Challenging

As part of a course I have to present some landscape and still life shots. This is so far outside my comfort zone I may need a street map!

So set off today to shoot around Newcastle city centre, yes in the midday sun, harsh light poor shadows, no midtones but what else can you do with a 3 year old in tow and a 5 year to pick up shortly afterward?

May head back down if the opportunity becomes available to get some child free time nearer sunset, unlikely as thats pretty late here at the moment. So for now a hot chocolate tinged black & white conversion will have to suffice! So instead of a processing preset to download today's title link will click through to a much better and mroe experienced regional landscape photographer.

What words are we made of?

These are the words that most often arise on my shots it seems...they actually are not what I expected though obviously I tag every shot with my camera's make i expected to see more child related and less work related words..... pic is on the title link.

New portrait preset

I had the pleasure of shooting this gorgeous little man this week and although we only purposefully shot her about 20 minutes got some really lovely poses.

This one just needed a little punch and I wasn't so happy with lightroom's punch preset as it darkened it down too much.

So click the title link and you can try my punchy portrait preset for free, C&C welcome.

An appeal for a friend in need.

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? A fantastic source of information, entertainment, and most importantly contact and friendship. Over the last 2 years I've been very active on flickr and have made some fantastic friends who mean as much to me as some that I see on a daily basis. We have laughed and cried together and been angry and amused together.

A few days ago I found out that an online friend is not only sick, pregnant, in financial dire straits but also now at risk of losing her precious baby to a complicated very premature delivery. To try to prevent this is hospitalised away from her husband and 2 young girls, undergoing invasive and stressful medical procedures daily and facing a huge amount of general uncertainty. You can read her blog by clicking the title link, I don't feel its my place to share all the particulars of anyone's medical condition and I don't have the words to adequately pass on the situation this family is in, nothing can do better than their own words.

So I would ask anyone to remember this family in your prayers and anyone who feels they can click the link to make a small donation. It will go toward ensuring they can secure childcare, pay some basic bills and have some comfort while separated. As they are in the USA there's little more direct I can do right now so hope this goes some small way to providing help and comfort for this family in need.