I Give You the World

 In my last post I said that the next one (this one) would be something of a landmark and that I would have to find something big to celebrate.

This is my 2000th blog post since I started in 2014. I had initially intended to do a daily post and for some time I succeeded in that however I felt the pressure to produce something every day impacted on the quality and so there have been periodic gaps as I have tried to find something new and something worth posting.

I actually have no shortage of images in various files and folders backed up on my PC and different hard drives so I can always find something to post but I always like to find something new and I love to try different things as I enhance my skills in both photography and photo editing.

For my 2000th post I had considered going back through old files and digging something out of the archives and I have taken a few days thinking about what to post. Then I decided that I would go out and get something completely new and I headed off to Liverpool, to the waterfront and Albert Dock and spent a few hours walking round and photographing different things.

At the moment the city is in the midst of Eurovision fever as preparations are under way to host the popular music festival in lieu of Ukraine. There are inflatable birds dotted around the place, flags and signs etc and notably in the waters of the Albert Dock there is this wonderful floating globe, an artwork by Luke Jerram. It is a touring artwork which can be seen in Liverpool until 18th May. It is 10m in diameter and features imagery from NASA. It is quite spectacular, even on a dull day like today. I plan to go down after dark some time to get some pictures of the illuminated earth but for now here is a selection of images from today.

Old Stones

So yesterday I shared a picture from inside the stone circle at Castlerigg looking out towards Helvellyn. It is such a mysterious and magical place.

Today I have chosen another shot from inside the circle, focusing on four of the stones but giving the image different treatments in post processing.

One of the great things about digital photography is the range of tools that are available that mean you can turn a photo from a simple record into a piece of art. I do always try to get the image a close to what I want in camera but then I will use Lightroom or photoshop to make some minor adjustments to get the scene as close to what I saw on the day. 

In the first image I have tried to stay faithful to the scene although I have adjusted the contrast slightly and emphasised the dramatic sky.

For the second image I have converted the original to black and white and used a pre-set in Lightroom to create a more punchy image.

For the final picture I have used masks in photoshop. Originally I used the mask to show the background in colour and leave the stones in black and white but while that was quite effective the stones just looked grey and that could have been taken for their natural colour so I chose to highlight the stones against a monochrome background for what I think is a really striking image.