Stockinish – Harris
A typical croft i encountered while cycling the ‘Golden Road’ to the Esst of the Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides – Scotland. Looks the perfect writers retreat….
Tranquility of El Remate, Guatemala
The tranquil Lago de Flores seen from the village of El Remate in Peten, Eastern Guatemala. This is a scan from Fuji Velvia (film) – I used to love that stuff for its wild, vivid colours! I’ve seen the new fuji digital cameras have special modes to recreate Velvia, Sensia etc. I wonder if they are any good? Have a good weekend folks and remember to add me on google+ (see below!)
Frijoles, Cordillera Blanca
I learnt that these gorgeous purple plants, which surrounded us on the high plains of the andes (before we entered the even higher, valleys of the cordillera blanca) were beans being grown for market. it was wonderful hiking through this terrain. Every now and then a woman or boy would pop out of nowhere, sheperding a small flock or carrying a sack of whatever it was they were harvesting. a wonderfully fertile place, though like everywhere, under increasing amounts of pressure and ever more hungry mouths to feed.
One technical tip on this image, that i have learned the hard way – foliage and leaves dont work well in HDR! Well at least, not without some tweaking. If you do use foliage in your images, then open up the image in your editing program, and go to the ‘hue/saturation’ tool. Use this to select the ‘yellows’ in your image, and try dialling down the saturation a few points. Play with the hu and lightness sliders too, but only if you really need to. You’ll be amazed at how well this works at making organic matter turn more green! The key insight here is that though we process verdant foliage as being green, it is in fact blended with alot of yellow too. So dial that yellow down for a more natural, believable effect. Its that simple to fix! and avoids horrid, lurid yellow leaves and grass that you often see on some of the HDR forums.
