Happy Sky Watch Friday people:

This is a picture of the river in Mervent, France where we have the holiday place. I took this in September and recently manipulated it in Dynamic Photo HDR software. I hope you like it.

If you want to see skies from all over the world, why not check out the Sky Watch website? Remember to let people know if you like their pictures. Also, check out my Flickr page. I am trying something new with my blog so please bear with me if the posts don't come out correctly at first- I promise I will make it right!

EDIT:
Someone requested to see the 'before' shot, so here it is. You can now see why I love this software so much- the original (no tweaking whatsoever) was an 'ok' photograph, but with the Dynamic Photo HDR software, you can make it something completely different.


You can download a free trial here and have a play: Media Chance website.

Bye for a while.

Hi everyone. I delved into my archives for this Sky Watch post. The photo was taken at our friends house in Lairoux, France. They have a beautiful view from their front garden as you can see! It was taken at sundown one evening in April 2009.

If you want to see more of the worlds beautiful skies, go to the Sky Watch site and click on the links- just remember to tell people if you like their photos!

Hi everyone. I have something a bit unusual for you today- well, not what you have been used to anyway! Here are a few photos that I have taken and manipulated with my Dynamic Photo HDR software. This software is available as a free trial from Mediachance and the full version costs about $55. This is not a plug for them- I genuinely use this programme for my HDR projects. If you need to know more about HDR just click the links. Mine are what they call fake or pseudo HDR as they are made from just one (jpg) image. I have great fun creating this type of image and generally do this when I get bored!

This first one is of some holly with bright red berries. I took this a couple of weeks ago when me and Brian went out walking in the forest for the day. It was lovely and we had a really good time collecting acorns for the squirrels, bird spotting by the river and generally enjoying the woods. This would make a great Christmas card don’t you think?

You really need to see these in the large sizes to appreciate them- Just click the picture.

This is a sunset shot from France I took sometime in the summer. I liked the original to this but I also like this tone mapped version.

This next one is a night scene from my trip to Austria back in January. I tone mapped it in the Dynamic Photo software and this is what I got. I personally really like this style of Pseudo HDR, others see it as far too surreal and just don’t get it- Each to their own I say!

All these pictures look so much better in their larger sizes, available to view at my Flickr site. If you click on the photos, you will be taken to their Flickr page. Click on ‘all sizes’ above the picture and it will take you to the large or original size.

I will be back soon with some more ‘normal’ photographs!

*** Please bear with me for the next week or so as I am trying to change around my blog a little and things may not work as well or may even disappear! Hopefully, it will be running like clock work soon!***

Hi again people. Todays post is from my recent visit to Longleat Safari Park again. This time, from a new attraction they have there called ‘Animal Adventure’. The only part that is open at the moment though is the butterfly enclosure. I was really looking forward to that and I have to say it did not disappoint at all! The butterflies and moths they had in there were amazing. So beautiful and some were massive! I hope you enjoy these pictures.

This yellow butterfly is apparently actually a moth- a Luna moth so I’ve been told. It had just finished hatching and was obviously still not ready to fly about yet.

The following picture is of an owl butterfly I think- eating rotten banana that didn’t smell nice at all! The good thing about the rotten fruit is that the butterflies stayed on it for good photographs.

This last picture is of an absolutely stunning butterfly. I don’t know what it is but it is gorgeous and the biggest butterfly I have ever seen in my whole life! I would say it was at least 12 inches wide- at least. It is also the prettiest I have ever seen.

That is all from my butterfly encounter but I will be back soon with more of my Longleat Safari Park pictures.

One more thing, thanks for all your comments you have been leaving recently. Unfortunately, as I work full time I do not have the time to reply individually to everyone’s comments but I assure you, I do visit your sites and try to leave comments when I can. So just a thank you to you all.