ABOUT

.

  • Hi! I’m Adrian Lewis (aka The FATman), living in Bristol, UK.

  • I greatly value photography as a means of creativity and self-expression, and enjoy writing too.

  • My aim is to create beautiful and/or striking pictures, and to write about them and about photography in general. 

  • My images are spread through the genres, tending towards adventurous rather than staid, and I’m very interested in the visual composition of pictures.

..

.

GENRES – WHAT DO I LIKE TO PHOTOGRAPH?

    • Anything that makes a good photograph, in monochrome, colour or a combination of the two,

    • especially wildlife, natural things – animals, birds, plants, abstracts, landscapes, skyscapes, weather, water, still life,

    • and also people, portraits, figure studies, some candids,

    • and urban – cityscapes, vehicles, buildings, architecture, especially where abstract.

    • But, so far, never sports, fashion, news, current issues or reportage –  and only occasionally food (though I do eat rather a lot of it, as well as being partial to good beer and cider)..

.

.

WHAT SORTS OF PHOTOS WILL YOU FIND IN HERE?

    • I have Minimalist tendencies, so sometimes graphic shots (in the sense of using form, colour, texture, etc, often in abstract compositions).

    • Shots are often tightly cropped and closely adhering to both KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) and Robert Capa’s “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”.

    • I don’t photograph the picturesque, or produce many series of pictures that tell stories, i.e. narrative photos – the great majority of my shots stand alone.  Similarly, my pictures are not intended to be symbolic – what you see is what you get, and there are seldom hidden meanings..

.

LOOKING AT OTHER BLOGGERS’ IMAGES

  • Its always good to look at other photographers’ pictures.  It expands our experience of the visual world and, because this makes us more visually aware, it enables us to be better photographers.

  • For this reason, I both follow others’ blogs, and also take regular looks through WordPress’s FRESHLY PRESSED listings, where I can see the work of photographers that I don’t currently follow.

  • I believe in highlighting and showcasing other photographers’ work, and so every post that I Like on WordPress is listed in my blog’s sidebar, under the title “IMAGES I’VE LIKED RECENTLY”.  New posts coming onto this list displace the older posts already there.

  • IMAGES I’VE LIKED RECENTLY is added to every day or two,  and the date of the most recent update is given near the top of my blog’s sidebar, just above the “Subscribe to this blog” heading..

 

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope you’ll enjoy my images.

 

uio_1600PinholeX

..

ADL35_2X

.

Optimum viewing of this blog: use the F11 key to toggle  to full screen!

.

.

111 comments

  3. Hi Adrian,
    I have just resurrected a wordpress site that I started a couple of years ago and am inviting fellow photographers to participate. I don’t know if it is your cup of tea. If you like the idea set out by the rules of the site (as explained on the ‘What is Forty Five’ page) you may wish to give it a go (even if you decide not to contribute to the site). I and others have found the process very rewarding. I’ll keep this short. It would be great if you decide to contribute but if you don’t then I fully understand. The link is below.
    Best wishes,
    Mr C
    https://takeninephotosinfortyfiveminutes.wordpress.com

    Like

    Reply

  4. If they are not good enough, you’re not close enough!? Well, Adrian, I tend to agree, however, not regardless of what you want to shoot?
    Personally I love the wide panoramas, sunsets taking in the whole world a.s.o., but I’m a bit surprised that you don’t seem to mention the art of ‘macro-photography’? What an exiting world that is – and right under our noses if on take the time to stop, fall to your knees on a chosen spot (garden or in the woods) and sit absolutely quiet for at least 10 minutes. Then things start to come to life all around you! A new world to many of us!

    Like

    Reply

    • Yes, macro photography certainly >>> but I’m getting rather less enthusiastic about falling onto my knees at the drop of a hat, as its increasingly a lottery as to whether I’ll be able to regain the vertical again – although I do have a kneeling pad for use by gardeners that certainly works.

      Like

      Reply

  5. I enjoy how you put together a vision using many different kinds of photography. I’d love to see your pieces collaged and showcased as an eclectic collection.

    Like

    Reply

  7. I love the black and white photos you have here. They really show depth of color… if that makes sense. Did you adjust some of the color filters on your black and white photos? Maybe the Green filter or the blue filter?

    Like

    Reply

    • Well, on this particular page, if that’s what you’re referring too, the bottom image was made with film, and the others are digital. I can’t honestly remember too much about how I processed the film image, which started life as a colour slide – but for quite a few years now I have been capturing all of my images as full colour Raw files, and then converting them to black and white with Silver Efex Pro 2, which I am an truly enormous fan of. I don’t have any set method with SEP2, except to search for a preset that I like the look of, and then use that as a starting point for using SEP2’s manual controls. I very much enjoy using SEP2 – which thankfully has just been rescued from Google by Dx0 – and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Adrian

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      • Wow, I’ll have to check it out. I am always on the lookout for new ways to look at the same thing. Kind of an “Alternatives” test for photographers if you will! 🙂

        Like

        Reply

        • There are many ways to create black and white, and SEP2 is just one. I must say I’m not very impressed by the way Lightroom does black and white, and very rarely use that – it just seems far less organic than SEP2, it feels like it gives a far more mass-produced result. A 🙂

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply

          • Ah I understand what you mean. I feel the same way about a lot of photos on Instagram which don’t mesh well with the photographers.

            I feel they are stifling their own voice because they feel someone else’s voice will bring them more ‘likes’ or ‘follows’

            Like

            Reply

            • Yes – a very basic piece of advice that I would give any photographer is never to take photos to please others but, rather, to follow one’s heart and one’s gut feelings – and to treat the so-called “rules” as completely pliable and ignorable. With your pictures – and this is only my personal view – I like the closer in shots, and the Motown ones too, rather than the grand landscapes. A

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

          • Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t package the content differently, just means they need to learn how to show their voice in their packaging when posting to Instagram.

            Like

            Reply

  8. I’m liking what I see so far and will be back. I seldom comment as I can’t think of much to say at any given moment except ‘great photo” or ‘lovely’ and that gets old at times. You certainly have a sense of style about your photos. Have a great day. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Ronald, thank you for your good words, and for following my blog; I hope you will like my pictures. My blog’s theme is Enterprise – its ancient now, I’ve been blogging for nearly 6 years, and I’ve used this theme throughout. I’d probably like a theme with a black background but this one does alright – and I really value the side panel (sidebar) as a means of having various items up alongside the images, rather than all down at the bottoms of the pages. Adrian

      Like

      Reply

      • I have changed my “theme”now to the “Publish” theme. I will try this one for the coming period. I like also the sidebar to the left / right with interesting information. I hope you like theme?

        Like

        Reply

        • Yes, your theme is attractive – clean and crisp – and we agree on the desirability of a sidebar. But I find the image size on both of our blogs restrictive in some instances, and so I usually tell readers that they can click onto images to open them at larger size in a separate window – and for this reason, I usually have the longer side of my images at 1200 so that they enlarge, rather than the 800 I used to use. A

          Like

          Reply

            • Great, ok – I posted a landscape this morning, using a jpeg with a longer side of 1200 pixels – so that now viewers of the blog can click onto the image and see it enlarged in a separate window. Clicking onto it again, when it is open in the new window, produces yet more magnification. I always used to post images with their longer side at 800 pixels. but I think that posting them larger enables greater display size. A

              Like

              Reply

                • Ronald, I’ve had a look through the available free themes and I can’t find Enterprise either – I can only assume that, since its so old, that it is no longer offered. I don’t want to delve too deeply in case I disrupt my theme. My advice to you is to search the available themes, I think this may be possible automatically, for those that suit photography, and then for those with sidebars. Hope this is helpful. Adrian

                  Like

                  Reply

                    • I’m afraid I can’t see that theme on the list, Ronald – and, again, I don’t want to delve too deeply in case I disrupt what I have set up. Personally, I don’t like detail only in footers, but the choice is really your’s. Adrian

                      Like

This blog has two pleasures for me - creating the images and hearing from you - so get your thoughts out to the world!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.