Princess Pushkins

I went to see Ann again today with the intention of taking photos of her with her cat. "Never work with children or animals" is a well known saying amongst photographers, and now I know why: Princess Pushkins just wasn't in the mood.



According to Ann, this feline princess loves her picture taken. Well, see what you think: I pointed my camera at her, she walked away and positioned herself thus:



Now, is that a clear message or what. "Me? Pose for you? Kiss my ass!" Haha. But true to her feline nature, take a toy out and she is easily lured to get up and stalk it.



But she still wasn't up to posing with Ann. Oh well. I decided we should go out and take a few photos of Ann with her artwork, and see how we get on later with the reluctant cat.






Another stab at a portrait of the two... but no. Her face says: "Aaargh! Let go of me!"



At least dogs are always willing to do a few things for treats, but cats... well... they just do whatever they want. And when they want.

Puppy viewing Part 1

We went to see puppies today in Hertfordshire. They were only three weeks old so we couldn't choose our puppy yet, but it was great to meet the breeders and see all the puppies and mom Izzy all the same. I didn't take photos of the puppies this time, but snapped a few in the surroundings.

New leaves

I can't resist the beauty of new leaves in the spring. I went to Stanmer Park quite late today, but I had just enough light to take some photos.









I also managed to video a tiny amount of robin song today, which you can listen to here: YouTube video. Please ignore the appalling video quality. And the sound of an approaching panting dog in the background.

Tra-la-la-la-laa

Robins sing beautifully! And with gusto! :)












Next time I shall try and remember to take a video with sound. :)

Friston Forest

It was so sunny again today that I decided to go to Friston Forest for our long walk - to have some shade from the sun, and to see the sunlight reach the forest floor through the trees. I did stalk some birds again (damn, can't help it), but mainly I took photos of trees and leaves etc.



OK, I'll show you what bird I saw... it's a treecreeper and it was the first time I have seen one.



And again, it was about a 100 miles away high up in a tree, so the photos are a bit rubbish. I was excited to have seen a new type of bird, though.






When I came across this sight it made me stop and stare, fascinated.



To me, it looked like veins... it was the shadow of a couple of branches.



I love trees!



A view from the edge of the forest.



Tomorrow I'm not going to drive anywhere as it will be the day of Brighton marathon and a lot of roads will be closed. Luckily we have a park nearby for Zed to play in.

Evasive birds

Right! I've had enough of lugging my long lense with me in hope of getting some photos of birds while walking the dog. They always fly away and they are never near enough to get a nice close-up. Hmph! I'm going to find a specialist place for photographing birds. There.

This is the nearest I got to a blue tit today.



That above is a very small crop from a frame taken with 400mm lense, hence it doesn't have great detail in it.

Anyway, I always find something else to take photos of even if the birds piss me off with their disappearing act. Like some cool shadows.



...across the paths in the woods.



And a dog full of life running around and wagging his tail with a huge grin on his face.



I took some shots of bluebells, too, but I'm not going to post any. I took so many photos of bluebells last year that unless I come up with something completely different, I won't upload any this year.

I think it's officially spring!

Blossoms and bluebells... what else could this be?! SPRING! :-)



OK, and bees...









I spotted the first bluebells of the year today!



More blossoms...



In the evening I popped into a local photographic studio called Garage Studios where they held a taster studio photography session tonight. A couple of shots from there:



It was fantastic to see what other people do with studio lighting. I've tried a few things on my own, but I have been craving to see how someone else might use lighting to work a model.



Someone else in the group uploaded a photo where she had used a Lightroom preset, so I thought I'd give one a try, too. This is a Lightroom preset called 'Aged photo'.



On the way back home I walked passed The Geese and heard pretty good jazz played and decided to pop in for a pint.



After the band's set I talked to this saxophonist called Paul who agreed to give me private lessons on playing the sax! I'm so looking forward to it... I've been wanting to learn to play the saxophone for about 15 years now! Whoo-hoo!

Spring in Stanmer Park

Glorious weather today! I had a very enjoyable photo shoot in Shoreham at lunch time with the lovely, fascinating Ann O'Keife. In the evening I headed to Stanmer Park for a walk, just when the sun was low in the sky and cast a lovely light into the new budding leaves in the trees and shrubs.

Zebedee had the UNfortune of meeting a real bitch today... look at her: first she approached the jovial Mr. Zebedee looking perfectly friendly and normal. See? Zebedee glanced back at me as if to say "Hey, look: canines! Cool! Let's play!"

"Hi, Ms Pointer! How's it going?"

But suddenly this bitch starts to growl....

...and she lunges at Zed!

Bastard! Anyway, we left the stroppy bitches and continued our merry way exploring the woods in the springtime.

There is a certain type of tree that still has its dead leaves; there are a few of these trees here and there in the park. (Hopefully I will find out one day what type of tree this is.) This following photo looks like it could have been taken in the autumn rather than spring.

Back to buds.

When we drove back to town I noticed that the sun was just setting, so I drove to the seafront and took a few photos.

What a lovely day....! :-)