The Eternal City in January

With the Covid-19 madness still showing no sign of abating, it was time to dig back into my archives and look for some photographs from our last trip abroad. This shot was taken in January of 2020 and shows the Roman Forum in the early afternoon. The majesty of these ruins does tend to reduce

A Senior Biscuit

It has been very difficult to blog, to the extent that I had to refresh my memory as to how to create articles on this thing. Today is Biscuit’s ninth birthday, and to celebrate, here is one of my favourite shots of her.

Summer Garden

I’m going to run out of things to photograph around the house, if lockdown does not end soon. I don’t know what this is. Anyone more versed in botany than I, please do let me know. The rest of you, just enjoy and as always, let me know what you think.

More Indoor Cat Fun

The UK government is easing ‘lockdown’ slightly, but my company has not opened its offices yet, and so there is little incentive to go into London and – my fault, this – even less reason for me to venture outside of the house. So what better subject than our long-suffering felines? You have met Willow

Italy. Again!

My heart is breaking right now, for the suffering of my belovèd Italy, due to the Covid-19 outbreak . This photograph was taken on our last trip to Rome, in January of this year. I hope fervently to return there soon.

Her Name is Lola…

I suspect that I’m not the only one whose photographic ‘desires’ are being frustrated with the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’, and who is instead turning to the furry beings inside one’s home, as unwilling models. This is Lola. Lola is a majestic seventeen years old, and still going (fairly) strong. She is the oldest living being in

In the Cloud

Whilst the turmoil of the world goes on outside, it was nice to feel completely detached this Bank Holiday weekend, and to sit outside in the garden with a beer and a Michael Connolly novel on Kindle. I didn’t intend the flare to be there, but I did deliberately leave it in. I hope you’re

Flowers in the Garden

Well, this Covid-19 lockdown has been a major drag, hasn’t it? I had entertained the idea of going walkabout with my camera, but the police in the UK have shown themselves ready to use what I shall diplomatically call ‘enthusiastic‘ policing, to keep people inside. And I’m not really in the mood for an argument

Willow the Ginger Beauty

I’ve shown you this gorgeous girl before: it’s Willow. Like probably most of the country right now, my wife and I are avoiding going out unless it’s necessary. Today, we did a bit of impromptu sunbathing by raising the blinds and lying on the bed. Willow decided to join us. This was taken with the

Photoshop Café

If like me, you’re confined to home by Covid-19 (I don’t have the virus, but our employer has sent us all home), you’ll have been looking at ways to pass the time. You can either bing-watch some gritty television series (if you’ve not seen it yet, I can heartily recommend season 1 of The Wire),

The Venice Effect

I mentioned recently that I have a preset on Adobe Lightroom. It doesn’t appear to be possible for WordPress to accept this kind of file – an XMP file. I’ve contacted WordPress Support, but for the moment, this is what the file looks like: If you want to get that into your copy of Lightroom,

Lightroom Workflows & Presets

In my quest to bring you good technical links, the below is a two-part series on workflow in Adobe Lightroom. RAW Photo Workflow In Lightroom, Part One: Creative Expression Thoroughly recommended.

How Not to Use ND Filters

Today and every day until the end of the month, I am working from home, on orders of ‘The Management’ at my work, thanks to Covid-19. So what better way to celebrate than to pop out with my Nikon D810 and get some photos. I took my ND filters and went down to the River

HMS Belfast

I was in London today, and had my Cokin ND filter set in my bag. The following is a picture of HMS Belfast taken on the banks of the River Thames near to London Bridge. The photograph was taken with my Lumix. I can’t tell you the stop-factor of the ND filter used, as this

A Wash-Out Week

It’s been hard to get out and about, as the weather here in Kent has been atrocious. In fact, since we moved here in October, it seems like it has rained every single day. So by means of a consolation prize, this is a photograph taken in Beijing back in October of 2015. Taken with

Master Hue, Saturation & Luminance in Lightroom

Here’s a short tutorial on Shutterbug on mastering the Hue, Saturation & Luminance controls in Adobe Lightroom. I have a Lightroom tutorial sitting in my drafts folder, and I need to get it done. It will take you through the process of geotagging all of your photographs, so that each has an accurate longitude and

Cat 4 of 4

This in fact is cat n° 4, in the sense that she was the last to arrive at our home. Meet Willow: Willow was a stray who came to us via a third party. At first, she would not let any human near her, and we feared that she had been treated badly. But with

Cats and the Internet

The Internet was really made for cats, so I’ve been a bit remiss not to show you at least one photograph of our brood. This is Maya. The back-story to this is that we adopted Maya in October of 2016, when she was a skinny, nervous little three year old. Although she had never been

How to Save £1,000

So you know how it is. You’re flicking through Facebook on one of your favourite Nikon pages, and you see someone mention how they’ve just scored the Coolpix P1000, and you think, ‘Ooooh!’. Now, I do not need another camera, since I already have the rather spiffing Panasonic Lumix DMC GX8, and the even more

Holiday Time!

My wife and I finished work tonight, up in central London and we are now on holiday until 9th March, whooooo!!! Expect some photos. 😊