Friday Photograph

Had a photography day up at Lake Vyrnwy last Sunday, and began by exploring where the land meets the water. It’s mysterious and treacherous – I’m always relieved to get out with all my gear intact.

Friday Photograph

This is one I took yesterday: an amazingly exotic hellebore, in the wilderness at Powis Castle Garden. For once, Powis didn’t work its magic – but then I’m pretty stressed at the moment, and the weather turned dull and chilly. The gardeners and the birds were extra friendly, though, because there were so few people around.

The garden’s really between seasons: there were early daffodils, including the start of the wild ones in the meadow – my favourites. But not a lot otherwise – I found more when I went (on a sunny day) in January. Another month and there should be azaleas and rhododendrons starting to flower. I’m impatient for colour, as always.

This was taken with my Fuji X-T2 and 60mm macro – a combination I’m really enjoying. And I can get away with ISO3200 for this, which is amazing.

Friday Photograph

No time for photography this week – so here’s another splashback possible. Flowers from my garden one June. (Can’t decide how colourful I want my new kitchen to be.)

Friday Photograph

I’ve been looking for an image to have made into a splashback for my new kitchen, and this is one of the possibles. It was taken at Easter 2014, when I hired an Olympus OMD EM-1 to see whether I could take to an electronic viewfinder.  (I could.)

New plan for this blog

I’ve just finished posting a picture a day for a month on Instagram (@janebirdsellphotography). This forced me to come up with an image I felt was worth posting each day, often after a snatched five or ten minutes of photography. Which made me realize that while my work’s never going to be revolutionary, it pleases me, and is worth sharing.

Simple photography makes me happy: just being there and really looking at something. I’m not interested in technical perfectionism – just in having an excuse to slow down and connect.

So my new plan for this blog, starting next Friday, is to post an image each week. One that’s sparked for me out of those I’ve taken that week or come across while sorting through existing work. I’ve now got two lightweight, versatile cameras, so it’s easy to go and do some photography. Hope you enjoy what I find.

A fresh start?

San Francisco Flower Market, April

So that’s eighteen months of existential crises – am I a writer? am I a photographer? do I deserve to exist when I don’t earn a living? – which is more than enough. I’m experimenting with collages at last: I’m showing two in a Marches Independent Photographers show at the Willow Gallery in Oswestry, opening on Saturday.

This one’s a celebration of an early morning visit to San Francisco Flower Market in April with my cousin Peter, who has a trade pass. My little Panasonic LX100 was ideal for snapping shots in a hurry. Many were composed as squares; others I cropped to match. I spent hours shuffling fifty little proof pix until I felt the arrangement clicked.

I’ve had both collages printed as canvas wraps – another thing I’ve been meaning to try for a while. I thought they’d save me the hassle of framing, but I’m not convinced they make the best of the images – although George at Replicolour has done a great job, as always.

Still, I’m making images and sharing them again.