The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Out in the country.

On 13th Mar 202312th Mar 2023 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography22 Comments

Hi there, I hope you’ve all had a good weekend and are ready for The Cosmic Photo Challenge, which this week is based around the prompt; Out in the country.

I’ve had a fairly creative couple of days (the result of which can be seen on Return Of The Internet Nobody) and in the process of making the audio visual treats you’ll find over there, I had an idea…

Having shot a long video of a drive in the country (with the camera in a windscreen-mounted holder, safety fans), I realised I could use the frame capture feature to produce photos for today’s challenge.

These were edited for artistic effect, partly because some of them were a little blurred, but they came out surprisingly well.

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*BONUS CONTENT*

Just because I could, I shot a timelapse video of the return journey, shrinking the 20 minute drive down to 35 seconds. This worked fine, but it was very fast and I decided to slow it down with one of my video editing apps, which I noticed had a new “smooth slo-mo” button and I do love a gadget, so…well, of course I tried it.

Now, the feature is supposed to reduce or remove the jerky effect you sometimes get when slowing video right down, by artificially transitioning the frames more smoothly from one to the next.

But the poor old software doesn’t know I’ve given it a timelapse video to smooth out, with maybe a hundred yards traveled in between each individual photo, so it tries as hard as it possibly can to streeeeeeeetchh each frame and join them up.

The resulting warping, concertina effect immediately brought to mind a “boing” noise, so I quickly added an appropriate soundtrack and voila!

What did you capture in the countryside this week?

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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.

Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.

Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Intentional camera movement.

On 27th Feb 2023 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography14 Comments

This week’s edition of The Cosmic Photo Challenge is brought to you by the prompt; Intentional camera movement.

There are many ways in which moving the camera mid-capture can alter the resulting image, so I decided to think outside the box and revisit a couple of techniques I’ve used before.

With the camera attached safely to my windscreen, it was certainly moving in relation to everything outside; while experimenting with mirrors and panoramic settings again was…well, predicably peculiar.

Now it’s time to share your out of focus fun…

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: The best of ’22.

On 19th Dec 202219th Dec 2022 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography11 Comments

Only two more prompts for The Cosmic Photo Challenge to go this year, so I thought it was time for us to review; The best of ’22.

So it’s time to blow our own trumpets, showcase our best bits, play favourites and glow with inner pride as we look back at some of the images we were especially pleased with over the last twelve months.

These could be photos you’ve already shared as part of the challenge, or maybe you’ve never taken part before and have hundreds to choose from!

Maybe you didn’t have room in previous challenges or you just have pictures from this year which deserve our attention, well then now’s your chance to shine.

My personal criteria for inclusion of my images in today’s post was more…esoteric, shall we say, in that mine were chosen as part of the creative process known technically as “mucking about”.

Here is my artistic representation of my photographic year, 2022

16 images were used to create this collage, how many can you spot?

What were your finest moments this year?

Come on, don’t be shy…

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Art for art’s sake.

On 7th Nov 20226th Nov 2022 By dalecooper57In arts, editing and effects, photography15 Comments

This week on The Cosmic Photo Challenge we’re getting creative, with the theme; Art for art’s sake.

My avantgarde extravaganza was inspired by this fern fossil we found in a slab of sandstone in the garden.

I’d recently managed to remove a larger section of the top layer of stone, revealing more of the pristine patterns beneath and this photo became the basis for a composition made up of (I think) 19 separate images.

Where did your creative muse take you at the weekend?

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Spooky.

On 31st Oct 202230th Oct 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography13 Comments

Happy Halloween from The Cosmic Photo Challenge, with this week’s pictures themed around the prompt; Spooky.

I didn’t have the opportunity to capture anything sinister, so I went for a walk in the rainy woods and messed about with the results in various unsettling ways.

See how many eldritch interlopers you can spot in these three enchanted images

How did your creative inspiration strike you over this all hallows weekend?

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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.

Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.

Any and all effects, editing, Photoshop, Instagram, morphing, collages, animation, gifs, or whatever other post production techniques you fancy are permitted, (in fact, they’re actively encouraged!) so get creative and turn your photos into artworks for the Cosmic Photo Challenge.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: In the clouds.

On 10th Oct 20229th Oct 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography11 Comments

I set the theme of today’s Cosmic Photo Challenge on Friday, thinking it was just the right time of year for all sorts of attractive and interesting formations In the clouds, but it was not to be.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day on Saturday and yesterday it was dull, grey and overcast.

So I did some mucking about instead.

Did you have any better luck capturing meteorological phenomenon over the weekend?

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: A change in the weather.

On 3rd Oct 20222nd Oct 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography6 Comments

There’s a touch of irony in my photos for The Cosmic Photo Challenge today, having set the theme as; A change in the weather.

After a week of blustery rain and plummeting temperatures, the weather had turned warm and sunny by the time I got out in the countryside to take some pictures yesterday, where I also conducted some interesting experiments with wind turbines.

I used a long exposure to shoot multiple rotations; a nice effect is a composite shadow of the main tower, made as parts of it are thrown on the backs of each blade at different points in their arc.

Even more strangely, using another exposure setting, I managed to capture just that shadow, suspended in thin air, without the blades it was cast on. (Zoom in on the top of the turbine, it’s a very peculiar effect against the sky)

In which direction did your weekend weather change?

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To get involved with the challenge; check out the Cosmic Photo Prompt each Friday, then post a photo (or photos) on your blog the following Monday, with a pingback link to my Monday post.

Tag your posts with #CosPhoChal.

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: On the road.

On 5th Sep 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, photography20 Comments

I have a confession to make; when I set the prompt for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge, I already knew I was going to be; On the road.

I returned our American visitor to the airport, very early on Saturday morning, after which I was hoping to catch some impressive sunrise shots on the way home, but it was not to be.

The day dawned grey and foggy, so I had to improvise, eventually deciding to experiment with long exposures of traffic on the motorway.

I took several shots from a footbridge over the M4 and the rest were captured with my phone safely attached to a mount on the windscreen (the unintentional blurring of the backgrounds is due to vibration) but possibly still don’t try this at home. ;~}

Where did your weekend road trip take you..?

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Action shots.

On 22nd Aug 202221st Aug 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, nature photography, photography13 Comments

Your mission on The Cosmic Photo Challenge today, if you choose to accept it, is to provide us with; Action shots.

I have to admit to taking advantage of hosting this week, already having some photos in mind when I set the prompt, but I did conduct one or two new experiments, too.

Most of my shots concern the always entertaining herring gull chicks at work, specifically their eagerness to consume any morsels of food on offer.

They’re very keen on fruit loaf and bagels, here’s two siblings fighting over scraps…

…and here’s a sequence I like, particularly for the expression of concentration on the mum as she watches the bread from behind her chick.

Then there’s this verrrrrrrry sloooowwww action shot, taken in the hope of capturing the Perseid meteor shower.

Alas, all I caught were stars, still pretty cool, though.

And here are a couple of new long exposures, made using an old Zippo lighter

Now let’s see yours, it’s time for lights, camera, action!

The Cosmic Photo Challenge: North, South, East, West.

On 8th Aug 20227th Aug 2022 By dalecooper57In editing and effects, nature photography13 Comments

Hi there, I hope you had a good weekend, we’re here to ease you into Monday with The Cosmic Photo Challenge. This week we take you on a whistle stop tour of all points of the compass, with the prompt; North, South, East, West.

This gave pretty free rein in subject matter selection, since we simply had to be shooting in roughly the right direction each time, so for added precision I have included screenshots of my compass app in all the images.

I gave a friend a lift to Braunton yesterday and I took a few pictures over there, including a couple of North/South and East/West panoramas, one vertical, one horizontal. I captured a handsome looking spider in the garden and also got some nice star trails with a long exposure on Saturday night.