Argento!

Whilst trying to take pictures of our Ranchus, the older fish (Argento) took an interest in my camera! Again, she moves too fast to get a steady shot without a lot of preparation!

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens and 20mm Macro extension tube with natural lighting, Tripod and a lot of patience.

Kubrick!

A quick pic I snapped of our new Ranchu, Kubrick!

They're really hard to take photos of - they never stop moving!

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens and 20mm Macro extension tube with natural lighting, Tripod and a lot of patience.

A Closer Moon

I took loads of shots of the moon last night, until I get a decent zoom lens though this is about as close as I can get to it! Still, I thought the break in the clouds gave a really nice frame to the beautiful, clear moon and I really wanted to capture it as best I could.

Again, I shot this in RAW with a long exposure / slow shutter speed to allow lots of light in, then nudged the levels in RAW before converting it to JPEG.

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens with natural lighting, Tripod and a lot of patience.

The Moon in Leeds

I took this late in the evening from my garden in Yeadon, Leeds. The moon was just so clear and had a great backdrop of cloud that I thought would make a nice frame for a stunning image.

I shot this in RAW with long exposure / slow shutter speed to allow lots of light in, then tweaked the Hue/Saturation levels a little before converting the RAW file to a JPEG adjusting the levels again in Photoshop CS5.

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens with natural lighting, Tripod and a lot of patience.

Super-saturated Island

I took this at Keswick in the Lake District and pushed the Hue/Saturation levels manually in Photoshop CS3 to achieve deeper colours and 'pop' the trees on the island out from the mountains in the distance. I would have preferred to not have the people on the left so dark, but overall I'm quite happy with this shot

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens with natural lighting

Monochrome Island

I snapped this from the lakeside at Keswick in the Lake District, shooting in colour and applying a monochrome filter later in Photoshop CS3. I admit to having a little trouble manually adjusting the levels to achieve the look I wanted. In particular, I found it very difficult to push the contrast enough to allow the focal point (the trees on the island in the foreground) to 'pop' out and still allow the mountains in the distance to remain visible. I think in the end I managed it, but I'm hoping with practice to achieve better results (and in a shorter amount of time too!)

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens with natural lighting

Monochrome Graffiti

I took this photograph in an underpass in Kendall in the Lake District. It was a beautiful day, hence the quite nice lighting which I allowed me to push the contrast ever so slightly to achieve a more striking monochrome effect than I had hoped for! The original was shot in colour, but I found that dropping the colour data and adjusting the Hue/Saturation layers as well as the colour channels in Photoshop gave a much fuller, 'arty' image.

Snapped using Canon 1100D D-SLR with 18-55mm lens with natural lighting