Ronnie Soo

Archive for the ‘Photography and art’ Category

It’s been a proper winter this year here in Britain, but it’s finally coming to an end. Here’s proof!

In previous years we’ve seen snowdrops as early as January but not this year, for once the seasons are in their proper places!
Spring is a nice time for photography with all the blossom, so I hope to be posting some nice pics on here in the coming weeks

This week I am visiting North Wales; somewhere I regularly travel to and while here I hope to get some nice photographs. The weather is colder than usual for this time of year, it’s actually been snowing this week!

As a result, I’ve not yet been out with the camera – apart from during the journey down. This picture was taken at Llyn Celyn, late afternoon with the low sun. This picture is straight off the camera, with no enhancement and the only thing I have done is reduce the resolution for the web. The late afternoon sun really makes for a dramatic scene I’m sure you’ll agree.

I hope to bring another photo from this week – if the conditions let up!

I took this picture today, down by the Liverpool Arena and Convention centre. They have just constructed a new Big Wheel in time for Valentine’s Day; it replaces the previous one which was in the nearby Liverpool ONE complex and which was dismantled at the end of last month. Many cities in this country have taken the idea of the London Eye and installed their own wheels, but at the time of writing this I do not know if this wheel is going to be a permanent fixture or a temporary one.

Anyway, it certainly cannot be missed – here’s my picture from earlier today (Friday 11 February)

Should I get the chance to go on it and get some pictures, they will appear here!

Today’s photo is from 2007, and was taken at Elterwater in the Lake District. The original picture came out a little bit ‘flat’ but with a bit of Photoshop magic it wasn’t too difficult to get more out of it. The colours are not changed, but it has essentially been boosted contrast-wise, so it now looks more like what I visualised when there. Autumn is mine, and many other amateur photographers’, favourite time of year. In Britain, you have to be lucky with the weather as well as the light in order to get the most of the colours at that time. On this day, we had a fine day so it was out with the camera and into the car! Another photo soon.

EDIT: Please note I have made this picture available as a desktop background; the image is available by clicking here

Here’s a picture I took from Portmeirion last summer. This time from ground level, and this was taken with my 17mm extreme wideangle lens. I mentioned in a previous posting that to buy such equipment for modern digital SLRs may be prohibitively expensive, and this was taken using a conventional 35mm SLR with the wideangle acquired from eBay for a nice price.

The extreme wideangle makes the lawn look much bigger than it actually is, as well as giving exaggerated ‘converging verticals’. For anyone who wants to broaden their scope and is put off by the cost of new digital lenses, do what I did – look on eBay or in your local stores, there are many people keen to offload all their conventional equipment now and there are bargains to be had. If you have not got an SLR camera at all, you can often pick up a whole kit for a good price now.

With the ability to have films ‘printed’ to a CD nowadays, you can still have a digital image to play with – so get scouring the classifieds!

There was a documentary on television tonight about Vegas, which is excuse enough to post a photo from there:

When I was there, it was for a conference, and although it was very rewarding and I learned a great deal, there was not that much time to go sightseeing. So I have made it a goal to revisit the place as a tourist, and get more photographs. Most of the ones I did take were done at night, and this one was taken on the last night I was there, once all our meetings were over. Having never visited the USA before, let alone Vegas, it was an amazing experience. From a photography standpoint, it is a Mecca. That’s why I want to go back!

This shot of the New York-New York complex was one of my favourites; I had only a pocket camera with me on this trip and nothing to steady it on, so a lot of the time it was ‘hope for the best’. This came out really well, and I just love the way they’ve compressed a Manhattan skyline into a corner of the Las Vegas strip. It is thanks to the conference I got the chance to go, and to meet many successful people, and it is because I joined this business I got to experience something I would never have had the chance to do otherwise. There is a link to the right of this post; for more details on the business itself, just fill the fields in!
Another photo soon, and again it will be something different!

I thought I’d go back a few years in time for today’s picture, 28 years as it turned out!
This shot, of a Lancaster bomber, was taken in 1982 at an air show held at Liverpool Airport. I found this and several other photos from that day while sorting out some old stuff recently, and as you don’t see too many flying examples of this aircraft today I thought this particular shot was worth scanning in.

There are air shows held locally still, but it is rare to see such vintage aircraft nowadays. I’ll post a completely different picture next time!

Today’s picture is of a relatively new feature on the Liverpool waterfront; the Arena and Convention Centre complex which opened 2 years ago this month.

The complex is in two parts; the first being a convention centre for exhibitions, conferences and meetings. The larger part is the arena, which is already attracting some big names in music and also some of the larger-scale shows which the city previously missed out on. It is a long-overdue asset to the city and one which will hopefully bring many more shows in the coming years. Set against the new building is Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, which took an amazing 75 years to complete from its foundations being laid. Highly recommended for a visit should you ever be in the city.

The cranes? There has been a lot of development here in recent years, anyone who has been away for a while probably wouldn’t recognise the place now!

Technorati Tags: cathedral, echo arena, liverpool, merseyside

Here’s a snap I took only three weeks ago, the day before the snow hit us. It wasn’t planned, I just liked the afternoon sky set against the chimneys throwing out the smoke. This is in St Helens, and was snapped using a pocket camera which I usually keep handy in case a picture just ‘happens’.

It is always worth carrying a small camera around; you never know when that picture might present itself, and it’s not always practical to carry your SLR. Even if all you have is a camera phone, the resolution they have nowadays is sufficient to get a nice picture. So always keep something on you to capture that moment!

Been away for a couple of days so I haven’t posted – but here is a new photo (or new-ish, anyway!)
This is a sunset scene, taken last June at New Brighton, just across the Mersey from Liverpool. The windfarm has only been there a couple of years, but it really adds to sunset scenes in my view.

If you get the light, the sunsets are spectacular over there!

Technorati Tags: liverpool, merseyside, new brighton, sunset, windfarm