful in dragonflies, butterflies and much more.

I’ve been stuck indoors for a few days waiting on my new phone to arrive. Not being able to go out with my camera I decided to process some old images. I thought I’d post this one today as I quite like countryside scenes, it is a local hill outside of Bishops Tawton.

The Lady Louise of Instow, with the Commodore hotel in the background.