Vesna Armstrong Photography

The weather has been very inclement with a lot of high winds and torrential rain causing floods all over West Yorkshire. Kirkstall, just around the corner from where I live has been affected, as well as my beloved Haworth. Owing to this I have felt like working on a dramatic and atmospheric image. I shot this one in Haworth, back in April. It is a scene you see from the path behind the Bronte Parsonage, which leads to the main road and is on the route of many Bronte Country walks starting at the parsonage. How I wish I lived there so I could just quickly nip out with my camera to capture that fleeting light and those elusive moods as they occur! Maybe one day if I am lucky enough. For now, most of the time I have to rely on my imagination and creative ability to reproduce that sort of feel out of mundane shots. Edited image Original  I applied two textures from the brand new Distressed Textures pack called "Artist Palette Seasons", and a free grunge clouds text...

It may seem easy to select some objects for a Christmas still life with so many different decorations, options and possibilities around, but it is not the case with me. I have to think quite hard because I am not interested in any of the usual material like baubles, Santas, snowmen, or anything gaudy or glittery or modern. As usual, I like natural or hand made things, and anything traditionally used to mark Christmas as holiday. I thought this time I would go for food as the main focus of my photo, and I chose panettone . It is originally an Italian sweet and aromatic bread prepared for Christmas, but it is also very popular in other parts of the world, England being one of them. I like its shape and simple look (and the taste, for that matter!), as well as the texture inside. I paired it with some traditional symbols of the festive season - spiced oranges and nuts, and for a bit of splash of red colour I used poinsettia leaves and a few cranberries, both very Christmassy addition...

Christmas time is always the busiest time in my life. There is a lot to do at work (retail) and of course at home. And then there is all the Christmas shopping too. I suppose it is the same for a lot of people out there.Time for photography is scarce and I must admit that spoils it for me a bit. My plan for next year is to keep my mind open to Christmas shopping all year round so hopefully by December I will have bought all the presents and instead of walking around with bagfuls of shopping I will be strolling with the camera in my hand taking pics rather than frantically looking for those elusive presents. This year, however, I have had to satisfy myself with just a little project I set myself, and that is to capture Christmas spirit on the go through quick snaps with my android phone. So here they are in the order I shot them. This has to be the most beautiful Christmas shop window I have ever seen. It is of my favourite Haworth shop, Rose & Co. Apothecary, known as the pl...

My task this time around was to create a still life with elements that are autumn related but are usually not used for conventional autumn images. I happened to have some lovely supermarket bought red alstroemerias in my vase. I googled them and found out they are commonly called "Peruvian lily" and  that they flower till November, which makes them very much an autumn flower. This is one of the things I like the most about blogging - learning through research. I learn something with every single post and that fills me with a great sense of purpose. Figs I was reminded about over on the Little Birdie blog. Jen, who is one of my favourite bloggers, was making a cake with figs that were in season. I love the colour of this sort of figs - beautiful deep purple on the outside and lovely coral red inside. I thought they went really well with the red Peruvian lily both in shape and colour. Since my last still life was quite a complex one I decided to keep this one simple and con...

When we left Ponden Hall on Saturday morning, 17th October, G was ready to go back home, and I could not wait to wander around Haworth and go for a walk up on the moor. It was around 10 o'clock and the village was still quiet and sleepy. I had never been to Haworth that early in the morning. I am not an early riser and it takes me an hour and half to get here from Leeds. I watched how the streets slowly filled with people - locals taking their dogs for a walk or just out on errands; visitors like me; tourists who are abundant in Haworth at weekends.... My main intention was to take some autumn shots. It was a mild, a little damp and overcast morning which meant diffused, easily manageable, but plain lighting. My first destination was, of course, the Parsonage Cemetery. It was quiet. Even the crows were not to be heard. The only sound came from recent rain drops falling off tree branches and from drifts of fallen leaves whirling around on tomb stones in the light wind. This im...

Friday, 16 October was one of the most memorable days of my life. G and I stayed at the wonderful Ponden Hall , a 17th century house with lots of Bronte family connections. It is situated above the Ponden Reservoir, in my beloved Bronte Country. It is a private home but the owners Julie and Steve generously decided to open three rooms for bed and breakfast over a year ago. G and I arrived to Haworth very excited about 12:30. It was too early to go and check in so we had lunch in the "Cobbles and Clay" and wandered around a couple of shops before we made our way up to the Hall. I had met Julie before when I went for a "Tour and Tea" she organizes for those wishing to just have a look around the house rather than stay. And yet I did not expect us to be regaled on arrival with tea and home made Victoria sponge. It is not what you normally get when you check in to a B&B and is just one of  many kind things the lovely hosts do for their guests. After a good chat...

I am one of relatively few amateur photographers who do classic still life photography. I am not sure how or why I developed the passion for still life. It may be the extra dimension of creativity it offers a photographer in that he/she creates the image from scratch rather than merely takes a shot of a "found" scene. Or it may simply be a fine sensitivity to the aesthetics of a harmonious interaction of objects put together. Whatever it is, I regularly feel an urge to create still life images and I do not think that will change for as long as I take photos. The change of season we are just going through - the end of summer and beginning of autumn - automatically saw me looking for inspiration and subsequently conjuring up a still life composition in my mind. There were so many colourful fruits of nature to choose from. I pictured the cheerful, rustic sunflowers in the old earthenware jug as the main focus of my image. A few stems of the orange red crocosmia flowering in th...

I woke up to a lovely early autumn morning. There was a fine mist up on the distant hills and the air was fresh and mellow. I knew the mist would give way to a beautiful weather later on. It was a perfect day for my planned trip to the Bronte Waterfalls up on the Haworth moor. G and I passed it on our way to Top Withins three weeks ago but it was a Sunday and there were far too many people around to experience properly the idyllic and inspiring spot. I made a mental note to return before bad weather set in. Now the day had come I could not wait to get ready and set off. G gave me a lift to the Morrison's car park from where I took the 760 bus to Keighley. It is an hour's drive, quite a long journey but I always enjoy it. The bus goes through Calverly, Shipley, Saltaire and Bingley, towns which are all of interest to me either from the photography or shopping point of view. I also spend some time reading on the bus and usually have a sandwich I prepare at home for breakfast. ...

I love animals and I simply adore dogs and cats. We used to have two ginger and white cats but they both met the same mysterious death in the park adjacent to our house so we decided not to have any more cats. We could not face burying another cat and just could not forgive ourselves if another one died on us. We would love to have a dog but we feel there would be times when it would have to be on its own for too long and that just would not be fair on the dog. So I was very pleased when my friend asked me if I would look after her dog Jasper just for one evening and the following morning while they were away. She asked me if I would just feed him but I said I might as well take him for walks too. I ended up having him overnight at our home. Jasper is a lovely crossbreed between greyhound and border collie. He is a very good-natured and well behaved dog. He felt comfortable with us and did not act any differently from how he normally does at his own home. I liked taking Jasper out ...