Crookes Valley Park - Orton Effect

Taken in Crookes Valley Park in Sheffield, and edited using the Orton Effect technique in Photoshop.

Bradfield Manipulated.

This Afternoon

NaBloPoMo

Burma Campaign

This image is a digital collage I made out of others' photos. It is in reference to my latest post on my other blog.

CameraPhone

The camera on my phone isn't bad, for a cameraphone. I was thinking earlier about how I use it, and thought it merited a post here.



I seem to mainly use it to grab pics of odd or funny things I see when out and about. Also, relevant to yesterday's post, a disproportionate number of them seem to be signs. Judge for yourself, anyway.



I presume these quotation marks mean it's not *really* quality...


Cliff Richard's favourite Bible stories!!




Order your baby here




NaBloPoMo

Signs

I have a strange obsession with photographing signs, be they funny, odd, battered and bruised, moving, beautiful or just quite normal.

Somebody doesn't think much of South Yorkshire Police












NaBloPoMo

Flickr Interestingness, Explore, Scout and fd flickr toys

Flickr Explore is the result of their secret calculations on the interestingness of each image on their site.

Besides being a five syllable word suitable for tongue twisters, it is also an amazing new Flickr Feature.

There are lots of elements that make something 'interesting' (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr.

I have had 8 photos in Explore, which makes me happy!



1. DSC_5768_edited-3, 2. 100_4278_edited-1, 3. DSC_2551, 4. DSC_1719_edited-1, 5. 100_0466abbb, 6. 100_0365, 7. 100_0008, 8. 100_0009

When your photos are featured, you may find out from comments others leave on them, but a really cool and efficient way of discovering which of your photos have been 'explored' is by using Flickr Scout, which also has a load of other fab flickr toys you can use, to turn your photos into a jigsaw, make a magazine cover, and tonnes more.



NaBloPoMo

Poor Old Lily

Lily hamster died tonight. She was very old for a dwarf and in the last few weeks her bright red eyes had started fading. Rest in peace, Lilyness.



NaBloPoMo

Autumn Colours.

As today was the first fine day in what seems like months, I took advantage to go and get some autumn colours photographed.



NaBloPoMo

Raising the Flag

Raising the flag in preparation for Armistice Day at Barkers Pool in Sheffield city centre. It looks a lot smaller at the top of the flagpole: I'm sure that's a metaphor for something.



See White Poppies for Peace


NaBloPoMo

Abandoned Shopping Trolley

This is not how I planned it, but for reasons I can't explain, I like the purple hue.


NaBloPoMo

Some Photos I Wish I'd Taken

Some of my 'favourites' from flickr. Because of the different photographers putting different copyrights and licenses, some are just hyperlinked where others are displayed in this post. Do take the time to click through, there are some amazing, amazing images.

If the photo is visible without the title and artist, that means you can click on the photo to see it, and more of the photographer's work, directly at flickr. If the artist and title are listed after the photo in this post, then clicking on the photo doesn't link to the artist's flickr page, but the text links do.

That might all sound a bit like I'm overdoing the explanation, but it is really important to credit artists when sharing their work, and I don't want anyone featured here to feel badly treated!

So! In no particular order:


1. 
   
   

   ---

   
   
2. Shape of Tomorrow by JoseSantiagoTan.Com
   
   

   ---

   
   
3. 
   
   The Bud House by ~mina~
   
   

   ---

   
   
4. Yaaaaawwn by JohnyBlaze
   
   

   ---

   
   
5. 
   It's Ruby Throated Tuesday by MrClean1982
   
   

   ---

   
   
6. .4348 by handwriting
   
   

   ---

   
   
7. 
   Parasol by NatashaP
   
   

   ---

   
   
8. Back to my crazy group shots by AL zanki (d10b Q8)
   
   

   ---

   
   
9. 
   
   

   ---

   
   
10. skater by eleven011
    
    

    ---

    
    
11. Untitled by toby0pico
    
    

    ---

    
    
12. The beginning by Martyn Starkey
    
    

    ---

    
    
13. O Jellyfish, O Jellyfish by hermanau
    

---

NaBloPoMo

RedBubble

I have only been using RedBubble for a few months, and wanted to post about it here because it's just lovely! You can upload and sell your own art and t-shirt designs, and buy your own and others' work.

I actually joined because I wanted to create and wear this t-shirt, which I made by editing and inverting the colours on this photo of some stencil art of children playing. But once a redbubble member I really liked the great sense of positivity in the community, and I loved sharing my work, and seeing others' work there.

I need to make my profile page prettier, and aim to do so soon with the help of this fab tutorial.

When you sell your work on there you can choose whether you want to make a profit, and if so, how much. If you buy your own work you just pay the basic RedBubble price. I have bought, and frequently wear, two of my own t-shirt designs - the children playing stencil art on dark background t-shirt, and the Think outside the Box t-shirt. At the same time as making those purchases, I also bought some greetings cards from other members, and two other t-shirts from other members.

One of the immense joys of this is the immense joy that the other members of the site get when you buy their work. And I can back this up from the couple of items of mine that others have bought. When you get that mail, saying one of your items has sold, the feeling is incomparable. Someone wanted a print of your photo, or one of your t-shirts, or an image as a greeting card or canvas, and the feel-good factor is huge!

If you are already a member there, or if you join, do friend me (add me to your watchlist) and I will be happy to do the same back. It all seems to be about the effort you put into your contacts there, and putting the effort in isn't hard work at all! It's about looking at incredible creations by others, and expressing your appreciation. What could be better?!




NaBloPoMo

Black and White Portrait.

Portrait of my mate Mark.



NaBloPoMo

Busker Playing the Didgeridoo

Taken in London in August, at Covent Garden on Saturday night.

The Edale Cat Strikes again

The original Edale cat has been converted to black and white, and, as above, a
black and white cutout photograph maintaining the animal's vivid green eyes.



NaBloPoMo

Exhibition at the Mall Galleries

For some reason I never posted again about this photography blog entry, in which I announced that I had been shortlisted as a finalist in the Currys Our Lives Digital Photography Competition 2008.

My shortlisted photograph was to be exhibited in The Mall Galleries near Trafalgar Square in London, and I was invited to a presentation evening there.

It was so so exciting! The photograph which had been shortlisted and was on display was Graffiti Artist At Work With Tools:



The other photographs were fantastic, there were some really inspiring and stunning works, and I felt proud to be a part of that. The competition had received 10,000 entries, so to be part of the 100 or so which had been chosen felt incredible.

And seeing my work on those walls, with people looking at and enjoying it, was something I can't describe. The whole thing - free champagne, celeb guest, talking to the other photographers, being in London even, was a great experience.

Going down there for the weekend also meant many London photo opportunities! We were unashamedly touristy, so many of them were taken from an open-top bus, but it was all good fun and I'm keen to go back down to take some floor-level pics too!

Since the exhibition, I have been acutely aware of mentions of The Mall Galleries. Firstly that they are almost always referred to as "the prestigious Mall Galleries". Secondly, I was watching Dragons' Den one night and a sculptor, Guy Portelli, who extracted £80,000 from them, had bid for the money in order to fund an exhibition at the prestigious Mall Galleries!

So, here's to art, photography, and prestige ;-)

NaBloPoMo

Popular Funk

This photograph is currently runaway favourite in my most popular / interesting photos on flickr, with 10,624 views, 23 favourites and 18 comments.

To put that in context my next popular photo in terms of views is rainbow stripes background with 2225 views, and the next popular with regard to number of people who have favourited a photo is Fudge Fudged with 10 faves. The number of comments on the funky background abstract isn't that exceptional, I do have 7 or 8 photos on flickr with more than 18 comments.

I'm surprised every day that the hits just keep coming in. Flickr stats are invaluable and I don't know how we ever managed without them!



These are the stats today for the funky abstract background photo above.

Clicking through for more specifics I find that the image is on the first page of google image search results for bright coloured backgrounds, for funky backgrounds, and for spiky swirls.

On Yahoo image search, the pic is on the first page of results for bizarre background pictures, for colorful background and for funky background images, and the second page of results just for the word background.

It was also found through this intriguing application, multicolr which searches for images on flickr which match a colour you pick from a swatch.

The image itself began life as a close-up photograph I took of a rainbow striped swirly bag:



Then in Photoshop I did what is technically referred to as playing with it. Lots. And I loved the results. So, too, it seems, do some others.

I'm amazed by the activity that the photograph still receives, as it has been on flickr for 5 and a half months. But I'm not complaining. It's a bright, fun, exciting image and I'm really proud of it.



NaBloPoMo