Summer Roses

Top: Summer Rose.
Bottom: Summer Flower.

I was only going to upload one of these pictures, but I couldn't decide which one to upload, so I uploaded them both instead!

Again, they were created in Photoshop. For the first one, I applied a rose paintbrush to a white background and for the second one, I applied the same paintbrush to a coloured background before adjusting the tone and colour to achieve the highlights and shadows that I wanted.

To be honest, I'm quite pleased with the end result. They turned out better than I expected!

A Pocketful of Spring

I was just messing around with patterns and colours - and came up with this one by sheer accident!
I was quite pleased with the results, though. :-)

Evening Snow

I found this little beauty in our back garden one day last week - and I just couldn't resist getting my camera out...

Days of Snow

I must confess that I'm hardly a great artist - but I just love messing around with different media!
I created this one with good old-fashioned coloured pencils and paper (and more than a little help from my nieces and nephews, since they helped me to colour it in).

Although I originally created it a few months ago, I thought it would be appropriate for now, considering the Arctic weather that we're having at the moment.

As for the little ones...
well, they're just enjoying the snowball fights. ;-)

A Single Berry

It's freezing here in the UK at the minute! It snowed for most of last week - and it looks as if the bad weather is set to continue for a while yet.

Anyway, I took this one on Friday. This is a close-up of the view I get of one of our holly trees from my study window. We have two beautiful holly trees - and this is what they look like covered in snow.

I wish they had more berries on them, though. Sadly, the birds ate them all. :-(

A Summer's Eve

Spring Warmth, Summer Yellow

Here's 2 that I made earlier, he he!

Well, actually, the first one is a photo taken on a hot day in June a couple of years ago. We had an abundance of buttercups back then - and when I say abundance, I mean it! They were all over the park, in our gardens...
Basically, they were everywhere! A sea of yellow flowers. It was a beautiful sight!

The second picture was one that I created just a few days ago, after I'd created yet another flower brush in Photoshop. I must have tried around a dozen different colours before I settled on the soft pastel shade above.

The Essence of Trees

Sometimes, when taking photos, you have to be quick to get the shot that you want!
I love taking pictures of birds flying, but you have to be quick in order to do it!
Sometimes, I've been lucky and managed to get the shot I wanted, but there are other times when I haven't been so lucky.

This time, though, I just grabbed my camera and went for it!

Pink Beauty

I took this one while I was out on my travels a couple of days ago.

I don't know what it is about nature, but something attracts me to it, rather like a moth attracted to a flame (no pun intended). Perhaps it's the poet in me speaking out, or perhaps it's the desire for solitude - or even the desire to get away from it all, since I live in what I call a "concrete jungle".

I don't know exactly what attracts me to nature, but all the same, I like what I see - and if I like it, I take pictures!

Visions of Life

This is another one of my accidental creations. I'd just created my own daisy paintbrush in Photoshop and I wanted to experiment with it. I used light colours on a black background, added a few filters - and I was surprised with the end result!

Let's just say that it wasn't quite what I expected...

Hazy Days

This is just a quick one that I created a couple of days ago using Photoshop.

Winter in March?

Well, it is actually, since the weatherman's promise of snow seems to have come true (at least in the part of the UK where I live, anyway). We've had spring-like weather for the past couple of months (with the exception of the odd cold spell), so to have all of this snow and rain dumped on us over the past couple of days has left me feeling down - and that's to say the least!

Yes I know, it's been a couple of months since my last post. Sadly, I've been busy.

I've still managed to find time to take some photos, though.

I called this one Morning Dreams as it was taken on my way to our park a couple of months ago.

The sun was rising, bathing the sky in a beautiful reddish-orange glow - and I just couldn't resist it...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, it's that time of the year again...

Time for parties, carol singers, turkeys and those all-important gifts

(and not forgetting the kids, of course, since they're excited now).

The trouble is that it's also the busiest time of year. There's far too much to do

and not enough time to do it all in!

So while it's quiet, I'd just like to wish everyone

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Autumn Leaves

Saturday is the day that my sister and her kids usually come to visit -

and today was no exception! We took the kids to the park - and ended up jumping on leaves, rolling around in them and even throwing them at each other! It was great!

But, then again, I'm just a big kid at heart. ;-)

Anyway, I managed to take this picture before the little ones flattened them - but only just! ;-)