arty

arty, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Here's what can be done with a little patience and a lot of spare time! lol

There's never any birds near our house as there's only the one tree. The birds just ain't interested - especially so in winter when numbers are lower!

Well, I waited besides an open window for half an hour or so ... freezing my **** off and eventually one turned up. And then another and another!!! So I got some shots off and I think this is the nicest of the lot?

Basically, I processed this in Apple Aperture 3, but doing nothing more than changing the white balance and colours slightly until I was happy.

But there was a huge amount of boring white space called the sky in here.... So I exported the pic into Photoshop as normal and began to search for a texture that worked best.

I think I did ok? Hope you guys like it - comments always welcome :-)

two pints

two pints, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

This was probably my simplest upload to flickr for a long while. A minor crop before selecting the Aperture preset Dramatic Black & White. Increased the exposure a little.. and that's that!

Hope you guys like it? :-)

Wouldn't it be cool to live here? Geo-tagged on flickr also. Thanks for viewing.

american muscle

american muscle, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I've just uploaded two versions of this onto Flickr. This black and white version and also a colour one too.

This b/w image was made entirely in Apple Aperture 3. The colour version was also made in this great app but with the help of Topaz Clean (as a plugin). You gotta view the colour version LARGE for the details :-)

Comments welcome !

it's mine!

it's mine!, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

This bird was shot from our backyard but rather than just process or texture it as I usually would - I decided to use an Aperture 3 plugin by Topaz called Clean.

Really cool fx here, I'm sure you'll agree. The original was rather boring in comparison! lol

delayed

delayed, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Here is something you don't see everyday, a train station in England! That was one investment we decided to miss over the decades - and now we're paying for it! Just try driving our roads someday...

Enough of the moan! I tried to go for a more vintage / colder feel for this. As if it was taken back in the 70s... Hope I succeeded?

Fully processed in Apple Aperture 3 on my iMac.

ollie cat

ollie cat, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Picture the scene ... I'm in the living room sitting comfortably on the couch and I notice at the end of the backyard is a cute kitty cat sitting on our fence.

Out comes the gun.... Err no... I meant to say, out comes the 200mm zoom lens! ;o)

Now, bearing in mind that this was shot from a garden and two indoor rooms is impressive enough - BUT - it was also shot through glass too!  So I'm especially happy with the clarity of this capture. All processing done using Apple Aperture 3.

creepy crawly

creepy crawly, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

It's amazing what you stumble across - this little bug was on our gate today. I only noticed it because of its colour!

Tiny little thing, as you can see from the screw in the image. So out came the camera... I've got a 50mm lens that I attached a x1 magnifier lens and I was impressed with the result.

Hardly macro, but I couldn't find the x10 magnifier and I certainly cannot afford a real macro lens! ;o)

The only processing done was a crop and a frame added. Oh and I changed the white balance too... So I'm extra happy how well this turned out!

lookin' up

lookin' up, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

We recently took a day trip out to Whalley Abbey in Lancashire, England. Quite the historic place with a lot of relics to photograph!

I'm uploading a few and here is one. It was processed in Aperture 3 & imported into Topaz Detail plugin.. finished off in photoshop as I wanted to replace the boring all-white sky on this cold winters day!

Comments always welcome!

finale

finale, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Today, I upload my final image from Farleton Knott in Cumbria, England. I've posted many lately from this region and now it's time to move onto something else.

Good job really as we're off out tomorrow for another photography trip. This time we'll be heading into northern Lancashire.

Yup, new pics to process! :-)

Ok ... this particular image is basically SOOC. The only processing I did was to increase contrast. Hope you like it?

up close

up close, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I've always like the whole depth of field lark and getting those distant objects all nice and fuzzy!

A couple of prior shots using trees failed but I was quite pleasantly surprised by this one. Oh and the sky is totally fake, with thanks to a little texturing and gaussian blur!

Hope you like !

wallpaper

wallpaper, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

This is just something I made in Aperture with help from a plugin called Topaz Detail. I wanted a new wallpaper for my iMac...

What's your favourite plugin for Aperture 3 & why?

sunup

sunup, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Of course, the sun was already up but I just wanted to attempt a little sunrise - in photoshop!

;o)

detail

detail, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I'm always on the lookout for something new and cool to play with. Over the weekend, I stumbled upon Topaz Detail and installed it as a plugin for Apple Aperture 3.

This piece of software looks really nice and this pic is my first attempt. Comments welcome :)

Anyone else using plugins for Apple Aperture ?

dreamy

dreamy, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

With this upload I thought I'd have a change from all the textured images. So here is a simple cropped photo with a little gaussian blur thrown on a layer :)

Made in PSE9 and Aperture 3 on my iMac.

whereabouts

whereabouts, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

After a week - long illness, I finally feel bothered to make a flickr posting! It's been a rough week...

Hope you like this shot into the sunlight at Farleton Knott, Cumbria. I used textures blurred which helped somewhat on the rocks.

All done on my iMac using PSE9.

St. James's Church Burton-in-Kendal

St. James's Church Burton-in-Kendal, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
On our way home from Farleton Knott, we pased through a little country village and I spotted this incredible church. Converted it to b/w and textured… I'm going to visit this place again when I've more time. Looked really nice - camera on standby! :)

I've more to come but at a later date as I want to continue on now with the shots from Farleton Knott. Just needed a break! ;-) I've still loads left to tinker with. :-)

For more information on this lovely church, www.stjamesburton.org//index.html (geo-tagged)

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

dolly

dolly, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
More textured sheep !
Thanks for viewing everyone, appreciated :-)

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

plymouth satellite

plymouth satellite, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
An image I shot a very long time ago … Merry Christmas Eve everyone! This is Santa's busiest day of the year today - so lets wish him well for the festive season ahead †

View on black (press L) & have a great day everyone.

Textures I use are often made by these creative people :
Laura, skeletalmess, vintage memento, Playingwithbrushes, Brenda Starr, ifdezelle, Lenabem-Anna, Parée, JoesSistah, DyrkWyst, Clive Sax, Sunset Sailor, osolev, darkwood67, Distressed jewell, xalamay, cathairstudios, Telzey

eoy

eoy, a photo by Steve_Gregory on Flickr.

I've only just realised that I've not updated this photo blog of mine for ... well... a very long time!

So, here is the very last image i worked on last year. Taken in the country village of Burnsall, England and processed in Adobe Photoshop Elements on my iMac. Hope you like it?

Thanks for viewing. Comments and questions always welcome.

Who needs a real camera?

Lately I've been finding out just how cool photography with an iPhone 4 can be.

As u can see, it's just getting better and better! Not strictly 'sooc' as I've done zero processing to make this Hipstamatic shot even better.

muddy puddles

muddy puddles
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Somebody has been watching too much peppa pig lately ;)

Hipstamatic

This iPhone app is so cool. Finally supporting multitasking and coming with some cool lenses and films. It's fun finding out what works best for you.

Here I'm using the Lucifer lens with the float film :)

shadows

shadows
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Taken using an old 4mpix Fuji compact camera back in 2007 when all I did was point & click.

Processed on the iPhone using Photo Studio app. Grand Canyon West Rim.

Regenerating old shots

The mighty Grand Canyon, Arizona.

I shot this back in the day when all I knew of photography was to hold the camera at the object and click. Yup, a real point & clicker guy I was! lol However, owning a new iPhone 4 (grin) has helped me to turn a lot of these disappointing images of our happy memories into something really cool.

Check out this image on flickr - it’s amazing, even if I do say so myself. But what makes this even better is that I used the camera’s hopeless digital zoom too! I cannot appreciate my iPhone 4 anymore.

This amazing device has taken some of our old crabby shots and made them so AWESOME! Hope you agree :-)

bamburgh castle

bamburgh castle
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Photography and post processing on the iPhone never ceases to amazing me!

Incredible iPhone 4

Having an old 2003 model Power Mac has meant many things over the years. Firstly, I had an awesome (if expensive) computer for a few years!

This beast ran everything and ran it FAST. Unfortunately things do change and computers get 'slower' lol

Life changes also and today I'm with a beautiful woman, amazing kids and a horrid mortgage! So long story cut short there's no change of a new Mac anytime soon.

I've loved photography for years and now I'm left to struggle along with an ageing computer running a wonderful (if out of date) app called Aperture.

So where is all this nonsense leading?

The Apple iPhone 4. Wow, this mobile device is so awesome!! Finally, after years of putting up with Sony & Nokia, I've a piece of equipment that actually works!!! And works so well too.

I've discovered lots of wonderful photography apps on the AppStore. All with their own unique styles to get a different perspective from your shots.

This image is an old shot i made using a Fuji compact camera. It was taken during our American road trip to a ghost town called Texon, in West Texas. The HDR was done on the iPhone using an app called Dynamic Light. Incredible results!

There are a wedge of other apps too, try: PhotoWizard, PictureShow, PhotoStudio, Camera+ and Camtastic. (Camtastic is my main iPhone camera app).

Needless to say, it might be a little weird to edit your images on the iPhone, at first. But you will get great results whilst you saving for your new computer :)

St. James Church

St. James Church
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Having a play with Picnik in Flickr today..

Walkies!

Shopping

Some ppl dress so bad while I'm enjoying s morning out shipping ;) Grrr shopping! Pah

St. Aidan's Church

St. Aidan's Church
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Beautiful & historic Christian England.

the island store

the island store
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Check out my flickr stream for other shots from Holy Island :-)

Aidan of Lindisfarne

Aidan of Lindisfarne
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

Holy Island, the birthplace of Christianity in England.

River Raid

River Raid
Originally uploaded by Steve_kj

I personally love this and consider it one of my best.