As I write this Luminance is chugging away in the background. My images are complex and not taken through a tripod. So right now it is attempting to fix an alignment between images. So first tip when running a HDR experiment – use a tripod.

No back to the photography. True to form I had to play around with lighting and focus and as a result realised that I had come up with an image that I quite liked.  I think this helps to prove a couple of old axioms.

• Thinking about getting a good picture is more likely to lead to a good picture.
• Experimentation leads to discovery
• Good art is where you find it.

Identify art and images with TinEye

AT-AT DAY AFTERNOON (via PatrickBoivin)

Star Wars AT-AT as a dog. Very charming. Just shows what a simple idea can do. Thanks to Stephen Fry for making me aware of this one

PICT0823 (by chris walker)

Great Example of capturing a moment in time. The camera must have been mounted to the kayaks front and has done a great job of giving us the feeling of sun, sea and sheer exertion that this kind of canoeing entails

Si lava (by Luca Mascaro)

More people are working on light painting, and creating stories with cameras. This one caught my eye as it instantly said - strange shadow from another time or place. Probably says more about me than the photographer, but then art is a reflection of ourselves

My recent personal targets have been to sharpen up (if you’ll pardon the pun) my manual focussing skills. It hasn’t let to lots of bokeh, which I guess would be what most people are expecting. It has resulted in quite a few very badly focussed shots but a goodly number of interesting, and bright photographs. I’m a big fan of this kind of challenge.  It forces the mind to take a step back and to think not just about the technique itself but also on the impact it will have on the composition. Technology and artistic composition are two of the underlying principles of photography and one cannot thing about these too much.

Of course targeting a technique is all very well, but you need to have something to photograph. I’ve spend some time looking at forgotten parts of my home town and also used a trip to West Wales to help me out. I’ve not been to West Wales for at least a decade so it was a great opportunity to take a fresh look at things.

Here are some my favourites.

You can of course see my photos on Flickr

Or at my shop on Red Bubble

Flickr houses the largest collection of my work. Red Bubble is a list of those that are available as commercial prints

Free Open Source HDR Photography software available on a variety of platforms

Automated creation of video slide shows - a nice fast way to create some impressive visuals

A new Internet meme - resulting in some very odd and downright disturbing photographs

#212 wighead (by romana klee)

When something is fundamentally cool it is often hard to put your finger on it. That is the genius of cool. It simple is. Like this photo, there’s a lot going on here, yet somehow the red hair in profile makes it cool