Retouching is Touching

I always upload Photo's with a brief story about them, but in this case i thought it would be good to show the transformation that happens between a RAW image being taken on my camera, to the final image presented.

Now this is a picture of my rottweiler, Boris. What i usually do when I am doctoring a final image, is adjust the colours to something more suiting, remove the small imperfections that bug me and add depth to it.

I have provided a before and after so you can see what goes into my photo retouching, which is something i am quite adamant about about practising, as i feel nothing is perfect, and retouching is just something I enjoy doing.

Rainbow Farm

Ive been in Miami a couple of weeks now, so when i came across this photo of my garden at home being visited by a rainbow, i thought it would be suiting to upload it, it's not often that people actually appreciate what is literally outside their backdoor, but in this case, i can truly appreciate this.

More flyers, More tyres.

More flyers, this time not so local. These ones are on the darker side of things, which I always enjoy doing, as I like getting a variety of work, I really enjoyed doing the IN HER RUIN tour flyer, as I always loved those guys, and had alot of fun playing a show with them when i was in Watch us fly.

The storm outside has finally died down, so I can finally enjoy the sunshine again, magical.

Sunset over solstice

Now here is some more photography, this time coming from Old Sarum, which is pretty much right next to my house, I grabbed these on the way home when I spotted how awesome the sky looked, I drove right up to the top the day before the solstice and got some pretty funny looks off the druids. Well worth it though.

Flyers for Tyres

I have been uploading alot of photography recently, so i decided it was about time to post some design work. I enjoy doing flyers, and have been doing quite a few recently, and these three are from some local gig's.

Im still sorting through my camera cards and im finding some really cool stuff I had forgotten about taking, this storm is still raging through miami, so it's really giving me time to sort it out, although it's the 4th of July, so later on im going to go out and rub the fact im English into loads of American faces.

Raindrops are Paindrops

So these are some photos i grabbed on a boat trip out in Fort Myers, I would have more but a storm decided to strike literally 5 minutes after i took these, and i spent the journey home being pelted with tiny needles disguised as raindrops. Ouch.

Cars under Stars

Going through my pictures has really given me something to do in this mental storm, these two are from some of my car related photography.

These lovely mobiles belong to me and Kingsley, Kingsley's was taken during a guild hall mess around session, and mine was taken in my workshop while i was testing my mercedes wheel's for fitment, I was so happy with the offset, just need some tyres now.

The dark side of Light

So I finally bought a card reader that works today, which means i can upload some of my photography.

Ive gotten pretty heavily into taking pictures again now i have the time to do it, and these three are part of a darker style of image I have been messing around with, Im enjoying using lots of contrast and weird light at the moment.

Smokers aren't jokers, their dead.

So it's my second day in Miami, and it's already been an adventure and a half.

We took a speedboat out to sea in the morning, with a nice guide called Captain Bob,
following the coastline for a bit, we sailed 10 miles out to hopefully find a nice spot to fish, that was of course until the storm hit.

After being pelted with raindrops the size of rats for about half an hour, we finally made it back in one piece, which is what has brought me back to my laptop, at least until the storm passes.

Anyway, me complaining about being surrounded by human chimney's yesterday reminded me of this Anti-smoking image I made a month or so back.

As im still waiting to find the cable I need for my camera in Miami, I figured posting a bit of my design work between my holiday adventures wouldn't be a crime.

Im in Miami girl, boy ect.

29th-30th of June, traveling to Miami!

So i finally got into Miami today, after what seemed to be one of the longest airport experiences of my life, im so happy to be here.

The previous night, my brother had decided to tackle a Scottish girl in a drinking competition, and hence had came home absolutely covered in his own sick, and feeling very sorry for himself.

3am:
While he was sleeping, I had prepared the bags and the information all ready for our flight, and quickly enough the time had passed and I was on my way to Heathrow.

7am:
It was so cold outside now, the strange warmth of the early morning had worn off, and the cold grasp of a British morning had finally got to me. The smoking area of Heathrow had become my home for the last few hours, and as a non smoker surrounded by human chimneys would, I had become very tired of it. This was until frank carter casually strolled past me with the rest of his vanguard, stopped for a minute or two to casually kick the floor, look miserable and stroll off again. Such a surreal moment.

9am:
Im finally in the line to board my flight, a large black man with gold front teeth wearing some sort of sports tracksuit has been staring at me from about a meter away, point blank for about ten minutes. This carries on for quite a while, until the line moves and i end up smack bang behind him, he proceeds to slowly remove his headphones and point at me, here I was expecting to be told I looked like a prick, but instead an overly friendly American voice tells me: "Not enough people keep themselves looking fresh and original anymore, you got some mean style and i got alot of respect for it" After talking to this man about my tunnels and how they came to be in the middle of the line for a good 10 minutes, I was quickly in the boarding room waiting for my flight.

10am:
Im sat on seats at the edge of the plane, Cory is snoring away beside me already. We boarded the 747 to find that we had been seated in the middle of a group of about 50 Ethiopian visitors, none of which could speak any English, or understand much of it for that. So many children. After discovering this, we both figured it would be a better gamble to steal some seats opposite them instead. This worked out much better, with a disgruntled looking elderly couple who were too intimidated to challenge it, sat between the rambling foreign mob instead.

5pm:
Finally getting into Miami, i got searched and searched again, quickly strolled through customs and exports, straight outside, To be hit by a wall of solid humidity. The heat actually shocked me, it is so much hotter here than i thought it would be.

(As a side note, i also noticed the highly common use of polished wheels among cars here, what seemed to be a show car and wheel whore trend in England, was common as muck here. Everything looked so clean!)

5am Wednesday.
I have tried three different flavors of Monster energy I previously haven't had the opportunity to, it turns out mixing these with a couple bottles of mountain dew actually makes you shake and feel like you are floating, interesting.

The house I am staying in is beautiful, it is picturesque and perfect, the design of it is stunning, And I am so happy with it. I have spent the last 12 hours wandering around the town, buying silly drinks and looking at retro VW cars which seem to be in fashion over here as well, this made me very happy. It's getting to the point now where i really need to sleep.