Wisteria House

The weather is so unpredictable! I was soaked in a five minute storm this morning, just after I took this photo in Cambridge. More garden photography in my Etsy shop and more to come.

London Phone Boxes - Phone Box Libraries

Nobody uses them but public phone boxes are still well loved. For a few weeks this summer while we host the Olympics, London has allowed a few of its traditional red  phone boxes to be transformed by selected artists. It's a nice idea. London is one of the few cities where you can  still find red phone boxes with working phones installed.

This is my local phone box, just outside Cambridge. Like many others around the country, It's been converted into a book exchange. Anyone and everyone is free to browse and help themselves. 

The idea works very well, the box is always stuffed full of books of all genres. My friend above is holding a sporting biography that was published this year.

A little trick to make your photos eye catching - improve your Etsy photographs

A little trick to make your photos eye catching!

Taking great Etsy product photographs isn't about expensive camera equipment, in fact a new camera can slow your learning down.To make your photos catch the eye of a customer you need to know a few tricks of the trade.

If you've opened an online shop and put a few items for sale you've probably learned new skills like cropping and re-sizing, you will know how to upload photos to your shop. The next stage is to learn a few tricks of the trade to make your photos eye catching. Whether you want better photos of your family and friends or to sell your lovely products on Etsy, I guarantee that following my tips here will improve your photos.

As a photographer I have an in-built compulsion to look at lots of photos. I've never counted how many photos I look at daily, but it must be thousands. I spend a lot of time every day on Etsy, Pintrest and Flickr, I also view dozens of photography blogs and websites. In the evening I usually read one of several art and photography magazines I receive through the mail every week. On most weekends you'll find me in a gallery. I'm a picture junkie!

Of the photos I see, I'm lucky if one stops me in my tracks, if it does I pin it on my Pintrest board. Of the rest, 50% will be technically good,  but 50% don't even register because they're dull. I don't mean the subject is dull! What I mean is the photograph is lifeless and flat. Which is a shame because 9 times out of 10 a dull flat photo can be improved by one simple adjustment: Contrast.

I cannot emphasise enough how important Contrast is! Let me explain why...........

Why You Need Contrast
Photography is all about light. Modern cameras and lenses can make taking photographs easier, they focus for you and guarantee correct exposure, but they can't bring your subject to life. Surprisingly a lot of higher quality DSLR's produce a flatter image than cheaper digital compact cameras, because the manufacturers assume you have the knowledge to make the contrast adjustments yourself.

It's all about Light
Light is the key to good photographs and lighting can make the difference between a good photo and a bad one. Good lighting creates highlights and shadows, it enhances texture (see the Quebec sign below), and it makes your main subject pop out from the background, giving the picture depth.

Unfortunately you can't rely on good lighting. Light is fleeting, it changes with the time of time of day, month of the year and weather conditions. But by adjusting the contrast of your photo it's possible to bring out textures and shadows when the light has failed you.

Contrast is a simple effect you can easily add to your photographs to bring them to life and make them pop. Good photographers make contrast adjustment part of their work flow for every photograph they publish. The adjustment is simple and quick.

How to Adjust Contrast?

Photo Editing Tools


Everyone has access to photo editing tools needed to adjust contrast. Try to use the editor you already have, the one you use to re-size and crop your image. You may need to look in the help menu to find the contrast adjustment.

Alternatively you can use the software CD that came with your camera to make simple adjustments to your photos, or here are plenty of  photo editing packages available like Adobe PhotoShop and Serif PhotoPlus. And there are lots of free editors you can download, you could try these for starters: Photo Pos Pro or Pixia.

You can also use online photo editors. I suggest you try a few to find one you like. I can recommend Pixlr,  it's free to use and works well.


Time to make a start - Open an image in your photo editor

The simplest way to adjust contrast is to use the "Brightness/Contrast" control. If you're using any of the standard photo editing tools, you will find the Brightness and Contrast control under the Image Menu. I've marked it in  RED (below). If you're having problems finding the control, or your editor looks different, use the "Help" menu.

You will find the Brightness/Contrast control under the "Image" menu is at the top of the screen

The Brightness/Contrast is a simple slider control that will add contrast to your photo.

This photo is flat because of the dull light. Just drag the contrast slider to increase the contrast.

I've adjusted the contrast slider to 90 units. Notice how the colors become vibrant.

You will have noticed the Brightness slider above the Contrast slider. It does exactly what it says, it brightens your photos! It's worth playing around with both controls to get the best out of your images.

 The Hard Part
The hardest part about adjusting your photos is finding the control in the photo editor. The Brightness/Contrast adjustment is simple, it works and will improve your photos. If you're happy using this method you can stop here, just keep practising.

There is another way to adjust contrast that gives you even more control, it's called Curves and it's a method professional photographers use, I'll show you how to use it in a future post.

If you have any questions about using photo editors or about adjusting contrast, add a comment below and I'll try and help.

Cup Cake Guitar

What a great idea! I'd like to see a trumpet shaped like a bottle of cheap wine.

French website reveals waiters' tricks to get our money

The garcon isn't a popular figure in France. The French generally distrust waiters and the press are happy to twist the knife. But an article on the French website Rue 69 is likely to confirm what French diners already know, the title is "7 serving tips to increase the bill".

A few examples:
Alexia, a waitress in a "chic brasserie", told the website: "I serve the water regularly so the bottle is finished bang in the middle of the meal, then I suggest another bottle. Almost always, the customer orders."

Another trick of the restaurant trade, says the report, is serving salty snacks with pre-meal drinks to make customers thirsty and serving the occasional glass "on the house" to detain diners at the table if business is slack.

So the next time a waiter offers you a salted peanut........You have been warned.

Beach Huts - Beach Photography and the North Sea

The beach huts above are on the North Sea coast, where I'll be spending some time over the next three weeks as I travel north up the coast. The beach huts look out across the sea towards the Netherlands. The entire coast, from Kent to Scotland has a unique presence, it's wild and it feels very strange. One reason it feels strange is that it used to be land that was swallowed up by the sea, a northern Atlantis called Doggerland, home to tens of thousands of people before it disappeared.

I've also been spending time creating a Facebook page. I've always been sceptical of the usefulness of Facebook (and Twitter). Do people use it to communicate, or as a measure of their own popularity? Anyway, I'd like to use Facebook to engage with people who read this blog and others who share my interests. Please visit my Facebook page by the clicking links and join me.

This is Exellent - London Can Take it

"Public Service Broadcasting - London Can Take it". Made using the original war time film.