Peri 365 Photo Blog

She loved roses.

2006-12-21T23:41:00.000Z

She loved roses.
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Misty cemetery early in the morning. Does some weird things to the colour.

Ghost Trees

2006-12-20T21:03:00.000Z

Ghost Trees
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Walking in the cemetary near us in the mist. These trees seemed to be reaching into the sky to suck moisture.

Very ethereal and spooky.

Subway

2006-12-19T16:45:00.000Z

Subway
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

We were on our way to the Victoria and Albert museum to see the "Twilight" exhibition.

Some fantastic photographs on display. I loved the Gregory Crewdson stuff; I've never seen his prints before, and seeing them in a book or on the web is so not the same as seeing a 3m wide print!

Lauren didn't like Crewdson at all, but was very impressed by Bill Henson's work. Quite sophisticated tastes for a 2-and-a-half-year-old.

This was in the subway that leads from the tube station to the museums in Kensington. We stopped to take a photograph of her next to the "Flushed Away" poster for posterity (it was her first movie experience) and suddenly the tunnel was clear of people. I asked her to stand in the middle and got off a few shots before the crowds returned.

I love this shot. One of my best I think.

Milkshake

2006-12-18T15:59:00.000Z

Milkshake
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

We like to stop in at the coffee shop. I have a cappuccino and Lauren has a vanilla milkshake.

Mandy And Stuart - In Step

2006-11-28T16:14:00.000Z

Mandy And Stuart - In Step
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I love this shot. It says so much about them.

Paralysis and nonsense

2006-11-05T21:10:00.000Z

I have now pretty much saved up enough to purchase a Canon 5D with the 24-105L lens, should I so choose.

Of course that would hardly put an end to the expenditure, I still need a tripod, perhaps a 4Gb CF card, and probably the 50mm f1.4 lens to start with.

Then of course there will always be more lenses that one hankers after. But with the release of the Leica M8 I must admit that I am really curious to try a rangefinder camera. Of course the M8 is way too pricey for me at this point, I'd have to save for another year or two.

But I could afford the Epson RD1s with a lovely little Zeiss Biogon 35mm lens. That setup should get fairly close to the quality available from the Leica, and would be cheaper than the 5D.

The kicker of course is that I have the 20D which is really a pretty good camera for most purposes, so should I upgrade to the 5D or take a chance on a rangefinder?

The 5D is clearly the practical option, a DSLR is so versatile and the 5D is a great camera.

The thing is that I have been thinking that the 20D will last me through the winter, and if I want a new camera, I'd be better off waiting until the spring of next year when there will doubtless be a new generation of both the XXD and the XD cameras announced. The 40D for sure, perhaps a 3D and a 7D with maybe the 5D getting a slight upgrade to MkII or something. There will also doubtless be a new 1D, but that will remain out of my price range.

£2000 is a lot of money to spend on a whim, but now that I have the money in my savings account I find myself dreaming of a rangefinder.

But for as long as my will holds I shall be waiting for the new cameras early next year.

Lazy catch up...

2006-10-30T08:05:00.000Z

Well - I have already edited down from the photos that were taken at Rob and Lucy's wedding to the ones I liked.

So ... see this link for Photos from 23 August to 14th September. And as I'm running so far behind you don't need to view them just one at a time. :-)

Rob & Lucille's wedding set on Flickr

Whee

2006-10-30T07:49:00.000Z

Whee
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

After a ridiculously long break...

Starting up again - I may try to catch up a bit, because I may actually have enough (semi-decent) photos to post one a day back to when I missed out. But for now I'll just try to post up a few to resurrect things a bit.

Pals

2006-08-22T07:03:00.000Z

Pals
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday 20th August's shot.

Lauren and Sophia hanging out at the Mela. Lauren won a little pink dog, whom she decided to call "Mr Pinker", at the fun-fair.

This was achieved by managing to hook a plastic duck with a long stick. The duck had a hook on it's head and was going round a little circular river. At first she wanted to keep the duck but then it was explained that she had to choose another prize.

Sophia was equally dextrous and ended up with a giant ball. Lauren, who went first, couldn't really decide whether she had made a mistake, and thought quite hard about it for a while. It would clearly have been impossible to pry Mr Pinker from her grasp though, so I suspect she decided she was happy with her choice.

Couldn't post photos for a while...

2006-08-22T07:02:00.000Z

The upload from Flickr just wasn't working.

Will catch up soon though.

Waterslide Ride at the Mela

2006-08-22T06:53:00.000Z

Slide1
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

A series of 5 from the waterslide - covering my shots for Tuesday to Saturday 19th August.

Mags took Lauren and Sophia. And they loved it so much they had to go again.

Waterslide #2

2006-08-22T06:51:00.000Z

Slide2
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Ready to go around again with with Mark this time. Friday's shot.

Waterslide #3

2006-08-22T06:50:00.002Z

Slide 3
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Thursday's shot.

Waterslide #4

2006-08-22T06:50:00.001Z

Wednesday's shot.

slide4
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Waterslide #5

2006-08-22T06:50:00.000Z

Slide5
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday's shot.

Funny Faces

2006-08-14T19:53:00.000Z

Funny Faces
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Both of us with silly expressions, I like this one.

Flags at the Mela

2006-08-13T20:34:00.000Z

Flags at the Mela
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Some more photos from the 20D to follow, these few were taken with the pocket camera because I put the SLR in my bag when the rain started.

It cleared up again though. Overall, despite a few showers the weather was better than last year.

Raining at the Mela again this year.

2006-08-13T20:31:00.000Z

Raining at the Mela again this year.
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

But Lauren can carry her own umbrella this year.

The old gang.

2006-08-13T20:30:00.000Z

Friday's shot.

_MG_0766_DxO_raw
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

BBQ at Ian and Caroline's house.

Majestic

2006-08-10T11:57:00.000Z

Majestic
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Another one from the caves.

Time

2006-08-09T21:41:00.000Z

Time
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

She can be so serious sometimes.

Tree Circle

2006-08-08T12:28:00.000Z

Tree Circle
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Yowser, finally caught up with my posting.

Today's shot.

Independence

2006-08-08T12:27:00.000Z

Independence
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday August 7th's shot.

Whoooowee. We're in for a time with this little girl.

Peewee

2006-08-08T10:26:00.000Z

Peewee
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday August 5th's shot.

Peewee came on holiday too.

Falls Crop

2006-08-08T10:25:00.000Z

Falls Crop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday August 4th's shot.

I read an article on the Luminous Landscape entitled Listening to the Print

And looking at the previous shot came up with this.

It might work as a nice companion to Summer Monster.

Falls

2006-08-08T10:24:00.000Z

Falls
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Thursday August 3rd's shot.

Taken in a cave in Wales. I was pretty happy with this one.

There isn't much light in caves, this was ISO3200, f1.8 and 1/15s, so there wasn't much more to go. But I figured that 1/15 was about right to get some blur on the water, and just waited for the composition to be right and Mags to walk into the frame.

Shutters Detail

2006-08-08T09:28:00.000Z

Shutters Detail
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Wednesday 2nd August's shot.

The shutters on this building are very tall and can be raised or lowered. Not sure who decides, but it's a very interesting architectural detail.

Shutters

2006-08-08T09:27:00.000Z

Shutters
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday 1st August's shot.

Protection

2006-08-08T09:26:00.001Z

Protection
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday July 30th's shot.

Big Protection

2006-08-08T09:26:00.000Z

Big Protection
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday July 31st's shot.

Londinium

2006-08-08T09:25:00.000Z

Londinium
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday July 29th's shot.

5000 years of construction in this square mile.

Heavenly

2006-08-02T16:33:00.001Z

Heavenly
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday July 28th's shot.

My Lady Of The Forest

2006-08-02T16:33:00.000Z

MyLadyOfTheForest
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Thursday July 27th's shot.

I saw this through the viewfinder and I really liked it.

Layers

2006-08-02T16:32:00.001Z

LayersSquare
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Wednesday July 26th's shot.

Horsey

2006-08-02T16:32:00.000Z

Horsey
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday July 25th's shot.

Creek

2006-08-02T16:31:00.002Z

Creek
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday July 24th's shot.

I like this one a lot.

Flying

2006-08-02T16:31:00.001Z

Flying
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday July 23rd's shot.

Welsh Fields

2006-08-02T16:31:00.000Z

Welsh Fields
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday July 22nd's shot.

Some Kind Of Flower

2006-08-01T18:45:00.000Z

SomeKindOfFlower copy
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday July 21st's shot.

What a botanist eh?

Quite pretty in the sunshine anyway.

Hayfield Pattern Vertical

2006-08-01T18:44:00.001Z

Hayfield Pattern Vertical
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Thursday July 20th's shot.

Another hayfield abstract.

Lauren in Hayfield

2006-08-01T18:44:00.000Z

Lauren in Hayfield
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Wednesday July 19th's shot.

I really like the composition on this one. It will get a frame I think.

Hayfield pattern Horizontal

2006-08-01T18:43:00.000Z

Hayfield pattern Horizontal
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday July 18th's shot.

As soon as I saw the fields I knew there were some lovely abstract pictures in those fields.

Farmhouse And Field

2006-08-01T18:42:00.000Z

Farmhouse And Field
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday July 17th's shot.

The farmers were cutting the hay, a couple of days later they were bailing.

Lauren In Hayfield Running Back Closeup

2006-08-01T18:41:00.000Z

Lauren In Hayfield Running Back Closeup
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday July 16th's shot.

And came tearing back.

Lauren In Hayfield Running Away

2006-08-01T18:40:00.000Z

Lauren In Hayfield Running Away
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday July 15th's shot.

She went tearing down the hill, having a great time.

Cranes

2006-08-01T18:39:00.000Z

Cranes
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday July 14th's Shot

Reflections

2006-07-13T18:53:00.000Z

Reflections
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

The red cranes across the road are reflected in the glass. Nice when the sky is blue.

I'll be offline without posting for a week or so, because we're going to Wales. So check back in a week when I've had a chance to process some pictures.

Prepare for some Welsh landscapes!

This way to the office

2006-07-12T12:26:00.000Z

This way to the office
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

The building in the distance is either in the process of being demolished or having some very substantial refurbishment.

More to follow.

Urban Landscape

2006-07-11T08:51:00.000Z

Urban Landscape
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

From Moorgate - quite a lot of distortion which I could clean up in Photoshop, but I quite like this as it is.

Clearly just a P&S snapshot though.

Nice early morning "sunshine-in-the-city".

Vandalism

2006-07-10T07:46:00.000Z

Vandalism
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

There was a bit of a fuss in our road last night with police vans turning up. Someone had smashed this car window across the street from us.

Attachments

2006-07-10T07:45:00.000Z

Attachments
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday's shot.

One from the city. I liked the geometry, texture, colour and shadow.

Lauren's photo of her parents

2006-07-10T07:44:00.000Z

Lauren's photo of her parents
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

OK, this isn't one I took - but it was taken with my camera by Lauren, who is very keen on taking pictures at the grand old age of 2 yrs and 3 months.

On course at St Martins

2006-07-10T07:43:00.000Z

On course at St Martins
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday's shot.

Nigel, Maggy and Peter Cattrell (tutor) on the last day of our Landscape course.

Spiky Desktop

2006-07-06T06:44:00.000Z

Spiky Desktop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Right - well I seem to have caught up, at least for the moment.

A spiky desktop pattern, which I shall be trying out today.

If you go down to the woods today

2006-07-05T22:17:00.000Z

If you go down to the woods today
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Wednesday's shot.

Standing under the Redwood trees at Kew on a blistering hot day, Teddy looked in vain for other bears.

Freakock

2006-07-05T22:16:00.000Z

Freakock
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday's shot.

A very strange photo, of a very freaky bird.

Nice weird effect.

Tardy

2006-07-05T07:19:00.000Z

Well, yes I have been tardy in getting my shots up.

In my defense we've just had an extremely hectic and stressful 10 days or so at work; we had some major hardware upgrades of the servers and changed from SCO Unix to Linux. This kept us all a little busy and I've been very tired - falling asleep on the sofa most nights in front of the TV, which is something I almost never do.

Plus there has been the world cup, and I like to watch the games with Mags. (Though usually can't be bothered about the football.)

On the plus side the Tri-nations begins this weekend, so there will be some decent sport to watch.

And I will be catching up with posting a shot a day.

We've joined Kew as "Premier Friends", which is a great deal if you're close enough to go frequently. As the bus takes us from the top of our road right to the gate and is only 15-30 minutes, depending on traffic, there shall be lots of Kew photos.

Hope you all like trees!

Monochrome Sunshine

2006-07-05T07:14:00.000Z

Monochrome Sunshine
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday's shot.

Taken in the garden, with soft evening light. I was trying to print one in colour and the printer went all screwy and I ended up with a B&W shot.

Which is better than the colour.

I'm going through a bit of a B&W phase at the moment.

Lofty

2006-07-05T07:12:00.000Z

Lofty
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday's shot.

I didn't think this would be any good when I took it, but I was struck by the colour, and looking at it later I like it more than I thought I would.

Also not from Kew.

IteCity

2006-07-05T07:11:00.000Z

IteCity
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

Not from Kew!

Timing is everything.

Picnic

2006-07-05T07:10:00.000Z

Picnic
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Friday's shot.

Erm, from Kew.

Little Forest

2006-07-05T07:09:00.000Z

Little Forest
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Thursday's shot.

Another from Kew.

Grassy Desktop

2006-06-28T12:19:00.000Z

Grassy Desktop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Another nice desktop background.

Running a bit behind.

2006-06-28T12:10:00.000Z

In posting my photos to flickr.

Will catch up soon.

Manic Duck

2006-06-28T12:05:00.000Z

Manic Duck
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Tuesday's shot.

From the Kew. This little guy didn't look too impressed at having his photo taken.

He was giving me the eye.

Two Flowers Desktop

2006-06-28T12:03:00.001Z

Two Flowers Desktop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday's shot.

Works very nicely as a desktop background.

Flash

2006-06-28T12:03:00.000Z

Flash
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday's shot.

She moves at speed now. Loves running.

Flowers And Greenhouse

2006-06-28T12:02:00.000Z

Flowers And Greenhouse
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

Wide angle lens at Kew.

Old Tree Canopy

2006-06-23T07:18:00.000Z

Old Tree Canopy
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Another shot of the old tree. More interesting as a tree, a bit less abstract.

Taken with Canon 20D and Sigma 12-24 at the wide end.

Looking Out

2006-06-22T11:26:00.000Z

Looking Out
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

From one of the greenhouses at Kew towards the Victoria Gate.

Sunflowers

2006-06-21T07:31:00.000Z

Sunflowers
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I'm not such a great fan of flower pictures, but I guess when you spend the day at Kew you're going to end up with a few!

Old Tree

2006-06-20T07:44:00.000Z

Old Tree Vertical
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Another shot from Kew.

Peter spotted this tree as worthy of attention for his last shot with the pinhole camera.

So I took a few shots too.

Taken with Canon 20D and Sigma 12-24.

Tower

2006-06-20T07:40:00.000Z

Tower
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Monday's shot.

At Kew Gardens.

Overexposed, because I somehow had the camera on manual and didn't notice. Only lasted for a few shots, and some of those weren't a complete loss, because I quite liked the effect. Like this.

Taken with Canon 20D and 70-300 DO.

Wispy Sky

2006-06-18T22:27:00.000Z

Wispy Sky
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

One of my favourite shots from Saturday's outing to Kew Gardens.

Many of the shots work equally well in BW or colour; which makes things rather difficult really. If a shot is clearly better in one or the other it's easy.

At any rate I suppose the guide has to be that items that are more abstract should go in BW, if more concrete then colour.

Finding Muhammad

2006-06-18T22:24:00.000Z

Finding Muhammad
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

Homeless and hungry and reading a book entitled "Who is Muhammad?"

As can be seen in a print or the larger resolution picture on Flickr.

Food for thought eh?

Taken with the FX01 - naturally.

Cleaning

2006-06-16T21:47:00.000Z

Cleaning
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I think this shot has a number of compositional elements which make it quite strong.

Taken with a camera.

Pond Life

2006-06-15T07:18:00.000Z

Pond Life
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

A fun picture from the wetlands centre.

Taken with Canon 20D and a lens.

Dead End

2006-06-15T06:55:00.000Z

Dead End
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Wednesday's shot.

This was one from near St Giles's Church. When I looked at it through the viewfinder it felt like it would be the best shot of the day, but somehow, even though it's not bad, I don't think it quite made it.

The print is very punchy, but maybe there are simply too many elements.

Taken with Canon 20D and Sigma 12-24 lens. Perspective correction in photoshop.

Tourists!

2006-06-13T09:58:00.000Z

Tourists!
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Soho.

One of the great things about walking around with a camera, is that people think YOU are a tourist, so they don't generally give you hard time.

But if you point a lens at people they do sometimes notice.

Needed a bit of work to pull out the detail from the background where the girl was observing the scene. So it's pretty noisy in there and not very amenable to noise reduction, there's just too little detail.

Taken with Canon 20D and 17-85mm lens.

Summer Monster

2006-06-12T19:53:00.000Z

Summer Monster
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I think this is one of my very best photographs ever.

Taken with Canon 20D and 70-300 DO lens.

Corner Post Office

2006-06-12T08:45:00.000Z

Corner Post Office
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday's shot.

I'm finding getting brightness right between print and screen increasingly irritating. Perhaps it's because its summer now and the ambient light is so different.

At any rate - in print this is less bright and more saturated.

And I even bought a monitor calibrator (which has certainly helped with the colour, but not yet apparently with brightness) clearly I need to learn more.

Taken with Canon 20D and 17-85mm lens.

Soho Square Trip

2006-06-12T08:40:00.000Z

Soho Square Trip
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

When I saw this foliage in Soho Square it seemed ethereal to me, and unlike some of the other people hanging around, I had not been taking any mind-altering substances.

So I put a diffuse glow on this in Photoshop, to re-create the feeling.

Taken with Canon 20D and 17-85 lens.

Growing Up

2006-06-09T13:16:00.000Z

Growing Up
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

She's shooting up, her legs and arms growing, and suddenly she's not a baby anymore but a little girl.

Teddy is still required of course, and will be for some time.

Taken with Canon 20D and 70-300 DO lens.

Bags by the church

2006-06-08T19:20:00.000Z

Bags
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Some very blue bags of rubble outside St Giles' in the West End.

I loved the contrast and the super-saturated colour from the strong sunshine.

Taken with Canon 20D and 17-85mm lens.

Stark

2006-06-07T07:27:00.000Z

Stark
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I like the lines of the scaffolding pointing upwards to the spire. Is it a spire? My architectural knowledge is somewhat lacking.

This is one of the shots I took on Saturday whilst out and about shooting for my landscape course assignment.

Taken with Canon 20D and 17-85mm lens.

Three Spires

2006-06-06T07:13:00.000Z

Three Spires
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Three spires, erected by God, for God, and ignoring God. :p

Taken with Canon 20D and Sigma 12-24mm lens.

St Giles' Church

2006-06-05T21:39:00.000Z

St Giles' Church
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

This was a very high contrast scene, kinda inner-city, mix of old, new and blighted.

I used a yellow tone and flattened the detail between the shadow and highlights to leave the shadow as a compositional element. I used a wide angle lens here and straightened up the verticals in a photoshop transform afterwards.

This was the shot I had in mind when I clicked the shutter, so I'm pleased that I managed to process it to match what I wanted to show.

Taken with Canon 20D and Sigma 12-24 EX lens.

Shooting more than I can post - hoohaa...

2006-06-04T22:16:00.000Z

Well, after a few days of running short of material I am now faced with a backlog for processing, printing and blogging.

Cool!

I have a bunch from the London Wetlands centre, and the Lanscape course at Central St Martins has started and will continue to generate quite a number of shots I think. All very exciting.

Three Ducks

2006-06-04T22:03:00.000Z

Three Ducks
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Took this one at the London Wetlands centre.

We took out a 1-year family membership, so now we can go as often as we like. It's a lovely trip for Lauren and a nice walk in the open air. And just down the road a ways, in Barnes.

Taken with Canon 20D and 70-300 DO lens.

Charing Cross Road

2006-06-04T08:45:00.000Z

Saturday's shot.

Charing Cross Road
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Looking out the window of a coffee shop at one of the world's great bookshops. I found myself in Foyles just a little while later. What a surprise.

I was having a cup of coffee while waiting to start my Landscape Photography course at Central St Martins College. More news on that anon...

Taken with Panasonic FX01.

Project Idea - Flourescent workers

2006-06-02T08:03:00.000Z

Workers of all descriptions in London wear fluorescent jackets. I find it interesting that some peoples' jobs require them to go about their business in public. I have a good starter shot for this series, and with a bit of work I may be able to get a decent series out of it.

It's all about geometry baby!

2006-06-02T07:43:00.000Z

GeometryBaby
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

A street, well mall actually, scene.

Taken with Panasonic FX01.

Bamboo Desktop

2006-06-01T22:01:00.000Z

Bamboo Desktop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I'll be posting the full series of my desktop background photos to the blog.

This one taken in Chantell's garden with Canon 20D and 17-85mm lens.

Cool

2006-05-31T07:32:00.000Z

Cool
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Mags has always been cool, and Lauren wants to be cool just like mummy.

Taken with Canon 20D and 70-300 DO lens.

Lamppost on Westminster Bridge

2006-05-30T07:55:00.000Z

Lamppost
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I may have overdone it slightly with the shadow/highlights tool.

Weird though how I feel more liberated with the little Panasonic camera to do that sort of thing than I do with the SLR. It's just a more playful camera somehow, which transfers itself into the editing.

I like the saturated gold detail, which never looks quite this saturated in RL unless you squint your eyes and use your imagination. But these have the Houses of Parliament nearby and seem like they really should be made of real gold.

Taken with the Panasonic FX01.

Blue Van

2006-05-29T06:02:00.000Z

Blue Van
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

I really like this as a street shot.

I bet I couldn't take one just like this again if I tried the whole day.

I used 2 layers and a layer mask to get a better exposure on the sky.

Taken with the Panasonic FX01.

London Eye

2006-05-29T06:00:00.000Z

London Eye
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Sunday's shot.

Just walking over the bridge, it's a bit bland, but there's enough texture in the sky to give it some interest.

Taken with Panasonic FX01.

Picasso's Breakfast

2006-05-29T05:58:00.000Z

Picasso's Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Saturday's shot.

A pattern left by a cereal bowl.

Taken with Pansonic FX01.

Desktop backgrounds

2006-05-26T15:17:00.000Z

I have previously alluded to the fact that I think there are some rules for good desktop background photographs.

Here are a few that occur to me:

Photographs of loved ones are bad backgrounds; having family members staring at you while you're trying to work is disconcerting and distracting.
Simple is good - very fussy backgrounds are distracting.
Texture is good - interesting patterns, strong textures work well as backgrounds as long as they don't break rule #2.
Colour is better than BW - this is a general guideline, and I have found some exceptions, but I think usually true.
Abstract is good - you don't want to be looking at things in particular, best is something you can lose yourself in visually without it breaking your chain of thought.
Emotional content is bad - similar to the family thing, so any photograph that makes you happy, sad, horny, etc is probably not what you want when you're looking at a screen all day. Firstly you'll soon find it boring and want to change it, secondly until you do actually find it boring you'll find it very distracting.I have a bunch of photos I have used as desktop backgrounds and will be loading them up onto Flickr soon, but I have started with one.

Mossy Desktop

2006-05-26T13:37:00.000Z

Mossy Desktop
Originally uploaded by Craig Arnold.

Also shot in the Drakensburg, recently processed for a nice desktop background.

Taken with Canon 20D and Canon 17-85mm lens.