20th April

Often when I am prepping images I make several variations when working in Photoshop. There may be an original and also a black and white version and finally, a colorized version. I do quite a lot of colorization and I have posted some of this work previously (see post of 31st March). below is a shot I made near Achmelvich. At the end of a 2 mile hike, just past an old grain mill, there is a glorious little beach with several tiny embayments. The beach is sandy but at the deepest parts of the embayments can be found an exotic collection or rocks. The first image is the original digital image .

The second image is the black and white version. It has been cropped and, as I do with many of my images where I can get away with it, has been reformatted into my favourite square format. The latter is one of the few retouching methods that I could not pull off in the traditional darkroom.

The final photograph (and the version I like best) is the colorized version. I colorize in Photoshop using 6 or 7 color layers. It's fun doing this but the greatest benefit is that I get to control the final look of the image. I can change the colors, subdue them, intensify them or try to duplicate them. The objective is to produce a more subtle version of the original. You may notice only slight differences from the original but as I like to say, "the art is in the details".

The title of this image is "Lewisian Gneiss, Achmelvich, Scotland". Something else I sometimes do is write poetry (yes!!). I have a blurb book of my photographs and poetry titled "Pathways of Childhood - the White Peak". Check it out at www.blurb.com and search using my name. Here is a whimsical poem I wrote to accompany the image above.

Lewisian Nice

 So I'm lyin 'ere on this beach wiv me mates

like we're all part of a idden fraternity.

Some of em are as good lookin as me

but none of 'em has that magic combination

of my stripes, my size and my smooth rounded shoulders.

I'm the big cheese around 'ere

a very cultured boy in a world

full of uncouth, rough rocks.

It's taken me millions of years

to get this way

washed by waves, scoured by storms

redesigned by rain.

I'm as cuddly as yer pet cat.

you could take me 'ome

put me outside yer door

to welcome mates 'n arrivin acquaintances

or you could take me inside

(please take me inside, away from

the rain, the sun 'n the ice).

You'd be proud of me

show me off to yer mates.

'Ere on the beach they call me

'The Honourable Louis Nice'

but I don't ferget me roots

I'll always be just plain old

Lewisian Gneiss

standin proud 'n aloof

except for that parasitic pebble

of Torridonian Sandstone.