Spring Weather And Muggy Heat

After a long winter, spring finally came a few weeks ago, but now the skies have turned mostly grey again and the weather has become humid.  I haven’t had much time to concentrate on my photos, but yesterday I caught several images in Highgate Wood, North London, while walking a friend’s dog.  For a long time, I’ve taken an interest in black and white photography. I worked on yesterday’s images in GIMP (Levels, Color Balance, Saturation and Hue), then turned one of the originals into greyscale and concentrated on the contrast.  Heady stuff.

 

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Spring Weather: Rain And Grey Sky, Again

The warm, almost muggy temperatures remain but the weather itself has changed and the rain and grey skies have returned after a couple of weeks of sunshine.

Below are some photos I took at the weekend.  (Highgate Wood, North London)

 

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Nice And Hot, Spring Weather

The warm weather continues with plenty of sunshine and daylight.  Again, I took some photos on my way to work yesterday and edited them in GIMP later on in the evening.  As usual, I selected one of the images to go into my black and white photography album, as I have a keen interest in black and white photography. 

(Near Totteridge and Whetstone Tube Station, North London):

 

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Golden Hour Shots: Autumn

I took these photos in Highgate Wood, North London, on Monday afternoon, expecting to take advantage of the shifts and changes in light, but instead the shutter speed slowed down considerably due to the denseness of the trees, creating a certain amount of camera shake, which meant I had to discard many of the photographs.

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The Parkland Walk, Black And White

I took some more photographs on Monday afternoon and used a few for my online black and white photography collection.  The process was relatively easy once I’d chosen the most suitable shots – convert to grayscale in GIMP, work with Levels and adjust Contrast/Brightness to get the best results.  I think there’s a special Fill stage for printing, but I haven’t got the hang of that yet. 

Old Railway Line Parkland Walk, North London (a great place for walking a dog):

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More Attempts At Black And White Photography

I’ve developed a keen interest in black and white photography over the years, but up till recently I tended to edit original images taking into consideration tonal range, color balance and saturation before converting the images to black and white, then fiddling with the channel mixer and/or applying an unsharpen mask.  Naively, I assumed that the editing work would contribute to the final result, even though the conversion to black and white would mean the loss of all color information – hence, counterproductive. 

Then, I read about a different approach, and I’ve been working on the original images in grayscale, making the necessary changes for light and contrast.  For whatever reason, I’ve found the photo editing software GIMP more effective than Photoshop when using this method.

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Chilly Autumn Afternoon

Yesterday was chilly and misty with light drizzle in the evening.  I took these around lunchtime.

Totteridge Village, North London

 

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Autumn, Black and White

More rain and mist and muddy leaves.   In recent months, I’ve developed a greater interest in black and white photography. I took these shots the other week and made them into black and white with GIMP using the Channel Mixer. 

Highgate Wood, North London:

 

 

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Autumn Cool

Although August doesn’t seem that long ago, summer has gone and the temperature has dropped.   Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday in Highgate Wood, North London.  I edited them in GIMP.  

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Summer Shots: The Heat

I’ve recently finished the third draft of my new novel EggHead and am spending some time away from it, working on my photography.   I took these shots yesterday in Highgate Wood, North London, and edited them in Photoshop:

 

 

Meanwhile, my debut novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey – is available as a paperback and in e-book (Kindle)  from Amazon. 

 

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