Golden Lichen on Rock

More shots from the ladder  Looking down on things sure can give you a new slant on things – check out what I spotted from above – I’ve walked past this golden mossy “sculpture” a stack of times but it looked different with the sunlight shining on it and the Bromeliad from above looked like a mini pond.  Ask Frogs – they love them !

One persons garbage equals someone else's fab photo

Do you want to take photos with the WOW factor ?

Today I was making a compost heap. Unexciting stuff for non gardeners I am sure but for photographers there is always the chance that  something may just  pop into view.

Under all that soil is a photo waiting to happen, the garden is full of photographic delights  and even  pruning  gives a handle on a new viewpoint.

Take your ladder, pop it under the nearest tree. climb it, secateurs in hand. Voila !  You have a new perspective  :))

Change your angle slightly and look across from the top of the tree – perhaps you spot a bird in range ?  A nest with wee eggs in it perfectly placed for your camera to capture. A fab view of the corner of a building you haven’t spotted before, a piece of moss or lichen ? The abstract angle between the leaves maybe ? But is it art ?  Or is it a leaf ?

What determines what makes a great piece of photo art ?

Do you want to take photos with the WOW factor ?

Is it the shape between the leaves, the spaces between the objects that gives that spark of creativity  form that inspires you to delve deeper into your creative self  and produce something your didn’t know you were even capable of.

Step outside your normal  mindset and you will be amazed what you will come up with. Remember what happens when you are on holiday ?  Everything seems to be a photo waiting to happen but did you ever think it may not be the new location, it may be that being removed from your normal reality, you perceive things differently and become more creatively inclined.

Do you want to take photos with the WOW factor ?

Do you want to take photos with the WOW factor ?

Usually, we are advised to avoid flashes of uncontrolled light across the subject but  here you can see the huge difference it has made to the shot by leaving the rays of sun striking the flower across the petals.  Take the sunlight away and the photo loses a lot of its impact instead of highlighting the dramatic effect of the sun across the landing area of the flower.

Give it a go in your own garden or visit a nearby park if you live in an apartment or someplace without flowers handy and you will be surprised at what you can come up with if you keep clicking and introducing a few strategic rays of sunlight.  Try it also with the light from a hanging crystal to float the rainbows across your subject .           Do you want to take “WOW” photographs ?

Rusty Old Garbage Bin

Rusty, peeling paint flaky rubbish bin

A couple of days ago I lost a whole stack of photos.  I am certain they were all fantastic photographs, probably the best ones ever but now we will never know.

Yep,  lost the lot, was doing too many things at once and clicked “do you really want to cancel upload now ” by mistake ! Or it might even have been that dreaded word delete !  I was too annoyed to notice !  And in disbelief as well that they had vanished into the ether or in my case the card slot !

You know the score, not happening fast enough so you whizz off on to the next interesting thing on your computer while its happening and click back and forth, do a spot of editing, check on progress, zoom back again then wham – too late.  That dreaded red cross where a photo should be.  Not even in the deleted box, well they wouldn’t be would they when you have clicked cancel upload followed by  delete.

NEVER upload your pictures to your computer in a great rush and do a stack of  other things at the same time and especially NEVER tick the  delete images after upload  in this frame of mind.   At least you could rescue them from your camera card if you have  not  been as stupid as to do what I have just done  !

Yes, yes, I know I should know better but I was so keen to see them all and get stuck into editing the ones I quickly spotted as being fantastically amazing in the display.   No amount of griping could bring them back and I sat in front of my screen expecting them to magically reappear.  Hell, I even downloaded a program to retrieve lost images and sat waiting for them to pop up whilst I sat there in despair.

Then I remembered, the more mistakes you make the quicker you learn and the bigger the mistakes,  the more pointed the lesson !  OK, I must be a slow learner  but the point is well and truly learnt now )    Make sure you don’t do it

I have enough trouble finding the ones that are actually in there so naturally I thought I had just misplaced them and after trolling through my hard drive and turning up practically every file I had to face the inevitable.  I am a twit who should have twigged long before but I prefer to think of it as being optimistic that things would turn out. In this case not so

There are quite a few places now you are able to keep your images safe. They are no use to you if  your computer disappears, crashes or if you can’t access them so ensure that images that are precious to you are somewhere you can find.  Think about loading some of them on the various web albums, place some on your blogs or put some on Flickr or any of the others.  You can share them with friends or keep them private if you prefer but at least you will still have them.

It was early morning when this was taken  and the light was just falling across the window and  starting to shine through and highlighted the cobweb.

Have you ever taken a stack of photos then wondered about how much energy your digital camera takes to power up ?

Even felt slightly guilty ?

Wouldn’t you like to reduce your carbon footprint just a teensy weensy bit and get free solar energy ?

There is now a way to take all the pix you want and stay green – its to do with this “graphene photovoltaics” thingammy, which is basically a fancy pants way of saying you can solar charge your camera battery and still feel cool about your carbon footprint.

Apparently this “graphene whatsit”  is a highly conductive material that will charge up the gadget of your choice and makes it easier for you and I to keep taking photos, keep charging up and keep going !

If you could use free energy and still keep clicking then that’s got to be fantastic for us and for the planet. So if we could get our hands on a solar charger for our cameras it’d be faaaaantastic.    How good would it be ?

It’d be a bit like having your cake and eating it too wouldn’t it ?

Now,I know nothing about all of this but someone who does know is  Sophia Walker who writes for the http://solarcharger.org.uk/“>solar charger</a> blog,  her personal hobby web site centered on tips to help individuals save electricity using solar power for small devices.

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