The Guardian feature

Was nice to be included in the Guardian's Signs of spring 2010 feature which includes an online gallery and two page spread in the newspaper. Spring must certainly be on the way as it is currently chucking it down outside! Not long now before I'm back in the sun.

What are you on about?

I just thought I'd share a pretty impressive web application with you called Wordle. Within a few seconds you can convert all of the most commonly used words in any blog feed or document into a nice graphic like the one above. Right away I can see that I've spent way too much time in Stirling; standing on a rather impressive mountain route! Give it a go here: www.wordle.net

Spoke too soon!

All notions of Spring were completely drowned in snow yesterday as about 3 inches of the stuff fell over night. Even more has followed today which has pleased some people but enraged anyone who has to commute to work. Luckily I can count myself out of that group! Not a great photo, but thought I should get something showing snow up on here. And yes of course it has been photoshopped! For those who are remotely interested in the technical aspects of creating this effect here is a super condensed crash course...

1) Use Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw around the subject (in this case the handsome Goldfinch)
2) Add a slight feather of a few pixels
3) Select 'inverse'
4) Use Hue and Saturation to remove all colour
5) Create a new layer on which we apply a black radial gradient (with reverse applied so it's light at the centre)
6) In the layer options dropdown select 'Multiply' and set Opacity to about 40%
7) Well done, you've made a not so good image into a fairly interesting image!

After the frost and ice of the last few days I thought I'd go in hunt for some new life. So what better symbol of regrowth is there than the first Snowdrops of the year? These images were taken in the Stirling University grounds where there are an abundance of flowers carpeting the forest floor. The challenge in this situation is always what to select for a photograph. I've gone for two approaches here; shooting through clumps of flowers (above) and showing the island cluster below surrounded by dead leaves.Which do you prefer?

Feeling the cold

Glorious sunshine made staying indoors a crime today despite the bitter cold. I was really glad I made the effort as I was met by some stunning landscapes, the local reservoirs all completely frozen over and some really heavy frost. I have to be honest and admit that I've done my fair share of hibernating this winter and haven't been out in the cold nearly enough. Still, the winter's not over yet and the sun certainly makes a difference.

Adventure Travel Magazine

I'm pleased to have one of my images featured as the Picture of the Week in Adventure Travel Magazine and on their website. Check the site out here for all the latest adventure and outdoors news.