Monday 4 April 2016

And so the slumber comes to an end...

...winter is drawing to a close... there may well be some more frosts but as we have changed the clocks and the equinox is behind us...spring is knocking firmly on the door...things are growing...migrants are arriving and life is renewed.

Photographically March was a strange month for Alex JP Scott Photography...bursts of creativity followed by periods of inactivity. Image quality was at times pleasing at others frustrating... this is the lot of the photographer - we can't be inspired everyday...can we? Just more often than not...

So what have I been up to? Well I have been following the fluctuating water levels on the fen next to my home with great interest... watching the over-wintering birds and delighting in the reflections and light in both the sky and the flood waters.




Fenland willow...





Storm approaching...





Wildfowl escaping...




Monochrome flood water...




Sky and willow...





Flooding...


Wildlife has been stirring... early blooms and invertebrate activity to the fore with birds prospecting towards the end of the month...






Grape hyacinths... one of the first signs of spring...








Colt's-foot...





Centipede...rescued from my garden pond...





Cleavers in frost...





Dunnock...






Grape hyacinth again... I just can't resist the blue...!






Garden hellebore...





House sparrow - male...





Ladybirds - just out of hibernation cluster for warmth in the chill of the afternoon




New leaves of elder against a blue sky...






Primrose bloom...




Nettle leaf in frost against the sun...





Tulip...






Spider web in frost early morning...




Jackdaw about to nest in our chimney...





Honey bee on grape hyacinth...





Dandelion...

And so moving on from wildlife around the garden and in my village... I also managed a trip to London where I could enjoy another genre of photography...street candids...














There is something about shooting street candids that gives me a buzz... London is one of the best locations for this...

Some of the best news this month as been the availability of the Nik Processing Plug-ins for free... once they cost $500 now thanks to Google they are free - if you use Lightroom or Photoshop or several other software packages they are well worth finding and downloading...some of the effects are a bit OTT granted, but it is very enjoyable to edit images in there...seeing what you can do with a bit of work... One particular effect I like is making one image look like a triptych...












I really like this effect...

Finally...I have just returned from a trip up to Scarborough...










I really like the colours on this piece of rusty steel work on the beach...







Scarborough harbour...









Primroses...





Ornamental grass...








Homeless man reading... one of my favourite images from this year so far...

And that about wraps it up for March... hope you all have a great spring...and I shall look forward to writing another blog next month...

Take care... peace and love to you all...

TTFN...