Vesna Armstrong Photography

One of the things I enjoy doing in life is visiting unusual hospitality places - restaurants, pub, cafes, tea rooms etc. Not only am I a gourmet and a big fan of good wine and coffee, but these places also offer different photo opportunities. I don't take my camera out here as I am a shy photographer, I just take photos with my mobile phone which I feel is less intrusive than a camera. It also handles low light scenes pretty well anyway, and is quick to use. THE BAY TREE CAFE - OTLEY A lovely cafe situated in an old court in Otley, full of vintage and antique decorative objects giving it a lot of charm and character. It serves delicious home made food. It is very busy and usually it is hard to get a table, but yesterday I was lucky and it was the fourth time I tried! BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL & CANTEEN, LEEDS CITY CENTRE This is a concert venue with a rock & roll spirit present throughout the building. I got to know about it through a blog...

It was a bitingly cold but sunny winter day at my favourite Otley. I decided it was too cold to be taking a lot of photos and spent most of my time looking around the shops. I paid a quick visit to the Wharfe Meadow Park and watched people feeding swans while I ate my lunch. The sunlight on the bridge arches and its reflections in the water were very attractive so I took a few shots. When I imported the pics onto my computer I was pleased to see that the light in shady areas was blue providing a nice colour contrast in the image. Composition-wise I liked best a shot that did not contain the figure of a woman in a red jacket. However I was keen on using the figure because the red was going to add another striking colour so I made a layer of it in Photoshop and merged it with my desired shot. I added textures and a bird brush, and also some radial blur to create dreaminess and draw the attention to the woman enjoying the view from the bridge.

This is a typical English lower ground winter scene - no snow, and still quite a bit of colour around, especially in the grass. As someone on Flickr commented, but for the bare tree branches you would hardly know it is winter. I liked the little winding path with a stream next to it leading the eye towards the house, and I also liked the wooden fence posts. What I did not like and what nearly made me discard the image was the poor winter light making the scene look grey and drab. I knew I had to do something drastic to save this image. I decided to process it in a totally new and unusual way, not in my Elements 12 which I normally do, but online, in ipiccy.com. I played around and tried different things. I applied lens blur and hdr effects, a texture, a bird brush and can't remember what else, and ended up with this airy, I thought quite a creative watercolour look. I was pleased I managed to give a rather dull looking photo a new lease of life. AFTER BEFORE