Taking Stock ?

A lot of the work I've been doing lately has centred around working with people - in portraiture, and in events - and whilst I really enjoy that aspect of photography, I have been thinking that perhaps I need to push myself to explore other genre's too.  I also want to start pushing myself to use different techniques - I am very aware that my photography is nearly always representational, its the style I prefer - but the idea of experimentation, with not only post production to create different effects, but also to be a little more creative at the point of taking the images, has a lot of appeal for me.  I've been very lucky, lately, and met a lot of incredibly creative people, who I admire immensely - and seeing their work has inspired me to gather my courage and at least try to move towards a far more creative and artistic approach to some of what I do - while I think I'm 'creative',  the term 'artistic' is not one I'd usually apply to myself. 

At this stage, however, I also think that I need to consider any potential commercial use that any images I produce can be geared towards .  It would be fantastic if I could sell any images as prints, perhaps as wall art, but I know how competitive that area is, and I am not confident that the work I produce is that good .  So, I'm looking at the idea of selling some images as stock, via sites on the internet.

So - for a few days, I've been playing around with a variety of different bits of equipment and settings on my camera, and post production techniques.  The equipment has been in the form of filters - I bought a set of mounts, for use on 3 different lens, and a small selection of filters, several weeks ago, and I decided it was time to really play around with them, and see what I could come up with. I also played heavily with camera settings, and in post production, I pushed one or two effects to a far greater extent than I would normally go.  The following images are produced using one, or a combination, of the following - built in red or blue filter on my camera settings, a selection of cookin filters (including sunset, red and ND ),  using a set of macro filters, boosting sharpness/sats/contrast on the camera whilst keeping ISO as low as possible, techniques like locked off motion, and post production effects, such as unsharp mask, contrast and levels.

These images are very different from the style that I usually veer towards - I like strong colour and contrast, but to me, these are far more creative in an artistic sense, than the type of image I generally produce . I actually really like them, and have really enjoyed trying to push myself in a 'new' direction - I've always had a hankering to be able to produce artwork, and these feel like the closest I've come to that point.

Whether these will sell as 'stock' images remains to be seen - looking at the huge variety of stock images out there, the range covers everything from the mundane to the very abstract, so I am finding it very hard to judge .  Any feedback or constructive advice/criticism would be appreciated, by the way :)

Whatever happens, I have really enjoyed pushing myself to be more creative, and its an area that I hope I can continue to develop and explore.

Damsels

Loving the hot weather of the last few days, not least because it means some of my favourite photographic subjects are likely to be about - Damsel and Dragon flies.

One of my favourite stalking ground is actually the memorial pond at a local crematorium - its been cultivated as a wildlife pond, and its a location where the different types of damsel are more varied than anywhere else I tend to go.  Just a few short hours there today, and I think I have maybe 4  different species captured.

A day at The Rhydymwyn Valley

The Rhydymwyn Valley Site, near Mold, has a history of lead, iron and agricultural industry. It was renamed in 1939 and became M.S.Factory Valley and was involved in the manufacture, assembly and storage of chemical weapons from 1940–1959 and later became a bulk storage depot for emergency supplies. The site of the Valley Works has now been returned to nature, attracts a wide variety of wildlife and is now designated as a nature reserve.

Myself, Geraldine and Dawn often have photo days out together, and yesterday was one of these - Geraldine is a member of the historical society associated with the Rhydymwyn Valley site, and as such is able to take guests in to explore the area - and yesterday, she very kindly signed herself and Dawn and I in for the day.

Its a photographers paradise, in a lot of ways - the site is extensive, and there are literally dozens of buildings, that hark back to the time when the area was M.S. Factory Valley, where chemical weapons were produced.  

Some of the buildings have the entrances screened off - these are the buildings where colonies of bats are established, and to protect them, visitors are not allowed in - but even more are completely accessible, and are fascinating - from big, echoing 'hangers' . . .

To many smaller 'units' .

There is an incredible atmosphere to the interior of the buildings, a little creepy at times . . .

There are long corridors, with paint peeling off the walls and the sun shining through the door and window openings -

And plenty to evoke images and thoughts of the long gone staff that worked there, with walls covered in graffiti, left by them

In one corridor, we found a still inhabited swallows nest . . .

There were FOUR birds crammed in there!


Outside the buildings, there is still more to catch your eye.

The profusion of wild flowers is stunning . . .

And where there are wild flowers, there are insects, from butterflies -

. . . to bees, wasps, flies and hover flies . . .

And all manner of other little creatures .

There is a huge, reed covered pond, with these strange structures dotted around it.

There are Highland cattle roaming in parts of the site

And in the wooded areas are examples of art created for the place.  Quite creepy, a couple of them - they can give you a bit of a jolt when you suddenly spot them !

At one point, the sunlight hit some pine trees, and from a distance, they appeared to be glistening - approaching, we saw the cones were covered in an icing sugar frosting-like resin, that looked like it had frozen as it dripped -

The absolute high light of the day for me was a sighting we made late morning - I was about to take a snap of the view ahead of me, when Geraldine suddenly shouted me - and guess what was making its way across one of the old roads . . .

A grass snake, and I'd guess a female - they are up to 8" longer than the males, and thicker - and this was one BIG snake - we estimated her to be around 3 and 1/2 feet long, and easily as thick as my wrist.

I couldn't believe our luck - these creatures are usually so shy, to see one so clearly and to get so close was fantastic!

This is just a small fraction of the images I got - its definitely a place I'll visit again !