One huge element of writing this blog is photography. I love taking the camera out and seeing what will turn up. So often this week the camera stayed at home, stupidly I assumed nothing would be worth photographing, only to find this week an adorable pig snouting through the autumn leaves and a neighbour who had a poultry farm – good pickings for the countryside photographer!

So lesson learned, camera ALWAYs carried.

I revisited the pig and will put the photos up soon. I mean who cannot resist a pig who needs to be in his food trough to enjoy dinner!

The countryside here is a photographers heaven, the light is forever changing, which means you have huge scope to get interesting shadows and saturated colours – but you also have to be quick and sometimes I am in the car and the light is perfect, but by the time I have stopped and set up, or, not having the camera, returned next day, the light has moved the shot is lost. Frustrating.

So I must be a little more prepared and sometimes set up for an hour or two and the light will change enough to create the right image.

It’s a huge learning curve for me and coming to France has given me the landscape to practice. I adore floral photography, trees, the husbandry of farming and food photography – the latter based on my previous business exploits and now channelling into the study of cheese. What better way to spend an afternoon – photographing cheese, the eating it all!

I have one issue though and wonder if you can help me on this one. Photography is about chasing light, about emotion, about trying to convey a subject in its best light so to speak. I like filters, I think we all do as we tweak exposure, sharpness, colour and brightness – but I can’t decide what’s best for the blog.

Photography as taken will be a mix of shades and temperatures – some days warm, some cool, some blue and some more yellow. I am often drawn to photographers because they have a “temperature” theme, say their photography is mainly grey, or bright saturated in colour – it is consistent. I am not saying you should ditch “au-naturel”, but I like the continuity across their sites.

I have been using a slightly brown filter with sharpness, but sometimes it’s a little too brown. The photos below show three stages – original, slightly going grey-blue, which I like and my normal filter.

NATURAL [although this did have polarizing filter to push the blue a little]

USUAL BROWN Filter – and the sharpness quite strong

GREY filter – with vignette edge lowered to create a cooler look

Going into photo-shop is like falling into a big candy jar – you can spend forever changing the tones and shades of the picture to get the right flavour your love. I am not into that level of detail attention, but a tweak here and there I do feel helps. The camera can do most things, and I am learning that it is better to be out in the field than behind the pc in the office.

I still have issues over focus. My myopic eyes do not help and my spec-saver glasses are all scratched [only six months old – these are going back!!] and sometimes a tripod just isn’t going to fit in my bag. So apologies if vache isnt perfectly clear, but I simply wanted to convey the misty morning, the openness of the scene.

Which do you like best and why – all opinions welcome.

I also submitted this to Leanne Coles – Monochrome Madness [ see Links I love], in Black and White. Colour doesn’t always translate well into black and white, so maybe next time I should shoot IN black n white and see if that’s an improvement.