Blue by The Brunette

I am in the last week of my pregnancy now! So I knew I probably wouldn't be venturing far from home for this one :) Given our Fabulous summer so far I knew there would be a good chance I would find a day with the weather on my side for the shot I had in mind. Living very near Heathrow airport, I originally planned to shoot some airplane vapour trails, and did attempt it one day (see below left) but it just didn't do it for me really! I then remembered my love of lens flare, and that they usually come out blue, so I could potentially have a blue subject - the wonderful summer sky and some funky lens flare too - win win! Lens flare is created as I am sure you know when you photograph a light source directly and the light hits the aberrations in the camera lens, most photographic books will strenuously tell you to avoid it using lens hoods and coatings, but I have always loved the effect. The one thing you must not to do is look directly at the sun through ANY kind of lens, so you do have to be prepared to blindly point and shoot and crop a good deal in editing! Other than cropping, I merely enhanced shadows to turn the side of the house black and into silhouette and saturated the blue of the sky a little more. I am really pleased with the finished shot, both the sky the sharp lens flare and the more nebulous blue circle of it over the house too. And also like TJ  - I have a plane in the top left corner which I hadn't planned to capture! 

Blue by TJ

Sometimes in photography you can stumble across the unexpected without even realising it. In this instance I wasn't actually trying for my "Blue" photo. I was fortunate enough to be at London's Hyde Park to see The Rolling Stones on a gorgeous summers evening, and I was busy snapping away at the various sights with my compact camera. Spotting an aircraft flying over London I decided to try and capture it with one of the speakers and HD screens in the foreground. It was only when I got home and was able to see the picture on a decent size screen that I realised I had got a decent "Blue" photo! If I am guilty of one thing in photography at the moment it is my readiness to fall back on editing to enhance and create photos, so in this instance I have deliberately steered towards a natural scene. The only real editing was to tweak the brightness and contrast to add a slightly more dramatic effect to the photo. For me there is plenty to keep the viewer interested, as it is a photo from an historic occasion, has the plane in the distance and the large and looming screens which were dotted all over the venue.

For my other photos editing had taken a lead role. The blue rose top left was a very tempting photo to go with as in terms of a macro shot I was really pleased with the detail and texture I captured. However I have to concede that it is actually a pink rose turned blue in editing! Top right is another photo from Hyde Park with some beautiful Brazilian dancers attracting a rather large crowd :) I used selective colouring to isolate the blues. The photo at the bottom is one I took using my iphone at Wembley Stadium recently watching The Killers and I used an on board effect to take the photo like that. They were playing a song which meant a lot of the crowd were using their phones as torches and I liked the way the blues were also prominent in a subtle way.

35) Blue

Our next topic is "blue". In December 2011 we covered "red" so we are more than ready to tackle another colour. This subject offers the photographer a huge blank canvas with plenty of choice. The colour blue is all around us in many shapes and forms, and not only that it also encompasses that rather sad emotion which we all feel sometimes. Dare I mention blue also has a rather rude connotation too! There is also the time of day known as the blue hour, which occurs just before sunrise and just after sunset. There is plenty for us to get our teeth into, so why not join us on this topic and send us a blue photo...