Pebbles From Paradise

Bright, Punchy Colour! This image, captured by my workhorse, the humble Olympus E-400 which may be purchased as a two lens kit in Dixons for little more than pennies, was made in the early morning light a day, or so back. The Kodak sensor in the E-400 comes as close to the quality of film [...]

Look Carefully, A Locust Rests In The Shadows! Okay, so it’s not the best entomological photograph ever, but this guy seemed to love being photographed. A full four inches in length s/he was a wonderful specimen and by the looks of those berries seemed to be having a field day. I understand now the term, [...]

Target Practice! Just over six months ago I was photographing randy tortoises near the spot where I found this old computer monitor. What was it doing here I wondered? And then I saw the pellet marks! It was used for target practice, no doubt by some city kid . . .

We had to leave the car for a service and some minor repairs recently and so, unusually, we were in Marmaris after dark. I had just finished a roll of Kodak® Gold 400, in the OM-1 but, as usual when not carrying an E-400, I had the FinePix® E-900 with me. These are just two [...]

The Rock Is Familiar, But The Shadows Change Throughout The Days And Years I like to play with shadows. Often I will be captivated by the way shadows transform the quality of some common-place object or scene. My mind has grown accustomed to imagining forms as-they-are, and how they may be altered, or enhanced using [...]

Last month I compared a number of RAW editors. A RAW editor takes the file made by a digital camera, but before any processing has occurred in-camera, and enables you to manipulate it on your computer. This enables you to have maximum control of the qualities of your final processed images. With film you have [...]

Ratatat tat! Well not really, and certainly not the sort of projectiles that featured in this post. But these berries seemed so dynamic in the early morning light that I couldn’t resist a little ‘theatre’ for this shot, if you will pardon the pun, and ignore the alliteration?

The New Wall Painting Opposite Mudo Concept, In The Netsel Marina, Marmaris It’s always a good idea to carry the Fuji FinePix E-900. When you run out of film it can take masses of .jpgs. If you want really good quality from it then simply shoot RAW and process your files in Adobe Photoshop CS3, [...]

I have a new photographic hero. His name is Alfred T. Palmer. I came upon his work by chance whilst looking for some border masks to use on a portrait image I made some time ago of Damla. Damla As An Albumen Print From Damaged Glass Negative, (Circa 1860) A quick image search via Google [...]

  The highest good is like water. For water benefits the ten thousand things without striving. It settles in places that people avoid and so is like the Tao. In choosing your home look to the land. In preparing your heart go deep. In associating with others value gentleness. In speaking exhibit good faith. In [...]

  Better to stop in time than to fill to the brim. Hone a blade to the sharpest point, and it will soon be blunt. Fill your house with gold and jade, and no one can protect it. Be prideful about wealth and position, and you bring disasters upon yourself. Retire when the work is [...]

The Boat On The Beach Regular readers will remember how this boat was washed ashore during recent storms. I am pleased to report that it has now been removed from the beach, where it might have come to further grief, and is now safe, blocking up the path to the beach. Up The Garden Path! 

For me photography is a pleasure, but it wasn’t always so. Of course when I first realised that images weren’t something mysterious that could only be developed at the local pharmacy I became excited. I must have been ten, or eleven years old. But then the nightmares began. Firstly there were all those numbers on [...]

Yesterday I was remarking about how the technicalities of photography sometimes seem to impinge upon the art of making images. Make no mistake the technical aspects of taking pictures are important, even in these days of automated cameras. Indeed, unless you always want to produce bog-standard images, some degree of camera control is essential. There [...]

We all take photographs of family members and friends. Some of us may even venture into photographing the occasional landscape, or a picture of the hotel where we stayed on holiday but photographers tend to eschew such subject matter. This is a pity since photographer’s family albums tend to be filled with dreadfully composed images [...]

Amos Beach OM-1 Style It’s been raining on and off for several days now, but yesterday during the latter part of the afternoon I ventured out with the E-400 and the 11-22 Zuiko D Zoom. My aim was to see if I could beat the beach image I took a week or so back with [...]

Amazon Hones Her Air Hockey Skills I remember years ago when my friend Stephen Burden prepared to first open his home to the public, and I was on hand to help, after a few days we became ‘knackered’. It was then that he suggested that we should take the day’s takings and celebrate with ‘a [...]

Near The Jetty, Behind The Point Centre, Marmaris. I found this miniature bandstand on the seafront just behind the Point Centre. I guess it serves as some kind of booth in the summer, but it looked pretty bedraggled when I came upon it last Sunday. Nevertheless I liked its lines, the shadows and the fact [...]

Irem, Melisa, and Amazon Fishing From Amos Jetty The Evenings Take On Wonderful Pink Tones At This Time Of The Year Despite Fishing Into The Twilight They Only Managed To Catch A ‘Tiddler’

The Evening View From Damla’s Terrace Here is the view from Damla’s veranda. It looks almost an exaggeration yet it really doesn’t do justice to the splendid rich blues and subtle pinks of the evening sky. I like my images to look realistic but this image looks manipulated, although it isn’t. Of course with a [...]

Looking Toward The Footbridge, Turunç, Nr. Marmaris, Turkey I must have taken a dozen shots from this point yet, in good weather, it never fails to motivate me to attempt one more. And so it goes on . . . You may be forgiven for imagining that this image took far less application of Adobe [...]

Lurking Behind Peter And Pats’ Place! This image looks as if it were taken on a 5 x 4 plate camera, but in fact it was snapped by Amazon using the FujiFilm FinePix E-900. The fungi is on the remains of a tree behind Peter and Pats’, where they hang their washing, when in residence. [...]

“Just pout a little more, that’s good, hold that pose, great!” A few days ago I posted some images of a disused beach booth resembling a bandstand. I took those shots with the E-400. The image above however was captured with the OM-1 on the same day. It must have been pretty obvious to anyone [...]

Turkish, (and English with a little Canadian), Folk In Our Front Room. Damla’s daughter Ayşim is here with her guitar so we asked Mahmut and Çoskun to come over and jam with their saz and her. Unfortunately Mahmut dropped out at the last minute but Çoskun came and played late into the night . . [...]

Notice The Fishing Dingy And You Will Appreciate Just How Big These Buoys Are. I just don’t know where the year has gone, it seems just a few days ago that Irem and I found ourselves with a few minutes to spare before collecting Amazon from school and whilst walking, hand-in-hand along Turunç waterfront I [...]

Looking Toward Topkapi From A Bosphorus Steamer When I travel to Istanbul I have taken to using the OM-1 and a roll of 35 mm film. In this case Fuji-Colour Super Reala 100. Taking it through airport security is a bit of a risk, and indeed there are frames on this film that showed signs [...]

Fishing From The Jetty Behind Marmaris Point Centre Oh, how I wish Bibble Pro® looked and felt as elegant as Adobe Lightroom®. It would also be nice if I could use it to process RAW files from the FinePix E-900. In fact many of the tools in Bibble Pro® work as well, if not better [...]

Punk Rocker Off Duty! Cross processed, Dear Reader, not cross-dressed, although looking at Irem it isn’t a dress that she wears but a boyish bomber-jacket! This image was taken with my latest combination, an E-400 digital body fitted with an OM to E-System adapter, an OM Zuiko 24mm, (Manual Focus Lens), and a Katz-Eye Focussing [...]

There are times when the urge to create original, or novel images can blunt my senses to what is right before my nose. The other day I was walking with the OM-1, and feeling somewhat disappointed because I hadn’t found much inspiration. Suddenly I found myself walking toward home and also immersed in feeling so [...]

Kodachrome 64? When I was a lad some of the clearest and sharpest printed images to be found were in National Geographic Magazine. Their photographers used rich Kodachromes, which gave images the warm, saturated, effect that was later to be found in Sunday supplements. It’s mainly digital these days but there are some places where [...]

“What Fun Daddy!” It was once the ritual of the Brays to spend the entire weekend gardening. As a lad I was lucky if I got Saturday afternoon off. It all came of having a humungus garden. I am pleased to report however that not only is the garden smaller yours truly barely has to [...]