Given the weather in the south east over the last week, it'll come as no surprise that I have done very little in the way of photography. I have moved the hide from the marsh harrier site to the barn owl place and attempted a different take on an image of a great-spotted woodpecker. So, I have been doing the laborious, but necessary, task of processing images for my agents and converting a number of my photographs of Prague to black and white. This is primarily for a forthcoming Prague prints gallery on my website.
Those of you that have visited my website will know that I have quite a substantial collection of images, taken in all seasons and weathers, of the city they call "the golden city" or "the city of a hundred spires." Since the majority were taken 4-5 years ago on transparency I have had to scan them, then convert. I am no expert on Photoshop (and I hope will never be!) but a basic understanding of tweaking colours, levels, curves, and a bit of dodging and burning can really transform an image. Prague is such a colourful city and sometimes it's sheer vibrancy can deflect from the beauty of the architecture and gives it a rather old-world, timeless feel. Indeed many of them could have been taken a hundred years ago and you would never know!
On the photographic side, over those years, my kit never changed. Nikon F5, 20mm, 28-105mm, 80-200mm, polarisers, ND grads, Velvia and Provia and a Manfrotto tripod. Everything was packed into a Lowepro backpack. Above all else, comfortable walking shoes! Prague is one cobbled street after another.
