A long time has passed...

...and a lot has happened!  I haven't kept up to date recently, must do more as always!  Here are a few selections of the things I have been up to.  I took photos of my friends dogs for his new house (Oakley and Poppy)  gorgeous chocolate Labrador and Dalmatian.  I went to a Minecraft themed party and knitted some little characters for the birthday boys.  I took many a floating photo with varying degrees of success trying to imitate the work of yowayowacamera.com an amazing blog of beautiful photos!  Keeping up with the old HDR and also recording myself in my sleep to be made into a possible piece of art.  Hear some of the results at http://soundcloud.com/stacey_allen1 Phew!  Exhibition news on the way too, I have been a busy bee!

Model: Chris Dubock

Self portait!

Minecraft Creeper

Minecraft Pig

HDR Selfridges Birmingham

Oakley

Photography experiments

Did a little bike ride to Meridan and took a few photos along the way - a thinly veiled excuse to keep stopping so I didn't look like a weakling up them thar hills.  More HDR photos for you (my addiction continues) I also wanted to try out a couple of stereoscopic photos.  These are photos taken in quick succession from different viewpoints that, when viewed together, give a 3D image.  You look a bit odd when taking them as you do a little photography squat and lunge to either side to take each photo, if you do this with your bike helmet on as well, be prepared for some strange looks.

Cars should always be seen in HDR

 To see the double images open them up so they are bigger and then cross your eyes. ***disclaimer: don't go blind now*** The Midlands shall be revealed in glorious 3D!  They have turned out better than I thought they would.  Next I should probably find more interesting subjects but when your legs have turned to jelly from bike riding and various artistic lunges, all thoughts are channelled into finding creative ways to keep upright.

HDR Grandma

My talented Mum!

 She makes cakes you know.  I love this one.  Done for a wedding on Sunday.  It is all sparkly and the flowers are all edible and lovelyness!  Had to take a photo of it, creativity in the Allen household is at a high!

Sparkle sparkle!

You've probably become a little bored now....

 ...of the constant posts of HDR photos but, as you can see, I haven't!  A jaunt to Stony Stratford.

Probably my favourite

Royal wedding fever hits Stony Stratford

Little Japanese men in my garden

Bike ride number 2

 More Photos!  This time Kenilworth was the destination.  Lovely weather we're having!

A bit of HDR...

Today I went on a bike ride to take advantage of the lovely weather and took a camera with me in the hope to try (warning: geeky word usage) Automatic Exposure Bracketing to create High Dynamic Range images (HDR)  (I think I need a lie down after that sentence)  And these are the results.  Basically it is a way of getting all of the tonal range your eye sees into a picture by taking different exposures of the same scene and combining them.  I quite like a few of the effects, I think it has worked best on the photo of Berkswell Church, it's kind of surreal, almost film-esque.  I used some software called Photomatix Pro as I wasn't getting the results I wanted in Photoshop, I think I need a little more practice, I shall persevere!  I need to take a tripod out with me and maybe even a remote to make sure I'm not moving the camera as it causes it to have these funny double exposure "ghosts".  Pleased with it for a first attempt though!

Day 5; drawing with light

Stretching the brief a little here.  I am very tired from wishing my brother a farewell at Manchester airport in the early hours of this morning, he is on his travels as a cruise line photographer, and thought that a little bit of drawing with light would be a nice easy way to get my 1-a-day drawing in.  I forgot the fact that I don't draw very spontaneously anyway and that a lot of energy is required to make big shapes!  Bad combo but am pleased with the result, think I will refine this at some point and try and get some lovely simple shapes going on, I like the depth of the circular shape at the top where you can see a 3d quality to the light.

The Greenway

Today my brother, dad and I went for a walk along Kenilworth Greenway armed with our new cameras. (Cheers Pixmania, we love a month long wait) It was a chilly day and not very bright but managed to get some nice shots. Mainly close ups for me today, the camera I went for was a Fuji finepix F80exr, for those who love a good

combination of random numbers and letters. There are a lot of settings to be used, including some manual controls. I am intrigued by the inclusion of a "cat" AND a "dog" setting, I'm not sure how this magical camera enhances cattiness or dogginess but neither were of any use on this walk. I could have done with a squirrel setting instead. The picture of me and my brother is the result of the "skin smooth" setting which we decided was a very good thing in our advancing years! The Greenway is one of the routes being considered for the high speed railway line and there is obviously lots of opposition from the people in our village, have a look here for more information. It's a shame as it is a lovely walk and you can see how many things will be destroyed if the plans go ahead.

The Greenway continued...