Getting That Buzz!

When I tell people that I'm a photographer, I get asked what kind, and I explain that I'm freelance and don't have a set area that I work in. Living in a city gives me availability to photograph streets, buildings, people and events, but I also get out into the countryside which opens up into a whole new world of things to photograph.

There are plenty of interesting buildings and anchient ruins to photograph as well as beautiful landscapes and rivers to follow. You also have the different times of the day and weather conditions that can change a view to something new and interesting that maybe you've not photographed before. This could be said of the different seasons, which can change a city view but not as much the countryside.

I have this thing of looking at Google maps and choosing an area to go an explore by car, I would. Love to be able to ramble across fields and woods, but my chair and muscles just can't cope with that side of photographing in the countryside. But I don't let that stop me from exploring in my own and in my own unique way.

When I've found an area of interest, then I drive around in circles at times and choose a lane that takes my fancy and then drive to the end of it to see what lies at the end. Not always but sometimes I can travel a few miles with the lane getting more and more narrow and then, just when I think there's nothing to be found, it opens up to a gold mine of natural beauty. This is the buzz that I'm sure others that walk for miles get when they find something that maybe know one else has seen before.

I look at the English countryside as a place not just of beauty but enchantment and I feel fortunate to have access to it. Yes, I see photographs from around the world that I think I would love to cover myself, but the chances of that happening is slim, but I'm happy with my lot in that I can find beauty and anusual images that surround me and I don't have to travel hundreds of miles to find it.

At the weekend I went over the Severn Bridge to Chepstow, after doing some images down by the river Wye, it got me thinking that this is a long river and there must be some amazing views along the river that just maybe I might be able to find.

I'm dependent on my chair, but just as much on my car as it allows me to be independent from my family that support me in my love for photography, to go out like a kid going hunting for Easter eggs by driving around to find something interesting.

So I started driving up a winding main road and was watching the sat nav and found a turning that looked interesting.

I must of drove for 20 minutes with the lane getting close to a wooded cliff and pot holes all over the road. Then near the end, I came out of the woods to an open space where the land levelled out. There was a farmhouse at the end of the lane, but I could see that there was an amazing view by their farm, so after tooting my horn and speaking the owner I had the afternoon to explore the views. What I hadn't notice was they had a field filled with beautiful Highland cattle with some that were black and the others brown, they were amazing and did me a favour by coming near to the gate for me to photograph them. It was just a jem of a find that I forgot what I was there for, which was the view looking down at the river Wye.

Its fair to say I had a good afternoon photographing in a 10 mile radius of the landscape and the river and some animals as an unexpected find that I didn't think I would see locally to the area.

Photographing in the countryside needs time to take in the view, but to look beyond that. It's also helped me to think about my photography of the city that I live in, and to spend more time looking round corners just to see what's there as it could be a scene or an object that makes that interesting image that maybe others may enjoy as much as I do.

Thanks for reading, AndyD  

Copyright - Right or Wrong?

Firstly read the article below...

Dorset Police have to handover Paedophiles Laptop intact. 

The pedophile’s laptop contains images of the girl he abused

Dorset Police officers have said it would be "unlawful" to delete intimate photos of a young abuse victim from a pedophile’s laptop.

The man was jailed in 2013 for nine years after admitting a string of sex offences, including assaulting a child under the age of 13.

He has now formally requested a laptop and a mobile telephone are handed back.

Liberty, which represents the victim's family, said photos of her in swimwear and leotards are still on his computer.

Dorset Police said they couldn’t delete them, as they are not legally classified as indecent or prohibited.

As a result, the sex offender, who is in his 50s but cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, will have access to a large number of personal photos of the girl when he is released from jail.

The victim's mother says: "I am appalled that the man who abused my child can ask the police to hand over our family photos for him to keep for the rest of his life. My daughters struggles every day with the devastating consequences of his abuse and this will only make them feel more humiliated and degraded. Why should we continue to be traumatised further?"

'Violation of dignity'

Liberty argues the return of the computer and mobile would breach articles three and eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect against inhuman treatment and invasion of privacy respectively.

In a letter to Dorset Police, Liberty said the prospect of having the photos returned to the abuser is "causing the girls a significant amount of distress" and would be "an enormous violation of their dignity and personal integrity".

The abuse has caused the victim to suffer "enormous psychological harm" and she eats very little, self-harms frequently and is at risk of suicide, Liberty said.

Rosie Brighouse, legal officer at organisation, said: "We urge the police to protect these victims' dignity. It's surely common sense that these vulnerable girls aren't degraded further?"

In a reply, Dorset Police said "present options" are limited as the legislation used to seize the phone and computer requires officers to return the property.

The force added: "Furthermore it would be unlawful for police officers to alter the computer and phone's memories by removing the disputed photographs before returning them."

British law at times can be an ass, and that's putting it mildly. In a circumstances like this, you have to ask why should these items be returned as they probably would have been used as evidence in the case against this bloke.

If there was a case for copyright to be overturned, this would be in the top five, but surely cases like this should be taken by the police to high court, with a strong case for not allowing this guy to have his items back, or if not then for the hard drives to be reformatted so the images were no longer available. 

I really feel for the family as they know that he will have images their daughter, that he can view at his leisure as a reminder of what he did. 

Things like this, that are simple to resolve, make me sick to the stomach. He must be laughing his head knowing that he's had the last laugh and at the expense of child that he's already scarred for life. 

Stories like this should be talked about on social networks to show the family the support of many against what has been allowed, not by the police as they seem to have their hands tied and I'm sure those involved in the case must feel as I and many do, which is angry at the law that should be there to protect the venerable and young.

If your feelings are as mine, then please share this story with others to show support to the parents of this young child.

AndyD

Sony A99 First Play

Sony A99 Camera

For most of my friends know that I started with the Sony A65 half-frame camera, and its done me proud in the images that helped me to capture. But there is a time I think when you get into Photography in a more professional level that you can out run a camera and the features that it offers.

The A65 is a great camera, the only downside is the flash fitting that we all know they changed from the universal fitting to a four pin shoe, this limited you to what flash you used and remote triggers, but putting that all to one side, its still a great camera in my view.

When I started looking at what to get to upgrade to a more professional camera, I didn't and couldn't afford to start from scratch in buying a whole new load of lenses. I have about ten lenses in my bag and they all do a certain job, from two telephoto lenses, one ultra wide and the prime lenses.

I know that the all the manufactures are going for the retro look, which is fine for that just walking around work, but for more industry style images you have to revert back to the normal andconventional  cameras.

So the A99 was my choice after much reading on reviews and talking to people that actually own one, and the great thing is that my lenses fit this body, but they've stuck stuck to the conventional flash shoe, but for the fix for those like me that bought the HVL-F58AM flash, they supplied free of charge ahot shoe adaptor, which works fine, so no need to go out and get a new flash or remote trigger system etc.

While I was about it, I also got the battery grip but was slightly annoyed that for £300, they didn't include some batteries! The battery grip though is more that just a battery pack as when you do portrait images you have a shutter button on the grip and a few other buttons to tweak that image. The grip is so comfortable and when attached to the main body, with a lens and flash, its half the weight of say a Nikon. Everything is within easy reach, button wise and the LCD screen is far better set than on the A65, you can even do a selfy if you wanted to as it goes is all directions for great viewing.

I could go through all the different setting but you can see other blogs for that, this is just a personal view on the camera and how it feels and looks. But the the images have great colour and when looking closer at the colour aberration, there is very little magenta in the images, the ISO doesn't start to deteriorate till about 16,000 so great for low light shooting. The bracketing is great for that HDR work we do with Photomatix etc and does come with a HDR image if you wanted it.

The camera is full of great features, but like many have said, it is power hungry, so the battery grip is a good option to get.

The price of £2,350 or there about's is hefty, and I decided to go down the road of leasing the camera by using Culmanet which is a professional photography company and have underwriters that is just for the purpose. So no big loan with interest rates to worry about and a set monthly outlay and paid off in three years. Leasing photographic equipment gives photgraphers that are starting out to get the best with ease,I couldn't of afforded that kind of money straight out, but if I want to take professional looking images that then hopefully goes towards paying for the camera, then that's got to be a good thing and there is know reason not to pay off earlier.

I love the camera and starting to play and I think that because I've had one of Sony's A series cameras beforehand, does give that little heads up as most of the camera has the same layout of buttons with just a few new ones to learn about, but you can adjust while looking through the viewfinder with ease and none of this having to look where you have to place you thumb to click on a setting for those changes, its much lighter than other makes of camera which is a real benefit for me as I struggle with heavy gear. Yes the camera does look bulky, but once its in your hand then it moulds to you, so there is know struggling when it comes to taking an image even quickly.

Thanks for reading, AndyD 

Composition of an image

First off, I'm no expert far from it but I'm learning that you have to build the image more than just pointing a lens at what's in front of you.

I recently visited the area where I was brought up which is part of the Cotswolds and has some of the most beautiful almost un touched villages around, but with that said, they still have things like satellite dishes, sun umbrella's and of course our favourite, cars in the way at times.

The village of Howell has about 12 houses that make up the village and a church with a mermorial cross that is centre of the village. When I arrived, one of the locals was out washing his car, while a lady was sat on a step of the memorial cross, and by the side of the church was a car parked up with a lady reading a magazine. Now when I point these things out it does seem slightly weird, but that was the scene.

I had a number of images that I wanted to do that would be worked into HDR, since I know the village well, I had an idea of what the composition was going to be. So I parked up and got my chair out and looked around. I wanted two images of the church and one of the memorial cross, but there was things in the way like the lady sat down and the car. So I put the camera around my neck and was about to go and speak to the lady in the car to ask her nicely if she could just move it back so that I could get the shot I wanted. The thing is, when you see an image but have a person that's in the way of the shot is not to be scared to go up and ask them nicely if they could just move for a couple of minutes and you'll be out of their way within a few minutes. Peoeple can be nice if you explain what your doing and why and when your done, you can show them the shot so that they can see why you asked if they could move.

But before I could get there, a 4x4 pulled up and the women sat on the step of the memorial cross was up and getting into the vehicle and then before I knew it, the women in the car had got out and locked her car and walked over and got in as well. Now the weird thing is that I had been there a few minutes and yet these two ladies acted like they didn't know each other, but got into the same vehicle and drove off!

OK, enough of the weird. 

So I was left with one image of the church and this time round I had my Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens to take the shot. When you look at the image you could say I could of moved more to the left to get more of the church in the picture, but then the one of trees would of obscured the front entrance of the church which is a point of interest of the church. If I had moved more to the left, then all I would of gained is the side part of the church which is of little interest. So I stuck with getting the major points of the roof, the main entrance and 99% of the main window, and filling the main frame with the main point of eye being the church front with the trees filling the sides of the image.

The stone wall does a good job in that it leads away as you look from right to left, but still takes you to view of the church that's not an obscure view that you can get with a lens like this.

The thing to point out is that I had move from the right to the left of the church to see what kind of image I would get from being at a certain point along the wall. There is a lovely little white gate that leads to the front door of the church and I have done that image before, so wasn't going to do the same image again and it didn't work with the 10-20 as I did have a look just to make sure. With the use of the tripod, I feel that I got the best angle from my height position of the church and I can say that I'm happy with composition of the church.

So if you have time and space, its worth looking from right to left or either way through the lens to see what kind of image you can compose. Maybe you have a few different lenses to try and see what can be achieved, move to different possible positions to see what works and doesn't work. I personally think that there's no right or wrong shot if you've seen what you can do, someone else can go along and choose a different angle from me, doesn't mean that either shot is better than the other as its just a difference of angle to show in the image which I've done one or two others in the past, so I wanted something different for me.

This second image is obscured and now that I look at it, the seems like it lacking something as all your really looking at is a garden rock wall with a bush above, with some roof tops and at the front of the image you have some of the stone fencing from the memorial cross slightly blurred because I used a 35mm lens. But what you can't see is the vehicles that were parked at either end of the image and is why I went as close as I did. But as an HDR, its give me something to work on and so the outcome of that part of the image, I'm quite pleased with.

I guess what I'm saying in this is that its ok for you to be critical of your own work, it was a sample image that might have work, but I know I had little movement to capture the country scene that I was trying to put together. But if I go back (and I will), I know where I've gone wrong and work towards reviewing the angle that I can get next time to showthe lovely building that's there.

This image talks for its self in that its an image of the memorial cross and I think its clear to see that I used my 10-20 wide angle lens. With this image there are three points to the image, the road to the left, the road to the right and the cross its self.

When I set up the camera and looked through, I had more of the road infront of me and the front stone with the chain on it was dead centre. The image isn't about this stone and its about the cross, so I moved slightly right, but another part the image was the clump of trees to the right of the small stone building that I wanted to use to fill that space. The final part of the jigsaw was to have the building on left in view right to its own edge of the out building.

My final part was the height that I set the camera. When using a wide angle lens like this, is that it can obscure objects, I.e. The stone at the front is larger than the rest as they all look simular in size or a normal resize of looking at objects of the same height that go further away, and the cross looks normal.

Granted there are some things that I would of liked not to be in the frame like the pole line and the white lines in the road, but these are things that I can live with. As I explained these images were for the purpose of doing them in HDR, what I love about HDR is its effect to bring objects of the image more real in its contrast, exposure and colours. I would never of got the cloud formation that's there without maybe using a high density filter, but then the rest of the image would of been too dark. The sunlight comes about 10 o'clock from my left and brightens the sky from that area and shows the shadow of the cross falling across the road.

I think sometimes we can be too quick with the shutter when in reality we have all the time in the world, I often revisit a sight because I missed something that I didn't realise till I got home. I could of taken my laptop with me to check the images, but this was a day out and not a full on shoot for a certain purpose. We need to have fun in photography when its our own time and what we miss things, they can be redone in another visit as you know what you wanted in the image and can work to that point next time.

I thought I would show this image as this is about composition and how we can use space. I've been spending sometime experimenting in having subjects not dead centre of my image, but to the left to right. This is an example of how I've placed the person in the shot to the right, when you look at the image your drawn to this point, but to me it doesn't look obscured as you have the person walking pass in the foreground as well as the shop window, then to the far right you have this kind of wooden slats that at an angle. None of this matters as its just about filling space, what's nice in this HDR is how the stone that he's sat on and bottom of the object to the left of him blends together with his jeans. Then you have his jacket nearly the same colour as his lunchbox, neither of these objects have been coloured to make the effect, its totally natural. In that sense.

I could find more to talk about the image but again its just an example of composition and filling of space can work, and at the right angle and height.

I don't have at this point in my life of photography an area that I feel I need to be set in, I enjoy landscapes and city views as I enjoy people and and black and white, its great to be free and to express yourself in different forms of images. HDR is an area that enjoy and I have a burst over a few months at doing them and then move back to another form of photography.

What ever we do, we are always experimenting with different images set at different angles, and by re tracing our steps by going back we can fix the problems that we've found at the monitor that we missed when looking through the viewfinder. The viewfinder is a small area to look at the scene in front of us, I've found myself spending time not just looking at the centre point of what will be the image, but what else is there that maybe I don't want and by moving slightly, I can get rid of that so less work in cropping the image that might make it seem awkward in the finished post processing.

Thanks for reading, AndyD 

A New Semesta

One of the assignments for this samesta is reality or unreality image. This may sound slightly weird but when you look at what's being done by a lot of photographers by taking images and re sampling them into one for another, there is a touch of unreality.

The first thing that came to mind for me is HDR. HDR has not made much impact in the world of galleries or billboards when you look around. There are some amazing images that have been reconstructed into HDR by some real talented people. For myself, I've done a few and had good feedback, specially in the last six months or so.

I was reading a post by John Lang who is the chair for the NPPA's Ethic's & Stanards Comminttee on the Natianional Press Photographers Assocaiton website and they had what I guess was an example image by the well known HDR photographer, Trey Ratcliff, but it seems to have been taken down but the spot still is still there. But the subject was about several photography directors and picture editors asking about the ethical consideration of HDR photography and using HDR images in their publications. The short answer was no they couldn't be seen to be used because of the total editing of an image to make it more dramatic or less dramatic of the event that it covered would be un ethical in journalism of newspapers and such like.

Personally I get that, as the public have the right to see the actual image in its entirety, but with that said, HDR could be used in some advertisements to promote a product, but not to show it as a copy of a product but as an external support to a product, not sure if that makes sense or not, but it could help to give adverts that WOW factor which is what HDR images do.

The crazy thing is that maybe some photographers don't like HDR, same could be said that some don't like black and white or digital. But if you show an HDR image to a the general public alongside the normal, they will go for the HDR as the one they like, there is testimonial to this on the net. 

Graphic art has made it to the galleries and exhibitions, but why hasn't HDR, what is so wrong that exhibitors aren't crying out for photographers work to be shown, I guess that's a big question that's been asked for sometime now and know one has done an interview or publish why they don't show HDR images.

When you start out HDR in our form, you get your five or seven images depending on what you doing sorted with different exposure at increments of +1 or -1, you need to them into a software that can batch images and use the tools for HDR like Photomatix. Photomatix has just released their latest version which is 5 and at first hand it looks good with the improvement. 

The thing is that when you start out, its so easy to over cook an image as you keep moving sliders to get more dramatic than maybe a simple look that does the job. As you learn and read, this kind of software is only the first stage and you have to take the HDR into Photoshop and start working with some of the other exposures that you've taken as part on the main image. Layering, masking and painting with a tablet pen is what will give that rich and fine image that you've been working on creating.

It's where photographers can become artist with the canvas being the RAW images and the tablet pen and the paint brush.

It' s one of the great things about digital is that you can work all day on an image and then sit back and look to see if you feel its turned out how you envisage it to be, sometimes the vision can get obscured or something that you didn't think about can come into the image. But there is a flip side in that you can look at the finished piece and then decide that its not got what you were looking for, but you don't have to be totally dishearten as you can start from scratch as you have the original images to begin again.

Question - is HDR reality or unreality?

There are today two forms of HDR that can be a bit confusing. Some of the latest camera's or phones have what they call HDR capability, what they do is take three images at different exposures and then tie them together by the camera software. I have to say images done by camera like this do look real sharp and great colours. So that's one HDR. 

The other is as mentioned using a software like Photomatix or NIK HDR and this turns the image into something that looks completely different to the camera version and takes the format to another level and produces an image that is very different from the camera version.

So you could say that a camera version is more reality and a software version is more unreality.

The unreality version has that great colour, contrast and look of depth, but then its also includes a look of fantasy or in some cases cartoon like as the colours and look are more pastel coloured and look more like a watercolour, this is a great look in itself, but the photographers that can make the images look magical and keep that realism of the image can create a fantasy and you could say stylish look to an image.

Google+ has a stepping stone for photographers working in HDR, they even have their own HDR software which is part of the NIK collection. So more has to be done to push this new and great photography or art, depending on how you see it.

When I spoke to my tutor about this assignment and using HDR, it was a question of why and how did I see it being part of unreality, the only word is that I can create a fantasy image with the use of the camera, to give the subject that fantasy look, I will then work on to create the unreality look in the image that I will put forward. I have to say I didn't get a feeling of enthusiasm from them, and maybe because they aren't a fan of HDR, but I hope that when done, they will see pass that and see through the process that I put into the raw image to finish with the edited image that will be unreality as its obscured like any other unreality image that's pulled apart in Photoshop to get the final look.

Thanks for reading, AndyD 

Foundation Degree in Professional Photography.

A Degree in Professional Photography

Website: Foundation Degree Website for Students and Course Info

Back at the beginning of 2013 when I started doing photography in a more productive way and began to show my work on Google+, I was surprised by the support of people that I didn't know, in telling me that they like what I did.

It got me thinking one day on the way home from taking some photos locally, where am I going to take this photography? I guess that's when I started to look at photography in a different light and wanted to try and make what I had already learnt myself better and with more professionalism that might lead to a day where I could promote my work in an exhibition or something along those lines.

Google+ has been amazing for me, as I've made some good friends that I've met and others that I communicate over the net via messages on work and the Google Hangouts with video conferences that helps put a voice to a face. But I felt that I wanted to learn more and explore photography more in depth and the only way to do that was some kind of course.

The City of Bristol College runs a foundation degree course in partnership with Plymouth University, so in part we are students of Plymouth but doing the course via the City of Bristol College.

When I was researching for a course that would suit me and came across this one, I thought great, this is just like what I'm looking for. When I applied I had to go for an interview and was told to bring a portfolio. Portfolio! just the word sent me into overdrive as I didn't have such a thing, all I had was the images that had been seen only on Google+. So with a quick email I asked if I could bring my iPad down and show some of my work off on that, luckily they were OK with that.

Being that this was a college, I knew that I would be one of the older students that they'd  have around and not sure that about having screaming girls all over the place, boys being boys trying to show who was the cool guy to hang around with, but I know that would not be bothering me and I was going to be there for a purpose.

I decided to apply for the part-time course as it gave some leeway, and when I had my interview, it was mentioned that you have a bit more time to take things in. The senior tutor Mr C is a great guy and so is Mrs B who is the other tutor on the course. I had my interview with Mr C and as he looked through some of my stuff, the comment that came back was 'you've got some good stuff here'. Mr C has been around in photography for sometime and was a warm welcome in his thoughts on initial work that I had done with no help what so ever, so I was offered a place and then it dawned on me I'm a student again! 

I think we are all students, students of life as we learn new things each day and help to pass those things that we've learnt onto others.

The course is a really good one with equipment being available to borrow and a reasonable studio to work from. I say reasonable because Plymouth has it all and makes ours look slightly more like a personal studio, I personally think that since the course is a Plymouth course and we and the tutors have to follow their guidelines, that some investment from them would go a long way to making life a little easier.

If your looking to do a photography course, you have to be aware that means that you need to use and learn how to use such software's as Lightroom and Photoshop as you can't get away from that side of thing when producing high quality images that you hope that will go into an exhibition or for sale. In 2013 Adobe announce that its new CC software was going to be on a monthly licence, this is OK if your going to use this software day in, day out, but for the hobbyist is a real expense. So students have to get the software which at the beginning was done at a reduce rate, how long that will last is to be seen. Students also need to have a laptop or if possible a MacBook so that they can work on the same line as the college.

The course does have a lack of Mac's to teach students in a classroom environment, even thought that there are Mac rooms around, the course seems to be left behind on this side of things as the courses like media get first bite at the cherry. At the moment our course is dependent on students bringing in their laptops or MacBooks to go throughout the lectures. This is not ideal as some have not got these things or have only a PC. As a student rep, I've made a point about this and ways that things could be done until the course can get what it needs to teach students that valuable information. I don't see why Plymouth University can't put some investment towards the course so that there were at least 10 MacBooks for use on the course. Cut back in education and other factors are all part of this, and when the tutors are out under pressure to meet targets etc, its hard work if you don't have the tools tone able to meet those targets, which is unfair in my view as these tutors put a lot of effort and work into teaching their students so that they can go on to be people that the course can say this is what this person has achieved by doing this particular course.

To Show how much the tutors believe in their students and the course, they started up their own website. The website is to show students works and to give information on the course itself and news on what things are going on. The official Gov. website gives very little in trying to sell the course with no images and just text, some other courses does have visual aids to help promote their course, it's a shame that all courses aren't given the same web space.
But the FDA website has a lot to offer and is kept up to date and has its own blog as shows some great work that's been done by pass and present students. I totally recommend that you have a look and if you're a photographer that might have some hands on work for a student, then to contact the website and they will pass on the info to the students.

Exhibition of Students Work
In May this year (2014) an exhibition of students work will be on show and a great chance to come along and meet the students and ask them questions about their work and answer questions about the course itself if its something that you're thinking about doing.

I'm having a ball in the course and have a good group of co-students that I get on with and even that they are all old enough to be my own children they don't see or treat them that way, and they've become very except able of myself and my situation so we can have a good laugh now and then. Mr C and Mrs B are great tutors and do a great job and put a lot of time into what they do and are very passionate about their work and the course. Having that makes the course more interesting and worthwhile.

So check out the web site, the link is above but you can click on it from here.

Foundation Degree Website for Students and Course Info

Watery Sunday :(

The UK has been hit by the worse rainfall for decades and its not good to go out with a camera unless your happy being in the wet, which I don't!

So I've spent most of the day in Lightroom making up some more galleries for the website. I have to say that I think Lightroom is a great piece of software, I know some prefer Adobe Bridge but I don't think it can do things with ease like Lightroom does in makeing it easy to make galleries.

I use the Collections Set a lot and you don't have to have multiple images of the same to do different things as it all ties in with each other. The presets for your images are quite good but again you can taylor that as well, if you've got images taken on the same day then you can set the contrast etc directly for all those images and then just tweak them, but its a lot easier than going through individual ones.

I guess that I'm lucky on that I know CSS code and how to read it as the pages that it makes does need some twerking if you want your website to run smoothing between pages made by Lightroom and your web pages that you've designed.

I know that for most people when they visit a website that they don't like adverts coming up, slow loading and having to go round all the houses to get to one thing. So with that said I'm hoping that viewers will find my site easy to navigate and if anyone has some ideas, I'm always open to suggestions.

I've loaded up five galleries and some of the images people will have seen before or different versions of them, but in between are ones that I've not shown before. Nearly all of them are taken in and around Bristol, the city has so much to offer and to capture. One of the galleries is of the St Nicholas Market, which is a great place to go round, and if you spend some time there you can capture the essence of the market and what it represents.

There are two parts to the market with the indoor one that use to be Corn Exchange and then the what use to be the courtyard that has little sort of shacks that are no bigger than a medium garden shed (the image above gives you an idea). There are businesses that have been there for decades while others have moved in and help transform part of it into a kind of open food hall, with food from nearly all four continents to choose from. You can imagine that the smell of different dishes of food being cooked near to each other fills the air which helps build an appetite for your lunch.

Last year saw the closing of city centre roads on a Sunday and open to the public to basically do anything from sitting around on sofas or getting involved in street games. It was an idea that was put forward by Bristol's new mayor who does at first come across as a bit of an oddball with his thing for wearing red trousers every day, I guess we would all like to have  a signature of somekind that makes us stand out, mine is my white and orange wheelchair with its spiral like spoke guards. But what he did brought people into Bristol's city centre and just have fun, I'm guessing that it will be done again this year and maybe with some cool extras as the word has got around on how well it was last year.

Well a new week is about to begin and time for me to get stuck in to the second semester, one part is about digital imaging which involves the idea of altered reality / surreality / hyperreality, talk about pushing the boundaries of imagination! The second one is all about legislation, ethics on intrusion and business practices, see its not all about taking photos but getting an understanding of everything to do with photography in the professional view and workplace.

Thanks for reading, AndyD