Taking a better landscape photograph

Heres some basic advice on making your landscape photos look better.

1.  If there's a horizon in the photo try and get it level, especially if the sea is involved, there's nothing worse than seeing the sea sloping downhill.

2.  Try not to have the horizon on the halfway point in the picture, it usually looks better either a third or two thirds of the way up in a pic. (there are exceptions)

3.  Noon isn't the best time of day for landscapes, most of the serious landscape shooter prefer the light first thing in the morning or late in the day.

4.  The 'rule' of the thirds. Divide your image up into 9 squares with two lines across vertically and two  horizontally the four points where the line cross (red dots in pic) are the strongest parts of the scene, so compose your image with an important point on one of these if you can.

5.  It's ok to move things to make the pic look better, so if theres an empty coke can in the foreground shift it unless you want it there.

6.  For most landscapes try to have more than one element, ideally have a background, a mid ground and foreground interest, if nothing else try and get the foreground and background objects, an old log or rock in the foreground perhaps and the mountain range for a background will look much more interesting than just the mountains.

Remember these are not RULES! they are just guidance, if you like the way something looks then you take it that way, something these so called rules just don't work in the real world, and besides your photos are for you.

And most important of all have fun..

Passport office

The passport office has gone into meltdown, never quick to sort passports out the office has over recent years cut back staff, now it simply can't cope with the demand.  Lots of people are going to miss their holidays, for many it's the passport offices fault, that said some have left it rather late to order a passport. One family knowing it can take around four weeks for a passport to arrive normally, only ordered their childs passport five and a half weeks before they are supposed to leave.  At best it was cutting it fine, now it's starting to look like an expensive mistake as theres no sign of the passport and two days left before they are due to leave.

Swansea city centre

Well what a total shambles.  Every year for as long as I can remember Swansea city council allow the roads to be dug up on the approach to the city at the busiest time.  This means every year at the busiest time of the summer the roads into Swansea are jammed solid, so bad that a lot of people simply avoid Swansea altogether now, I do, and I live near the city.
Honestly it's total madness, I sometime wonder if the road works in Swansea are sponsered by Cardiff chamber of trade, they members must make a fortune out of all the people who now go to Cardiff to shop because they can't get into Swansea.
Why in the name of all thats holy don't the silly sods do it at a quite time of year, not bloody Christmas and the middle of summer.  And come to that why does the same road need to be dug up twice a bloody year anyway, how crap a job must they be doing if it only lasts 6 months? The roman roads are still around centuries later, with all the clever tech we have now Jersey Marine lasta few months.  Maybe time to get some Roman labour to fix the fucking road properly?

Cranes

Rik Mayall died today

Rik Mayall died today aged 56 
Rik, best remembered for his roles in Bottom and the Young Ones with Adrian Edmondson passed away at his London home today, Rik leaves a wife and three children.

He first appeared as Kevin Turvey in a kick up the eighties, moving on to The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Comic Strip, The Dangerious Brothers, Filthy Rich and Catflap, The New Statsman, and many many other shows.
He was originally the first choice for the lead role in tv series Jonathan Creek, but a quad bike accident in which he nearly died meant the role went to Alan Davies.  Rik later appeared in the series as a guest star.

Over the last week or so I've been watching the five Bottom live stage shows (managed to see one show live) Even now eleven years later the shows still make me laugh out loud.

Thanks for all the laughter Rik, God bless you.

                                       Rik as Richie in Bottom.

St Fagans

I went back to St Fagans yesterday, the place has so much to take photographs of. Sadly between my back pain and the fact it poured down later I didn't get anything like as much as I would have liked to shoot.
The only good point is it was warm enough to dry us all out by the time we got home.

70th Anniversary of D Day

Today is the 70th Anniversary of D Day. Thousands of men gave their lives fighting on the Normandy beaches, a series of events marks the anniversary.
The saddest part for me is that the sacrifice was made for our freedom, and yet now 70 years on we have less freedom than ever. 
We are the most watched, monitored people in the world. We're under constant surveillance with CCTV. The phone in our pocket tracks us and all our emails and texts are recorded and scanned for keywords, we now live in a virtual police state with secret courts (yes really) 
I can't help wonder if this is the freedom they had in mind when all those men and women gave their lives 70 years ago  I really doubt it!