Into the light

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

This was taken on my trip to Hampshire and the New Forest where we found some wonderful donkeys . I was visiting my Aunt who lives with her dog in a mobile home very nearby. The couple in shot are my brother and his girl friend. As you can tell it was cold but you don’t know the half of it - it was really cold. We were having a quick wander around while my Aunt had a rest and over the hill we found a few horses and gusts of winds only normally found in the Arctic, lol.

I took this shot and a closer shot but went with this one. From the original I tried to up the mood and atmosphere here.

Moody morning

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

During one morning the light outside our house was amazing. It was very moody and mysterious, so naturally I fired off a few shots. This is one shot which I’ve toned in sepia. I changed the tonal colours as the original lacked colour anyway and so thought the image would work in a sepia-style. Other than that I’ve not changed anything, so that is what the light looked like. Cool eh?

What you’re looking at is the view outside my office window. I’ve set myself up in a small downstairs room - nice a cosy. I saw this light just after getting up and logging on in the morning. The fencing you see is the basketball court that is mainly used by the local kids on the estate as a football pitch. It’s a big bone of contention it being their but if the kids didn’t have such things then they’ll be causing trouble on the streets elsewhere so we shouldn’t complain. The court is built in the middle of the housing on a small patch of grass and you can see the trees on the remaining part of the field.

It was amazing, not sure what caused it, was it the low light coming through the gap in the houses or something else? - but it only lasted 2 mornings and it’s not happened since.

Painting of a tennis champiohship

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

Shot from 2007’s Wimbledon tennis championship. The original has been used on a home page for a outside television broadcasting company. What I’ve done here is converted it into a painting-style piece. I wasn’t too happy with the original - it was basically a reflex shot and not particularly in focus. So I thought the composition was pretty good and took the option to play around with the look. I’ve tried many variations but thought this one came out best.

The player is Klara Zakopalova from the Czech Republic in her game with Hana Sromova against Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Tatjana Malek of Germany where she and Hana eventually lost. The part of the match we saw was great, even with a small rain break in the middle but this is Wimbledon so you wouldn’t expect anything else.

I went with my brother and it was our first time at the tournament. It was a superb experience and we’re hoping to go back in 2008. My brother has this idea of tenting outside the grounds overnight to get centre court tickets the next day, but will just have to see about that.

For a more detailed report on our day, head over to here where you’ll find the better pictures of the day as well. And it’s well worth looking at a larger version of the picture to see the painting style.

Kaz at sunrise

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

A shot of my Golden Retriever, Kaz. He’s a poser as you can tell.

Seriously though, it’s very hard to capture him as he doesn’t stay still for more than a few seconds. At just 3 years old he’s is so full of energy especially when I take him out for his walk! I reckon he could keep going all day long!

But luckily on one of my early morning expeditions I caught him. He was standing up on a mound near a pond while the Sun was coming up and the sky was a wonderful yellowy-orange. I think he might of heard a train coming and so went into ‘alert mode’ - Kaz loves to chase the trains, but so far he’s never caught up with one.

Again this is Edenbridge and at a place called Prettymans Pond. I’m not sure what it’s called that but it’s fantastic little pond and I’ve spent many an hour here practicing my photography and taking shots of the pond and the trees in every way I can think of. I’ve found that by going back to the same place over and over again you eventually see different angles for shots and find different ways of capturing the same subject. I’ve also tried to go here at different times of the day in different weather conditions. It’s been very interesting to see the changes these bring and I’ve certainly learnt how to look at things with a photographer’s eye.

The original shot was actually published in a UK weekly newspaper. I was very chuffed to see my dog and my photo in print. It’s not every day that happens to me.

Up on the farm

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

Shot taken near Boxham Farm in Edenbridge, Kent (UK) and not too far away from my previous shot. The light was amazing that morning!

I had scouted this area out previously and knew I had to be there for sunrise. So on the next occasion of a bright morning I was up and out the door at about 6:45am. I trekked up to here in the near-dark (which was a good half hour) and then basically waited for the sun to come up through the trees.

I was up and down this hill over and over, if anyone saw me they would have thought I was a right nutter. But it was all worth it and got this and many other wonderful shots.

A morning walk in Kent

Originally uploaded by .koltregaskes

Hi everyone! Firstly I would like to thank Bill for asking me to join the Dark Matter group and allowing me to post my photos here. I feel very honoured to be among such fine artists I see that are already here. Thank you!

Right, first post and first photo - fingers crossed this all goes accordingly to plan, here goes.

This is my (currently) home town of Edenbridge. A small place in the UK county of Kent, bordering Surrey and Sussex. This particular shot was taken near Boxham Manor on one of my many walks around the nearby fields. I get a lot of my shots from walking the vast amount of farmland here. It generally means very, very early mornings to beat sunrise, scouting around a bit then picking my spot. Sometimes, though, the spot is already in my head from previously seeing it but this shot was a ‘there and then’ and happy how it turned out. I hope this and my following images give people a glimpse into the little town of Edenbridge and a feel of the wonderful nature and landscape here.

If anyone is interested I used this picture to create one of my first HDR-style images. It’s an interesting way to create a picture but I’m not quite there with the technique yet. Have a look here. To me the photo becomes more like a painting?