Today Flickr debuted a new fresh improved look and first impressions are damn good! (though it has been desperately needed for years!)

So yeah, I have a Flickr account, and started using it again at the start of the year after a bit of a clean out of some old crappy pics.

Feel free to add me http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewsgray/ if you wish to follow me.

With a more beautiful interface I think I’ll be using it even more.
…oh and did anyone tell you you now get 1TB FREE to fill up with beautiful imagery?! Yes you get that too! (the beautiful imagery is down to you though).

See you out there!

The post New Improved Flickr appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

A few observations on a quick 10 minute play in the newly released public beta of Lightroom 5…

1. As an owner of the Nikkor 16-35 f4 lens, this lens suffers from some hefty curvature at 16mm so the new straightening tool will be sooo useful. It did a really nice job on this attached photo which I’d all but discarded as I struggled to straighten it manually.

2. The radial filter/tool. I can see being really cool and will be used not just for creating off-centre vignetting as many (including myself) were desperate for, but maybe used more often for selective lighting. I used it here to lighten the front of the building.

3. The new spot removal is of course better now you can paint in the area you wish to heal/clone. Personally I use Photoshop for all my healing/cloning and this probably won’t change.

4. Spot highlighting tool. Yowser! Yes I knew my sensor was dirty, this really highlights that to the point of shame… I really need to sort some cleaning out! Pity this tool doesn’t just get rid of them all automatically… Spoken like a true lazy ass

5. Its a beta. That meaning there will be further refinement and hopefully a lot more economising on memory use. Editing a 12mb RAW file generated by a Nikon D700 was getting very laggy where as LR4.4 flies through the develop module.

6. Why didn’t it want to play with my latest catalog?! I have catalogs set up for each quarter of the year. It would read my Jan – March 2013 catalog but not my current April – June 2013 catalog… weird. (It would also read catalogs from previous years, the latest was the only one unreadable).

So yes, I’m looking forward to the full release but in the meantime I will be sticking to LR 4.4 unless I have a building to straighten.

Larger versions of the edited and unedited images…

Whats your views so far?

A really good breakdown by Scott Kelby & Matt K of the new features can be found here - http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom5

The post Quick tryout of Lightroom 5 beta appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

Life on the islands kicks into gear in late March when they serve as breeding grounds for species such as the Arctic Tern, Razorbills, Guillemots, Shags and the famous Puffins.

This year with the winter weather dragging its heels a bit, things are slower to get going. Last weekend (6th April) I took my 1st proper sail around the islands on a bright, calm Saturday afternoon with Serenity Boat Tours. The day before I had been heartened by the news from the rangers on the islands that the previous few days 1500 Puffins had arrived and the Guillemots were plentiful, so I was a little crestfallen when I boarded the boat Serenity II to be told by skipper Andrew that “There’s nothing about today mate”.

Ok, not great news but not a waste either as the weather was good and its always good to get some sea air in your lungs!

As the chances of seeing any puffins were minimal, come on we all know that’s what most of us go for, I knew I would spend the trip taking landscapes (from a very rocky boat). With the number of people on the boat being quite small Andrew was helpful as ever by slowing down and maneuvering the boat into positions allowing me to get certain angles and views to help composition.

There may have been very few birds around, but the seals were soaking up the afternoon sun and I fired off a good few frames, including a few shots of a play fight between two!

As is often the case, the clouds coming over the mainland dispersed as they crossed the beach meaning we were in sunlight out at sea but fantastic layers of clouds hung over land creating spectacular skyscapes.

Here is a selection of shots taken that afternoon.

Prints:

The Print “No Hurry to get Home” from this day is currently available from the online store…

Let me know if you would like me to make any others available for purchase!

Update:

It seems that I was unlucky and the birds came streaming in later that week. Typical! Oh well, that may mean a trip out later this week – weather permitting

The post A Farne Islands trip – with No Birds in sight appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

Quite simply, when I release a print it will be found in this Discount Gallery for 3 days or until the discount offer code has been used 10 times, whichever is first.

Each new release will be advertised via my profiles on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so please follow me if you don’t already.

If you subscribe to my Newsletter, then the 10 uses of the offer code restriction will not apply and the print will be available with discount for the full length of the opening offer. Subscribe here.

To purchase these prints they must be added to your cart from the Discount page (the image may appear in other galleries, but the discount code will not work if added from these other galleries).

The discount offer code needed at checkout is

NEW40

First image offered is this beautiful sky over the Northumberland coast featuring a minuscule Bamburgh Castle framed by snow topped Cheviots - available with 40% discount until Sunday 14th April, midnight UK time.

As an opening bonus, I’ve added a few other slightly older favourites in too! Check them out over at the Discount page.

The post 40% discount offer on Brand New Print Releases appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

I haven’t done one of these for awhile and as someone on Facebook (follow me there) mentioned that they’d be interested to see a before version, here’s you chance to see how far a simple correction can take an image.

Taken on the Northumberland beach near Alnmouth Golf Club (Foxton) as a wintry shower blew in off the North Sea.

When I took the image I didn’t see the halo with the naked eye, it only became apparent when I returned home and loaded the days images into Lightroom for organising and processing.

Other Before/After Posts here - A View from Bewick

The post Before & After – A Sun Halo appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

Today Google announced the “NIK Collection by Google”, basically the 6 separate photographic processing plugins made originally NIK Software repackaged as one and given a much more affordable price point – $149 (down from $500 for the same full collection previously).

Firstly this means I can finally afford the whole collection! and importantly stop using the trial version of the brilliant Silver Efex Pro 2 which is the best black and white processing plugin out there (even though onOne Software’s Perfect B/W was highly recommended). Now that they are all together and in my price range I will happily and proudly pass over my very hard earned money to use such great tools.

Obviously I know the power and love Silver Efex Pro 2, but I look forward to reacquainting myself with the extremely powerful Viveza 2, brilliant with its U-Point technology for local adjustments, its been a few years since I last used it.

The whole collection comprises:

Dfine 2 – One of the top noise reduction plugins

Color Efex Pro 4 – A range of effects and tools to give creative freedom with your photography

HDR Efex Pro 2 – NIK’s version of HDR processing algorithms.

Sharpener Pro 3 – A great sharpening tool.

Viveza 2 – Great for local colour and tonal adjustments.

Silver Efex Pro 2 – Do B/W? Then you need this! No arguments.

So with this announcement professional photographers the world over breathe a sigh of relief as many doubted Google’s intentions for their loved tools when they bought the long established company in 2012 and worryingly moved some engineers onto other Google projects. But will this relief be fleeting? Yes, they have repackaged the software into one single entity, but will we see new versions of these amazing programs in the future? Or is this the final gift to us photographers “Here have these programs for one low fee, but we won’t be providing updates”. I sincerely hope not and believe Google will provide for us Pro’s a little while longer at least.

So with this new lower price of $149 will onOne be a little nervous? I’ve trialled NIK products much more than onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite which is now the pricier option at $299 (I recently gave the latest version (7) a try, some parts are cool, some just don’t fit with my workflow though).

For the full time pro both packages will be part of their workflow already, for the serious hobbyist/part timer then an amazing tool has now been made much more available! These are indeed exciting times in the digital creativity world with much more high-end software being made affordable with subscription models (Adobe’s Creative Cloud) or previously expensive programs now being made affordable to many more creatives who many are on the lower scale of earnings with the current difficult and efficiency driven times we are living in.

Also coming out of Google towers today is the upgraded version of its iOS and Android Google+ app, which like many other social sharing sites incorporates some photo editing capability (like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr’s mobile apps). Google, as part of the NIK buyout acquired Snapseed, maybe the most powerful but least used of mobile photo editing app. Google has in the new Google+ app included a vastly stripped down version as its in-app editing. For full editing you can still go to the recently made free Snapseed.

Right I’m off to buy the NIK Collection by Google!

This image of Bamburgh Castle Clock Tower processed using Silver Efex Pro is available as a print from my print store

The post Google releases rebranded NIK Software professional plugins appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

My plans for a Saturday afternoon changed suddenly when I read a tweet from friend and operator of Serenity Boat Tours, Andrew Douglas. He posted this…

NEWS JUST IN…..80mtr boat has hit the rocks at Blue Caps, The Farne Islands. Not good as the birds have just arrived.

— Andrew Douglas (@thefarnes) March 16, 2013

After establishing that there was no oil involved (horrific to even contemplate… ) and seeing the sight from a few grainy phone images on twitter, I knew there was an opportunity of seeing and photographing something unique and potentially historic for our corner of the world.

I made it onto the 1pm Serenity Boat Trip, also onboard were some bemused tourists who would be treated to extra views and time around the islands than usual for deepest march, and also a reporter (Frances Read) & cameraman from ITVnews who were conducting interviews and collecting footage for the evening news bulletin. Head warden John Walton was also onboard for a look.

The MV Danio, a German owned ship carrying timber from Perth, Scotland to Antwerp in Belguim ran aground in the early hours on the 16^th of March. The blog of the Farne Island wardens was updated with the following..

“This morning at about 5am, the 80 metre (262 ft) vessel MV Danio travelling from Perth to Antwerp ran aground on the north facing edge of the Blue Caps/Little Harcar. The boat was carrying a cargo of timber, with a crew of six when it struck the island and became lodged as the tide receded.”

The regular tour started after a brief crossing. After seeing the thousands of recently returned Guillemots, an amazing sight as they flew from the rocks in huge numbers almost forming a feathered carpet just feet above the cold churning sea, we headed further out to where the action was and to continue the regular tour schedule.

There she was… well and truly stuck!

Seeing her and her location within the islands, just yards from a prominent and historic lighthouse, really makes you wonder how this happened… Was it a technical problem? Was it human error (or negligence)?

For the time being, the Farne Islands have dodged a bullet. The relief of there being no oil involved, and that it’s happened before the bird breeding season gets underway where up to 200,000 birds will be present on the islands.

Here’s a few images I took of the Danio and the scene in general.

Thanks to Andrew Douglas of Serenity Boat Tours for the trip out, check his blog out for all (man-made and wildlife) news from the Farnes. I’ll be back many times once the breeding season is underway! Hopefully the crossings will be calmer then…

I also got a few other shots of the wildlife as we toured, can’t wait for May and June when the Islands will be alive with birds!

Latest:

28th March – She’s gone! In the early hours the MV DANIO was refloated and towed away south. Well done to the salvage team. Normal service can now resume.

27th March – Efforts to tow the Danio off the rocks today were abandoned due to rough weather and heavy seas.

ITVnews – Video Report 1. http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2013-03-16/full-report-cargo-ship-runs-aground/

ITVnews – Video Report 2. Cargo ship aground off Northumberland Coast – http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2013-03-18/cargo-ship-aground-off-northumberland-coast/

Links:

Serenity Boat Tours – twitter @thefarnes – blog

Farne Islands Blog – twitter @NTsteely

National Trust: The Farne Islands

Seahouses RNLI

Marine Traffic - Check the position and identity of marine traffic throughout the world.

Wind Guru – Sea and wind conditions (search for Beadnell Bay for Farne Island conditions)

The post Ship MV Danio runs aground on the Farne Islands appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

PanSTARRS Comet (also known as c/2011 L4) is currently gracing our skies, though tricky to spot using the naked eye.

On the evening of the 13th I spotted that the sky had cleared significantly and so having heard that it would be there near the moon after sunset (having checked on spaceweather.com, one of my “go-to” sites), and seeing stunning shots from the previous night from those areas of the world that were lucky enough to have clear skies, I headed out to the moors above the village I live in.

I was disappointed that I could see no sign of it with just my eyes and indeed scanned the skies with my camera sporting it’s 70-200mm lens at its full extension – still nothing. I decided to shoot anyway and hope that somewhere it would show up once I got the shots loaded up on my PC.

I came home convinced that the comet must have been behind a thin strip of cloud that hung low in the western sky, so as I loaded the RAW shots into Lightroom I was pleasantly surprised to see a small smudge of light in most shots I took below the Moon’s position.

Gear Used:

Nikon D700 DSLR Camera

Nikkor 70-200 VRII Lens

Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with Manfrotto 460MG Head

Shutter Release

Image processed in Lightroom 4.3 & NIK Color Efex 4 (Trial)

The post PanSTARRS Comet from Northumberland appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

A project that I was around at its inception has yet again had some cool exposure in the US media after being featured on the evening news show NBC Nightly News on the 11th of March.

Virtual Photo Walks, founded by Canadian Commercial Photographer John Butterill, uses the Google Hangouts feature to enable those who cannot travel for a range of reasons to see the world thanks to volunteers all over the globe using their smartphones and 3g/4g data connections to stream live video and broadcast their views to those watching.

It was February 2012 when John, walking through the Canadian bush near his Ontario home, broadcast himself to a few friends (inc. me) photographing a Bard owl – the 1st step to the final Virtual photo Walks idea.

So you may have seen my pixelated head in the above video, I am in it, go back and watch again if you didn’t spot me – it doesn’t help that I am partially obliterated by the NBC logo though!

Find out more about Virtual Photo Walks here…

• Main Virtual Photo Walks website
• Google+ Page
• Facebook Page
• Youtube Page

The post Virtual Photo Walks on NBC Nightly News appeared first on Andrew S. Gray Photography.

A band I’m very excited about right now are the LA sisters of Haim.

Winners of the BBC’s Sound of 2013 award, thier latest promo is making me wish they would get on with writing, recording and releasing a full length album! These teases (Forever, Don’t Save Me & the latest Falling) are making me a hanker for more music from them – come on girls get on with it, I’m not a patient man!!

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