PhotoPrintDay

#Photoprintday SEPTEMBER 2,3,4 
I’m pleased to be taking part in PhotoPrintDay, which Jim Mortram has organised on Twitter. His idea was for photographers to offer affordable photographic prints for sale, with all the proceeds going to charity. 

I have selected and printed five copies of my image of the Pyramid of Light in Milton Keynes. The image was well received when I shared it on Twitter recently, so I think it is a good choice for PhotoPrintDay. I like this image because of the modern element of the sculpture, contrasting with the natural elements of the hillside.

The prints are printed on A4 sheets of Fotospeed Platinum Etching 285 gsm. They will be signed and numbered from one to five. This will be a limited edition of five copies. The image will not be printed or available again once they are sold.

The rules of PhotoPrintDay are simple.

Exchange ANY print for a minimum £10 donation (First come first served, donators can over donate, no problem) 

Donator provides screen-grab of donation to a non-profit charity.

Sort the P&P together. 

Donations start on the 2nd Sept.

Please don’t hesitate to have a look at my portfolio to see some of my other images.

Thanks.
Damian.

December 2017

December 2017

Well, it is the end of another month and another year. December has been a little bit quiet for my photography, as it has been too dark for me to get out in the mornings before I start work. That said, the weekends have been kind to me and I have been lucky with the weather then.

Snow and mist seemed to be a recurring theme this month, which of course I was really  pleased about. On the 3rd December we had one of those misty starts to the day that last most of the morning. I headed to a a piece of very tidy woodland that I have had my eye on for a few months. I have visited five or six times but I never managed to get a image from there. I knew it would work best in winter and it needed mist to make it work. The conditions were perfect for what I wanted and I managed to get a few shots that I was happy with.

The snow was a little bit of a surprise. Snow was forecast, but nowhere near as much as we got. On top of the hills we had about 7 inches, which is the deepest that I have seen it for a good number of years. I was out most of the day trying to make it around to all the locations that I wanted to visit and was happy with the results, some of which you can see below…

Thanks to all of you for your continuing support of my work. Wishing you a very happy 2018!

November 2017

A busy quiet Period

November has been a pretty good month and surprisingly busy. That said the amount of photos that I have taken is relatively low. With the dark mornings things tend to quieten down a little, as it is not worthwhile going out before work during the week. That said I did have a few days off for my birthday at the start of the month and one morning I arranged a later start at work, when I saw it was going to be really foggy.

With the darker mornings I try and spend my time organising some printing and selecting new images that I might exhibit next year. I also put together my calendar which is now for sale if anybody would like one. I have also had a few sales through my website that I need to fulfil.

I took part in my last exhibition of the year. It was held in Aylesbury Grammar School on the 18th. I displayed 17 framed prints along with a print rack full of mounted prints. I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone that came to see my work during 2017, especially those who bought something.

Perhaps the highlight of the month was the awards evening for the ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’ competition. I had a really good night there and caught up with lots of other like minded photographers. My commended picture is not part of this year’s exhibition, but it does feature in the digital exhibition which is showing on the screens in Waterloo Station.

Outdoor Photographer of the Year

In other competition news I am pleased to say that I have had three images shortlisted in this year’s ‘Outdoor Photographer of the Year’ Competition. It is the first time that I have entered this competition, so it is great news to get shortlisted. Looking though the other entries it is a little daunting, as there is some amazing images in there. Even if I go no further it is still a achievement to be shortlisted.

I also attended a printing workshop with Doug Chinnery and Fotospeed. Held in the picturesque village of Lacock, Doug ran through all you needed to know to produce colour accurate prints that are consistent. It was great to meet Doug and learn from his knowledge. I really do recommend one of these workshops if you are serious about printing.

 

Here is a selection of images that was taken during November.

2018 Calendars

2018 Desktop Calendars

Just to let you know I have a small amount of 2018 calendars available to buy! The calendars are a A5 desktop design, and include two designs featuring two different photographs for each month. If you would like to purchase one, they are £8 each including UK P&P, or £11 including P&P for any internationals. You can get in touch with me through the contact form, or order via my paypal account letting me know your address details.

Thank you.

My Flickr Favourites from October 2017

MY THREE FAVOURITE PICTURES BY OTHER
PHOTOGRAPHERS October 2017.

Here are my chosen three images from other photographers that were taken in October. You can see all of my other previous Flickr favourites posts here. It looks like October was a good month for everyone, there certainly were some nice images to choose from.

 Loch Ailort by Neil Almond

Loch AilortNeil has captured a wonderful image here. The foreground detail is really detailed and the shape of the rock leads your eyes towards the scene beyond perfectly. The tones and mood are also spot on.

SA0057 by Darren Ciolli-Leach SA0057

It looks like Darren had a productive time when he went up to Scotland. This is my favourite of a very impressive collection of images. If you have the time try and have a look through them all. The image has some lovely layers and the tree roots in the foreground look great. It does deserve a better title though Darren! 😉

Dinorwic Quarry 23 Oct 2017 by Matthew Dartford

Dinorwic Quarry 23 Oct 2017

Super tones and mood again from Matt. This is my favourite spot in Dinorwic and Matt has made it look pretty epic here.

Well done Neil, Darren and Matthew.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Here is this months list of photographers that also deserve a mention. Click on the names to see their images. Leigh Dorey Neil Burnell, Mark Littlejohn, Dani Colston, Amar Sood, & Sarah Brooks

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October 2017

The start of the season

October is very much the start to my favourite period for photography. But at the same time it also is the start of darker mornings and limited camera time during the week. It is kind of ironic that I spend all summer longing for it to come, and once it was here I cannot make the most of it. I would love to continue wandering around the woodland up in the hills, but it is just too dark to do so. Fortunately as the clocks have now gone back, I should hopefully be able to get back into the hills for a week or two.

To maximise my photography time during October, I started shooting close to where I work. I started off by scouting a nearby country estate which has a good network of footpaths. I tend not to take many pictures when I am exploring, but when the conditions were right later in the month I knew just where I needed to be. As the sunrise got even later I started focusing on closeups of the flowers, leaves and seed heads on a small piece of waste ground 5 minutes away from where I work. I hope to continue this project in November.

Weekends of course I was free to get out into the hills and other places like Burnham Beeches. The autumn colour is now starting to show and should reach its peak in the next week or two. I was fortunate to have a couple of days off work in half term, and it just so happened that both these days had very misty mornings. I made the most of these conditions, by going to a couple of locations that I have been planning on visiting on just such occasion.

Of course the news that I have had a image commend in this years Landscape Photographer of the year competition, was very well received. Well done to everyone who managed to get something in the book. I’m looking forward to the awards evening and catching up with some of you there.

I also had two local exhibitions during October which went very well. I have already started signing up for exhibition in 2018, so keep an eye on my dates for your diary page for a up to date list of up coming events.

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2017

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2017

I am pleased to announce that my image called ‘Lady’s Walk in Autumn’, has been commended in this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. The image will appear in the competition’s accompanying book, which is available from shops and online retailers from today. A full list of all the this year’s winners is available on the Take A View website.

I also want to say well done to all of the winners and everyone else that managed to get an image or images commended.

Ashridge Chiltern Woodland Autumn Landscape Photography

Lady’s Walk in Autumn – Ashridge Hertfordshire.
Commended in Classic View 2017.

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September 2017

September Mornings

September has been a fairly unproductive month for me as I seem be be going out and not taking many pictures. I have been spending a lot of time exploring new locations, which can be time consuming and often fruitless. The dark overcast mornings later in the month also did not help me, as by the time it got light enough to shoot I had to leave to go to work. That said I did have a handful of mornings when the conditions were very nice. Signs of the approaching autumn has been present all month, so lets hope it is going to be a good one.

If you are passing by, I have a picture hanging up in the Ashridge visitor centre this weekend. The image has been shortlisted in their Tree-mendous Weekend competition. The winner of the competition will be announced on Sunday. The voting is all done by the public, so any votes for my image will be much appreciated.

Finally just a quick mention about this exhibition in Watlington, that I am taking part in next weekend. The exhibition is open Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 11am – 3pm.

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August 2017

Projects, Dorset, and a few Misty Mornings.

August like the rest of the year seems to have flown by. The month started out with me completing my ‘Entangled’ project and working on another similar project called ‘Yellow’. ‘Yellow’ focused on a field of sunflowers, but concentrated on individual flowers in various stages of the flowers blooming. I really enjoyed working on these projects and it made me wonder if this should be something I should do more of. These projects also got me using my Hasselblad a bit more, which has to be a good thing.

I did managed to spend a bit more time exploring some new locations. For me the summer months are perfect for exploring, as the light mornings allows me about 2 hours before I start work. Being warmer also makes it a more pleasant experience. All this exploring does not really produce lots of pictures that I want to share, but hopefully the time was well spent and should provide some nice new images later in the year. As much as I like returning to my favourite places, a new location really does motivate me to get out there and try and capture something new.

I spent a nice week in the Isle of Purbeck with my family again. We visited last year and really enjoy our time down there so we decided to go again. There was a handful of shots that I wanted to capture, as I did not manage to capture the images I wanted last year. Fortunately I managed to capture them this year. Once I had captured them I took a fairly laid back approach and just enjoyed being out photographing somewhere different. Whist I was down there I met up with Leigh Dorey to capture Corfe Castle in the mist, and also Kevan Brewer for a wander around a misty part of the New Forest.

Here are some of my favourite images that were taken in August.