If Only I Could Wait
As per usual a very quiet few months at the start of 2025, with little opportunity for photography on any real scale. a couple of times when I did take the camera out I was with friends so the camera stayed in the bag most of the time.
Usually this time of year seems to be my camera or lens upgrade time, but for once this was not the case, with the only upgrade coming to my laptop which was finally upgraded to a new Macbook Pro that would make editing a lot quicker and easier, and give me access the the newest options available on adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I found myself going back over some of the Costa Rica images, re-editing and touching up some of the photos with some more of these advanced options that had been lacking with my old laptop and its limitations with these programmes. An example of this shown below is of a house wren sat on an irrigation pipe. The first image was the original edit while the seconds was using the new laptop and adobe’s AI which is able to highlight the subject within the scene and allow for easy background manipulation. In this case the background is softer allowing the subject to ever so slightly stand out from the background.
Before
After
Overall not a massive change but the new laptop should now make editing much easier and quicker in the future which is great news.
Spring has finally begun to burst into action however, with my vixen back in the garden ready (I hope) for more pups this year. Hopefully this time I will get some more images of the pups as they play-fight in the garden.
It has also meant more days of actual sunshine to go out in which always makes me want to take more photos. Walks on the beach and in the mendip hills have been the highlights as for a few weeks at least some sunshine has graced us with its presence.
One such walk at the end of March gave me an unexpected opportunity to photograph some semi wild goats living on the cliffs in a place called Goblin Combe. Its not my first rodeo photographing goats and these ones seemed pretty happy for me to stand and take some portraits of them in the spring sun.
The neighbour across the road was back at it again as well with the bonfire giving me another go at some cool fire photos.
Finally after a couple of years absent, I made a return to the Wildlife photographer of the year awards . A competition I have always had a love hate relationship with, but always seem to come out with the book to keep in my hands.
The two images I appreciated the most both technically and visually after my resurgence into macro photography were both of insects surprise surprise.
The young photographer of the year award even going to a youtube creator I watch, and who was a big part of making me want to pick up a macro lens again. I even took inspiration from what he uses, so bought the same 65mm lens and flash system based on his videos and his results. So all I will say is a massive much deserved well done to him.
Hopefully some more advanced macro work to come this year with the introduction of stacking images high on my agenda for the spring and summer of 2025.
FIN
