The Cosmic Photo Challenge: Lights, camera, Christmas!

This week’s theme on The Cosmic Photo Challenge is all about the start of the month’s festivities, namely the tradition of yuletide illuminations, so it’s; Lights, camera, Christmas!

I took a walk round Barnstaple yesterday evening, after all the shoppers had retired for the night, to capture the first of the seasonal displays.

Oh, and here’s our tree, which Rhonda spent the afternoon decorating in her usual classic style.

How’s it starting to look in your part of the world, heading towards the holiday season?

*****

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: Art for art’s sake.

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?

*****

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: Spooky.

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?

*****

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: A splash of colour.

This week on The Cosmic Photo Challenge we’re giving our pictures just; A splash of colour.

I was inspired to pick this prompt by the view of a sunset from inside our darkened shed, although I did eventually capture it from outside, too.

Now let’s see how you did with your selective hues…

*****

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.

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?

*****

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: A change in the weather.

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?

*****

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 memory.

On today’s edition of The Cosmic Photo Challenge we are theming our images around the prompt; In memory.

As today is the day we say farewell to the only monarch most of us in the UK have ever known, it seems appropriate to celebrate the art of the monumental stonemason. Here are some shots I took in a local Barnstaple churchyard yesterday, during a brief break from an all day, last draft editing marathon on my submission for an upcoming short story anthology. (That sentence would be too long to make my editor’s cut, by the way)

And no, you’re right, I just cannot resist a wonky headstone. ;~}

What images did your weekend of photographic remembrance elicit?

*****

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: As summer fades.

I was fully expecting a weekend of dreary weather, as per the forecast, hence the theme on The Cosmic Photo Challenge this week being based on the prompt; As summer fades.

But nature confounded satellite technology once again, with very pleasant weather on both days, including this fabulous Exmoor sunrise, from early yesterday morning after taking Rhonda to work.

Maybe there’s hope for summer, yet.

How did your mission to capture the changing seasons go?

*****

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: North, South, East, West.

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.

North
East
South
West
North to South
East to West

What treasures did your 360° photographic quest reveal for us this week?

There’s plenty of time to join in, don’t be shy, we’re a friendly bunch. ;~}

*****

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.

Cosmic Photo prompt.

It seems we may be in for a spot of hot weather over the weekend, so for this week’s theme on The Cosmic Photo Challenge, (with the usual caveats to those of you south of the equator) we’re going for; A summer walk in the sunshine.

It’s simple, it’s easy and it’s not terribly imaginative, but it will be enjoyable and will, I’m sure, provide the usual fabulous results from y’all.

See you on Monday for the show and tell, have a great weekend.

*****

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.